Saturday 23 March 2013

Daily Moments




 
Daily moments are different for everyone. For me, there's dinner to prepare. Nothing fancy, just mash potato and pumpkin with gravy sausages. Then, desert is sliced oranges. While waiting for dinner to cook, time is spent catching up on letter writing. And letter writing without having some home made cake is not the done thing. This cake is a simple fruit loaf style which you butter up and have with your cup of what-ever-it-is you fancy. Those are good moments, like Anne of Green Gables said:
 
"After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string."

Friday 22 March 2013

Bloom And Grow




 
I wanted a place for some seeds I want to keep, they are seeds from flowers in our garden. I made a small book with 'seed packets' to keep my seeds. To make the book is easy as it is the same approach as a mini album. I used enevelopes for my packets, by folding the enevelopes in half then I cut the flap down just to the top of the inside of the enevelope. After that I used a narrow double sided tape on the inside of the middle to stick the enevelope down to make a 'packet' shape. If you want you could also leave out the double sided tape if you wanted to store bigger seed packets. The paper stack I used is by Grace Taylor called: Millie's Garden. On the cover and the inside cover I used a paper pack from KaiserCraft called: Timeless. The journal spot stamps are also from KaiserCraft. The book cover I cut down those cup-a-soup packets and joined two together for extra thickness. I added a vintage ribbon down the spine.
 
I've yet to decorate the cover, most likely I will use a simple bookplate with the word 'Seeds' written on it. Very simple and quick to make would make a pretty present for a gardener too.

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Homemade and make do



 
The full size crazy quilt bed throw is progressing. I measure progress by the amount of pins holding down fabric waiting for me to applique hand stitch on to the backing fabric which is a single bed sheet. When there are no pins I can say I've progressed. Slowly for sure.
You might think I've pieced in the embroidered fishy upside down, however I am actually stitching upside down ( and truthfully it wouldn't matter if the fishy was up side down, there are no rules to crazy quilting). The bulk of the bed sheet is on my work table rolled up and I work from the end. As I progress I 'roll' the bulk down. When I am stitching I gather up the rolled down bulk end Im working on and roll that up too. Basically it looks like it would if you had it in an embroidery stretcher rectangle frame...does that make sense? That is how I am piecing the whole sheet.
 
There was also some baking to be done, cakes and biscuits. A more succesful baking time as my mother has helped.
 
Finally the flowers in our garden are going to seed. I'm saving some of the seeds for next spring after dad showed me how to take apart the dead flower heads to find the seeds.

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Gatherings And Collections



 
 
There is a feel of Autumn in the air now, days are overcast and shadows are growing longer. The corn down the backyard is ready to be picked. I also have been hauting the thrift stores and brought long skirts and a mint green jacket to go with the flowering long sleeve blouse. The brooches (pins are from my collection also thrifted) I think a few of them suit the newly brought clothings.  The little figure brooch is of a woodchopper his carrying an axe  - can you see it? He is very suitable for this change in season's don't you think. Now I have a collection of gatherings in time for Winter.

Friday 15 March 2013

Gardens And Quilts



 
With the sun out it is nice to find a warm spot and sit to admire the flowers in the garden. Then when  it's time to go inside there's stitching to be done on the full size single bed crazy quilt making progress. Slow progress. Very slow progress. But I'll get there.

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Love And Peace



 
I have been working on junk journals. Some of them I recycled old book covers, like I did with the 'Love and Peace' journal here. I used for the cover an old cabinet photo I brought of two sisters and there is an old doiley underneath with actual tatting. I added some sort of Queen Anne's lace looking glittery sticker flowers and the words love and peace. I also added a owl charm from my stash. The journal is very soft and vintage modern I think.
 
The plates on our kitchen shelves are like the journal old and new. They sit well together.

Monday 11 March 2013

Hello note



 
A card for today. I used Kaiser Craft paper and stamp. I also used some vintage book paper and the image of children is from Magic Moonlight free images. It is also nice to see the sunshine trying so hard to peek through cloudy skies. The flowers and plants are at least loving this wet weather.

Friday 8 March 2013

Old Things


 
Home made cupcakes are not a new idea but the camera taking them is. Well, that too is an old camera given to me, it has never been used. I look forward to playing with a proper camera after all this time where I have only used my iphone to take my blog pictures. I love the clarity of close ups from this camera.

Thursday 7 March 2013

Slow Pursuits




 
 
Sun is trying to peek through and dry dampen area's out. The weather is starting to show signs of autumn too. Time has been spent mostly indoors playing with fabric. I hand painted the girl in a bonnet onto a cotton doiley. I used fabric paints to make sure the image stays on the fabric. This will be sewn to my crazyquilt I am making. And my slightly burnt oatmeal biscuits are still a treat.

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Early Morning



 
Home made rolled oats, a cup of tea, and the slow working of piecing together a wholecloth crazyquilt full single size bed quilt.
 
Slow things.
 
All documented in the junk journal given to me in a swap. I did also try the oatmeal biscuit recipe to use left over morning breakfast oatmeal. My mother, informs me all-purpose flour is not self-raising flour. Which means my biscuits were not quite right, but they were still tasty.

Saturday 2 March 2013

Umbrellas and journals



 
 
The journal pages are from another junk journal which uses up a lot of things I had in my stash and had made and posted on this blog. It's a very scrappy journal with lots of my photos I took over last year. Finally a place to put everything!
 
The card for today has a digital stamp from Sliekje's digi stamps blog. I colored the image using watercolors and used some scrap leftovers to decorate. (The card is in the center of the blue square.)

Books and rain

 



 
The weather has been miserable with rain, which for some is maybe a good thing. I braved the rain to go to our local thrift store bookfest. It is a yearly thing and you can buy many second hand books for hardly nothing. This year I brought a few selected books I liked and came home to warm up with a cup of tea in bed to read... Also, I have been making junk journals using up all sorts of odds and ends in my stash. I used a crazy quilt block to cover the journal, it is not quite finished yet. I think this book will be named Magpie nest.