Friday Finds . . .

 


A few of the things I find each week which strike my fancy and I hope that they strike yours also!



Just look at these adorable knitted chicks!  I love them.  Oh boy do I wish I could knit because I would be making these for the grandkids.  Found on Mochi Mochi Land.  A free pattern.

 

I know Valentines Day is upon us, but maybe you could bookmark these for next year, or really, they would be adaptable to any holiday.  Tiny little chocolate mailboxes.  Love them!  From No Biggie.

 

From Setting for Four, how to organize your Pinterest Boards Alphabetically.   I never knew it was so simple!

 

Decoupage inside your drawers.  Love those drawer pulls.  From Dishfunctional Designs.  Clever name.

 

Dingbat Fonts to download.  I love these things.  From The Paper Mama.   These come in useful for all sorts!

 

Paper Bow Templates in four different sizes.  I love paper bows.  You can put them on anything.  From Lia Griffith.

 

Make your own Mason Jar Tissue Holder.   Such a simple idea.  From Land Lee Lu.



Great idea! Fabric attached to the wall with liquid starch...peels right off if you move. Awesome for rental homes and dorm rooms. From Fabric Street Designs.  Not sure how it would work in this damp climate, but it sounds like a great idea.

 

How to do a String Tree Wall Mural.   Wouldn't family photos be great with this.  Found on  Apartment Therapy.

  

Just look at this genius idea.  Stencil a tree on a wall, attach hanging knobs and presto chango, you have a unique and interesting way to hang towels in a bathroom.  (Or coats in a hallway, etc.)  From Houzz.



 A stain Chart which covers just about any kind of stain.  From the University of Illinois.  This could come in very handy!

 

Look alike Stained Glass, using glass pebbles from the dollar store.  From Knick Naks and Ric Rak.   I love it!

And those are my Friday Finds for this week.  I hope you found something that you could use here today!

A thought to carry with you through this day . . .

 ~•~♥♥♥~•.~•~♥♥♥~• ~
What you think, you become.
What you feel, you attract.
What you imagine, you create.
~Buddah
~•~♥♥♥~•.~•~♥♥♥~• ~

Spiritual Enlightenment




In the English Kitchen today  . . .  Chicken Gratinee.   DELICIOUS!

Have a fabulous Friday. Wherever you go, whatever you do, don't forget!

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And I do too!

Raindrops on Roses . . . .

These are a few of my favourite things  . . .



I just adore Peanut Butter.  It's one of my absolute weaknesses.   I have never made my own.  My Peanut Butter of choice is Skippy.  I am not overly fond of British Peanut Butter.  (Sorry folks!)  I like Skippy.  It's creamier, probably because it is more full of fat.  I don't know . . .  I only know I prefer it.  When I was a child we used to get Squirrel Peanut Butter.  It was the only one with a real peanut on top.  At one time Peanut Butter came in drinking glass jars!  They were decorated with diamonds, hearts, clubs and spades in black and red.  My mom collected a whole set and still has them.

 

Susan Branch.  I have loved her artwork since the late 1970's/early 80's when she started doing illustrated recipes in Country Living Magazine.  I have collected her art, books and calendars, etc. ever since.  I follow her blog.   It's compelling reading.   I love all that she writes about, and all that she paints/illustrates.  She seems like a very nice and genuine person, approachable.  I admire woman who can make it in the art world and make a living at it, really  . . . Susan Branch, Mary Englebreit, Holly Hobbie, Tascha Tudor, Marjolein Bastin,  and a few others whose names escape me at the moment.  (It's my brain really . . . it doesn't work like it used to do!)



Another woman I greatly admire is Ellen Degeneres.  I think she is very funny.  She makes me laugh.  She, too, seems very approachable, and very nice.  Her generosity astounds me.   That is why we are here.   When we are given talents and abundance, it is not just for our own enjoyment.  We are meant to share them with others, and this woman does.  She seems to be very compassionate and giving.  She is good people.  You cannot fake being a good person.  It always shows, eventually.  Always.

I like genuine and good people.


  


The Holy Scriptures.  I love the Book of Mormon, no more and no less than I love the Bible.   I will be the first one to tell you that I have not sat down and read the Book of Mormon in one go from the front cover to the back cover, but I have never done that with the Bible either.  They just don't appeal to me in that way . . .  like a novel does.  But I have studied both, from cover to cover and I have discovered gems of knowledge and inspiration within those covers.   And that is the difference.  The study.  The delving into the Word of God, and I firmly believe that both are the Word of God.  I have favourite scriptures from both books.  Passages of verse which bring me comfort and inspiration.  The Scriptures have helped to bring me into a closer relationship with my Saviour and my Heavenly Father.  There is a difference between merely reading the scriptures and feasting on the scriptures.  Feasting upon the word of God brings untold blessings . . .  understanding, and yes  . . .  comfort in times of trouble.  To me they are like the Driver's Manual to life.



I love Country Music.  It was not always so.  I was very much a pop music enthusiast when I was at school.   Something happened when I was 18 however.  I started going to Vocational Training and our bus driver was a Country Music lover.  That is all he played on the bus.  It began to grow on me.  I started to love what I thought I had hated.  Country music gets to the heart.   I love it.  Sadly it is not a music you hear much of over here in the UK, although it is very popular in Ireland.  I have to watch it on You Tube and I am probably way behind on who is who in the Country Music Industry nowadays.  I have my favourites . . .  Clint Black,  Kenny Chesney, Reba MacIntyre, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Loretta Lynn, Keith Whitley, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, Martina McBridge, Allison Kraus, Patty Loveless, Ricky Scraggs,  Pasty Cline, Alan Jackson . . .  tons of favourites.  I just love country music and could listen to it 24/7.   I especially love Blue Grass and Gospel.



I love Butterflies.  When I was a girl there were lots of butterflies.  There doesn't seem to be as many nowadays.  I was thrilled a few years back when I noticed these in my garden . . .




Peacock Butterflies.  They are so beautiful.   I have seen quite a few of these now, and alot of the Cabbage Whites . . .  and these  . . .



 They're all beautiful.    It's as if flowers have been given wings to fly . . .



Writing.  Stories, poetry, letters, blogs, journals . . .  I love writing.  Of course today it is more typing than actual writing.   It is all about getting my thoughts out and down onto paper.  I love stringing words together in interesting ways.  I guess I am just a very creative person in that way.  It doesn't really matter to me if people read them . . .  that's  not why I do it.  I do it because I can't not do it.

 

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.   I love watching people dance, and especially traditional, ballet, tap and ball room dance.  Not so much modern dance, although I am sure that a lot of people do like it.   I am a traditionalist at heart I think.   I haven't danced in years.  My ex and I took Ballroom Dance classes once upon a time, and I did square dancing when I was first separated which was something which I had always wanted to do.  Todd has two left feet, or so he says, and I believe him.  I love to watch dancing though and so . . .  I do.  I love those telly programs Dancing with the Stars, and  such.  It's amazing to see how these people improve from week to week.  I love the skating one they had on a few years ago which involved dancing on ice . . .  but they don't seem to do it anymore.  It brought together two of my loves Dancing and Figure Skating.

 and that is just a few of my favourite things  . . . what are some of yours?  I really want to know!

A thought to carry with you through today  . . .

 ~~•~♥♥♥~•.~•~♥♥♥~• ~♥♥♥~• ~~
"Teach your children that they live
in a world of magnificent abundance,
that there is enough for everyone . . . 
and that it is in sharing the most,
not in gathering the most,
that  the most is received.
~Neale Donald Walsch
~~•~♥♥♥~•.~•~♥♥♥~• ~♥♥♥~• ~~

Spiritual Enlightenment 



Cooking in The English Kitchen today  . . .  Barbeque Beef Poutine.  Delish!


HAPPY Thursday.   I hope your day is as special as YOU are.  Don't forget . . .

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And I do too!

Wednesday this and that . . .

  

GREY and cheerless is the garden
in the wintery gloom.
But I DREAM of daffodils
and appletrees in bloom.
FROZEN fields lie hard as iron
beneath the bitter rain.
But I DREAM of new green wheat
and lilacs in the lane.

In the DEEP and silent woods
there is a death-like hush.
Yet I seem to HEAR the
singing of an April thrush.
MANY of our foolish dreams
just fade into the blue.
But when you DREAM
a dream of Spring . . .
you KNOW it's coming true. 

~Patience Strong

 

We had an easy drive to our friends Tony and Tina yesterday.  They moved a few months back from a lovely two bedroom detached private bungalow into a one bedroom Senior's bungalow, which is a fair distance from where they used to live, situated in a small village in Wales, nestled amongst rolling Clywdian hills.  They are quite far up actually.  Once you leave the motorway you travel on a winding twisting roadway which carries  you up and up with each twist and turn.

Along the way you drive through hedgerow tunnels . . .  studded with trees which meet like gables overhead . . .  bare branched in the winter, but you just know that in the height of summer they will be a much welcomed cool green tunnel.  An abundance of snowdrops lay nestled amongs the tangled roots at every turn.  It can be a bit un-nerving on those narrow twisting country lanes . . .  they seem scarcely wide enough to carry one car and one worries about meeting another and what to do should that happen.

Thankfully it didn't.

 

 Past rolling farm fields, dotted with grazing cotton ball sheep and yes  . . .  the odd Spring lamb, and barns and tractors  . . .  and at one place an open barn right near to the road where I could see cows, their heads plunged through open spaces, feeding from a trough which lay filled with silage at the side of the barn.  Our windows were closed, but I do love the smell of a farm yard . . .  so long as it is not pigs.  It is an earthy smell . . .  a country smell . . . comforting in a way.

Tina and Tony have settled in well to their small home.  I know that it was very difficult for them, having to downsize . . .  to get rid of a lot of their belongings, and yes . . .  even their beloved Danny, a little white highland terrier they had.   He was not happy there, in the new space . . .  there was no room for him to play and they have no back garden to speak of.  The last time we saw him, he seemed very stressed and not at all happy . . . but thankfully now has been rehomed in a lovely place with a dear family with lots of space for him to enjoy and he is quite happily settled there according to all reports.  Sometimes when you love something or someone, you must make hard decisions concerning their happiness, even though it hurts to do so, and I can only imagine how much it hurt to give him up.  I know how we would feel if we had to give up Mitzie . . .  perish the thought.



 Tina is doing remarkably well after this second knee replacement.  I was very surprised.  Much better than the last one.  It was so good to sit and chat. Tony is taking very good care of her and of course members of the church have been very good at dropping by with meals and such.  We take good care of each other . . .  like family.  That is as it should be.

Todd and  I have been thinking about moving into sheltered accomodation and into Wales.  It's been on our minds for a while now.  It would be a wrench to leave our fruit trees, but each year when I see Todd  having to mow the yard and take care of all the flowers, etc.  when I see him struggling to trim that enormous hedge of ours, it becomes more clear that there will come a time in the not too distant future when we will have to make this hard decision ourselves.  Not just yet  . . .  but we must be prepared, which brings a certain sense of urgency to my downsizing/sorting/getting rid plans.



In talking with our friend Doreen the other day she told us that as of the first of April they are no longer having Wardens for the Seniors who live in sheltered accomodation here in Chester . . .  all of them are gone.  Whatever will Seniors do who need assistance from these people from time to time?   Who will keep an eye on the ones who don't have family to keep an eye on them and their needs?   It's very sad really.   It will also cost £25 now as well if they have to pull the cord for help . . .  Each of these sheltered homes has pull cords in each room that an elderly person can pull which sends an alarm to a central place where they have workers who can send help if need be.   I can see elderly people not pulling the cords at all and dying alone in their homes having had a bad fall etc.  Or from neglect.  It seems a shame that we can send billions in money to other countries under the auspices of foreign aid, and yet our own elderly are left doing without.
 People who have worked hard all their lives and paid taxes and supported this country through World Wars, etc.   Now forgotten and pushed aside.  It makes me sad.

Oh, and the big news of the day yesterday when we got home,  was that there had been a transvestite try to attack a young lad in the nature park at the end of our road (where that man got stabbed last year in broad daylight) and a couple of young men attacked him and put a beating to him.  Apparently the police were there and everything, also doing a door to door search.  My neighbor put the photos on facebook.   I have been tellling Todd for a long time not to walk Mitzie there.  Once you get into the park it is just far too secluded.  He carries a big stick with him, but I don't think it would be much help if a bunch of youths tried to jump him.

Did you cook your pancakes last night??  I did.   We had them together here as we sat and watched Michael Portillo and his Great American Train Journies . . .  some sprinkled with lemon and drizzled with honey and then rolled up and then the others spread with Wilkens and Sons Tiptree Little Scarlet Strawberry jam . . .  filled with tiny wild strawberries . . .  rolled up just so.  Both were very good.  *Yum!*  Yum, they were a real treat.

A thought to carry with you through today  . . .


Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷღೋღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷღೋღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
"The Spirit works with us at our own speed, 
one step at a time, or as the Lord has taught, 
“line upon line”."
~Larry R Lawrence
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷღೋღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷღೋღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

Spiritual Enlightenment



There is sausage stuff in The English Kitchen today  . . .  including these heart shaped Sausage sandwiches which are gluten free and paleo.

The Paleo Diet is an effort to eat like we used to back in the day…WAY back in the day. If a caveman couldn't eat it, neither can you. This means anything we could hunt or find – meats, fish, nuts, leafy greens, regional veggies, and seeds.  To each their own!

Have a perfectly wonderful Wednesday.  Along the way don't forget . . .

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And I do too!

The Simple Woman's Day Book

 

FOR TODAY, February 9th, 2016

Outside my window ...
All appears calm, but it's cold and wet.  Winter.  Todd said yesterday that he's never known such a wet winter.  One does get rather sick of the rain.  Sigh . . .

I am thinking ...
About my hospital appointment yesterday and I am inwardly seething.  I had my Upper Endoscopy on November 5th.  Thankfully the results for everything were positive.  There doesn't appear to be any problems there and I am not coeliac.  But, irregardless of the fact that my stool sample tests all came back as being negative for bowel cancer in November, the specialist still feels that there is a distinct possibility that I might  have bowel cancer and wants me to have a colonoscopy so I am now in a queue waiting for that, (it should happen in about 4 weeks) with a return appointment to go back and see the specialist on the 9th of May for the results, which is what  . . .  six months after the initial Endoscopy?   JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH.  If you think someone has cancer, surely these types of things should be expediated.  Not that I am looking forward to having a colonoscopy, because I am not . . .  but I also don't like to think that I am sitting here waiting and waiting and waiting on something, which if I do have it, treatment should be started more sooner rather than later.  I am feeling a tad bit angry and more than a little frustrated with it all.

I am thankful for ...
Prayer.  And I would really appreciate all of yours in the coming months.  I believe strongly in the power of prayer.  I know that at the end of the day what will be will be, but in the meantime, prayer will surely help to at least calm my heart and fears.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. ~Jeremiah 29:11 

In the kitchen ...



Sixteen different kinds of pancakes including a great recipe for Traditional British Pancakes.  Happy Pancake Day!

 

This Chicken Parmesan Soup looks gorgeous. Perfect for a wet rainy winter's day.  From Peas and Crayons.  

 I am creating ...
 

I picked up myself these papers for my next paper project.  I am just in love with them.  I've found a project I like but I am sadly lacking in materials to make it and money.  So I will have to gather them as and when I can.   I need a score board and one of these  . . .


 

I have put them on my wish list and so we will see.  I also need Kraft paper, which I can't seem to find.



The project is this Accordian Mini Album which I found on A Soul's Heartbeat.  There is an excellent tutorial on YouTube and I thought it would be the perfect way to store all the photographs of the grandchildren which I have been collecting.

 

French Knot Bees.  Oh I do love Bees . . .  I couldn't find a source.



I love this Crochet Sweater.  Free pattern from Naturally Caron.

 

I adore this little altered Altoid tin.  A story box from Little Burrow Designs.  You know how I love mini worlds.  Sigh . . .

 

I think these  mittens are really cute.  It's really annoying that I can't find mine!  I paid a lot of money for them too!  Sigh . . . I couldn't find a source for these either.  But I love the simplicity of them.  They make me think of a softer gentler era, Call the Midwife-ish.

I am reading ...


The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert

 Elizabeth Gilbert’s first novel in twelve years is an extraordinary story of botany, exploration and desire, spanning across much of the 19th century. The novel follows the fortunes of the brilliant Alma Whittaker (daughter of a bold and charismatic botanical explorer) as she comes into her own within the world of plants and science. As Alma’s careful studies of moss take her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she loves draws her in the opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose is a Utopian artist. But what unites this couple is a shared passion for knowing—a desperate need to understand the workings of this world, and the mechanism behind of all life.

The Signature of All Things is a big novel, about a big century. Exquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, this story novel soars across the globe—from London, to Peru, to Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam and beyond. It is written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time. Alma Whittaker is a witness to history, as well as maker of history herself. She stands on the cusp of the modern, with one foot still in the Enlightened Age, and she is certain to be loved by readers across the world.

Still a page turner.   I am just so tired nights, that I only get a few pages read before I am falling asleep.

Looking forward to ...
We are going to visit friends today.  Tina, who had her knee operation a few weeks back.  It will be so good to see her.  We have spoken on the telephone and she is doing well, but I am looking forward to seeing her in person.

I am learning ...
It appears my patience still needs work.  It's being tried.

Dreaming about ...



Spring . . .



I love these bed linens . . . so pretty.




Tea and crumpets  . . .




Yes  . . .  pink hair  . . .  still . . .



A tree house to call my own . . .

A favourite quote for the day  ...
 (¯`v´¯)
 `*.¸.*´Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ¸. •´¸.•~♥♥♥~•.~ ღϠ₡ღ¸.
            ✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ. ( ¸.❀⁀ ⋱‿✿“`
                       * .¸.* ✻ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ..



A picture quote this week  . . . .

Makes me smile ...

 

Siblings getting along well together.  Lucy and Baxter having some down time.

One of my favourite things ...

 

Penguins.  Aren't they everyone's favourite thing?

A peek into my day ...
  
(source)

Yes . . .  I waste far too much time doing this.  Pinterest.  So many pins, so little time.

And that's my daybook for this week!

  ⋱ ⋮ ⋰
⋯ ◯ ⋯ Take time to enjoy the small *´¯`.¸¸.☆
  ⋰ ⋮ ⋱ blessings in life.*´¯`.¸¸.☆


 ✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿ ✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿ ✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿
╬♥═╬╬═♥=╬╬═♥╬╬═♥╬╬═♥=╬╬♥═╬
░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░


Wherever you go and whatever you do, I hope there's a great day ahead of you! Don't forget!

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And I do too!!