Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Bread - Recipe

Hello there and welcome to Quince Cottage! Happy 4th of July, if you celebrate! It was pretty low-key around here, since half of the family is in retail and had to work. Here's a red, white, and blue vignette I put together for a fun, non-traditional take.

©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Sorry we've been slacking in the blog department lately. We've been busy getting our Etsy shop up and running. If you'd like to take a look at what we're offering, click here, we'd love a visit!

But now, on to the star of this post -- a delicious-to-eat and easy-to-make recipe that gives you a fabulous option for all those zucchini your garden, or your neighbor's, has been yielding. The bread itself is not super sweet, so if you like things on the less-sweet side, skip the glaze. If you've got a sweet tooth, drizzle on, my friends...

Ingredients:
2 C cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/3C white sugar
1/2 C canola oil
1/2 C buttermilk
2 TBS fresh lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1 C grated zucchini (squeeze some of the water out between paper towels)
1 C fresh blueberries (plus extra for garnish)

Directions:
1. Combine cake flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium size bowl. Add blueberries and stir in gently. Set aside.
2. Beat the two eggs, add the vanilla, white sugar, canola oil, buttermilk, lemon juice, lemon juice, and zucchini, stirring between each addition.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet, in batches.
4. Turn into greased 9 x 5 loaf pan.
5. Bake for 50-55 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (toothpick test).
6. Set on wire rack in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan, Drizzle glaze over the top if desired.

Glaze (Optional)
Ingredients:
1 1/4C confectioner's sugar
3 TBS lemon juice
1 TBS light cream or milk

Directions:
Combine ingredients and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over bread while the bread is still warm.

And there you have it!

©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Why yes, it WAS just as good as it looks!

Buster and Daisy have been enjoying early morning exercise lately, because it's just way too darn hot to walk after about ten o'clock. Summer in east central North Carolina doesn't mess around. The rest of their day is spent napping, doing sentry duty, tearing stuffies apart, and getting belly rubs. Hey, it's not such a bad life!

Daisy & Buster © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, so you can play our two hashtags.
#MagpieMonday is for collectors of decor items, A few of our players were recently featured in Country Living Magazine!

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

#HometownCapture is a chance for you to have a pic of your hometown featured in a collage with others in our gallery.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

And one last reminder before you go, don't forget to check out our Etsy shop. Some of the items in these vignettes are available for sale (at least at the time of posting, they may not last very long).

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Click on the meme below to go right to the shop!

©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Quince Cottage Style is #agrarianchic - a mix of old and new, rustic and opulent.

Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful, 

and as though it wasn't born yesterday!

DIY Ugly Duckling Swan

Welcome to Quince Cottage!
Are you on Instagram and/or Pinterest? Well, we are - find us here on Instagram and Pinterest.
Do you ever get inspired and want to recreate something you've seen? We do!
Case in point, was our choice for last week's #MagpieMonday. If you don't know what #MagpieMonday is all about - it's a showcase for collectors to share their decor treasures on IG. We never ever use the "h" word (hoarder), and we always have a lot of fun. Each co-host chooses a favorite collection to feature in their gallery and in the following week's meme. We fell in love with the lovely carved bird collection you see in this photo below.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Anyway, to make a long story short, Rhiann was out thrifting last week and came across this not-so-lovely bird. It might be wood, it's more likely plastic or some sort of resin. It was one of a pair, but she bought only the one for $10. (Sorry, lonely ugly bird still at the thrift shop).

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Next she bought some basic WalMart craft paints in white and black, and then searched the interwebs for photos of swans to study the facial markings. Then she got to work. It took three coats of the white, but only one of the black to get the effect she wanted.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Here's the swan on the dining room buffet.
So, what do you think? What should we name him/her? Tell us your thoughts in comments.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

And a little closer up...

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

So, that wraps up our quick and easy DIY.
On to another topic. Do you love old houses as much as we do? Here in North Carolina we often see old homes that look abandoned (sometimes they are, other times there's actually someone living there). We weren't sure which was the case with this lovely old place in Snow Hill.
If it truly is abandoned, would you want to go inside?

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

As always, we'll leave you with a photo of one of our cute Irish Jack Russell Terriers. This is Daisy. Thank you for visiting! We hope you'll come back soon.

Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Quince Cottage Style is #agrarianchic - a mix of old and new, rustic and opulent.

Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful, 

and as though it wasn't born yesterday!

Transitioning the Mantel to Early Spring!

Hello there, welcome to Quince Cottage!
We love every season here in North Carolina and we try to savor each for its unique natural beauty. We do this not only through daily doggy walks, but in our decor as well.
Having said that, we're getting a teensy bit tired of the dull browns and grays of late winter. So when we received a beautiful gift from a dear friend, that was all the excuse we needed to tweak our mantel display with a sneak peek of spring.
If you didn't visit us during the winter, here is our holiday mantel.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

And here is our post-holiday-but-still-winter mantel.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

And now, here's a view of the right side of our mantel.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

See those rose plates? They were in storage until Rhiann got them out for an IG post about collections for the MagpieMonday hashtag she cohosts.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Aren't they pretty?
Here's the left side of the mantel. That gorgeous pink hobnail covered compote is the gift we received from our friend Juls. She's an extremely creative and obviously generous person, with fabulous taste. Here's a link to her Instagram , she is definitely one to follow.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

You might have spied our recent shadowbox project up above as well. Click here for the DIY if you're curious. And now for the whole shebang... We'd originally planned to take the crystal garland down along with the other winter decor, but it's just so pretty we're leaving it up for now.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Are you decorating for spring yet? What are your favorite spring themes?
We mentioned #MagpieMonday earlier. Follow us on IG here for more about that.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Now it wouldn't be right to leave you with no doggy pictures, so here here you go! Buster in front, Daisy being camera-shy.

Buster & Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Quince Cottage Style is #agrarianchic - a mix of old and new, rustic and opulent.

Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful, 

and as though it wasn't born yesterday!

DIY Restyling the Mantel Post-Holiday

Hello, and welcome to Quince Cottage!
First of all, we'd like to wish you a 2016 full of love, peace, and inspiration!

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

As we see it, there are two ways to view the post-holiday winter season. 
1. Now that all the excitement is over, winter is dull and colorless (depending on where you live of course).
2. Now that all the excitement is over, winter is a peaceful time for reflection and simplification.
Let's go with 2, shall we?
Now, as you may already know, Rhiann's favorite part of the home to style is the mantel, so it makes sense that's where she headed first, once the holidays were over.
If you weren't around for Christmas, here's what the mantel looked like then.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Now, with the goals of simplifying and honoring the bare, frosty, beauty of winter, she started with one of our Chinese porcelain vases, which is icy blue, gray, and white. An IG potter friend let us know this is a crystalline glaze and actual crystals form during an extra slow cooling cycle or a long hold time.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Rhiann filled the vase with branches, some of which already had little faux ice crystals stuck to them. The others were the branches we painted to look like birch and stuck in our Christmas tree. The real branches have glass icicles wired to them.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

She strung a garland of crystal prisms across the mantel. Finally she worked on the right side, using her favorite empty Victorian frame and a small watercolor we bought long ago in New England. It's a snow scene at sunset and reminds us of the years we lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. We miss the beauty of snow, but not the shoveling, or the bad driving! Finally she tucked in a sprig of faux juniper and added a real jumbo pine cone. We bought a bunch of these pine cones in an antique store and they had a good time laughing at us for buying things they picked up in their yards. They were only fifty cents a piece and unfortunately we don't have sturdy, supersized pine cones anywhere near us, so...

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

That shot above gives you a nice clear look at the great job Ron did creating an old, distressed finish on our brand new mantel. If you're curious, click here for the DIY.
Now here's a photo of the whole thing.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

We'll be sharing other areas of the house that have transitioned from holiday to winter season in an upcoming post. Tell us what part of your home you like restyling seasonally in Comments. We'd love to hear from you!
And of course, it wouldn't be a Quince Cottage post without a cute doggy pic. This was how Daisy and Buster spent most of New Year's Eve. Party animals...

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

We'll leave you with a beautiful North Carolina sunset to start the year off right. The beauty of Nature is just one of the many things we hope you'll enjoy in 2016.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent.

Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful, 

and as though it wasn't born yesterday!

Non-Traditional DIY Autumn Porch Decor

Hey there, welcome back to Quince Cottage!
Today we're talking autumn plaids. Everyone is mad about plaid this year, right? Well, we decided to take a slightly off-the-beaten-path approach.
Maybe we were inspired by some of the brilliant things Nature does in North Carolina this time of year.

 Roadside weed © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Toad on Sweet Potato Vine © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Beauty Berry © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
You can make jam from these, and use their juice as a bug-repellent.

Passion Flower Vine © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

That passion flower was growing in the weeds between our house and the one behind us. It also inspired another project we'll show you in an upcoming post. Pretty amazing flower isn't it?

As we've said before, we like to pinch pennies when we can, and by sewing your own pillow covers, you can too. It's pretty fast and easy if you've got a sewing machine, even if you hate sewing like Rhiann does. This time around we wanted to make a matching throw too. We bought the fabric at Joann Fabrics.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Being able to reverse the pillows by using a different fabric on each side gives even more options in terms of look. You can use snaps or velcro dots or just a basting stitch to close up the open side of your pillow casing.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

There's the throw in the photo below. Super easy to make using the leftover fabric from the pillows. On either end of the length of the berry plaid, Rhiann sewed a strip of the green plaid. Then she hemmed all the edges. Ta-daaaah! Done! Now we're not saying this throw will keep you warm on a frosty evening, but it adds a splash of color and continues the theme without breaking the bank.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

What do you think? Yes, we know, the porch floor needs to be stained. We're currently debating colors.

Of course it wouldn't be a Quince Cottage blog post without some doggy cuteness, so here you go...

Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent. Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful, and as though it wasn't born yesterday.

Can You Believe It?

Although we just moved from Maine to North Carolina, we're moving AGAIN. Crazy, huh? What's even crazier is that we're only relocating to a (slightly) different part of our current town. This will make the process MUCH easier.
                                                                                                      
The Quince Cottage blog will keep a photo diary of our new home as it's built from the ground up.

And...here's the ground, pre-clearing. As you can see, it's a corner lot, complete with Stop sign. Our decision to have a side entry garage changed the address! At first we were disappointed because we preferred the original. But when Google informed us our street was named after a place in Yorkshire, England, we felt much better. Herriott country!

Although we asked the builder to leave as many trees as possible, well...as you can see, there are none left. This makes us sad, even though it's pretty typical of the way things are done here. Now we're researching which trees and bushes will flourish around our new home.

Feel free to tell us about your home-building experiences in the Comments section.

Quince Cottage believes a bland subdivision house can be transformed into a beautiful home that reflects the unique taste and personality of its owner. In our own place, rustic, opulent, and exotic rub shoulders. Think gilded mirror, an embroidered velvet robe from Uzbekistan, and a weathered plank wall. Stick around, and we'll not only show you what we mean, we'll also give you tips on creating your own special style. 

Follow @Quince_Cottage