Handmade Series: Mermaid Dolls

What I've been working on this week: two merry mermaids for two very special little birthday girls!

Homemade: Vanilla Lavender Tea Bread

Our little lavender plant was starting to look a little end-of-summer sad, so I tried to use some of it up by making lavender tea bread {which really tastes more like cake}.  I used this recipe, but added vanilla to the mix and only used about half the amount of lavender.  It had a lovely lavender flavor without being overwhelming.  I also added a light vanilla sugar glaze to the top.  The perfect accompaniment to afternoon tea!

Homemade: Lemon Herb Butter

This weekend I decided to use up some of the herbs growing in our garden by making homemade lemon herb butter.  There are a million different possible recipe combinations, but I just used a little lemon plus a sampling of whatever looked good at the time {chives, sage, thyme, rosemary, basil}.  It was really as simple as collecting my herb specimens, washing and chopping them and then mixing them in a bowl with a stick of room temperature butter.  Next, I just used plastic wrap to roll my herb ball out lengthwise and then chilled it for several hours.  Voila'!  The perfect companion to many foods {but especially to toasted bread}.