Luxurious Retreat Tips

Visit ChinDeep.com every Wednesday for new tips to help you turn your home into a luxurious retreat.

a little tea-herb garden

December 20, 2011
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a little tea-herb garden

 Welcome Home ~ Simple Tips for Turning Your House into a Luxurious Retreat by ~ Melissa Placzek page 17 I don’t know about you, but I love having fresh herbs for my cooking. One of my favorite ways to use fresh herbs is in tea sandwiches… herbes de Provence mixed with cream cheese makes a wonderful spread for topping French baguette, fresh basil is lovely on cucumber sandwiches…dill with smoked salmon…the list goes on and on, and the possibilities are endless. Above are the simple instructions for starting a window tea-herb garden. Now, even in the middle of a cold, snowy winter, you can have the luxury of fresh herbs for your cooking. Enjoy and Happy Teatime Tuesday! XO, ~Melissa

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merry making

December 12, 2011
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merry making

We’ve been busy decking the halls (pretty much the same way we did last year…so I thought I’d just give you a link to those pictures instead of taking duplicates.) This year, I’m happy to report, I didn’t injure myself, which made the decorating infinitely more enjoyable. How many cookies can one person bake? Well, my friend Rachel, over at Ideas Baked Fresh, is way ahead of me. 360 dozen? What the what? But, I am making 6 different kinds this year, and 5 different flavors of chocolate truffles. The house smells like I imagine the Keelber elf tree kitchen does…warm and cinnamony and buttercreamy I’m crocheting like a nut, and I think I’m coming down with a fresh case of what Jeff likes to call “crocheter’s claw.” (Where...

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studio snapshots

December 1, 2011
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studio snapshots

Hello friends! I spent a good portion of my day going through my home studio yesterday. A few of you expressed an interest in seeing pictures, so I took a few snapshots with the little Sony Cyber Shot and posted them. If you start at the second picture of my desk and scroll down, it’s as if you’re standing in the middle of my studio and turning to your left. Until yesterday, the big, dark, oak armoire held an old tube TV and a stereo I received as a 15th birthday present (turn table and a fancy dual cassette player! hee hee…). True story. I hauled them out of there and got to work with the furniture polish…you should have seen the dust. About an inch thick. Not gonna...

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date night ~ estate sale & dinner out

November 14, 2011
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date night ~ estate sale & dinner out

the loot … after a fun couple hours treasure hunting…we decided on Fiesta Mexicana for dinner… I had the tamale, enchilada, chilie rellanos combo… and Jeff had the Carne Asada… This week for date night we were out for an evening walk and happened to see an estate sale sign. We discovered this treasure trove on the last day, and usually that means everything is pretty well picked over…but in this case it was perfect. There were still plenty of great finds and everything was 50% off! Kismet! I took home 4 fine English bone china teacups in pristine condition (Royal Albert, Elizabethan and  2 Queen Anne! The little one in the second picture is a hand painted china Nippon. ) I also lucked out by finding an RS...

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halloween 2011 ~ part 1 ~ decorating and pumpkin art

October 31, 2011
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halloween 2011 ~ part 1 ~ decorating and pumpkin art

~ halloween throughout my house ~ The Halloween celebration started last night. We put on an extra layer of woolies, carved pumpkins on the deck, (also known as the “dock”) and had a camp fire.  At dusk, we drove over to Grandview Avenue here in Red Wing, armed with  a thermos of hot, spiced Honeycrisp cider, and our cameras. This year the Habedank Pumpkin show boasted close to 200 carved and illumined Jack-O-Lanterns! It’s worth the trip to bucolic Red Wing just to drink in the river town’s ambience, but now there’s even more reason for a nocturnal pilgrimage: the Habedank Pumpkin Show. More than 100 pumpkins — some transcending the term “Jack-o’-lantern” — have succumbed to the artistry of Bill Habedank’s carving knife, and his 35 years of...

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teacup candle

October 25, 2011
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teacup candle

page 16- “Welcome Home” by Melissa Placzek There are several pages where I talk about tea and tea-related treats in my books, Chin Deep in Bubbles and Welcome Home! I remembered this while deciding what to post for Teatime Tuesday. I’ll be posting these little luxuries periodically throughout the next few months so you can enjoy them. Above are the instructions for transforming teacups into candles. Have fun creating some for your home…and maybe adding them to gift baskets for the holidays? Today I’m headed out to my favorite coffee shop to work on page layouts for my upcoming tea book. I have lots of decisions to make. Although it will be like my previous books in some ways, in other ways it will be much different. I look...

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linen hutch

October 19, 2011
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linen hutch

The Hutch… The page in “Welcome Home” where I talk about the hutch… some of the (but not all of the) linens… and some of the vintage fabrics… and vintage reproduction fabrics… and a selection of the vintage pillowcases (this is about 1/4 of them) I LOVE vintage sheets and pillowcases…especially ones with hand embroidery on them! and lace? let’s talk about lace. This is a sampling of my stash… more to come… the lace collars I wore when I worked at “The Bee”… I have a collection of these pretties too…stay tuned the lace cuffs I wore to many of my book signings… This is just a portion of my collection. I didn’t want to bore you with 2000 pictures in one sitting. I am PASSIONATE about vintage...

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teatime tuesday & 10 things that make me happy

October 18, 2011
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teatime tuesday & 10 things that make me happy

10 things that make me happy 1. sitting under a homemade quilt while watching the beautiful Brit TV show, Downton Abbey, on PBS! 2. a quiet house and a few relaxing hours to myself 3. a sleeping, snoring kitty on the back of the couch 4. lots of yarn 5. tea in my favorite English ironstone cup 6. cinnamon raisin toast with butter and Dutch apple jam 7. DVR, Cable and Netflix Streaming…so I can watch when I want to 8. candle light and plenty of vanilla scented candles 9. a pile of my favorite magazines: Victoria, Mary Jane’s Farm, Food & Wine, Country Living, Phyllis Hoffman’s ‘Celebrate!’ and Donna Hay. 10. a fire burning in the fire place and that content ‘snuggled-in’ feeling that the arrival of autumn...

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six senses saturday ~ tea party!

October 15, 2011
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six senses saturday ~ tea party!

tasting: apple cider floats, carrot cheddar curry tea sandwiches with raisins and apple on whole grain sandwich thins (and cut into wedges), cucumber sandwiches, chili and pumpkin filled crescent rolls. smelling: pumpkin crescent rolls baking in the oven, spicy candles burning, and fresh roses (that hubby gave me for our anniversary.) feeling: blessed by the love of close friends…and excited for more celebrating this weekend! seeing: leaves fall outside as I look out the kitchen window and squirrels getting ready for winter hearing: acorns falling, almost without pause, on our roof…and THIS CD knowing: that 16 years ago Jeff and I began the best adventure EVER! Love being married to that man ~Melissa

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autumn decorating

October 13, 2011
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autumn decorating

I’m feeling that feeling that comes over me every October. Time to feather the nest! I’ve packed summer away, rolled out the woven throw rugs and wool area rugs, and exchanged summer’s crisp blues and whites for autumn’s tawny earth tones. I sipped tea and hot apple cider while I decorated and took photographs to share with you! It was the perfect day for it. So, now I’m setting up for a little tea party I’m hosting for a few friends tomorrow and making a massive pot of chili. If you like this post and would like even more inspiration… CLICK HERE to view last year’s post titled “House Warming.” And…here’s another little treat for you, straight from the pages of my book “Chin Deep in Bubbles.” Enjoy! ~Melissa

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