Friday, 6 July 2018

My Friday Finds . . .

 
A few of the things  I find each week that pique my interest, bring me joy, inspire me to learn, create, do, become . . . Maybe they will do the same for you!


Saffron Avenue.  Meal Planning sheets to download and print out.  


A poem that inspires  . . . I love the written word. 


The Forked Spoon.  How to make quick pickled red onions.


Make Life Lovely.  DIY floral decorated paper lanterns. 


The Whoot.  Knitted bears with video tutorial.


The Pattern Pile.  Holiday gift bottle holders.  


Willowyn.  Softie bunny pattern. Not free.  Cute. 


Garden Therapy. DIY Citronella Candles.  


Eye Candy Inspiration from The Boo and the Boy.  I love the old window backed by fabric, and that crochet bunting.  Sweet.


Sew Modern Bags, a Wanderlust Rucksack.  Free pattern.  


No source, just som eye candy inspiration.  Bicycles embroidered, using buttons.  Cute!  Can you see this decorating a child's cardigan?  I can!  Or a pocket on a pair of jeans, a jacket, etc. 

  

I wish.  Scrapbooker storage.  BHG.  


Sew Modern Bags.  Handy purse organiser.  


Fabric Sewing Basket.  Free pattern.  


Ravelry.  Textured crochet floor poofs.  


Lets Knit.  Hearts.  




 Hooked on Patterns.  Sliced Apple Coaster set.  Cute! 



Lady by the Bay.  Cosy Ribbed Scarf.  


Makerist. Knitted Gingerbread man ornies. Not free, but not expensive either.  Cute.


Love Knitting.  Little Christmas Trees. Free pattern. By Amanda Berry.


Knitted Acorns.  Carmen Rigby Wilson on Ravelry. 


Beauty All Around.  Paper Mache  Maracas. 



The Glizty Pear.  Paper Mushrooms. 


Rainy Day Mum.  Nativity Story Stones.  


Love crochet.  Rainy Day rainbow cardigan. Cute! Not free, but not expensive either!  

And those are my Friday Finds for this week!  Hope you saw something you liked!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY
To my sweet sister Cindy!
She's been my best friend for 60 years now!
I hope you have the best day ever!  Love you! Wish
I could be there to help you celebrate in person!


A thought to carry with you  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ | 田田 |門 ★

 *
Only those who attempt the absurd
Can achieve the impossible.
~Albert Einstein  •。★★ 。* 。 


 

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Creamy Curried Macaroni Salad.  YUM!

Have a great Friday. Its another sunny one here!  Don't forget!


═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ ⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════


And I do too! 

 


Thursday, 5 July 2018

My favourite things . . .

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A few of the things in life that make my heart go pitty pat. Maybe they will do the same thing for yours. ♥♥♥   
 
 
Watermelon. Its one of my favourite things about summer. I could eat it until it comes out my ears. So sweet and delicious! 
 
  
 
 
Susan Branch Calendars.  I buy them all every year and I save them from year to year.  I love everything she does.  I followed her every step of the way through her recent trip to the UK, and can't wait for the book to come out.  And I really, really, really hope they do the film that they are taking about doing. She is just nice.  I like nice people.
 
I used to follow Mary Engelbreit and buy her calendars, until I saw a side of her that really was more than a little bit obnoxious.  I know we are all only human, but I was really disappointed in what I saw and I haven't been able to bring myself to even look at anything of hers since. 
 
 
 
Flat peaches. Well, peaches.  I adore peaches, but I love the flat white fleshed ones best of all. They are so lovely and sweet. It is flat peach season here now. Must buy more.
 
  
 
 
Scottish raspberries.  I adore them.  There is something really delicious about a Scottish raspberry. I don't know what it is, but I could eat, eat and eat them.  I made myself sick on raspberries one time when I was a child, and it was a very long time before I could bring myself to eat them again.  I am glad I was able to get over that. 
 
 
 
 
Phone calls with my mom. She will be 86 on Monday. I wish I could be there to celebrate the day with her. I have not been able to see her in 5 years now.  I don't think she would know who I was really.  But when I am talking to her on the phone, she does because she knows that "Alice" is calling and somewhere in her brain she still knows that "Alice" is her daughter.  She has Vascular Dementia. Dementia, like Alzheimers is a terrible disease that steals your loved one from you a little bit at a time. I know it must really frustrate her and I know my sister's heart breaks a tiny bit every day. My mom always used to write me one letter a week, every week, and then that went down to one every two weeks . . .  and now she doesn't write any. (I'm really glad I saved them all.) Conversations are getting more difficult, becoming a bit of a struggle as she searches for words and names of things.  I just try to get her talking about her childhood or thing like that because she can remember those days quite well, and I just want to hear her voice, while I can.  I love my mother so very much.
 
 
  
 
Look at what I discovered on Amazon Prime last night!  I used to love this show when I was a child. I loved introducing it to Todd last night. He had never heard of it!  My early and late teens were peppered with phrases such as "You bet your sweet Bippy", "Here comes da Judge," "Very Interesting", "Say goodnight Dick", "One ringie dingie", and a whole lot more.
 

 
Matching tea sets.  I have four of these cups/saucers/tea plates.  They are Katie Alice. I collected them one at a time. I would love to have the matching tea pot and cream/sugar pots.  I don't know why.  I don't even drink tea.  I guess I just love pretty things. 
 
 
  
 
Our strawberries are all but finished now.  But when you brush your hands through the bed looking for berries, their beautiful smell still delights the senses. 
 
   
 
I captured a peek at her through the back door this morning, enjoying the far end of back garden in the early morning sunshine.  She loves exploring the yard, night or day.  In the Winter we don't let her down there because it is too wet. In the summer she has free-reign.  Oh how I love her.  Can you see how brown the grass is becoming.  That is as far as Todd has mowed this week, and it is brown, brown . . .  brown. Everywhere is getting brown.  I really noticed it yesterday.  We have had not much rain at all to speak of for almost two months. The rain is what makes it so green over here.  It doesn't look like we will be getting much before August at least.  That's what the long range forecast looks like anyways. It could all change of course! 
 
  

 
The morning light as it comes through the front window in the lounge.  Warm and bright, I like the way it plays through the lace of the curtains . . . 
 
 
 

Finger sandwiches.  I love sandwiches anyways, but I adore finger sandwiches.  So dainty. I know it is just an illusion, a mere trick of the mind  . . .  but I think they taste better than regular sandwiches.



I love this picture that our Amanda posted on Instagram yesterday of her and Maryn. I don't know where they are or what they are doing.  I think that must be a trampoline of some sort near the Halifax waterfront, but it is a beautiful capture! 



Cheeky little Cameron.  Its hard to believe he starts school in September.  This is one of the exchange students that they have had living with them for the past year.  I think she is from Italy.  Cameron seems to really like her at any rate.  I think they are leaving (there are two of them) to go back home soon. 


They look like aliens, but they are only Alliums.  I think they are strikingly beautiful  . . . 


   


I love their little faces.  We are having to water like crazy to keep things going here.  



He was busy gathering, so busy he never saw me . . . 

Can you believe we have no blooms at all on our buddliea this year at all?  So no butterflies either.  And our Jerusalem Artichokes never came up at all. Strange.  


Potato salad.  Love my mom's potato salad. Its the best.



Ice cream on a hot summer day. This wasn't my favourite kind . . .  I prefer Vanilla, but Todd did his best in picking it out.  And it was cold. 

 
  

Royalty cheques.  I finally got my first one and it was for two quarters combined.  It will help when we have our company next month.  I'm no JK Rowlings, but every little helps. 

And those are some of my favourite things for this week.  I have a bit of a sore tummy this morning.  Wonder what I ate  . . . 

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

.° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ | 田田 |門 ★

 *.˛.° ˛A picnic is a state of mind
and can be made anywhere •。★★ 。* 。 


  

In The English Kitchen today  . . . Spicy Tomato and Sausage Pasta.  This was seriously delicious. 

Have a beautiful Thursday.  Mitzie is off to the dog groomers this morning.  She will be happy or the trim. It should be a bit cooler for her!  I am going to paint here at home.  Enjoy your day whatever you get up to!  Don't forget!

═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ ⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════

And I do too!



 

Wednesday, 4 July 2018

Sunsets

 

"Every sunset is different and yet each one is so beautiful. Each is full of fantastic colours, from radiant reds, to glorious greens, to peaceful purples to outstanding oranges, to breathtaking yellows." ~Joseph J Mazzella

I love sunsets. This is a picture I took of the sun setting up in Margaretsville, a small village set on the Bay of Fundy, about a 15 minute drive from my mother's house. I took it back in 2002 when I had gone home to visit for a couple of months. I had always been told that the sunset in Margaretsville was particularly beautiful, but had never actually seen it myself. You know how it is when you live in a place for a long time . . . you quite often never stop to see the things that visitors find compelling. It's often not until you move away that you stop taking them for granted and long to see them, and so one night my mother and I drove up to see it in person.  




There were quite a few people there that evening, waiting for the sun to go down. It had been a particularly warm day in the Valley, and so my mother and I were both wearing shorts, having forgotten how very cold it can get up at the shore. She quickly decided that she wasn't going to hang around freezing to death and went back to the car, leaving me on my own. Cold or not, I had decided I was getting a picture, and so I stayed and was rewarded with a photo of particular beauty . . .

You only have a very few seconds to capture it with your camera lens. It is over and done with in the literal twinkling of an eye. I hadn't reckonned however on how very dark it was going to be immediately after the sun had set . . . and so I had a very scary walk back to the car . . . feeling my way over very unfamiliar territory in the dark . . . one very small step at a time. I knew the car was there though . . . and I knew roughly what direction I needed to head towards . . .

Once I hit the gravel of the road I felt a lot safer . . . and I was shortly back at the car, safe and sound. 


 

As I think about that evening as I sit here this morning . . . it suddenly occurs to me how this very incident can be like an allegory for life . . .

We move along in our lives, with all of their ups and downs, trying hard to stick to the path as we go. We can sometimes allow ourselves become distracted from our goals by something which we find to be beautiful or compelling, maybe even dangerous . . . oftimes without any thought for the dangers that might be hidden beneath the surface, or the consequences of our impulses.

Once we are involved . . . it is too late . . . and we have no way out of our situation, except to move through and finish what we have started . . . sometimes with very dire or hurtful consequences . . .

This can at times be very frightening . . . we may feel lost. We may feel like we don't know which direction to follow. We may be tempted to just stay where we are . . . because the thought of moving forward is a lot scarier than the place that we find ourselves in . . . we may feel that there is no way out, or forward . . .

We may feel totally, and irrevocably . . . lost . . .  
  

I can promise you that that is just not true. No matter where you find yourself . . . no matter how lost you may feel . . . no matter how worthless, how low, how unloved, unwanted . . . how separated from where you wanted to be or long to be, there is always a way out . . . there is a gravel path within your reach, and once you grab hold of it . . . it will lead you back to safety, one small and sometimes daunting . . . step at a time.

"However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines."
~Jeffrey R Holland,
The Labourers In The Vineyard

Just my thoughts this morning. I never know where they are going to take me . . . I started off thinking about sunsets . . . and look where I ended up. ☺ 



I found these old photos of our Amanda and Maryn this morning when I was looking for my photos of Margaretsville.  Maryn is so young here.  It is hard to believe she is 7 now.  Hardly seems possible.  The years have been flying by . . . 



  

I love this one. I find myself wondering what they looking at that is so amazing and has caught their attention so perfectly.  

Its another beautiful sunny day out there this morning.  They say this lovely weather will continue for at least another two weeks.  I say bring it on!  I will never tire of it. Not ever.

A thought to carry with you . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ | 田田 |門 ★

 *.˛.
The same boiling water that
softens the potato, hardens the egg.
Its about what you are made of,
not the circumstances.  •。★★ 。* 。 


 

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Green Slaw.  A beautiful melange of greens, textures, flavours.  Yummy!

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends and family.  Enjoy it and stay safe!  Don't forget!


═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ ⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ 


And I do too!