I've Been Away for a While, But...

No excuses here, I know I've missed an entire season of updates to my blog but I was not going to miss wishing everyone blessings for a healthy, prosperous holiday season and new year.

I have so much fun decorating our home for the holidays.  Creating a warm and cozy home for my family is absolutely the best part of the holiday season for me.  Machine embroidered snowflakes and handmade ornaments fill the tree.


                           I love mixing my needlework ornaments with the more traditional ones.

                            The fireplace mantel is the perfect place to display santa figurines.

                                                        ...And handmade stockings.

                         And we must not forget our favorite snowman...I'll keep him around through January.

Howsoever you celebrate the season, I wish you joy, peace, and happiness

Happy Holidays Everyone

Linking to: Home Sweet Home Friday and Inspiration Friday

Autumn Inspired

I've been away from my blog for a bit...Hard drive issues, lots and lots of projects to "try" to get handle on, and life in general.  This summer has been "different".  Extreme heat for an extended period of time, an earthquake, hurricanes, and floods...Enough already!  Time to push the reset button.

Autumn, this is my favorite season.

I enjoy the Country Garden Cookbook series.  The images are wonderful and will warm your heart.  The recipes that I've tried have turned out very well.  This one is currently on my counter.  I picked up some Honey Crisp apples from Whole Foods yesterday and made a wonderful salad of apples, pears, cranberries, arugula, lettuces, walnuts, and some maytag blue cheese.  Yum!

When the season changes, my projects change.  I spend a lot of time in here.

This is a corner of my family room.  That's a cinnamon broom; smells great.  My featherweight lives here year round.  When I get ready to use it, I move it to my sewing room.  The sampler is a recent finish (one of those aforementioned projects that I had to get a handle on).  Since taking this photo, I've raised the sampler up a bit.  I wasn't so sure I was happy with it here but after looking at it in the photo, I like it there.  The bottom of the frame is now even with the bottom of the quilt...To lazy to take another picture.

Cooler days inspire me to make yarn...What is that hanging on my spinning wheel?  It's a blend of 50/50 Icelandic wool and Alpaca.  It makes a wonderfully warm yarn.  I have a pound of it.  I plan to knit a hat, a cowl, and use the rest to weave a shawl.  As of this post, I've spun-up 600 yards of it.  I make sure I don't leave wool hanging on the distaff...Don't want to scare a late night visitor to the kitchen (lol).

Cooler days means it's time to decorate for Autumn...Bring on the sunflowers.

Today I will be spending a lot of time in my kitchen rearranging my pantry and countertops in preparation for a "new to me" kitchen activity...Dehydrating food.  I cook a lot of soup and stews in the colder months so I'm hoping that by dehydrating the fresh vegetables and putting them up, I can have healthy meals quicker and not have to spend so much time going to the market.  I'll keep you posted on how it's going ( maybe I should start using my twitter account).

Have a great day and remember, your blessings are many--count them everyday.


Linking to these wonderful blogs:  Inspiration Friday ,Home Sweet Home Friday, Farm House Friday and Feathered Nest Friday

Tea and Stitching

It's "that" time of year again...I'm pulling out past projects that need finishing, stacking up new projects with hopes of finishing, and completely emersing myself in holiday creativity mode.  You see, I always start my holiday projects in July--Christmas in July. My blog posting has slowed a bit because of this but that only means that I will soon have many new things to share.  But for now, I will sit here with my cup of tea and stitch the morning away while all is calm and all is bright (I couldn't resist that).

The Irish Crochet Pincushion is one of the new projects.  Thankfully it's small and didn't take a lot of time to complete.  I love the natural linen and ecru lace, goes nicely with the simple white ironstone teacup and saucer.

We've been experiencing a bit of a heatwave here so I enjoy my tea and stitching in this room where the crisp linens and the natural colours give a sense of coolness...

But here is something that does enjoy a little bit of heat and humidity...

My African Violet.  I'm so pleased with it.  It has bloomed three times in as many months, it's happy :-)

Stay cool my friends, enjoy your summer, and thanks for taking a moment to have tea with me.



I'm sharing with:

Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday
White Wednesday
Home Sweet Home Friday

Summer at Thistle Creek

I must admit that Summer is not my favorite season, Autumn wins that title, but there are many joys that only Summer can bring.

The juicy goodness of  a trio of fresh berries.  (After taking the picture, I added a dollup of organic peach yogurt and savoured the moment.)

 Setting the table with reds -- roses, cherries, and plaids...

white -- vintage ironstone...

and blue -- cobalt blue stemware and flatware and a little yellow crochet doily for a sweet country  cottage accent...I'm ready for a 4th of July lunch.

Right outside my kitchen window a favorite flower thrives and begins its colour show.

Summer is here but it goes by quickly so do take time to enjoy those lazy summer afternoons when the days are long and the fireflys sparkle in the night.  Take a little longer to finish your lemonade, your iced tea, your mint julep...It's Summertime.

Thanks for visiting with me today...I'm glad you stopped by.

Linking to:

Wow Us Wednesday

Cottage Flora Thursday

Tablescape Thursday

Inspiration Friday

Teapots and Towels

Preparing tea in a pretty teapot makes taking tea special and more enjoyable.  I see these lovely little gems so often but realistically, I have to reign in my desire to purchase each and every one that catches my eye.  Today I thought I'd share with you a few that did make it home with me.  In my small collection I have favorites but here are the three that I currently have out to enjoy.

Suddenly I feel like having a cup of tea...I wonder why :-)

Before I go, I'd like to follow-up with an update from my last post where I shared the bath towels that were on my loom.  They're finished and I'm so pleased with how they turned out.  They're very fluffly, thirsty towels and I'm enjoying using them. I've already started dressing my loom to weave another set.

I'm glad you stopped by, I really appreciate your visits.  Have a great day.

Linking to:


Tea Time Tuesday
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday
Wow Us Wednesday
Inspiration Friday

Weaving, Peonies, and Daisies

Do you have multiple projects?  I certainly do.  It seems that this is the time of year when my creative mojo kicks into over-drive.  The good thing about this is that I finally finish projects that have been lingering.  The motivation usually comes from my wanting to start something new and feeling a bit guilty about the projects that are unfinished.  Like these bath towels.

I've had this warp on my loom for months.  So satisfying to enjoy my tea and cookie while weaving off  these two very large bath towels.  Can't wait to use them.

Weave structure is Turned Spot Bronson - Organic Cotton Warp

This is the second towel in progress.  It only took a couple of hours to weave the first one...This weave structure moves along quickly.  I don't know why I let this sit unwoven for so long...Well, that's not exactly true, I do know why -- I've been distracted by other projects.

When these are taken off the loom and washed, the lacey spots that you see will close up and the towels will have a nice nubby texture to them.  The magic happens in the water.

I've also been spending time in my garden.  My peonies are blooming and I have lots of daisies.

I love these. I'm trying to decide if I want to plant them out in the garden or leave them in pots.  I'm leaning toward potting them all, that way I can keep them tidy and enjoy them on the deck.

I hope you're also having a creative and enjoyable week. Thanks for visiting me today.  Many blessings to you for the days ahead.

Linking to:
Wow Us Wednesday
All Things Inspired
Teatime Tuesday

Time in the Garden

Do you see the rhododendron through my living room window?  It's beckoning for me to come outside to see what the warm sunshine has awakened in my garden today.

I see you're demanding more and more space each year...My, my what a pushy plant you are.

But you're beautiful and I adore you.

I see you have friend here who likes to wander too.  But she likes to climb, keeping her face turned toward the sun while her roots keep cool in the shade.  So particular you are Ms. Nelly Moser.

I suppose that's why you are so close to Jacobs Ladder.

Now that I'm in the garden, I must get to work.  I think this flower bed needs two more hostas.

The ornamental grasses are emerging and there's much weeding to be done.

I didn't even notice hubby already hard at work pulling up those pesky weeds.  Do you see him over there? He blended in with the plantings.  The stealth weeder.

Looks like these areas are ready for their thick cover of mulch.  I must admit, this is my least favorite chore in the garden but it helps keep the weeds at bay and gives us a great work out.

We spent the entire weekend in the garden.  I am amazed at how fast things green up and grow up.

How lush everything has become since just last week.

The day lilies will be showing their colours soon.

 
Love the plum tree.  It was supposed to be a dwarf ornamental...oops.

There's a Sand Cherry next to it.  They were supposed to grow up together.  I guess the plum tree didn't realize it was supposed to be miniature.

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's day weekend.  I wish for you happiness, health, and many blissful hours enjoyiong your garden.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Linking to:  Show Off Your Cottage Monday Please visit Cielo's blog for more cottage goodness.



Looking Through The Window

Looking through my sun room window I see that the creek has overflowed a bit.  You can see the shimmer of the water in the sunlight.

It reminds me of how nature can alter things, change the landscape, change lives.  The tornadoes that ripped through the South left so many people devastated; my heart and prayers go out to them.  looking at this little overflow of water, I realize that it could be so much more than that, but as you can see in the photos below, Thistle Creek returned to normal without any help from anyone.

 Each day the trees get fuller and the woodland plantings that were so tiny when we installed them, they sprawl and thrive with very little care.  They provide a home for the birds and visual enjoyment for us.

I carried that viburnum in one hand when I brought it home.  I think it likes it here.

There are two extremely large butterfly bushes on each side of the virburnum.  I look forward to their blossoms.  They attract humming birds, and of course, butterflies.  I'm just about finished with my tea and it's time for me to get back to working on my slipcovers.  I hope to be able to show them to you soon.  They are turning out to be more work than I thought but that's ok, I'm enjoying the journey.

Have a great week.  Thanks so much for sharing tea with me today.




This post is linked to:
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday
Tea Time Tueday
Wow us Wednesday
Open House Party Thursday