Late Strawberries

Mrs. Mouse is marveling over her late harvest.

The strawberry instructions were in the magazine Mollie Makes, issue two.

Eat Your Veggies!

A very proud moment for me when Em asked to take my homemade vegetable soup in her school lunch. I made up the soup recipe all on my own and da da da daaahhh----it turned out. :-) I've not tried this before so I was super pleased. It doesn't use any meat product at all. I opened up the cooled container of soup this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find no greasy sheen on the soup. Yeah!! I used a vegetable base--like boullion cubes made by Superior Touch. Above is a picture of my lunch. Last night I had it for dinner and added frozen peas--nice green touch. I meant to add some green beans from our garden, today but forgot. There is plenty left so I'll do that next time.

Brown Hair and a Blue Sweater

Just a little sketch using my new pen tablet. :-)

Oy.........

Sorry I have been missing here. I am terribly frustrated at the moment.

We are having doggie problems.

Gizmo chewed on his own tail while at the kennel 4 weeks ago until it required surgery.

He has been a mess ever since. Not sleeping thru any of those nights since, despite medicines.

He whines continually, chases his non-existent tail and pouts about his Elizabethan collar.

(I don't blame him there. those collars are cumbersome)

We are still hoping it will get better.

It is a wee bit better recently--only up once each night and able to spend some time without the collar, so maybe there is hope.

We were surprised this morning to find that our hollyhock,

planted this year had shot up and bloomed.

When did that happen? Must have been in the recently groggy days.

Doesn't this poor guy look sad?

40"s Doll Quilt

A pretty doll quilt that I found on an Etsy shop HERE. 

I love the hand piecing--all hand stitched and slightly wonky. 

The edging has a lovely rosey pattern.

Chop, Chop

It will eventually be cold enough to use all this lovely, newly chopped wood.

Won't it?

Too Early for Sock Knitting

Close-up! 

The moon got me up in the early morning today and I had the crazy idea to start decreasing for the toe on my second sock to finish it up. I must blame the moon for starting the decrease too soon.

At 4am I decided I must rip the toe back to just before the decrease.

The sock was simply turning out way short.

I could either leave it open to allow for my toes to pop out or rip it back.

By 5am I did not want to wish anyone a good morning. Uggh!

The picking up of loose stitches was a mess. All turned the wrong way and dropping through.

At one point I had four needles and two crochet hooks all picking up stitches at the same time.

Happy am I that it all came out OK. 

Braving a third pair. :-)

A Second Pair

Still practicing. 

I am feeling more assured in knitting this pair. Not so many thumbs or needle-fumbling.

The yarn is Red Heart, Heart & Sole in Toasted Almond. 

Yarny

Bowl of yumminess!

A group of us went to a warehouse yarn sale today and I for one am exhausted.

We walked into the warehouse just after lunch and the area where the yarn was

looked like ants on a sticky sweet.

The boxes of yarn, covered in people.

Mostly nice, polite grabbing of yarn,

but I was clearly out of my element.

I got some colors but with no plan I ended up with quite a mish-mash.

The bowl above is some other yarns that I have short pieces of in my art area.

Bed Pocket

I just made this bed pocket for Em.

She has gotten a loft bed for her birthday

and now has a place to stash her book, flashlight and journal at night. ;-)

Morning Sun

Beautiful Cleome in the morning sun.

While we were gone on vacation the weeds took over and lots of flowers flopped over from being hit by heavy rain and heat but these beauties are going strong and forming seed pods just below the flower heads that will be ready for me to collect and plant next year. Hurray!

Hearts Game

Vintage cards from a 1950's Hearts game (Whitman Publishing).

Love those big earred elves.

Bears & Monkeys

A lovely endpaper illustration of Blueberry Hill

where Little Brown Bear, his family and friends live.

Love the otter family all swimming in their pond.

This is Little Brown Bear, his parents and friends, 

the peddlar and White Rabbit having a picnic.

Both of the above illustrations are from the book

"Little Brown Bear and His Friends"

by Elizabeth Upham (1952).

The stories are cute but the illustrations

by Marjorie Hartwell are heart-stopping. :-)

I would like one of those peddlar carts, wouldn't you??

Same author and illustrator for this story.

"Little Brown Monkey" is the title (1949).

This picture book seems very familar and I love the monkey momma's dress.

Yum, coconut cake!!

Comforter and Pillow

Just a little project while I was at the lake.

Here you see the gingham quilt and pillow on a nice doll bed. 

Here is the little embroidered pillow I made of felt.

I just plopped down any old flower shape in my favorite colors.

And here is the same quilt and pillow in a little fairy home near the lake.

I fashioned a little twig bed and two acorn lamps

for the fairies as well as a wee broom.

The acorn lamps were made from a small acorn

turned upside down and glued inside a larger acorn cap.

The broom is just a pine needle cluster and a stick

with a little bit of string wrapped around them both to hold them together.

The twig bed I am not happy with--I used wire to hold the twigs together

and it got really unwieldy. I'll need to try again.

Vintage Finds

Shopping around a variety store that was going out of business after many, many years

I found a bag of quilt scraps for 1/2 off the $3 tag.

I can't say that I would have picked the fabrics from the get-go

but it will be a nice snap of change to add depth to a project.

Not that I have any project planned--yet. :-)

I found two of these dry paint transfers that I hope will work.

They were probably from the 80's.

Lots of little finds in this store,

10 yards of 100% cotton ric-rac for 50 cents,

cocoa brown cross-stitch fabric for 75 cents,

and some ribbon from the 80's with strawberries, tomatoes and cherries on it.

Cottage Bed

I wish I could transport this room back home.

This is from our cottage by the lake in Michigan.

The light in the morning is soft like the slight lapping of water on the dock outside 

and in the afternoon the sun slants in to warmly wake you from a nap.

The bedcover is an old pink calico that has a wool blanket in the inner-lining that has been yarn-tied.

Just scrumptious!

Shopping

When I was a kid there were still lots of stores like this (Woolworths, Kresge, Murphy's) with a candy counter and everything all displayed on tabletops, in their own little glass box.

I wandered around this store up in Michigan feeling very nostalgic, 

admiring all the old-fashioned stock of hairnets, shower caps, pink foam curlers 

and the old-time displays of hard candy and saltwater taffy,

to be purchased by the pound and packaged in small white paper bags.

This is the kind of place to find small kites, water pistols, sand toys,

embroidery floss, Flair markers and Dennison star stickers. 

Socks at the Lake

My first pair of hand knit socks. 

I stalled out getting the second sock started and then stalled again finishing the foot.

I finished it in a hurry one morning at the lake when it was in the fifties.

The yarn is Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Weight by Premier Yarns.

Vacation Time!!

We are headed to one of our very favorite spots.

Lots of relaxation....ahhhh!

Five Foot Lily

This is a beautiful Canada Lily that is growing wild in a corner of my Mom's garden.

It just appeared a few years ago and has dazzled each year.

Here's a link that has a little bit of info. on this lily.

Each flower looks like a parasol.

HP7 part 2

Yep, we saw the final movie of the Harry Potter series.

This board-above-was up at our local theater showing the Hogwart's school houses.

We enjoyed the movie, except the very sad parts,

which had Em and I looking at each other in the dark and wondering why we were torturing ourselves.

But, all's right with the wizarding world now!

Summer Blooming

Did you ever look closely at the flower of the zinnia? All those little yellow floweretes.

Beautiful!!

We have got the 4H judging over with finally and I am so proud of Em.

She was very poised and only a little scared to go speak with the judges. :-)

Velveteen Rabbit

Isn't this guy a cutie.

His name is Cinnamon Bun and he is so jumpy,

he likes his nose rubbed but doesn't like being held--at all.

He has been with us since April, part of a 4H project.

Em has her 4H rabbit judging today.

Sewing and Growing

Em and I have been sewing.

A 4H project for this summer was to make an item of clothing so Em chose a skirt.

She has finished it and will go to judging this coming week and a style revue the following week.

Em is getting so grown-up and very tall.

I'm remembering making her a twirly skirt for kindergarten not so many years ago. ;-)

Purple Power

I have been waiting on you to bloom, you beautiful morning glory.

For the longest time you have swirled and twirled your way up my fence and today you burst open.

More purpley goodness.

I made this bag for my mom.

I kind of just made up the pattern by looking at pictures of bags I admired and combined the ideas. 

The beautiful fabric with the lettering on it is a fat quarter found at the quilt show we went to last month.

I used up every last bit of it on this bag, not even the smallest scrap left.

July Fourth

Happy 4th of July America!

One Sock, Two?

I'm guessing that every person out there who has ever knitted their first sock is fascinated by it.

Sits and stares at it in wonder.

Wow, did I really knit THAT,

(and how am I ever going to do it again)?