Nesting.....

Remember this tray that I got out and started using for a primitive country look to my dining room table? I gave it a simple look again now for spring. I switched the cloth to a piece of bobbin lace with butterflies and kept the candlestick. I added a birdhouse, bird and nest with eggs.

Simplicity to celebrate spring!

I found this quote online and feel like it is something I could have said myself being such a homebody. In Holland, we say you are a sparrow and the Dutch for sparrow has the word home in it - "huismus"...

"I'm such a girl for the living room. I really like to stay in my nest and not move. I travel in my mind, and that that's a rigorous state of journeying for me. My body isn't that interested in moving from place to place." 
~ Bell Hooks

Almost Easter.....

In two weeks, it will be Easter. This year is flying by once again. So time to decorate with some little touches to welcome the Easter Bunny to our home...

I changed a few quilts again on my quilt ladder...

Placed some branches in a jug and added some egg ornaments...

And hung a grapevine wreath for a final touch...

80 year old love story

Once upon a time, a little girl was born and named Nancy. She was the apple of her daddy's eye and he loved taking lots of photos of her...

She might be dirty and wearing her mom's old hat but he loved to take those photos...

I have it on the best authority (her mother) that Nancy grew up very spoiled as the youngest child in the family...

She was no longer a little girl...

And ended up meeting this young marine named Bill...

He was 7 years older than her but he kept asking her out. She thought he was an old man but finally did go out with him. She received a Christmas gift from him of an album of the musical Carousel in 1956...

That was it...it was too late...she was in love and she married her Bill...

They left for a life in the military. You see Bill went into the Air Force...

Nancy and Bill had 4 children. Bill was the oldest, followed by Fawn. Then 5 years later, Heidi came along and remained the baby, until 3 years later, Eric arrived. The family was complete...

But as each story has an ending, Bill passed away all too soon at the age of only 59. He is still missed by the family to this day. How could you not miss someone who was fondly called Bear by his family?

Today, my dad Bill would have been 80 years old. 

Happy birthday to you dad! 

366 Challenge

I just discovered a really fun challenge on Garden of Daisies blog. As soon as I read the details, I had to join up. It is called the 366 Challenge. Here are Gayle's rules for the challenge...

***We're getting rid of clothes that don't fit,  items that don't suit our taste anymore,  projects we've given up on,  books we've already read,  kitchen items that won't fit in our cupboards,  things we were crazy to purchase in the first place.  Anything we no longer use or want. 

We can gift things to friends who are collectors, donate things to favorite charities, sell things in a garage sale,  toss broken things in the trash, etc...    We can get rid of 7 things each week or 31 things each month. One way or another our closets, drawers and basements will be feeling lighter by the end of this year.***

I am working on this one area at a time to start myself off. This week, I decided to focus on my hutch. The nice thing about a large hutch and closed areas and drawers is that you can just stuff things in. Not seen...not really there? But I had cleaned this out really well when we moved into this house and then let stuff build up once again. Today, I opened the first (double doors) two doors of the bottom. This is a before photo of things thrown in. Mr first task was to remove everything at once and clean out both shelves.

This old clock was there as I thought it was no longer working. I kept putting in batteries and it would not keep time. My friend Sonja gave me a set of rechargable batteries for Christmas and I put those in yesterday to see if that made a difference as I would put the clock in the throw out pile today when I get started if it did not work. Guess what? IT WORKS! Obviously, the batteries I kept putting in it were not good. I have the same problem with a clock I stitched at Cranberry Cottage and need to try it with that one too. I am thrilled about this as the clock was rather expensive and I do love it.

Another thing that was dug out is this pretty porcelain tray that Jos bought for me as a 20th anniversary gift in a favorite furniture shop of ours in Maastricht. It seems only yesterday that we were there but in a few weeks it is our 25th wedding anniversary already. I am going to use this in my quilt studio for little sewing necessities instead of hiding it away.

Ta-da! Here are the results of an hour's sorting. I tossed a few old yucky looking faux pastries and sorted through some old placemats and coaster sets which are now listed online for sale. I put the items I use back in place neat and organized so they are easily found to be used.

Much of what was messing up this area was stacks of old cards that I was keeping thinking I might someday use but someday has never come...
Old address book that I do not need to keep...
Some brand new cards and Christmas cards that I need to keep in an area with other cards to use...
Empty jam jars which were leftover from a project last year...

All these items should not have been in the hutch and once again I have a really good amount of space. Tomorrow, I am planning on tackling the third door. Well...who knows...Jos is late tonight so I might even do it later on today...grins.

Speaking of husbands...do not do this challenge when they are around. Mine saw the dish with the broken lid and has pulled it out of my toss stack to fix it. Now I had to take it back off my list of items. I think a husband could bring the success of the 366 Challenge in danger. *wink*

If you want to join up, go to Gayle's blog and let her know. I am keeping my list of items on my side bar for anyone interested in seeing it.

Sunday sip.....

We had a beautiful day here in Holland so lets take the Sunday sip outside in the sunshine...

We had a light lunch out in the garden today since we were very busy planting and pruning. Jos had to work away at removing dead bamboo while I planted up 4 containers of pansies and started a little spring pruning. We are nowhere near done and it will be another full weekend of pruning to get things in shape for the new season.

We enjoyed a lunch of Turkish bread, olives, sate grilled sausage and a cocktail glass with fresh pineapple chunks. To wash it down, our Sunday sip was freshly made lemonade.

We find this drink so refreshing. I take about a 1/4 cup of sugar in a liter of cold water. Then add a lemon freshly squeezed and be sure it is stirred well. Some might need a bit more sugar but we like the sour edge to ours.

Tip: To get much more juice out of your lemon, smack onto the counter and roll a couple of times to soften before cutting up to squeeze. It really does help!

What are you sipping this Sunday?

Pink and purple hues.....

Bringing flowers into the home will kick start spring...

Pink tulips are delicate and pretty...

"The tulip and the butterfly,

Appear in gayer coats than I."

- Issac Watts

Blue bell-flowers cheer the dreariest of days...

"A fair bell-flower

Sprang tip from the ground;

And its early fragrance

It shed all around;

A bee came thither

And sipp'd from its bell;

That they for each other

Were made, we see well. 

- Emily Dickinson

Sunday sip.....

A well deserved break and sip this Sunday...

We love Clairette de Die. We would much prefer it to champagne. This sparkling white wine is not allowed to be called champagne as it is from the Rhone Valley region of France. It has a full and fruity flavor which Jos thought would compliment the Chinese noodles dish I was making for dinner.

On top of being the perfect match to the dish, we decided it would be nice to round off the weekend. Jos has just had a very busy few weeks at work. He has been working extremely long days. In fact, the last text message came in for him at 11:57pm on Friday night. That rounded up the proposal he was working on and now it is time for him to wait. Hopefully he will have a more relaxed time for a couple of weeks as he awaits word on the project going to the next step.

I rounded off our meal with a favorite treat...

My homemade hot fudge on vanilla ice cream topped with a scattering of peanuts. And now I am off to sit with my feet up and a cup of tea in hand while I watch a favorite show on German television about outdoor life called LandlustTV.

What are you sipping this Sunday?

It is March!

This first day of March and the start of the meteorological spring. Small changes are taking place in our home. I am washing my sheets only to make my bed up with my spring and summer quilt today. I also have put out my St. Patrick's Day decorations.

My small dough bowl in the living room has two of my shamrocks with a March pinkeep I made. I thought it was fun to keep the ones with the text 'Kiss me...I'm Irish' separate.

In the entrance way, the large dough bowl holds the other five calico shamrocks and a green faux wreath. It is definitely shamrock love in my home. *grins*

My prim display has the addition of a little wooden shamrock that my sister made for me.

Yes...spring is in the air. It is getting darker later and later and there is a feeling that the garden wants to spring forth but still sleeps. Soon...very soon.

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."

  ~ Charles Dickens