Anyone Can Quilt

goodbye summer....Mama wants some fall.

I made some beautiful strawberry jam.  I love the color!  And I looooove the quilted jam jars I found.  They scream cozy cottage kitchen to me. 

As does my mother's childhood apron.  It's was handmade by her grandma Martha.

'K' for Kirstie, rhymes with thirsty.  Now little sis wears this apron. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed summer.  Now I am anticipating fall with such excitement!  I look so forward to fall and winter, my favorite times of the year.  Crisp air, falling leaves, chimney smoke, baking and a cozy fire.  Today is cool and fall-ish as I stand on my front porch.

This is my view of downtown.  The brownish pile across the river there is made up of thousands of logs.  There is a paper mill just down the river.  I love watching the trees change on the little mountain as the year goes by.

Fall flowers on the porch.  Hey!  Where did those flies come from?  They are tainting my fall flowers moment.  How dare they.

Now I know this it's too early for Halloween decorations.  But, I was so inspired by the cutest Halloween charm pack that my friend MT got for me.  I had to make a banner. 

And I had to hang it up.  Already.

Aaaand I'm not taking it down.  

This charm pack is Haunted Mansion by Moda.  The charm pack came with 42 charms, so one on the front and back of each flag made a nice long banner of 21 flags.  This was such a quick and fun sewing project!

There is also some fall knitting going on in these parts.

Arm warmers for big sis, she requested thumb holes.  So thumb holes it is.  I love this color.

There is also lots of coffee and tea drinking from this fall mug!  I love this mug, I snatched a set of these up from a local thrift store.  These are the exact same type of Fire King mugs that my grandma Marlys and grandpa Carl  had when I was little.  They make me think of them whenever I use them.  I remember my brother and I waking up early when we would spend the night at my grandparents house when we were very little, I was about 3 or 4.  We would walk into their room in the morning and stand at the side of their bed and silently stare at them until they woke up.  Then grandma would go to the kitchen and make coffee for them both.  We would be silly and make our grandparents laugh as they drank their coffee in bed.  

Ok, back to school.  We started our home school year already.  It's so nice to be back on a schedule. 

A schedule that I've got to fit these arm warmers into.  They're almost done.

I hope you're as ready for fall as I am! x

Dueling Easybake ovens.

Evenings in my kitchen have looked like this lately.  Besides the messy counters, just pretend you don't see those please, thank you.

We found Big Sis's old Easybake oven, and just purchased this one above for Little Sis at the Walmarts.  They have been having a blast with these.  And at ages 11 and 9 they can do it all by themselves.  Even better!  Big Sis got hers on her 4th birthday and although she enjoyed it then, it's so much more fun for her now that she can do it all on her own.

Behold, tiny nachos...

And of course, the classic tiny cake...

These Easybake cakes actually don't taste all that great.  And they get expensive.  So we decided to whip up a bowl of regular cake batter and keep it covered in the fridge so they can just spoon out the batter whenever they feel like baking.  'Real' cake batter tastes so much better.  

I had an Easybake oven when I was a little girl and I LOVED it so much.  It's so fun to peruse Ebay for vintage Easybake ovens, they looked so much cooler in the 60's and 70's!  I'm tempted to get one of the old ones just for kicks.  And just so you know I would totally bake with it.  Mine was the orange-y gold one from the 80's, but I really like the aqua and yellow ones from the 60's. 

It's hard to catch a glimpse of the goods! 

I love being a mommy to my girls.  Of course I would equally love having boys, but then I might have to bake in an Easybake oven all by myself, that or resort to bribery.  x

All is Merry and Bright... except for the car.

I love this time of year.

I love candy canes.

I love the smell of this tree.

I love that the whole family has "Wii arm".  Ouch.  As a result of playing too much Wii.  A Christmas present from the grandparents. 

 

I love vintage Christmas linens.

 

And I love these mangy beasts, lounging by the fire.... all day.

 

 

I love my new Belgian waffle maker!

I love watching my girls decorate gingerbread cookies.

I loved helping with the children's Christmas program at church.

My main duty was chasing down stray sheep that wanted to play the piano. 

And I couldn't get over this little guy.  He was precious.

Oh ya, here's something I don't love:

Our car was parked on the street while we were in church last Sunday.  They left a note saying that they bumped into our car "Lightly."  Oh, at least it was Lightly... That made me laugh.  As soon as we walked out to the car and saw this I looked at my husband and started singing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."  And he chimed right in.  Now that's our theme song whenever something unfortunate happens.  It cracks me up.  My mom called me the other day stressed about something, so I started in, "It's the hap-happiest season of all..."  Cheered her right up.  And I'm too far away for her to smack with the phone.   

 

On a creative note, I made this last night for Little Sis's Blythe doll.

 

And look Monica, we also gave her some freckles the other day!  That was fun.  And speaking of my friend Monica, look what she made for me at the retreat last month.  This thing makes me so happy I can't tell you.  I love it so.

It's a thing of beauty.  Thank you Monica! 

 

It's ok ladies, take a few moments to reflect..... shed a tear..... I understand.  

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.  Have a wonderful week full of love and family fun... and maybe some huge waffles.  x

Fairy Buns and Frenchy Bags

The Gentle Art of Domesticity.  Have you heard of this book by Jane Brocket of Yarnstorm?  If you have, bless you.  If you have not, listen to me very carefully.  Run, don't walk to your local bookstore and search for this book.  I've been wanting to purchase it for quite a while, and finally saw it at a bookstore this weekend.  It was the only one left, and it was calling to me.  "Take me hooooome.." it said.  I don't often buy books from the bookstore.  I usually look through the books I'm interested in and then buy them online at a much cheaper price.  But this one I had to bring home.   It's amazing.   Jane is amazing. 

This is not a book of patterns.  It's a book of inspiration, and where to find it.  Jane is a great writer.  This girl's got smarts.  She covers everything that has to do with the 'gentle arts', and how valuable and enriching they are to our lives.  I can't say enough about this book.  It's got tons of information, and really makes me feel good about the time and thought that I put into creating for my home and family.  Whether I'm stitching a quilt, knitting socks, baking bread or scrubbing the floors.  It's all meaningful, the large jobs and small.  

And how could you not like a book that has a recipe in it for yummy Fairy buns?   

These were quick, simple, and fun. 

My own little domestic artist in the making gave me one of her specially made bookmarks for my new book.

I also finished a purse for each of my girls.  I used Amy Butler's wonderful Frenchy Bags pattern.  These were fun to make and I know the girls will get lots of use out of them. 

Thank you all so much for the kind words, thoughts and prayers for my sister's baby boy.  He is continuing to recover.  I think I better get working on a special quilt just for him.  He deserves something extra warm and cozy for all he's been through, and for his poofy cheeks. 

Here's to the Gentle Arts.  x

Lady of Leisure...

Today is the first day of our Spring Break.  I think I might be a tad more exited than my girls.  As many of you know I homeschool my babies.  As much as I LOVE homeschooling and wouldn't have it any other way, I also LOVE days off.  So what did I do this morning?  I stayed in bed with my new thrifted pillow cases.  I picked up this sweet pair for $6.00.  They are precious. 

 

Unfortunately my darling had to go to work.  If only we were independently wealthy....

I did do a little light reading while I sat in bed until....10:00.  There I said it.  10:00!!  You can't blame me, I stayed up way too late watching "Rock of Love...Bus."  It's a skanky repulsive show and I can't help myself. 

I found this old magazine at the antique mall where I got the pillowcases.  It's a Good Housekeeping magazine from July, 1936.  It is awesome!  I love reading all of the advertisements.  They are hilarious.  Let's take the add for Camel cigarettes for instance...

Apparently, we should smoke....for digestions sake.  Who knew?

Hmmm....what if she is???  Whatever shall I do???

Of course!!  Give her some Ovaltine, that'll fix her. 

Click on this one above, it's fabulous.  There's a lot about 'keeping your man happy' in this magazine. 

I think these little girls were crank calling people...."...is your refrigerator running?...giggle giggle"

I love this ad.  It's awsesome.  It's basically telling you that your makeup should not make you look like a painted up hussy.  After all, we don't want to make our husbands angry. 

Oooooohhhh he's mad...."grrrrr"

Can you imagine feeding your baby Pet Milk?  Well, chubsy wubsy up there seems to like it.  I do love me a smooshy baby! 

Ooooh!  Peg's sure to catch herself a husband now!  Maybe even the pipe smoker or weenie roaster! 

WHAT kind of naughty tooth brush IS this???

Ok, I'll stop now.  I could spend hours posting pictures from this magazine.  One of the things I like about it is that it is from two years after my little cottage was built.  It's so fun getting a peek into what it was like for the people who first lived in my house. 

I also picked up these little gems.  They're cute as cute can be. 

Since I can't stay in bed all day reading old magazines, I better do something productive.  I'll clean the bathroom.

There.  Nice and shiny.  This little bathroom has come a long way.  When we first bought this house, before we could even move in, it was so disgusting that I wouldn't let my little girls use it.  While spending our days here renovating I would run my girls up to the little grocery store when nature called.  So my husband gutted the whole thing and rebuilt it.  He moved plumbing and lights and made it into a much more usable space.  The layout before was just weird.  We still have a bit to do in here, like finish the trim on the bead board, and a couple other little things.  It's small, but that just makes cleaning it faster.

Now let's make scones!

Yum.  Perfect for a rainy day.  I think I'll have them in the living room, cuddled up with a quilt and a cup of tea.

Can't forget the lemon curd.  I love this stuff.  Maybe I'll be a real lady and just smother my scone with it. 

There we go. 

 

Next on my list is to move to the sewing room and work on this.  Hope to show you more progress soon. 

Here's to a rainy Spring Break afternoon.  x