My Favourite Things . . .

 

These are a few of my favourite things.  Maybe some of them are your favourites too!  

 

Cicely Mary Barker, Fairies of Summer

I love fairies.  In the house. In the garden. I love painting them, making them,  looking at them, collecting them, reading about them. I love everything about them.  Always have. Always will.  I love tucking them here and there in surprise places that delight the soul when you happen upon them.  Fairies are whimisical little smile makers.  I adore them.  I would love to create a fairy hole in one of my walls and I would have done it already if this was my house and not rented.  One that you could peer inside and see a whole other world  . . .  having said that  . . .  

 

This would do quite nicely, thank you very much!

  

I love traditions.  I am a great traditionalist at heart.  I love religious ones, family ones, cultural ones, holiday ones, community ones . . .  I just am a tradition lover.  Family traditions are my favourite ones. with religious and holiday ones following close behind.  Traditions can oftimes be the glue that holds a family together.   

 

I love pasta.  I adore pasta.  I could eat pasta until it comes out my ears. Plain with just butter, salt, pepper and cheese, with a tomato sauce and cheese, in a noodle bowl, whatever.  Pasta sings the song of my heart.  I never buy it when we are out to eat however.  I never have and probably never will. Restaurant pasta does not appeal to me, although I did used to love to go to the Spaghetti Factory eons ago but that was probably because you could get simple, non fussy spaghetti with red sauce and it was cooked perfectly.  Oh, and the bread  . . . 

 

They always had great bread, and I LOVE bread.

  

Community Recipe Books.  You know the kind.  Collections of people's favourite tried and true recipes put out by organizations, clubs, communities, as fund raisers.  They are filled with gems.  I bought my very first one way back in the 1980's when I was living in Nova Scotia. Our Ladies Guild at the Base Protestant Chapel put one together for sale.  I contributed to it and I  bought several, some as gifts.  It is full of lovely recipes and also sweet memories of the ladies who partipated in its creation.  I also love Junior League Cookbooks.  I think they are some of the best cookbooks out there! 

 

Nicely done fingernails. Not too long, simply rounded like this. I  think they are so pretty. I do my own.  Can you believe I have never had a professional manicure, or pedicure for that matter. I almost went and had my nails done before my daughter's wedding.  I was going to get acrylic nails, but then I chickened out after all I had read about them.  I did not want my own nails ruined, and so I just keep doing my own. I am happy with that.

 

I quite simply adore hotdogs, but not just any hotdog . . . I like all beef ones, or good quality frankfurters.  I always HATED Larsens.  I am not sure why . . . . there was something about them. They had a funny smell that made me feel a bit queasy.  I like a simple hotdog, grilled until golden, in a simple white bun, steamed with onions, sweet pickle relish and mustard.  French's mustard.  I do NOT like catsup on them in a bun.  That's because I can't stand catsup and bread together.  I love to dip a fried hotdog in catsup so it's the bun and catsup together that I don't like.  Fried onions or raw onions.  I like them both.  Chili dogs.   Hotdogs with bacon wrapped around them, with cheese, they are also very good, but the plain hotdog in a bun with just onions, relish and mustard please me the most of all. 

 

BBQ Chicken, and it isn't something I get to eat very often because for some reason Todd never likes getting out the BBQ.  I always start it in the house first and then finish it off on the BBQ.  That charred skin . . .  the succulent chicken . . .  the sauce.  It's all good.  I still remember and drool in that memory of BBQ Chicken that I had to eat at a restaurant in Ottawa, Canada, called The Cascade Restaurant back in the early 1970's.  I was there on a school trip and we had supper at this same restaurant every night we were there and I had the BBQ Chicken every single night, it was that good and I still think about it today  . . . the restaurant is no longer in business I believe. Sad that  . . . 

 

Painted wooden floors.  I just adore them. If I could afford to do it, I would rip up all the carpeting in this house and just put down pine wood flooring and paint it all, and just have scatter rugs.  Its not my house however and so I can't do that.  

 

And it does't have to be fancy in the least.  Plain suits me very well. To me, there is something very cosy about a painted wooden floor and in my dream home I always have painted wooden floors.

  

 

 

Traditional Light Fixtures. Nothing too fancy or ornate.  Easty to keep clean.  Simplistic lines. Go with everything.  No spectacular colours, plain and simple.   

As soon as I can afford to do it, I am replacing all of our dishes with plain white china dishes.  I love plain white dishes, but have never had plain white dishes.  I do have some plain white pasta bowls and they are my favourite thing to use.  They make everything look tasty.  Accent pieces in colour are okay, but for the basic china, I want plain white.

 

I love this cutlery.  It is Robert Welch Arden.  You can get it at John Lewis.  I love the simplicity of the lines.  It looks heavy.  I hate flimsy cutlery.  I want to hold something in my hand which has some weight to it.  I don't like ridges. They don't feel right in my mouth and I want rounded edges.  We have some cheap teaspoons that I hate, hate, hate.  The edges are sharp and they feel terrible in my mouth.  I think I need to win the lottery, lol.

 Plain white bed linens.  All cotton.  Starched and ironed.  No wrinkles.  You can put all sorts of colours with them as bedspreads, quilts, etc. . . .  but the bed linens themselves, I like to be white.  Perhaps one set of coloured pillow cases on the bed . . .  

 

Hand embroidered of course  . . .  love embroidered pillow cases. These are from Posie Gets Cosie.  A free pattern, which I have done before.  I love everything Posie Cosie. Her felt ornament patterns are the best. 

I have fallen in love with these sideway cross rings.  I told Todd that is what I want for my Birthday.  I found a shop on Etsy that does them and not too expensive either, from Greece.  But then this morning I discovered this . . .

  

Now I am faced with a conundrum . . .  a Princess Crown Ring.  Sigh  . . . . 

And those are my favourite things for this week.  A girl can dream.

A thought to carry with you through today  . . . 

.° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *.˛.° ˛°. .Everything that one turns in the direction 

of God . . . is prayer. ~Ignatius of Loyola .° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

Spiritual Enlightenment 

  

In the English Kitchen today  . . .  a delicious Chicken Fricassee.  Comfort food at its best.

Have a great Thursday.  I think we are going to make some time today to visit Audrey in the Carehome. We don't do it near often enough.  Don't forget . . .

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And I do too!