The Cranberry Chronicle

A touch of prim...

2012-02-17T03:16:00.002-08:00

It is almost weekend once again. I have been taking down my Valentine's decorations which means time to think of something else in its place. Why not go with a prim look with my own touch?

Simple and pure!

Have a great weekend! Mine will be busy with a project which I hope to share with you next week. I am looking forward to working on it but, for now, here is a sneak peek.....

Sunday sip...

2012-02-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

Last year, I did Make do and mend Mondays. This year, I wanted to come up with something different and am going to start recording my Sunday sips. Today is my 48th birthday and could not be better. We are celebrating at Cranberry Cottage by taking a walk in the woods and dinner tonight at our favorite restaurant. It even snowed so I could not ask for more. *grins*

My Sunday sip this week is Dutch hot cocoa with real whipped cream. Pure delight after a brisk walk in the woods. There is nothing like making hot cocoa and it is so simple. Just pour a cup of milk into a pan with a heaping teaspoon of cocoa per person. I use three small sugar cubes for two people. Warm while whisking until the milk is steaming but not boiled. We had leftover whipping cream from a dish I made this week so I whisked it with a little powdered sugar to top our chocolate.

"Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,

Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,

Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air

Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,

And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.

The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet

Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit

Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed

In a tumultuous privacy of storm."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enjoy your Sunday wherever you are!

Dough bowl fillers for Valentine's

2012-02-07T04:02:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is a perfect time to think about other holidays. I found some heart ornaments a couple of years ago at Christmas but use them for Valentine's Day. They make great bowl fillers.

Mixed with a large pink vintage ornament and some berries give a sweet touch for the holiday in my small dough bowl on the dining table.

For my large dough bowl, I bought a string of battery silver heart lights (again was among the Christmas articles) and left a few pinecones in my large dough bowl.

Scattered mat and shiny red heart ornaments combined with the lights and pinecones give a romantic touch for the holiday in our entrance hall.

Today is the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens. If you are a fan, stop by and read my blog entry on my book and food blog...

Bookshelves and Stove Tops.

I told them so.....

2012-02-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

In January, I kept telling everyone it was going to turn to winter come February. We have been having very low temperatures for a week but yesterday it happened!

They predicted an amount of 3 to 4 cm. It started to come more as light flurries but beggars can't be choosers and I was thrilled with even this.

The blackbirds have been here in the last few weeks getting their fill of our crab apples. The tree is almost empty and, believe me, it was flowing over with apples. I have used a number of them on my winter table and friends took some yet still there were plenty for the blackbirds to feast on. I guess all that extra body fat is helpful now.

Because it kept coming down heavier and we ended up with this...

In the end, we had 15 cm of snow. It is subzero C temperatures so that means the snow sticks and will stay for a while as the cold is set to last in the coming week. It is glistening out side. It looks like the glitter angels came by and dropped their wares along the way. *grins*

This morning was bustling in our garden as the birds came to have their breakfast. Jos went out and topped up the feeder in the back of the garden. It was busy with finches feeding so our happy couple - Mr. and Mrs. Turtledove - waited patiently in the neighbors trees next to our garden for their turn.

I do love winter!

Ground Hog Day

2012-02-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Ground Hog Day. Seeing that winter has finally arrived in Holland, I think I can save that big old rodent the trouble. It is going to be sunny and between -5 and -9C so he will see his shadow and we have 6 more weeks of winter.

I dug out my pinkeep I made back in 2007. It is fun to sit this out for a couple of day and remember good ol' Punxsutawney Phil. *grins*

Time for winter!

2012-01-05T04:03:00.000-08:00

At least that is what the calendar says. Right now, Holland feels more like November with its autumn storms. Driving rain and hurricane force winds are the start of 2012. But I am cleaning up my Christmas decorations and slowly but surely replacing them with winter decorations. My winter tree is set up and the Christmas tree gone from the living room. I will not repeat the photos of the winter tree as you can also still see it by clicking here.

I put out my quilt I called 'Winter Lace' on my table and decided to arrange my bristle brush trees. Placed on a glass cake stand with some dried Spanish moss and you have an instant winter woodland in your home.

Do you decorate after Christmas for winter? It helps chase away that cold feeling in a home when you take down all the Christmas decorations.

One job finished

2012-01-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

There are many jobs still needing finished since we moved in a year ago. One of those was to finally get drapes for our bedroom. I had hung our old living room drapes for privacy the first day we moved in. I discovered that a Roman blind I had made for our previous house worked perfectly in one of the windows with just a little work on shortening it. The Roman blind is made from taupe silk. Now I really needed to give the drapes some attention. I sewed another blind for the smaller window as I still have some of the silk fabric. I finally decided to get drapes from IKEA as I have them in the guest room and really love them. They are heavy and have a nice floral pattern. I even have them in my living room but in dark brown.

Photo after

The old drapes are a sand yellow and did not match the grey taupe walls at all but I kept putting off doing something about getting new drapes. They really looked dingy in the room also.

Photo before

I am so pleased with these warm white drapes. They freshen up the room and work very well with the Roman blinds. I have to make one more blind for the door. I should have time over the weekend to get busy with it. I have to rework a blind I had for the previous house but should just have enough to finish this project off.

Photo after

Had I bought drapes again in a regular shop, I would have been investing into the 100s. The price for this project...70 euros for two sets of drapes and time/energy invested in reworking old folding blinds. I will have to buy some wood and wood slats for the last blind yet but I am really pleased with how this fit into my budget.

Just can't help myself.....

2011-12-28T00:46:00.000-08:00

Found this today and had to share it! Make yourself a cup of your favorite warm tipple...hot cocoa or coffee or tea...as this is fun to play with for a while. Be sure to go back and play with all three hedgehogs...

Happy Wednesday ... 4th day of Christmas!

It is still Christmas!

2011-12-26T01:23:00.000-08:00

Here in Holland, it is what we call 2e Kerstdag or 2nd Christmas Day. I think it should be 2nd Christmas Day everywhere. Why is the biggest holiday of the year just one day? I like the tradition of the Victorians to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. Why not start your own tradition? Why should we only think Christmas is one day? To me it should be Christmas in our hearts everyday. The world would be a better place if it was.

This video is so precious. I am not a pop music fan at all and have never heard of this group but I found this video last year and just love it. I watch it once in a while to bring to back to the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Not only the nativity but also the girl walking along and discovering all the pieces herself. Enjoy!

Magical Christmas Day!

2011-12-25T03:18:00.000-08:00

What is it that creates the magic of Christmas Day? That answer would be different for each of us I think. It is also many elements to each of us. One part of Christmas magic is nutcrackers.

Each year, I put out my collection and the magic starts once again...

I have a collection of colorful ones and of natural ones...

Last night, I watched a production of The Nutcracker Ballet by the San Francisco Ballet on German satellite television. My mother asked me don't I ever get sick of watching it. Christmas is not Christmas if I have not seen The Nutcracker.

Wishing each of you a very Merry Christmas!

Twas the week before Christmas - Day 7

2011-12-24T10:28:00.000-08:00

Decorating simply with pinecones...

On a windowsill with pine branches, berries, lights and ornaments...

In a large glass cookie jar with lights, dried cranberries, cinnamon sticks and star anise...

On top of the hutch with greenery, holly and lights...

In a dough bowl with red ornaments and a little stitched pillow...

"I hear the wind among the trees
Playing the celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument."

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Have a peace-filled Christmas Eve!

Twas the week before Christmas - Day 6

2011-12-22T12:48:00.000-08:00

Our sweet Christmas kitty Dagi is 14 years old today!

When we got Dagi 14 years ago, the vet had the assistants come into the surgery to look at him. He said he used to see Javanese or Mandarins (half long hair Siamese) often when he had a practice in The Hague but we were the first he had ever had here. He had to help us with a problem from the start as Dagi was allergic to cat food. We have fed him on Hill's science diet only from that day on and he is doing well ever since. The vet warned up that Dagi is a breed that does not get old so we would have him for a short time.

Joy of joys! Dagi has become our little old man. He is turning white from his old age and moves slower with stiff joints than he used to. He is my companion who is constantly on my lap even when it is not convenient. He talks my ears off until I ask him to shut up and then he looks at me, meows okay and keeps on chatting. He is my quilt tester who is now also my afghan tester since I learned to crochet. In this photo, he is trying out Jos' new afghan which I am crocheting now. He is my cuddle toy while I sleep. AND he is a dear cat who I am grateful for each and every day!

Happy birthday!

Twas the week before Christmas - Day 5

2011-12-22T09:45:00.000-08:00

"Christmas is forever, not for just one day,for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put awaylike bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.The good you do for others is good you do yourself..."

~Norman Wesley Brooks

What says the magic of Christmas better than glass, silver and candlelight?

Place a cloche filled with pearl look and silver ornaments onto a glass cake stand for instant elegance.

Silver reindeer and wire tree on a tray of various mercury glass ornaments and tea light holders adorn the dining room table. By using a large tray for the arrangement, it can be easily moved when dining.

Twas the week before Christmas - Day 4

2011-12-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

"Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house."

~Henry Ward Beecher

I love to decorate with books. This is my reading corner in my living room. December is a time when I put aside all my other books and start reading or rereading some holiday or winter themed books. So far a book by Elizabeth Goudge entitled I Saw Three Ships has been a highlight for me. You can read my review on my Bookshelves and Stove Tops blog. I am now rereading The Christmas Tree by Julia Salamon and this is a story that always warms you with the true meaning behind a Christmas tree.

Do you have a favorite Christmas book? I love reading Charles Dickens or Henry Van Dyke as much as a modern novel like Twelve Days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley or The Golden Ring by John Snyder.

"When you reread a classic you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than was there before."

~Clifton Fadiman

Twas the week before Christmas - Day 3

2011-12-20T12:42:00.000-08:00

It is December and once again Christmas Village has suddenly appeared. This magical little village only comes out for people to see once a year. On Christmas eve, it comes to life...

It is just a few days until Christmas. There is great excitement in the air along with a great deal of snow. The schoolmaster cancelled school for today. With this much snow, the children would have there mind on other things rather than their numbers and letters.

Peter, Thomas and Luke are happily playing outside in the snow supervised by Mrs. Potts. In the meantime, families rush in and out of the General Store for last minute items needed for the Christmas dinner while carefully avoiding the snowball fight between Thomas and Luke.

But look! Even the raccoons are being naughty! They have gotten into the trash containers while Mrs. Dewhurst is baking the tradition Christmas cake for her husband the vicar's annual Christmas tea. This year she is trying a new recipe.

Sister Charity is overseeing the arrival of the Yule log and tree for the church. Everything must be just right. Already she has draped a garland with red bows around the church doors.

Sarah and her lamb are taking a stroll in the snow. Sarah loves the snow so much that she named her lamb Snowflake.

Christmas trees are being delivered to homes in Christmas village. Families will be very busy turning the trees into magical beauties tonight in time for the celebrations.

But for now, the villagers arrive by the village green in front of the toy shop to sing carols. Wait...how is that on top of the toy shop? Did Santa pause to hear the singing?

God rest you merry, Gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Savior
Was born upon this Day.
To save poor souls from Satan's power,
Which long time had gone astray.
Which brings tidings of comfort and joy.

A note to those of you new to my blogs...This little village was made especially for me by my mother and sister. It was made as close as possible to the village my mother made when we were children. I loved our village and later she made me one of my own. Each year, I think I love it even more and have been writing a story about Christmas Village each year which you can find from past years on my blog by searching under that name.

Twas the week before Christmas - Day 2

2011-12-19T11:43:00.000-08:00

Central to most Christmas decorating is the tree. Last year, I told you about deciding that I was not going to set up my big Victorian style tree any longer. You can read about it here. My mother had bought me a black pencil pine tree for my bobbinlace ornaments a year ago. I make a couple each year. They were not showing up well on a green tree but come out nicely on the black tree.

This tree is set up in no time. I took some white or cream, mercury glass and silver ornaments from my old tree to add to my own handmade lace ornaments. The lace stands out well and I enjoy remembering making the lace.

This pencil pine was the perfect tree for the antique tree stand I found at a flea market in Germany when on vacation a year ago.

I do miss my big tree but am glad that I have a tree that is set up in about an hour instead of two days. As I write to you, I am looking at the glowing lights in my tree this evening which make my lace really stand out and am happy with the changes this year.

I find the words of Norman Vincent Peale ring true...

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."

Twas the week before Christmas - Day 1

2011-12-18T06:01:00.001-08:00

I have been neglecting my blogs. It has been a very busy time for me with a visit from my mother for two weeks followed by my annual Christmas party for my quilt group and a day of teaching a friend how to crochet a cowl. Then I just needed some rest. But now I am going to do a daily blog post leading up to Christmas. This the first post as Christmas is only one week away. How did that happen? 2011 has flown by for me...anyone else?

This is a make do project as I use what I already have in my Christmas decorations to make my mirror festive. This can also be done to a picture in your home as well as a mirror.

I used faux green, berries, ribbon and cord, pinecones, a brass horn and Merry Christmas paper ribbon.

Attach the faux green to the top of the mirror. Be sure it is very secure as it will mean the arrangement stays securely on the mirror top later as it is decorated. I wound a piece of the green to the hook behind the mirror.

Start with your center piece. Add a bow and attach to the green. You can use many items you have among your Christmas decorations.

Wrap wire around the pinecones and then wrap around the berries. Stick into the green wrapping a green branch around the berries. Try and keep your piece balanced to be sure your mirror stays straight. Now wind cord among the branches while allowing it to drape on the sides. You could also use a wide ribbon for this. Last, place a greeting like my paper ribbon resting it into the faux green.

This takes only moments to put together and creates an instant festive look.

See you again tomorrow for the 2nd day.....

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-11-21T00:44:00.000-08:00

I think it will be fun to use some of the Make do and Mend Mondays for holiday themed projects until the end of the year. I am feeling inspired to go through my holiday items and pass on the things I no longer want or use while making the most of what I do want. I also feel a need to go with a more simple and natural theme for my decorating. It started with my autumn decorations this year which I pared down and made some friends happy with items I am not using. To me, part of making do is looking at my home and rooting out what is just cluttering things and what I really love.

I decided it would be fun to create a winter table outside on the terrace. This terrace is seen from our sitting area of the living room and I want to enjoy the outdoors from my windows. First, I cut a piece of black plastic to cover the area of the table I wanted to decorate. This makes for easy clean up later on when I want to take the display apart.

I took cuttings from the holly we have all over our garden at Cranberry Cottage and gathered some pinecones we use for fire starters in our woodstove. Pruning holly normally takes place in January for us. You are able to cut the branches back by one third to encourage more fullness in the holly tree so it is good for the tree as well as giving me decorative greens for the season. I simply did part of my pruning early. Any green you have available will do.

Gather items you have and begin with the tallest item. For me, this was a black lantern. I placed it on two bricks allowing me to open and shut the lantern without moving any holly. Now add your items around the table in a pleasing way thinking of a triangle as you work. Lower items should be placed towards the front and/or edges. If you need height for an item, place it on an inverted clay flower pot as I did with my iron pinecone which you can see in the photo below.

Begin with your longest pieces of holly, going all around the table to create the body of the display. Now tuck in small pieces of the holly where needed to give it fullness.

I gathered moss which is all too plentiful in our garden at the cottage. This is tucked in here and there to give a new texture. Spread out the pinecones around the table. Crabapples are in abundance now from the tree at the back of our garden and these are added to bring in color. I tucked in my gourds here and there.

All the bits and pieces are items I already had which make a pleasing display when put together on a winter table. Be sure to add candles. I added a candle in a lower spot safely but placing it in a bowl shaped pot. There is no danger of fire this way and yet I have more balanced candle light.

When Christmas is closer, I will tuck in an ornament here and there to give my winter table a true holiday theme.

With our long and cold evenings, this winter table cheers even the darkest of evening. Look around for things you have and see what greens you can use from your garden. Or perhaps ask a friend or neighbor if you can clip a little of their greens if you have none. Pretty seasonal decorating does not have to cost the earth. It only needs some time and imagination. I hope I have inspired you to give it a try.

Happiness is.....

2011-11-17T23:57:00.001-08:00

...a warm and cozy knitted patchwork afghan!

My grandma knitted me this patchwork afghan. My mommy thinks it is hers and I humor her by allowing her to think so but it is really mine as you can see. It is cold here in Holland and I love spending my evenings on the couch wrapped up in my afghan taking a catnap.

Keep warm wherever you are!

Kitty paws and kisses,

Dagi

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-11-14T03:07:00.001-08:00

After another weekend of hard graft, we have the pergola project completed. Here is the result...

To get to this, we had to first remove the straight but very wonky brick path. I surprised Jos having removed it myself while he was off to buy the gravel chips for the path. Lifting the bricks with a spade was easy but carrying them away to stack them was not. I was so happy to be able to do that so at least it was one less thing for Jos to do.

He started by planting up the area at the end of the previously straight path. We placed some Japanese anemones and a few creeping plants such as Golden Cinquefoil in this area.

Then Jos laid out concrete bands to line the path. He also reinforced the terrace egde onto the path by laying bricks lenghtwise into the ground. After the ground was leveled and stamped down, we laid a anti-weed membrane down first. I cut it to fit and we placed some bricks down to keep it in place as we started to fill the path with the gravel chips. We choose basalt chips which turn black when they are damp. They color perfectly with the slate siding of our house.

I had pulled up some bricks to change the shape of the garden. It needed some attention to bring it back to a neat sharp line.

It looks like it was always in this shape now. Thank you Jos for all that hard work to make an idea I had a reality!

All the hard work has been worth it as it just looks so right in the garden now. While I still have a few more ideas, it is all starting to come together. Come next spring, I hope to see all the planting start to really bring a nice romantic atmosphere to our cottage style garden.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-11-07T04:11:00.000-08:00

This project is not really making do or mending unless you consider we are making do with a minimum budget for renovating our garden both front and back. So another garden project which has been started over this past weekend has saved us big time money once again already...

Making our garden a special place is really important to Jos and I. He turns the things I imagine into reality even though he says he is not handy. I am really proud of his latest project...a pergola. We had made some changes to the back garden but it was still not working for us. We felt the garden lacked depth and mystery. We had stopped at a shop in the north of Holland to see about buying a couple more wrought iron rose arbors to give us some depth. We left without the money spent on the rose arbors and armed with inspiration instead after walking around in the garden of this shop. We created this instead...

The wooden pergola goes straight back to the second terrace then curves off at the last section. Once the pergola is full of climbing plants, it will lead your eye back but pull you in to walk there since you will not be able to see everything at once creating the sense of mystery. Right now, you have to use your imagination that it is covered in clematis, wisteria, climbing roses and Virginia creeper. They are all there as we took these plants from other areas and placed them against the pergola to start working some magic next spring (fingers crossed).

The bricked path is coming up next. We will change the path to curve off with the pergola and it will be a gravel pathway to add more interest. We also have section of planting that has to be dug up and replanted elsewhere now. The new line also allows us the tunneled walkway without getting in the way of the Robinia Umbraclifera or 'mop-head' Acacia tree. In planting up the section beside the tree rather than having a straight path, it will create a more secluded feel to the back terrace. I am excited to get on with a little more of the planting and the path but that will have to wait as Jos has a busy period again at work and may have to go away for a week.

This pergola was a real bargain to put together. We recycled one piece of old wood and bought the rest which came to about 88 euros. It would have cost us in the hundreds to have a gardener do the same job.

And that rose arbor? It is moving to a new area of the garden to create a more intimate sitting area. But that is a project I will share with you another day. In the meantime, the birds are enjoying the high perches from the arbor and pergolas in the garden. It is a busy place today while they come to feed which gives me a pleasant view onto my garden.

Welcome November to my home!

2011-11-03T09:06:00.001-07:00

October flew by like a leaf falling from a tree. November is here and we are enjoying the last leaves before they are all gone while also looking forward to the winter season. It brings up feelings of cocooning in house with a warm quilt and cup of hot cocoa. Quilts are important in my home along with afghans. I love having them in most of the rooms to decorate with as well as use. You will find me most evenings wrapped up with a quilt on the couch.

Our bedroom has a couple of quilts including this one hanging on a rack. I placed it with some red accents to the front for autumn and then added a dough trough filled with leaves, toadstools and acorns. It is nice to get out old items once again. I made the bobbinlace toadstool picture years ago but still enjoy seeing it again each autumn.

What do you use in your home for comfort?

"Where we love is home,

Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-10-31T06:04:00.001-07:00

This week's Make do and Mend project is Jos' work. He had bought a gate for my garden in our previous house. You can read about that garden and what inspired it here and here.

The garden gate came with us to our new house. It has taken a year but Jos has finally put the gate in. We talked to a gardener about having him put it in but the price would be astronomical to do so. I convinced Jos that he can do more than he thinks and this among them. *grins*

He bought some pressed wood boards and had them sawed to size. He then measured and dug the size we need for the concrete posts to be made. The concrete was mixed and placed directly into the hole using the pressed wood to create the square post and the long bolts inserted into place. A couple of days allowed for the concrete to set and we had our base. The posts of the gate were screwed in place.

Gate love is a wonderful thing. *wink*

Jos wants to try and create an arch of beech now to the gated area. We have a beech hedge already and had added the extra beech on the right of the gate which you can see in the photo. It is much smaller than the established hedge but time will make up for that. We will need to find to tall beech trees with a strong central stem. These will be planted just beside each gate post and eventually connected as an arch over the gate. November is the month to plant beech so we are going to start searching for two of them at garden nurseries.

Before I go on this last Monday of October (where did this month go to so quickly?), I want to wish you all a very Happy Halloween by sharing my Halloween tree...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmastime.....

2011-10-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

.....everywhere you go.

Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again.

With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.....

Well, not everywhere but it is in the little village of Diever in Holland. This village is such a lovely place but made even lovelier when Lejo and Christy took over the shop called 'In de Lindentuin'. It was my first time to visit this shop as we always visited their shop in Havelte. Lejo was working on setting up for their Christmas open house tomorrow morning. I asked the lady in the shop if she would tell him hello from me and she told me to just go through. He is doing an amazing job in this beautiful room and it is going to be a real treat! He will be making soup in the little kitchen area to serve while people shop. I am so glad that I was at least able to get a sneak peek and told him that if he stopped now with what he has done it will be perfect as he is working so hard to get it ready in time.

Come have a look...

But we really have to have a closer look so come around the corner and into the shop...

This is a corner of the Christmas room which will be revealed tomorrow morning at 11am. If you are Dutch and able to get here tomorrow, it is well worth the visit!

I am not connected to the shop other than being a customer who enjoys the wonderful way that Lejo en Christy set up their shop. I think they have a wonderful eye for setting things up. If you cannot go there, you can always look at their webshop which does mail orders. Lejo also keeps a blog for the shops.

Just in case you are wondering, I am still loving my pumpkins and autumn but this little glimpse of Christmas has me itching to start the season in my own home. *sigh* We have been out today enjoying all the pretty fall colors. This poncho on my handwork blog kept me warm. After having been sick last week and unable to get out, it was such a pleasant day. In fact, I have to go now and peel my roasted chestnuts for dinner. If you are interested in roasting your own, stop over at my other blog to see how to do it.

For the love of pumpkins!

2011-10-27T01:29:00.000-07:00

I love autumn! I love pumpkins! I love to look at them and to eat things made with them. Pumpkins make me smile inside...

If you read my blog regularly, you know I have a tray that I use as a stove top cover. I would love to have one like this but have decided that I will have to try making one if I am going to get one. And that works with my Make do philosophy this year. Don't tell Jos but he is going to help me make one. *wink*

In the meantime, I decorated my tray with things of the season. A pumpkins placed in a tipped over clay flower pot, some silk autumn leaves, a piece of lace, an iron acorn napkin ring and some berries. I even added a pumpkin Trick or Treat magnet this week for Halloween.

I have pumpkins on quilts I have made...

On stitching I have done...

In the garden...

This year, I had a pumpkin vine in my garden. We had a cloudy and rainy summer so each time a blossom was on the vine, it rotted away. I was sure I would not have any pumpkins until Jos came in and called me out to the garden. He found one little pumpkin peeking out behind our bench. It is small but I cut it off the vine and it sits now with its big brother which I bought at a pumpkin farm.

Yes, pumpkins made me smile inside!

Note to Vicki - Thank you so much for your comment on this previous post. I am not able to email you in return but hope that you will see this on my blog. You are correct that I have diagnosed with an eye disease. I am feeling very hopeful that the disease will not progress to much farther while it is in the active stages. I am not done using my eyes yet. *grins* Thank you for your words of encouragement.

Just a happy moment...

2011-10-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

I grew up watching The Little Rascals (yes I might be dating myself...grins) and they are so much fun to still watch. Here is a happy moment on this Friday afternoon...

Enjoy!

Red toadstools...amanita muscaria

2011-10-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Every year, we drive along the Compagnonsfeart in Friesland to see the red toadstools (amanita muscaria) growing along the tree lined banks of this canal. There were surprisingly few this year but still a couple to enjoy. There is something magical about these red toadstools with their white spots. It could make anyone believe in gnomes or elves. *grins*

The Elf and the Dormouse
by Oliver Herford, pub. 1919

NDER a toadstool crept a wee Elf,

Out of the rain to shelter himself.

Under the toadstool, sound asleep,

Sat a big Dormouse all in a heap.

Trembled the wee Elf, frightened and yet

Fearing to fly away lest he get wet.

To the next shelter--maybe a mile!

Sudden the wee Elf smiled a wee smile.

Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.

Holding it over him, gaily he flew.

Soon he was safe home, dry as could be.

Soon woke the Dormouse--"Good gracious me!

"Where is my toadstool?" loud he lamented.

--And that's how umbrellas first were invented.

Do you believe???

Today was exactly 7 years ago that we got our keys to Cranberry Cottage. We have been here for the week and it is almost time to go back to the city. Neither Jos or I want to leave. *sigh*

Will you go for a walk with me?

2011-10-11T02:32:00.000-07:00

We are off to the nature reserve of Fochtelooerveen. This is an area of wetland bog called 'veen' which was cut into blocks for turf or peat. This kind of heat source is no longer used in Holland and these areas are now protected.

The path starts out paved as this section is also a bike path. Be sure to listen for bicycles coming...

The woods are open here with many birch, beech and oak growing. Here and there, you can see some fungi growing on downed branches.

Elderberry are full of berries which is a feast for the birds.

Coming out of the open wooded area, we have to cross a bridge to go further into the woods.

We have to enter the dense woods which is like going into a troll's woods dark and spooky. Looking ahead you see light at the end of the path.

This area is rich is various kinds of toadstools some of which are huge. They are thriving in the dark and damp conditions.

One section of the dark woods had been chopped down and a little section of light creates an eerie path across the old tree roots which are covered over in moss.

At last, we arrive at the lookout tower which is a 15 meter (50 foot) construction of wood and steel. It is a steep climb but the outlook will be worth the effort.

Don't worry about the swaying feeling in the wind, it is safe.

We are as high as the tree tops.

And this is our reward, views out across the area...bog as far as you can see.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-10-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

This week it is a make do project in every sense of the word...

Last week was my monthly quilt group evening. I showed them this fun idea which costs nothing but is fun to do. I saw it on eHow. The fun thing is you have all the items in your house and after autumn, just take it apart and there is nothing extra to store away. Fabric toilet paper pumpkins!

Take a roll of toilet paper, a fat quarter of fabric and a scrap of fabric. You could use a handkerchief for this even as long as it is large enough to wrap over the roll.

Place the toilet roll in the middle of the fabric and start to stuff the fabric into the roll...

Continue until the toilet roll is completely covered...

Roll a scrap of fabric tightly, tucking in the rough ends...

Insert the roll of fabric into the opening, adding a real or artificial leaf, berries or acorns if desired (see the orange pumpkin above)...

Use fabrics that you like for autumn. How says a pumpkin cannot be pink? *grins* Whatever you like. White pumpkins are all the range so why not try white? I am an autumn girl myself and used green and orange. This is also great fun to do with kids or grandkids.

Have fun!

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-10-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

Mondays are fun days when you see things happening around the home. Jobs getting done and things being spruced up...

I have mentioned how I loved watching Kirstie's Homemade Home. She advocates looking for second hand furniture instead of buying new. Her reasons are that it is cheaper, often better quality if it is old and good for the environment. Yes to all points but I think for me that most fun about buying vintage or antique items is that you have something unique.

I went to a place with a friend of mine that sells vintage and unique Belgian and French garden accessories during the summer. The woman imports the items herself and then sells them from her own garden. I bought a couple of fun items. One of them was a set of wrought iron garden wall sconces. They sat while Jos was too busy at work waiting to be hung. They are incredibly heavy. They would have been hung already but Jos did not feel his hooks were strong enough and he had to buy bigger ones. But now they are hung and I have placed two pumpkins on them to celebrate autumn.

And now I would like to hear your opinion about something I was considering. I do like the rusted look of these but I am thinking of maybe painting them black. What do you think? We moved my black wall ornament over and exchanged it for the garden mirror. Should I leave it all as is? Should I paint the sconces black? Should I move the wall ornament around the corner to the front of the house?

I added a photo that shows the true colors of the items and the brick wall. I hope you tell me what you would do? I love black items but is it too much black?

To update my challenge to finish UFOs in my quilt studio...I am now close to finishing the hand quilting on a doll's quilt that I made the patchwork top for and then left for later. I am really enjoying the quilting and glad the challenge has made me pick it back up again.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-09-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

A day late and a dollar short but here I am with my project for this week. Sorry for the delay. It took me longer to get this project done that I had anticipated...

I am a member of a Yahoo homekeeping list. This is a close knit group of very inspiring ladies. Lately, Susan and I talked about having too many craft projects going. We talked about needing to clear up some of what we are doing instead of being constantly inspired to start more new things. In this computer age, that is not easy. There are so many wonderful things you see out there on the web! And so many inspiring people...

I have set myself a challenge to clear out as many of the UFOs (UnFinishedObjects) sitting in my quilt studio by the end of 2011. I am not considering anything but the ones that are in the studio. There are 10 times

as much yet upstairs. *gulp* I want to just have an organized studio for now where I can bring down one of two UFOs next year to work on. This week, I completed the first UFO.

I had started a new quilt project at the beginning of the year with the Civil War block of the week from Barbara Brackman. I was not happy with them at all. Not the blocks themselves but I found them so big at 8 inches when I have been making tiny quilt blocks lately. Do you find that you throw something off into a corner when you are not happy with it? I do. So they sat and sat with my only have completed 9 blocks total of the 52. When I was looking for my first UFO goal, I decided I do love the purple fabrics just not making a large quilt with these. So what to do with them to use them in a different way?

I used to redo bags my husband would get at all his computer fairs he used attend. With the bad world economy, there are no more bags or fairs. I have made many gifts for others using these "prettied up" bags but do not have one for myself. I realized that the dark patchwork blocks would look great on this linen oil cloth bag which I use regularly to take handwork up to Cranberry Cottage. It was a free gift with an outdoor life magazine here in Holland and the size is perfect to carry even a quilt in it.

I sewed four of the blocks together two and two so that I could turn then into small quilts. I hand quilted the blog which you can see if you enlarge the photos. I then just had to sew the two quilts on to the front and back of the bag.

Machine sewing them on turned out to be impossible. This is a bag with an oil cloth interior. It is stiff and I was unable to fold or move it around. I had to rip out the two sides I could sew on and decided that the only way forward was to hand sew these on. It was difficult and took more strength than normal but I got them sewn in place and I am really happy with the results. A handy and practical bag is now also a pretty bag!

Welcome autumn!

2011-09-22T06:19:00.001-07:00

Ah, sweet autumn! Welcome autumn! This is a season that I love and that is summed up in these words by George Eliot...

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth

seeking the successive autumns."

Yesterday, I decided to start my autumn decorating. I am adding touches of the rich colors of the seasons in my house. Where better to start than the front door. I found this wreath again when I crawled up into the attic and added some more accents to it to welcome not only the season but visitors to my home.....

While at the cottage last week, we stopped by a farm that was selling pumpkins and ghords. I decided to buy more subdued green and white ones for my garden table. Placing a pumpkin on top of a candlestick always add a dramatic effect.....

I also could not resist adding heather to an iron vase in our little coffee corner of the garden. I do so love heather.....

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-09-19T08:47:00.001-07:00

A week at Cranberry Cottage was wonderful! Autumn was in the air. A chill in the air meaning wrapping up in sweaters or ponchos. But now it is time to get back to business...make do and mend business...

I had two jeans decorative pillows from my old IKEA sleeping chairs which were just laying around waiting to be made over. The demin is okay but does not match my living room at all. IKEA also sells real linen fabric for good prices so I grabbed the pillow, fabric and my tape measure to get started.

Now before I go further, I must tell you that I am a huge Kirstie Allsopp fan! She has done three seasons of her new show Kirstie's Homemade Home and I have watched and rewatched them. When her book came out, I had it on order. She has another book coming out in October which I also have on preorder called Kirstie Allsopp Crafts. This envelope cushion cover is from her book. I am sharing my own photo tutorial of it with a slight change. I used it in a different direction from hers and on a rectangle pillow.

Measure your pillow size. You will need 2-1/2 times the width of a rectangle pillow and the actual measurement plus 5 cm or 2 inches in the height. My pillow needed 35cm cut in the width of the fabric.

Then cut the piece to your 2-1/2 times width which was 122.5 cm for my pillow.

Place fabric wrong side up and fold over 2.5cm or 1 inch of fabric. I finger pressed this fabric to keep a crisp edge.

Now fold the fabric again to create a double hem. Finger press and pin along the hem.

Sew a running stitch along the edge of the hem.

With both sides hemmed, place the fabric right sides up on a table. Lay your pillow into the fabric placing the folds for the envelope in your desired position. I wanted mine to fall on the edge so I placed the folds along the side.

Mark with a small fold where edges are and remove the pillow.

Pin the sides and sew 2.5 cm or 1 inch from the outer edges.

Trim the edge to 1.5 cm or 1/2 inch and then zig zag the edges to keep them from raveling.

Turn the cover right side out. There is no need to trim the corners in this design. The second section of the envelope will show on the wrong side but simply turn this piece over closing the cushion cover.

Iron the cover and insert your pillow.

You can add a button or two simply for decoration. To be able to remove the pillow and wash the cover, be sure to only sew the button onto the outer lip of the envelope.

This cover is so simple to sew and yet looks great. Use a neutral fabric so you can add embellishments.

My pillows are being used plain now but I will share a fun way to embellish for any season in another Make do and Mend Monday post.

If you have some old pillows that are shabby or not the right color, try this simple envelope cover for them.

Taking some time.....

2011-09-10T01:48:00.001-07:00

...just to relax! I will be taking a blogger's break this coming week. There has been so much going on here that Jos is taking a week for us just to do some things here in Holland that we have been wanting to do. We also have a new heater being installed up at Cranberry Cottage and have to be there when they come to put it in. We want to visit a museum or two and just enjoy some relaxation between doing odd jobs around the house.

May I introduce you to my sweet little namesake. This is my great niece Abigail Lynn. Her mother was also named after me so this is #3 Lynn. She is almost 2-1/2 months old but already holding herself up in a sitting position.

I am going to spend my weekend enjoying the beginning of autumn. It is my favorite season and I want to soak up every moment of it! Have a great weekend wherever you are.....

Celebrate!

2011-09-06T12:32:00.001-07:00

I am sitting here this evening just full to the brim with celebrations. Today is my 25th anniversary of immigrating to Holland. It does not seem possible that 25 years have passed in the blink of an eye. You can read a little more about my becoming Dutch here.

Jos picked up typical Dutch 'gebak' (pasteries) for with our coffee tonight. He also bought a little bag of Leonidas chocolates which he teasingly gave me. For us both, Leonidas are our favorite dark chocolates. But they also remind us of a funny thing I did within a month of moving over to Europe.

We lived for a couple of months when I first arrived in the city of Brussels, Belgium. I used to write diary like letters home to my parents about everything that I was experiencing. One of the things I found humorous was my daily grocery shopping at a tiny Nopri just two streets from our little rented studio apartment. It was so small that it felt like a clothes closet. And the woman would come in dressed in very expensive clothes with their poodles to shop. The poodles would spy each other and the yapping was deafening.

I had decided one day that I would wander down into the city to a large grocery store for my ingredients for dinner. I had been trying to pay attention to how we walked there in the evenings so I could find it on my own. After walking in circles for 1-1/2 hours, I finally dared ask a Belgian man if he could tell me where it was. I had been circling around it all that time. *sigh* I was very young and very leery about approaching people so it was not easy to ask right away. Needless to say, I would no longer do that!

I did know that if I left the large grocery store from a certain side that I was right across from a Leonidas stand. I wanted to bring Jos home a box of the same chocolates he bought for me when he picked me up at the airport. We had a favorite one in the box so I asked the woman for a kilo of that particular one. She turned away and was busy packing a box that only when she turned and politely informed me that she could not fit a kilo (approximately 2-1/4 lbs.) in a VERY large box and could she place the remaining chocolates in a separate box did I realize that a kilo was a LOT of chocolates. I was so embarrassed about this that I said it was fine, paid and quickly made my way back to our apartment.

Jos got home and I told him about my adventure. We had dinner and I brought out the boxes of chocolates. He asked why I bought so much and I told him the story. We still laugh about it today.

And guess what? I never underestimated what a kilo is again! *wink*

Jos was unable to buy our particular favorite kind of chocolate as they do not sell them here in Holland at Leonidas but he bought some since he thought that was appropriate to celebrate my 25th anniversary of becoming Dutch.

Note: The stitched piece is a gift from a dear friend (thanks again Saskia!) and you can read about by clicking the link at the beginning of this post.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-09-05T13:44:00.001-07:00

This make do has been too long in the making but after three weeks, I can finally show you what I was working on...

I have a miniature armoire which was cute in its shape but a drab finish. I had been wanting to refinish it for ages. Finally, I took it outside and we started sanding it...

Finally able to gather my smallest doll quilts I have made over the years which fit perfectly in this little cupboard...

I used my leftover paint from our living room walls which is an extra matt emulsion. After painting it, I distressed the edges and applied a coat of antique furniture wax.

Now this piece of tiny furniture has a new lease on life. I think Becky the doll is pleased but she needs a few more red and brown doll quilts don't you think?

Have you any items sitting about the house that need a makeover?

Edit: The cupboard is 16 inches high and 8 inches wide.

Falling into autumn.....

2011-09-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

It is September 1st and I am totally thinking autumn! Well, I have been for a while since our weather has been fall like since the end of June more of less. Not that I mind since summer is my least favorite season due to the heat. I love the gardening part if the temperatures would simply stay on or under 20C (68F). *grins*

This weekend Jos took me to a pumpkin farm to pick out just a couple for now. I will buy more in a couple of weeks but was desperate to get a few touches of autumn around our home. This weekend, I will be searching for my box of decorations and pulling out my autumn quilts.

Click photos to enlarge...

Come visit my house...

Our driveway has a gate across the end by the house. It is not quite large enough for my car so we keep part of the gate closed and created a little sitting area there. Jos' oleander bloomed really well this year but I think the leaves look tired and it is time to refresh the soil. Note to self to do that this weekend...

Now my dahlia has pride of place. I bought these late in the season so popped them into a pot. They were marked down to 50 cents for package of bulbs. They look like fireworks, don't they? Nice that they have an autumn hue to their color.

Now walk up to my front door and ring the bell. It is chilly in Holland so I will make us a cup of hot Dutch cocoa. Would you like whipped cream on yours? No calories...I promise. *wink*

I redid my planter by the front door with one of the pumpkins I bought surrounded by heather. Heather is a must for me at the start of the season! The candle in my lantern is now orange to celebrate the coming season. I will be creating an autumn leaf arrangement in my hanging basket so have lots of fun planned for the weekend...

Today, my online book club started a new challenge. We are reading 10 books that we have on our bookshelves. Not such a challenge you say? We are now allowed to buy any new books until we finish these books though but with the chill in the air, curling up with a good book under a quilt is just the thing!

Tasha Tudor Day

2011-08-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Tasha Tudor Day! This is the day we stand still to remember a remarkable woman who influenced so many while living but still does so their her legacy after passing 4 years ago.

My collection of Tasha books are a reflection of her lifestyle of simplicity. She reminds me to stay close to the seasons and celebrate what they bring.

I find it somehow fitting that she was born on this day back in 1915. She was born in a time when two seasons begin to merge. Summer's bounty is giving over to autumn's richness and harvest. This weekend I bought a little pumpkin to turn into a delicious soup while I also bought a bouquet of sunflowers which remind us of the sunshine of summer.

I am joining the Tasha Tudor Day celebrations with Clarice over at StorybookWoods. She posted a beautiful entry about Tasha glam which prompted me to think about many items of clothing I wear that are also Tasha glam inspired. Last summer, I learned to crochet and one of the items I made were a pair of wristies. To me, they are pure Tasha!

I hope you will look into Tasha Tudor today if you are not familiar with her works. She was a beautiful artist as well as an inspiration in living a gently and simple lifestyle staying close to each seasons own gifts.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-08-22T08:29:00.001-07:00

Oops! I messed up with a "play date" afternoon with a friend. She was here on my doorstep today and I did not know she was coming. I have to put my make do project off until tomorrow. It was half done yesterday but needs more work. I promise to show a fun project later on this week.

What about you? Have you done any make do's for Monday?

Visitors!

2011-08-17T01:43:00.000-07:00

Some visitors are welcome to a home...

Like this toad! We have so many toads in our back garden including lots of sweet little baby ones. When we are out doing work in the garden, we suddenly see them jump from a plant. We also have a frog which hangs around in the front garden since it seems to like to use the large drinking bowl for the birds.

And hedgehogs are always welcome! What is it about seeing a hedgehog in the evenings that does something magical. This Mrs. Tiggywinkle was not so pleased that we followed her with my camera to take a photo though.

But this visitor was very, very unwelcome!!! This past weekend, I had just brushed my teeth and went to get into bed early to read. I was greeted by this big spider smiling down over the headboard at me. I screamed for Jos to come get it. It was huge (about 4 inches width) and I just could not get into bed after Jos sucked him up in the sweeper. I said I wanted to go upstairs and sleep in the guest room but Jos said his girlfriend was probably up there. Men are no help! So I came back out in the living room and picked up my crocheting to get my mind off it. An hour later, I feel asleep staring above the headboard hoping that this spider had no family members on the look out for him.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-08-15T10:29:00.001-07:00

This Monday is a smorgasbord of items for my Make do and Mend...

By our front door, we have a tiny little recess in the brickwork. It has been hard to find anything we could put in this after as most things are too large. One day, I was looking out at the items we either need to start using or sell on to others. It finally struck me that this candle holder might just work in the space. I had accidentally broke the glass that belonged with it when I was trying to pry a melted candle out of the thin glass tube. I knew I could never find another glass tube but thought I could use a flower pot in the ring holder. As I started looking for a flower pot, I realized that I had this vase (a gift from a friend and very thick glass) that looked narrow enough to work in the ring. It was a perfect fit and I could make do with things I already had. Look around your house as you probably have more than you think...

Jos has been on spray can duty for me once again. If I start to do anything with spray paint he comes and takes over. *grins* We have an ugly house number at Cranberry Cottage. It is metal and was looking rather worse for wear. I thought why not spray paint it in black. As it is cemented to the bricks, we placed newspaper over the brick and got started...

A primer coat and two coats of black later, it looks so much better. These are not great photos so my apologies. My camera battery was dead and I did not have my charger with me so Jos took them with his phone.

This project was an inspiration from a good friend's Make do post. Tammy had a hook that was a color that stood out too much on her front door. As soon as I saw her post, I knew I had to take it as inspiration. I have a metal hanger for wreaths/baskets for my front door. My door is black so this really stands out!

Two coats of black spray paint and you see the hook no more...

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-08-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have been missing in action with my Make do and Mend Mondays. Even though it is Friday, I wanted to share one this week. My friend Tammy posted a Make do project using an empty wipes container to hold plastic bags. I told her about one I made out of fabric from my stash. It is a perfect project to make do with.

I had created a photo tutorial to these on my handwork blog at the time. Since people email me that they still look at this old blog, I did not delete it. You can go to this link and make a plastic bag holder for yourself. I know they are for sale everywhere but it is fun and easy to make plus making it to match your own room.

Among the honeysuckles.....

2011-08-05T02:35:00.000-07:00

...is where you will find me. At Cranberry Cottage, our living fence is bursting with green, flowers and berries this year. We are now completely surrounded in green as we sit in the garden. We look out to the woods on one side...

We also have a fully grown living fence now against the drive of the next cottage. We planted up a number of honeysuckle vines when we put in the fence as this is a natural plant in wooded gardens. They are just bursting with blossom even decorating our wood shed with their beauty...

In the language of flowers, honeysuckle is a symbol of devoted love and sweetness of disposition. It was considered a bond of love when a Victorian gentleman included it in a bouquet of flowers given to a lady. But the folklore I think I love the most is that it is said to protect a garden from evil and induce dreams of love. How sweet is that (pun intended)?

Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted Jane Morris holding a honeysuckle vine in his painting The Day Dream.

"...how sweetly smells the honeysuckle in the hush'd night..."

~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Enjoy your weekend!

Dahlia, dear dahlia

2011-07-29T05:48:00.001-07:00

Dahlia, dear dahlia, with colors so bright,

You brighten my garden with all your delight.

There you are strong standing tall on your stem,

Among the other flowers, you are the gem.

Yellow, peach, white, pink and red,

Your colors enrich the garden bed.

As your flowers fade and petals scatter on the ground,

I lock your memory away in my heart to be found.

- Heidi Kuijer

From the Victorian language of flowers, a dahlia means elegance and dignity. I am thrilled that the dahlias I planted both in my front and back garden are flourishing almost to the point where I think the other flowers would accuse them of showing off. They make me smile each morning when I open the bedroom curtains and brighten my day as I look out from my living room window. I do love dahlias!

Have a wonderful weekend my blogging friends!

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-07-25T10:04:00.001-07:00

Another garden make do...

It is no weather for the garden here in Holland. It has been more autumn than summer with rain, high winds and cool temperatures. Our plants are suffering from it too. Still, I have another garden project to share which we made do with.

There was a well established grape vine in a strange place when we started changing the garden. Jos did not want to move it as he thinks it would not survive. The round poles it was supposed to be supported by were something he hated and were rotting for the most part. Two were still in tact which we used in my last make do post.

He first cut back the bamboo which hedges our garden from the neighbors. It has been left to grow on its own will taking over about 2 yards into the garden. Then the inner section was totally dead and simply rotting. The smell was awful. Jos cleaned it all up right back to the border of the two gardens. We are now adding some yew which we hope will give us a nicer green border on our side.

All this work left the grape standing looking quite forlorn. So I came up the idea of creating a pergola for the grape to grow against while also creating a secret area to sit. We went through what wood we still had left from our previous house. We needed to buy only three 3 meter long posts and used all the old wood and arches we had.

You see this view from the living room. I love the old cross which we found at a flea market. Jos mounted in a concrete block for me. There is also an old bell, which I had already and you can see in the first photo, hanging on the opposite corner of the pergola.

There is still a round post which we will remove in the winter season but the grape will eventually be lead up the new pergola and against the metal raster we attached. There are many grapes bunches growing which will be a feast for the birds in the autumn.

When you come around the center of the garden, you find a little area where you can sit in the sunshine (when it shines that is). Don't forget to grab a couple of pillows on your way out which are sitting in an large apple basket by the door...

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-07-11T07:30:00.001-07:00

A week flies by when you are busy and we have been busy. We stayed at home this weekend instead of going to the cottage as we had another garden project to finish.

Our philosophy is to spend as little as possible and still create a nice garden so recycling items is a big part of that. Last weekend, we went to a monthly flea market held in Friesland. We found a couple of treasures to bring home with us. One was an old iron barn window frame. The man was asking 35 euros for it but Jos was able to get is for only 17,50 euros. Bargaining is a major sport for Jos.

We have been doing a number of projects in the garden and while ripping up one area, we removed a row of round posts. Most of them were rotted but two were still good. We had saved these and now put them to good use. Jos mounted the iron frame (boy is it ever heavy!) to these posts but it was not quite right.

I rummaged through the pieces of oak floorboards that were put outside by the man who laid our floors. These have been sitting outside since October so well weathered which was just right for what I had in mind. We cut up the pieces we had and created what looks like a piece of wall left from an old shed.

This is the results.....a ruin of a folly.....

We hung our old rusted thermometer on the wall, planted a star jasmine at the foot of the window frame and it still needed something. I was sitting on the terrace close to the house and suddenly thought what was needed. There was a dark spot under the trees and it needed something light to grab your eye and make you want to walk to the back of the garden.....

So we moved Jos' statue there. He loves that statue so I call it his. *grins* He had to play around with what to use as a base to make sure she was visible from both terraces. Now Mother Nature has to do her part. Around the ground where we placed both the wall and the statue is bare. Eventually ivy and other ground cover will start to grow up the wall which will make it looks as though a shed had been there many years ago.

This make do project cost us only the 17,50 euros for the frame and hard work. All the wood and poles we already had.

Our garden is finally starting to feel like our own. We have to catch up with 16 years of no work being done. That means rock solid earth and much weeding. It is starting to come together. I am adding things in nooks and crannies to create a secret cottage garden feel to it. I already dubbed it Granny's garden but I will tell you that story in another blog post.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-07-04T00:52:00.001-07:00

I was so enthusiastic about the candlesticks being painted that I got out my paint once again for my Make do and mend project. First, I was asked by a couple of people about the paint. I purchased the primer and matt black paint from a shop here called Action which sells it in spray cans for less than 2 euros. I would use spray paint for any brass items. Check the label to see if it works on metal.

Another thing I have from our old house that do not work here any longer are these flower pots. They are a yellow sand color which clashes with the colors we are now using. I do love the rough look of these pots so have kept them. If you enlarge the photos I think you will be able to see the texture on the flower pots. I took the leftover paint from our darker wall in the living room to paint them. Since these are indoor pots, this emulsion will work. Brushing it on did take two coats simply because of the texture and all of 5 minutes total to give me.......

...two flower pots that now work perfectly in our living room! This is actually a dark color but they come out lighter on the photos. I really love them now. The dark cocoa grey color really makes the hot pink flowers of the Kalanchoë Calandiva "zing".

What about you? Do you have things that you could put a paint brush to in order to give it new life?

Cherry season.....

2011-07-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

It is cherry season in Holland! I celebrate with a pinkeep I stitched a number of years ago combined with a bowl of cherries.....

"When I sound the fairy call,

Gather here in silent meeting,

Chin to knee on the orchard wall,

Cooled with dew and cherries eating.

Merry, merry,

Take a cherry;

Mine are sounder,

Mine are rounder,

Mine are sweeter.

For the eater

When the dews fall.

And you’ll be fairies all."

~ Emily Dickinson

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-06-27T09:23:00.001-07:00

Making do means many things. It also can be applied to how your approach cooking. I hate wasting food. I try to never have leftovers by being careful about how much I cook. And what do you do with those leftover slices of bread that are not as fresh as they used to be?

I now make individual old fashioned bread pudding. They are quick and easy to make as well as being a taste of days gone by. You can use any kind of bread for this. I had a heavier whole wheat bread this time and it turned out just as good as when I used wheat or white.

Fill two ramekins with strips of bread. Just tear it to fit in the dish. I line the dish as I go so they end up in circle or spiral shapes. As I go, I added thawed blueberries. I pick many each summer and freeze them. You can also use other fruits, raisins or dried cranberries.

Once the bread and fruit is prepared, take a measuring cup and put in 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and added cinnamon. You could also use vanilla at this point. Mix in one egg well. Now top up the measure with milk until it reaches one cup.

Spoon the egg mixture over each ramekin carefully. You do not want to egg mixture to cause the bread to push up in the dish so do this slowly. Now sprinkle more cinnamon over the bread pudding and place in a 375F oven for about 45 minutes. You egg mixture will be set and the bread raise up as it bakes. Let is cool just slightly before serving, if you can keep yourself from eating it straight out of the oven. *wink*

*** I have cut down the amount of sugar and gone with brown sugar to make it a more healthy choice. ***

This bread pudding is so good and has that nostalgic taste of old fashioned cooking...

...but don't forget some whipped cream or a ball of vanilla ice cream. A girl has to have a little fun when eating a healthy treat, right?

Do you know any great make do recipes? Why not join in with Make do and Mend Mondays?

The sign post.....

2011-06-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Recently, while taking a nice drive in the country in the north of Holland, we happened upon this small lumbar yard. Jos stopped as he wanted to see if he could buy a weathered old post to use at Cranberry Cottage. The man showed us wood but we told him it was all too new. She he took us into this part of the yard and we found the perfect post for only 5 euros. It was a great deal and he was glad to get rid of it. The old weathered wood is not something people buy. Something I will never understand since I think it makes it instantly look like it has always belonged in the garden.

Why a sign post you ask? If you used to read my old blog then you know I had a sign made for the cottage. You can see where it was originally hanging by clicking here. We had a very old white ball outdoors lamp that was very ugly. It hung a bit up under the roof line thankfully so not so visible but still we really disliked it. We were able to get an old fashioned looking lantern with leaded glass for a great deal and decided to replace that ugly old one.

This lamp hangs down where the sign hung so we had to make other arrangements for the sign. Jos dug a spot up in the driveway, put in the post and our sign hangs once again to welcome you to Cranberry Cottage. It looks like it has always been this way. I really like that weathered look...

It is June! It is summer!

2011-06-21T13:05:00.001-07:00

Today being the first day of summer, it is good to take a moment to think about gardeners of the past that influence us today. Oh to be able to sit in a Gertrude Jekyll garden. To be able to care for a garden that is influenced by her cottage garden style. We are doing our best to create a little piece of beautiful nature in cottage garden style. Our days and evenings are spent working outdoors when we can.

On rainy days, I take solace in a vase of pretty pink peonies as I look on from my living room window to a freshly planted garden. It is June! It is summer!

"What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade."

~ Gertrude Jekyll

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-06-20T06:22:00.001-07:00

When you move to a new house, often you find that things no longer work. We had replaced a couch already before we moved but decided to decorate the living room to work well with the colors of our couches. In doing so, many of the items that we used before with a bit of old world Victoriana charm just do not fit in now.

In some cases, we sold items on but I cannot part with the brass candlesticks I have as the large one was our unity candle for our wedding ceremony and the others were a wedding gift. I decided it was time to make do with them and give them a makeover. They needed to go from fussy to a touch prim looking. And what does it better than black matt paint?

We I washed them to remove any dust and then we gave them an extra cleaning in ammonia to remove any grease from candle wax. Two thin coats of primer and two coats of black matt paint did the trick.

They now fit in again very well with my living room. I have more of my brass candlestick collection which I will be painting black as well. I love how they have come up and know I will have many more years of pleasure out of them now.

It will be nice to want to have them out once again instead of stuffed into my bookshelves since they did not really go with the living room before. After all, this is my year of use it or loose it. What about you? Do you have things around your home that you can make do with or mend?

Cloche love.....

2011-06-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

Like many out there in blogland, I love a cloche. It makes just about anything you can think of that much prettier when seen through a glass shaped bell. I change mine regularly and often to reflect the season.

Back in Febraury, I shared these cloches with you on an old post. I decided that they look really great in my quilt studio. Being in the studio, I wanted to give them a sewing theme. After two months, they still make me smile each day.

My little mouse Boudewijn (pronounced Bow-dah-vine) is still in his cloche but this time holding a pincushion I made a number of years ago. You can see it in more detail on my old blog by clicking here. The pretty hand knitted lace was a gift from a quilt friend Albertha. Her mother made it. My handmade bobbinlace is in both cloches and I used vintage sewing items in the smaller cloche. It includes items like a card of buttons, a clothes peg with lace, an old spool of thread, a reel of ribbon and an carved ivory needle holder.

It makes me happy to see these vintage items out while I sew or stitch.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-06-13T11:56:00.001-07:00

This week it is mend and then make do project...

Jos is really proud of the fact that he did the Make do and Mend this week. We have spent this long holiday weekend here in Holland very busy working in the garden. While working on another project, I mentioned I thought it was time to throw out a very broken garden rack. It is wooden and just literally was in pieces.

He decided he was going to mend it right then and there! Some of the wooden pins had broken off. He carefully drilled them out and had to search for something that was the exact same size. It ended up that a bolt he had was the perfect size so he sawed it in the correct lengths for the pins to be replaced.

Before I knew it, we could start to make do with things we had to decorate a corner of the garden.

I placed items I already had on each shelf...

It is nice to not have a heap of broken wooden shelves laying around but now a rack to add a nice touch to the terrace.

What about you? Have you found anything to make do and mend in your home?

Happiness is.....

2011-06-09T07:43:00.001-07:00

.....a summer's bouquet!

"Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,

And left the flushed print in a poppy there."
~ Francis Thompson, "The Poppy," 1891

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-06-06T07:32:00.001-07:00

Sometimes it is fun to challenge yourself to do something with as tight a budget as you can. We just created a coffee corner in our garden doing just that.

Back in February, we started searching on a Dutch website called Marktplaats for a table and extra chair for our garden in our new home. We have a second terrace that is large enough for more than the one rocking chair which I had at our old house. These chairs were sold as a one time offer at a major DIY chain years ago. I was able to find a second one for which we paid only 20 euros. The original price was 99 euros. As soon as we got home, Jos got stuck in on sanding it so we could oil it with the same oil we use on the other chair.

The table was becoming a challenge. I did not want a big table but also not one too small. I felt like Goldie Locks trying out the furniture of the Three Bears. We finally found an old French bistro table made of wrought iron with a stone top. It needed work but was only 10 euros.

We scraped it with a steel brush, cleaned it and painted it black. I loved it for the pretty and decorative scroll work under the table. It came up like new again.

A few items on the table which can be seen from inside the house and our chairs sat by the table in the shade of our sweetgum tree. I rarely ever sit in the sun so this is fast becoming my favorite spot.

A perfect spot to sit and listen to the birds with a cup of coffee or tea and read a book...

This area is not finished as we have to have the terrace rebricked and I want to work on decorating the edging of this terrace but in the meantime, we can sit there and simply enjoy...

Cost of this mend so far is only 30 euros. Who does not like a bargain?

Cats and cows.....

2011-06-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen a cat asleep on top of a cow?

Dagi has smashed this pillow down and sleeps on it all the time now. It is his favorite spot. The pillow was a gift from a friend but I am not sure she intended it to be used like this. *grins*

Oops! Time to tiptoe away as we woke up Dagi and I think his look says it all.....

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-05-30T04:04:00.000-07:00

The point of making do is not to spend money or very little. I felt I was in need of a make do makeover in my kitchen.

I love the stove top wooden covers you see online. Have you seen them? They do not sell them, that I know of, here in Europe. I had bought a wooden tray back in February (you can see it here) and found it was a good size to use on top of my own stove. We do not like this stove top but this disguises it a little. With just my teakettle and a teabag holder on the tray, it was looking very boring. I was thinking this weekend that I need to create a seasonal touch to the tray. It would be fun to change things on it regularly to give a nice touch to our little kitchen.

It is just about summer. What do I want to use to say almost summer? I went outside for one of my empty old terracotta pots. I got an artificial ivy plant, a porcelain chicken and some eggs...all of which I have already. I was thinking of the old Dutch saying 'In mei leggen alle vogels en ei...' which translates 'In May, all the birds lay eggs' although it rhymes in Dutch. *grins*

The ivy is in the terracotta pot with three eggs in the top and three on the trailing ivy. The chicken stands in front of my teakettle. I need to keep it on the tray since I want easy access to it for my daily cups of tea. It was not quite enough so I added a little tea mug with chickens on it from my collection of Brixton Pottery mugs. Cost of this makeover $0 but great value to the May touch to the kitchen.

Recently, I discovered Esther's blog when she became a follower of my own. I asked her if I could share a makeover she did on an old wicker sewing basket. It is so fabulous and you can see it here. This is what is wonderful about making do and mending...finding unique and inspiring ideas like this! Thanks for letting me share it Esther.

Is there something you can make over in your home with the things you already have? Try it as it makes it feel like things are new again.

Have you noticed?

2011-05-27T04:19:00.001-07:00

...that the publishers keep making the print in a book smaller and smaller??? I think it is a conspiracy! I first blamed Amazon and Jeff Bezos thinking they were in it to plague me with that tiny print but yesterday I went to visit my dear friend Carolien who surprised me with a book that I had been wanting to get for some time now. She bought me 'Major Pettigrew's Last Stand' at a local bookshop. Are they in on the conspiracy too??? Good thing I now have reading glasses everywhere you look in my house. *wink*

I am currently reading 'Beach Roses' by Jean Stone for my online book club's upcoming book discussion. Then I have my next read lined up to get started. So many books and never enough time for them all...

Carolien made a delicious lunch yesterday. Her youngest daughter arrived home from school in time to join us. Carolien copied some of the recipes for me as I loved both the soup (planning on making that in the coming week) and this toasted sandwich. I loved it and when I discovered I had all but the chives in the house (I substituted it with the green of a spring onion) so made it again for myself for lunch. I even had some brie which I had forgotten that I had. This is a great twist on the toasted cheese sandwich.....

Brie Toasted sandwich

2 slices of bread

1 slice of lunch ham

2 slices of brie

herb cream cheese

chives or green onion

Lightly butter the outsides of your two slices of bread. Spread a layer of cream cheese on the other side of each slice. Lay a slice of ham on the bread and then two slices of brie. Sprinkle chopped chives or green of spring onion on the brie and cover with second slice of bread. Place sandwich in a hot frying pan. No butter is needed as you have buttered the outside of the bread. Allow to fry until brown and cheese is melted, then enjoy!

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-05-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

In the true spirit of Make do and Mend, I redid a room at Cranberry Cottage this past weekend without spending a single penny.

I was no longer using these frames which used to be in pride of place in our entrance hall at our previous home. They are really nice frames and I knew I would use them again. I also have all my Carl Larsson prints which I used to use throughout my home years ago. I was inspired to combine the two and take them up to the cottage instead and create a welcoming little extra bedroom.

I framed a few of the prints and gathered bits and pieces I have here at home to pack in the car...

This room is very tiny, only measuring 2 meters by 2,20 meters. We had purchased two pull out bed chairs when we bought the cottage but they turned out to be impractical in a number of ways. So the room became a catch all for junk instead. Jos likes selling our old stuff at a flea market and it houses the boxes for the market instead of being a bedroom.

After clearing everything out and cleaning the room, I pulled out one of the chairs into a bed. I dressed it with two quilts for warmth and a couple of pillows. I will make a new pillow for the bed instead of the cat pillow that matched the chairs when I get a chance as this dark blue really does not match.

We have one of the chairs at home now to sell and will do the same with the second once the first is gone. We need to get a real bed for this room or an extra mattress as this pull out bed is very low.

I borrowed a small table from my bathroom to use as a nightstand. A plant and candle also among things I already had to dress the table make the room a nicer place to stay.

To complete a room, I always hang a quilt on the wall. This quilt was inspired while I was sitting in a cloister garden in France.

I made do with things I had sitting around. We often have things in our home that we are tired of but could look really nice when you put them together in another way. This will lead to using some of my quilt fabrics now to create a pillow and better suited quilt for the bottom of the bed in the coming weeks.

Can you find ways to make do in your home? A few fellow bloggers are joining in the pursuit to make do and mend. Check out the links in my sidebar.....

Life IS chocolate!

2011-05-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well...perhaps some fresh strawberries too! *grins*

"If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly."

~Author Unknown

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-05-16T07:03:00.001-07:00

The past week has flown by and it is that time once again...

Before I start with my project, I want to thank you for the response to my Monday posts. I started this as a challenge to myself but a number of people are responding that they want to join in. I am thrilled and know we can inspire each other to appreciate and use what we have in our homes. If you would like to join the Make do and Mend Mondays team, leave a comment on this post or email me. I am setting up a Make do group on my sidebar and would love to have you join us for a weekly party. Just post each Monday and be sure I have your link. It can be something you are currently doing but perhaps you have a past item you made do with that you want to share. I am excited to read about more projects and starting being inspired to more wonderful ways to create a beautiful home without breaking the bank.

We have a shelving unit in our garage with all my silk flowers and plants. I use mostly silk as severe allergies has prevented us from having many sorts of real flowers in our home. Good quality silk flowers are not cheap but do last a long time. That makes their initial cost worth it in the end. But sometimes, I pull out something that just seems a little tired after years of use. On top of that, I was in the mood for something new to use for a spring decoration.

I took a bouquet of ranunculus and clipped the blooms off individually. I then clipped the leaf steams off to use as filler.

I took a wooden trough that I have and started placing the flowers in bending the stems to the shape of the bowl. Once the flowers are arranged, start filling in with the leaves.

It looked nice at this point but I felt it needed that extra touch. I tried weaving in a string of pearls but it did not show up enough so I remember a black bead garland I have and tried it instead.

Perfect! They showed up and yet gave it a dainty touch. I love pink and black together.

Adding a doll quilt I made with pink fabrics, a stitched Welcome greeting in a stand and a pretty pink candle completes the vignette. As you walk into my living room, this is your greeting. As the stitching says 'Welcome Friends and Neighbors'.

Just looking around my home and using my imagination has given me a new spring table.

May I send you a challenge? Go through you own home and look for things you have that you can use in a new way to create a decoration that says spring. Don't forget to contact me to link to you the Make do and Mend Mondays party.

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-05-09T05:09:00.001-07:00

Mondays are becoming exciting me to as I challenge myself this year to "make do and mend". This is not about spending money. It is about using what is in my home and perhaps rethinking its purpose to turn it back into a loved and well used item. It will often be about objects in the home but sometimes also about cooking.

This week I decided to remove a tapestry tablerunner from the items I was selling online and do something to repurpose it. I had bought these marked down very well at a shop in Bruges, Belgium. I loved them but never ended up using them. I even had to dig out the lighter one out of a gifts chest as I thought I would use it as a present for someone some time since I never even took it out of its bag. They were going to be used on my sideboard but I use it as a desk where I am sitting now with my laptop chatting with you.

I ripped out the few stitches used to create the point and also carefully picked out the stitches holding the tassels. These might show up in a later "make do and mend" project. I ironed the tabelrunners and.....

...cut them into four equal rectangles. Placing right sides together, I sew around the edges. Trimmed the corners, turned right side out and sewed the opening shut. I edge stitched them about 1/4 inch from the edges using brown thread on top and blue thread on the bottom.

The results are two sets of placemats in one! The one side is for use in autumn and winter.....

...while the second side is perfect for spring and summer. Now placemats are something I will use! What about you? Have you got something in your home that you can repurpose so you can join me and "Make do and Mend"?

Tiptoe through the tulips.....

2011-05-05T04:18:00.000-07:00

During our drive to Cranberry Cottage, we pass a couple of tulips fields. What a sight to be driving along seeing green everywhere dotted with the yellow of dandelions or white of Queen Anne's lace and then this.....

The red tulips standing out against the landscape and farm to scream out to you to look at their beauty!

Even in my little wooded garden at the cottage there is an explosion of color where I planted up some leftover bulbs from the year before. I plant up large containers with daffodils and tulips each year to place by our front door. They are then moved into the garden to be left to their own defenses for the following spring. Somehow I got them mixed with the single pink tulip between the bold and brassy red and yellow tinged ones.

"The tulip and the butterfly
Appear in gayer coats than I:
Let me be dressed fine as I will,
Flies, worms, and flowers exceed me still."

~ Isaac Watts

Make do and mend Mondays

2011-05-02T06:23:00.001-07:00

Thank you all for your encouraging words about my last post and Jos' lay off. I had already been thinking lately about how much I, like most of us, have things in our home that we never use. I have been attempting to sort through things rooting out what I can try and sell. I think it is time to pass things on to another if I am not going to use them but hopefully make a little money back in the meantime. All this happened before we found out about Jos going to be laid off. So far, they have him still working but he is also very busy looking for a new position.

I love to re-purpose items. It is fun to see more in something than at first glance. But I also find it sad if I have family items that are tucked away in a drawer. When I saw this on a blog, I was inspired to start going that extra step to re-purpose. I want to use these items once again.

I also have discovered a show on Channel 4 called Make Do and Mend. I have only seen it twice now but it is wonderful. So I am going to have Make Do and Mend Mondays. Challenging myself to do just that. Maybe you will also be inspired. There are so many wonderful ideas out there is blogland. This print from Clare Owen (above) seems just the right way to start this new yet old tradition...

I took a dresser scarf which my mother stitched and ironed it...

Then pinned the end up in place and sewed three seams to create the two pockets...

Tucked in the end between my mattress and box spring (forgive the ugly blue of the box spring) and place my book in the large pocket and radio remote in the smaller pocket. I now can enjoy my mother's stitching every day...

Until next Monday, look around your home to make do and mend.

Al fresco.....

2011-04-26T07:44:00.001-07:00

For me, Easter weekend started on Good Friday as a day out with a friend. We went to a brocante market at a garden center but it was disappointing so we decided to drive further to a nice shop called Nostalgic Living where we found this lady on her nest. Now I am used to seeing storks up north near our cottage but this one was in the middle of Holland on what I found to be a rather low nest. She was happily brooding her eggs. I wonder how many she had???

We came back a little earlier than planned as Jos had called in the afternoon to tell me that he was laid off at work. They had warned this department on Wednesday evening that they were going to push through rush lay offs. He was on the list unfortunately.

We loaded the car and left for Cranberry Cottage as planned. Being there is always so restful. It was busy in our little dirt road but pleasantly so. We arrived and ate dinner. I had brought everything along to make us a nice big dinner salad. Since the Dutch weather is more like summer than spring, we went outside to clean our terrace ready for the coming days. Jos mowed the grass for the first time this season but sweetly mowed around these Cuckoo flowers (also called Lady's smock) for me. I loved seeing them in our garden.

We had all our meals outdoors! Even our breakfast became a treat as we sat out listening to the loud calling of all the birds in the woods. They are all very busily singing to their mates.

A drive to a local farm gave us an evening meal of day fresh white asparagus served in the traditional Dutch way. Even our potatoes are farm fresh. We drove back via Fochteloërveen to buy them. There is a farm there where they play around with various kinds of potatoes and grow the absolute best! They call this variety "bonbons of the clay".

The garden was starting to bloom and we enjoyed seeing where our forget-me-nots decided to come up this year. They always surprise you and do just what they want...

I planted this variety of old fashioned violets a couple of years ago. I love how they are spotted.

Breakfast on Easter morning was scrambled eggs with mushrooms, bacon bits, tomatoes and cheese. We enjoyed it with fresh bread rolls, orange juice and cafe au lait.

It was not all play as we took two of our old radiators apart and repainted them. They look refreshed now.

But there was plenty of time to just relax with warm baked ciabatta and homemade herb cream cheese with a glass of Prosecco, reading some magazines...

Neighbors popped into our garden to chat among the flowers. We are one of the few that have planted up a real flower garden in our little road.

Easter dinner was a pork tenderloin stuffed with brie. The local butcher is exceptionally good there. We often do not bother with meat when we have not been up north. We have been spoiled by his quality and would rather go without if it is not from him. I accompanied it with grilled herb tomatoes.

On Monday morning, as we sat outside having breakfast, we could hear the fire engines rushing to Fochteloërveen. As I mentioned, our weather has been so summer like and we are in need of rain in Holland. This weekend they moved the warning of code orange up to code red for forest fires. Unfortunately this beautiful area caught fire which is thankfully today under control again.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-21T23:07:00.000-07:00

Ah...Easter...

Here in Holland everyone is starting a long and unseasonably warm and sunny weekend. Many do have to work nowadays on Good Friday but we also have Easter Monday along with our Easter Sunday. The "normal" exodus of traffic started yesterday to spend the long weekend away at vacation hotspots. As for Jos and I, we are looking forward to spending it with our bird friends in the woods at Cranberry Cottage. I am taking a little blogging break.

Our floor is still not fixed and now shifting apart in more areas as there is one whole side removed. The man who did the floor is not reliable. *sigh*

This year, I created a little Easter arrangement in a bird cage. My bunny is protecting these eggs until the big day. *wink*

"Awake, thou wintry earth -

Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!"

~ Thomas Blackburn

Happy Easter to all!

Discoveries.....

2011-04-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

...are fun in the garden. We have a sour cherry tree in the back of the garden.

It is blooming now and snowing tiny white petals...

Good books and bad house woes.....

2011-04-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

This past week, I finished this book called The Frozen Lake by Elizabeth Edmondson. It is one of the best books I have read in a while. When I closed it after reading the last sentence, I just exclaimed WOW.

This book is about two families in the Lake District. When the lake at Westmoreland freezes over, people flock to the lake to skate, both visitors and family members. Returning brings back memories but also some secrets. Lies have a way of coming out.

This book is one I would recommend highly. It is the second book I have read by this author and will not be the last.

Murphy has returned to our home with vigor. Jos noticed a drip on our new radiator. The seal between the sections had broken and it was leaking. The company who makes these radiators gives great customer service and came to fix it. They replaced the ring but it was still leaking so they literally turned around and came back as they were on their way back to home. After trying three rings, the man contacted the company and a new radiator was decided.

We had to only wait two weeks as they rushed this order through and came back to replace it for us.

Then Murphy decided he was not done having his fun yet. After hearing our wood floors snapping for about a week and a half, it buckled up and split open in places. We could no longer close the studio door without getting stuck inside. Jos called the man who put in the floor who came and did this...

I am totally not happy with this as he had to order the hard wax and is going to put it back in no longer flush to the wall but with a flat plinth to cover the gap. This floor has been nothing but problems and I wish we had forced him to renovate our old floor under it as agreed. We feel like we were taken advantage of not knowing enough about the situation with great expense to us too. I will be glad when he finally comes back this week to put the new sections back in. Needless to say, the extra floorboards will be gone soon at this rate. The floor is the bedroom looks like it is going to start doing the same thing. You assume that someone who is certified knows what they are doing but we have our doubts anymore. If it gets any worse, we will have to file a complaint with the CBW insurance guarantee.

Why can't Murphy move off to someone else? But then I would wish him on no one!

In the meantime, I have been bitten by the spring cleaning and decluttering bug. I am going through cupboards pulling things that (although I love them) no longer work with our furniture or do not fit and am selling items. It is nice to see a little money come back from these items and space in our home. Do you enjoy doing some spring cleaning at this time of year?

We have spent the weekend planting up our garden and enjoying the nice weekend weather. Anyone gardening? No matter how your weekend looked, I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

April showers.....

2011-04-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

It is that time of year...April showers have come so I thought it was a great time to show you another room in the house before and after renovations.

We started on this area as our first project in September 2010. The shower room had been open in the bedroom, only separated by a partial glass block wall which was open on both sides into the bedroom. The room smelled very damp as a result. Our handyman specializes in bathrooms and got stuck in removing the glass blocks. We were able to sell those right away which brought a little money back.

The sinks were tiny and very modern. There was one on each side of the shower itself. Attempts to sell these have failed. We already took over the mirrored cupboards to the charity shop and they told us they did not even want them to try and sell. Guess it was not only my own idea that they were awful when even a charity shop will not take them. *wink*

The door frame was in place and a wall was built around it. We created an opening a little wider than normal so that it is wheelchair friendly.

We used two of the walls as they are with the white tiles and added two new walls with a tile that worked with it.

Now we have a separate shower room in the downstairs bedroom as you see from the after photos.....

The newly built wall and small wall where the sink was is not part of a very large walk in shower. We choose tiles that have a drift wood look. They worked well with the existing tiles. I love the amount of space.....

We have a rack inside the shower as this area does not get wet and we can hang our towels out of the way as well as having shampoos and soaps to hand.....

My choice was an English rain shower. I just love this kind of shower and find it very relaxing. We were able to hang it nice and high for Jos who is tall so no more ducking under the shower head for him.....

After much searching, we found a mirror in the right size that has a driftwood look to match the tiles. We have a sink that looks similar to a Belfast sink. I am still searching for a wall lamp that I like.

The window frame still has to be painted. We had originally thought we would need to get a new window installed with a portion that opens but the electric ventilation along with the ventilation strip about window work well. We are going to go ahead and have this frame painted to match the rest of our woodwork and leave the window as it is.

This room has come up very well and we are very pleased with it. It is a luxury to have such a large shower.

April showers are also occurring inside the house as we encounter major problems with Murphy once again. More about that in my next post.

The peace of sleeping.....

2011-04-06T07:01:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I was asked again how I can stand having all the pillows on my bed once again. I am currently working on a piece of stitching while will be a new pillow for our bed. You can sneak a peek here. Reflecting recently on a blog post by Elizabethb about the simple pleasures of changing bed linen, I decided to reflect on my blog about this subject.

A bedroom should be a place you love. A place you come to rest and restore your body and soul. It should be a room filled with the things that you love that also bring you to a place of feeling filled with peace.

If you look at your bedroom, do you love it? If not, try and see what you need to do to change that. It does not have to take a great deal of money to create a place that pleases you. I spent money a couple of years ago on two really pretty sets of bed linen that I switch with each other.

I have much of my stitching on my bed and walls, patchwork quilts I have made both on my bed and placed around the room, pretty mirrors to reflect light, a granny square afghan my mother made for me, flowers to remind me of nature's beauty, books to read and even a reminder of childhood and a favorite aunt in a stuffed dog that is now tattered and well loved.

Each morning when I awake, I feel it is a blessing to make my bed up prettily which means I have been given another new day. It is never a chore but instead a joy!

"And if tonight my soul may find her peace
in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created."

~ D.H. Lawrence

Sunshine yellows.....

2011-04-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

Holland had a summer's day in the spring this weekend. Yesterday was just beautiful...sunshine and temperatures of 23C.

Jos and I had a trip across the border to Germany planned for Saturday morning. It is a favorite thing for us to do making a grocery shop run. We got a 3 or 4 of them buying things we love from there. We also bought some vegetables as they were much cheaper than in Holland.

We found these lunchtime mixed salads in the vegetable area marked down. They even had a little fork inside the salad bowl. A bottle of salad dressing, fresh rolls and a drink and we had a great lunch.

What better than to enjoy that sunshine eating our salads outdoors. We started back home and found a picnic table beside this lock on the Haren-Rütenbrock Kanal. For only a few euros, we had a wonderful lunch.

Then it was back to Cranberry Cottage to enjoy our own flowers. Lots of yellows in our garden at the moment. There are daffodils coming up through the grass...

The forsythia is showing off like tiny rays of sunshine...

The miniature daffodils are not as plentiful after a second long cold winter but are just now in bloom...

But there are other colors coming out in the garden such as the rose and blues of this lungwort...

The pinks of winter heather which was a surprise to see blooming as it was hit hard by the cold...

The winter white of the hellebores...

The bright blues of the dwarf periwinkel...

Or the browns of the delicious spice cookies called 'Drentse heideplaggen' as I sit with a hot cup of tea back home working on this blog entry. Life is full of color and that is good!

Be my guest.....

2011-03-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

On the first floor of the tower of our home is the guest area. I showed you the bathroom earlier. I use it as I enjoy a bath but this is actually the bathroom for the guest room.

The photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.....

Our guest room has windows on three sides since it is in the tower. This means the room is very light. I wanted to give the room a warm and welcoming look so choose a warm dark beige for the walls. I was so grateful when we were busy with the house to have help from my friends Silvia and Carolien when we were painting this room.

There are built in closets in the room and when we placed the furniture in the room, I discovered the bench I use at the end of the guest bed fit just perfectly in the space between those closets where the window is. It gave the room an instant window seat.

My miniatures and silhouettes and hanging once again. I added a few more since the previous house and just love this wall.

There is a reading corner here from which I can also sit and see the silhouettes. Sometimes, I relax with my current book here after having taken a bath.

We have two mirrored doors on the closets and two regular doors. Instead of painting them, we wallpapered these two doors. This was wallpaper I had left from lining the back of our hutch to lighten it up. That reminds me that I must share that with you soon too. This wallpaper is a Swedish reproduction wallpaper dating from 1902. The moment we saw it at the shop, Jos and I knew it was the one we wanted to use as it reminded us both of living in Stockholm. The inside of these doors is also wallpapered with the paper left from doing the sampler wall in our bedroom.

While my mother was visiting, she commented that she would like a mirror at this spot. We had this mirror still to hang so used it here along with an antique Swedish sideboard. This sideboard design is attributed to Karin Larsson. It is even held together with wooden nails. I would love to paint this to match the other furniture but am not sure about doing so with this antique piece.

There is nothing that makes a home more personal that little touches that say who you are. I included this silhouette of one of my favorite authors, Charlotte Bronte, and the lace gloves I wore when Jos and I got married.

I do not have very many but I love collecting Persephone books.

The windows in the tower are very deep which gives me lots of wonderful space to create vignettes on the window sills. Not having had window sills in our previous home, this is so much fun to have them here.

Jos and I get comments about the guest room being bigger than our bedroom downstairs. We keep saying we will be guests in our own house once and sleep up here just for the fun of it.

Thanks for being my guest and visiting our home.

Spring begins.....

2011-03-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

Spring is arriving and nature is bursting out ready for another year of color and splendor. Everywhere in Holland, the bulbs are either in bloom or growing forth. What a pretty time of year...

My white grape hyacinths in a vintage olive pot...

"The year's at the spring

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hillside's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in His heaven -

All's right with the world!"

~ Robert Browning

Gardening season.....

2011-03-09T22:58:00.001-08:00

It is the start of the gardening season. Our frost is gone with the exception of on and off light night frost so we could start in our front garden. It had been left as is for 16 years. It was a hard and compact ground covered totally with moss. In fact, we discovered there were many flagstones under all the moss which could no longer be seen. We first removed all the flagstones and Jos loosened and turned over the soil. We moved plants around and disposed of ones that were just left dieing as they were choked in the hard soil.

We removed all the old white gravel and used it along the side of the garage which none was left over the years. A new and wider path was created using the flagstones to separate the garden from the path and went to a farm out in the countryside who specializes in various gravels and split. They said since we were early in the season, they could deliver it the next morning. The guy told Jos that last year, he was making on average 100 deliveries a day in season. That is due to their great prices of course. It was fun to see how he could use the crane to place the 'big bag' wherever we needed it even though it is a tight squeeze for a truck in these little Dutch streets. Notice his wooden shoes? *wink*

After looking at the many types of split, we decided on basalt which is a stone that is dark grey but turns black when it is wet. 1500 kilos of basalt was delivered and we needed about 1200 for the front saving the rest for something I want to do in the back garden. We are both really happy with how it turned out.

Planting is sparse until I start buying some things but this hellebore was there already and really showing off in the spring sunlight. What pretty centers these have!

I did plant up two new types of hellebores including this one. I could not resist it when I saw that it is called 'Christmas Carol'. It is not as pretty a flower center as the other but still beautiful.

Our sun dial takes center stage in the front garden. We discover four little rose bushes among the plants and replanted them together. I have no idea if they will make it but there is a little new growth coming on the already. We also rescued dieing boxwood from the back garden and created a large ball in the front. It hopefully will take on a new life there.

We plan to use our garden gate at the end of this new pathway and Jos will place it before our driveway is rebricked. You can see our gate here from a blog entry when we lived in our previous house. The beech hedge will then continue on the other side of the gate so we have to add two more beech hedges to the other side. In the second photo, I am standing where the gate will be. There is still much work to do as you can see......

So time now to take off the wooden shoes and have a little rest before starting on the back garden. Jos and I have both been sick. We have a bad cough and Jos a nasty cold to go with it. I had lost my voice for 4 days but it is back again. This morning Jos also has an appointment at the oral surgeon to have a tooth that is crumbling extracted. The joys of growing older!

Now I await a little warmer temperatures to sit in the sunshine on my bench. The doctor told me to get outside as much as I can. Not hard with all this gardening. I am afraid my vitamin D levels dropped badly again. They have no idea why my body is not taking up the vitamin as I have been taking it for a year now but rarely have safe levels. She is now having me use oral injection boosters for 3 months to see if that will help. After three months, she is going to check the levels again and then it will either be 3 more months of injections or back to tablets. I hope I only have it for 3 months as this stuff tastes horrible. Guess this is sunshine in an injection. *grins*

Today is a gloomy day here in Holland with gusty winds so I am going to curl up with a good book.

White roses and lace

2011-02-24T11:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I spent a fun day with my good friend Bep. We went to a large indoor fabric market. So many wonderful fabrics, trims, buttons... Can you overdose on seeing such wonderful things? *wink* We also walked into the village shopping street and visited a couple of shops to look at yarn among other things. Then before leaving, we had to stop in at a store called Action. It is a wonderful discount store. I bought this tray.

When I got home, I immediately started playing with things to put on it on my dining room table. The nice thing about it all being on a table is that you simply slide the tray aside when it is time to set the table for dinner.

I put some of the things I love on the tray...lace, a lacy looking pot and ball, silver heart keyring, a candle and my white miniature roses I recently bought.

There are so many rosebuds on these plants and now all we need is a little sun to make them open.

Walking past this tray and seeing these things make me smile. I hope you have things in your home that make you smile too?

Don't you love a bargain?

2011-02-15T05:47:00.000-08:00

In a shop I stopped in at on the way to Cranberry Cottage, I happened to find a bargain. It was laying on the floor under a bargains table. I almost did not even see it...

I found a matching decorative cake plate to my larger one I already had. They are made of wood with a painted taupe grey paint distressed effect. It was marked down so well that I had to get it. *grins* When bringing it home, the fun began. One of my cloches fit on it perfectly so I was able to use the two well together.

Under this cloche is a piece of my handmade bobbinlace, a porcelain heart and a watercolor portrait of Samuel Pepys which was a souvenir from a little shop in The Cotswolds.

The two plates are now standing to greet all who come to visit on my sideboard in the living room.

Love is in the air.....

2011-02-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

It is almost Valentine's Day and our home has reminders to celebrate the heart throughout our living room...

A vintage wooden trough full of heart made for me or given to me as gifts by various friends.

A book containing beautiful words of love given as an anniversary gift from my sister....

Chocolate and raspberry colored quilt I made which I called 'A Box of Chocolates'...

A Valentine's tree adds a twinkle of light...

I wish I could remember that first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me,
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or Winter for aught that I can say;
So unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was I to see and to foresee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom yet for many a May.
If only I could recollect it, such
A day of days! I let it come and go
As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow;
It seemed to mean so little, meant so much;
If only now I could recall that touch,
First touch of hand in hand.--Did one but know!

by Christina Rossetti

Sweet words of long lasting and true love...

'Mended Hearts' quilt with a wooden dough bowl of more fabrics hearts...

Valentine's day is a time to remember more than just our husbands, wives or sweethearts. It is a time to also say to all those we care about how special they are to us. I wish each of you who read my blog a Happy Valentine's Day!

On the rocks.....

2011-02-04T04:57:00.000-08:00

This is a rock garden just outside on the terrace between my studio and our living room. Normally this would not be a style I would choose but it is practical for this area due to the large windows there. We thought it would be a simple touch to the sitting area near the house as we plan to plant up the rest of the garden heavily in comparison.

But the rock garden needed a facelift. For years, the previous owners have swept dirt and junk into this area and it showed. If you look at the photo above you can see the results after cleaning it up from the photo below which is before we started.

You can see the anti-weed membrane sticking up through the pebbles and it is just very dirty looking. We found broken wine glass, clothes pins, plastic wrappers, plastic from toys, etc. and lots of leaves and so much dirt that weeds started growing in it.

We removed everything right back to the membrane. Once the membrane was swept, we started to first filter out the less dirty pebbles to put them back. A good half of them had to be washed though. It was hard work which we sometimes continued even when it turned dark. A friend laughed when she saw it and asked if the beauty police were coming to visit. I laughed back and said the beauty police live here. *grins*

The fountain did not work and we wanted to see if we could figure out if the pump was broken but instead Jos discovered this. If you look closely on the photo, you will see that the end of the cord has been cut straight through most likely with a hedge clipper. Jos plans to pull up part of the terrace to retrieve the remaining portion of cord and repair it.

When the frost season has passed, I will plant another decorative grass. We marked a spot for it with a tile.

Now my large lanterns are standing in the rock garden and I think they look like they belonged there all along. It is so pretty from inside the studio or living room to see the candles lit.

Our gardening makeover has started and this was hard work but when I see the before and after photos, it was well worth it. We have major plans for both front and back which we are going to work on as time and weather permits. For now, I can sit on the terrace in the coming spring to enjoy the rock garden and hopefully by then a working rock fountain.

Combining interests.....

2011-01-31T10:48:00.000-08:00

I love combining interests. I want to have 20 pairs of hands so I can do all the things I would like to accomplish. But alas...I have one pair of hands and so things sit until I can get to them.

I love to read. I never seem to find enough time to read all the books I would like to. This year, I decided I wanted to read more. Last time I checked there were still only 24 hours in a day but I pulled 10 books from one of my bookshelves to concentrate on this season. I am now on my fourth book so having done this really has helped me to read more.

I also have a number of quilts that are waiting in line to be hand quilted. I am setting goals for which ones and how many I will achieve this year. This little Irish Chain doll's quilt still needs a border sewn on before I can start to quilt it. I have been very undecided as to what more I want to do to it. For now, I have two other quilts that I am working on so there is time enough to make these desicions...

One thing I love to do is read books that have handwork as a central theme to them. Combined interests!

Wedding Ring by Emilie Richards was a wonderful read. Nancy and her daughter Tessa show up for the summer at Helen's (mother and grandmother) house after being alerted by a neighbor that all is not well. In the course of clearing out the house which is in a start of chaos due to Helen's hoarding, life stories and secrets come to light connected a the wedding ring quilt that Helen pieced and Nancy quilted. Tessa begins the restoration of the quilt while also watching the pieces of her and her families lives come back to life.

Morning routine.....

2011-01-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

My morning routine most often starts here in our newly redone bathroom. But it did not look like this when we moved in...

Here is the before picture (see photo below) from the sales brochure. Now this photo actually made it look nicer than it was. The two round sinks had rounded cabinets under them that were totally rotting, all the faucets (sinks, bath and shower) were calcified and unable to be cleaned, drains in both sinks were totally clogged and the copper pipes were green from leaks which we only discovered after we removed the mirrored wall. It took ages to get this mirror and sink construction from the wall but we are so glad we did it. The entire room needed a good deep cleaning as there was mold on the tiles and the shower door was so filthy it looked like it was frosted glass.

What was the mirrored wall is now covered with a slate tile. We added silver accents to bring the slate color out even more. We bought a traditional sink with a retro 30s look and faucet to match. I had been searching for a nice vintage small chest of drawers but have not had any success. I decided to try the little chest of drawers from the bedroom for now. We like it there.

We bought more vintage looking faucets to replace those here at the bath and also the one in the shower. I always keep a book by the bath on a little table as I start off my day relaxing in a hot bath with a good book whenever I have the time.

We had damage to the floor tiles due to the leaking sinks being left for so long. This is a Belgian blue stone floor which is porous and the leakage has eaten marks into the floor. But rather than having to immediately replace the floor, I bought a very large shag bathroom rug which was just the right size to cover the two spots on the floor. I love this rug as it is nice and cozy warm to your feet in the morning. I have little throw rugs for right at the shower and bath also.

The window has been painted in a nice creamy white which looks much cleaner and fresher than the dark blue paint. The radiator had to be removed and repainted as it was rusted. A few accessories on the window sill finish it off.

My step father made me this shelf about 15 years ago and I stitched the sea shells about 24 years ago. Good items never go out of style.

I love glass and there is nothing like placing glass in the bathroom just for the pure luxury of it! Perhaps you noticed from the first photo, our chandelier is now hanging in the bathroom. I love the way the light glimmers in the morning while I am relaxing. I also placed a tray with a piece of handmade lace and crystal carafes on the little dresser. We no longer use these but I think they are so pretty just as they are. You could use carafes like this to hold your bathfoam or other things like this.

The silver hooks are waiting to be hung by Jos. They used to be hanging in Cranberry Cottage to hold a quilt but we made a shelf for the living room there (click here for the post about the shelf) and these hooks are perfect to bring here to use in the bathroom.

We are very pleased with how this bathroom has become a very relaxing space to start our day with a minimum amount of money spent. We bought a sink, faucets and a mirror. Everything else are items we already had. Other than that it has been a question of a good deal of elbow grease.

It's a birthday!

2011-01-18T04:43:00.000-08:00

The birthday of the creator of a special little bear named Pooh. Yes! It is A.A. Milne's birthday today. He was born in 1882 and had a son named Christopher Robin for whom he created the bedtime stories about a bear named Winnie-The-Pooh. And where would most children be without the joy of these wonderful tales? So many children grew up with them.

My childhood memories of Pooh were the excitement of watching an evening television special. You see, then it was only on a couple of nights in a year. My mother would have my little brother and I get bathed and in our pajamas early. You never minded at all as you were so happy that Pooh would be on. She would let us lay down in front on the television...you know that old fashioned large ones that sat on floor as a piece of furniture in itself back in the 60s/70s? We would get a large bowl of freshly popped popcorn to eat. It was put in my mother's large yellow mixing bowl and we still love those bowls to this day as she still has them. I can still smell the freshly popped corn and us just being out of the bathtub. And laying on the carpet, chin resting on your hands as you watched the antics of this funny little bear.

I sometimes wonder if my little brother has these same memories with him too?

Do you have a Pooh memory?

So for A.A. Milne's birthday, I decided it would be fun to get out my book The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh and read the tales again. Who can resist reading a chapter titled 'In which We are introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and some Bees, and the Stories begin'. You are never too old to read them. It being such a rainy day, they are a perfect way to while away the afternoon. Of course, perhaps it was Christopher Robin walking up and down under Pooh hanging to his balloon saying 'Tut-tut, it looks like rain' that brought it on. What do you think? Well, just in case, here is a little Eeyore wisdom about rain...

'The nicest thing about the rain is

that it always stops.

Eventually.'

- Eeyore

It's Winter!

2011-01-11T06:43:00.001-08:00

Yes...it is winter but all our snow has disappeared like a distant memory. But we have more months of winter ahead so who knows...

Regardless, each January I like to put out my winter decorations as soon as I put my Christmas ones away for another year. I set up my winter tree. I use white lit branches which I then hang handmade ornaments on.

There are mittens, scarfs and ice skates. I also have some icicles and little glass stars. Simple but it says winter.

More signs of winter?

Berries...

A pair of vintage wooden ice skates...

Vintage snowmen...

Vintage sled with an arrangement I made a couple of year ago. Child's mittens, snow covered pine branches and an even older pair of wooden ice skates...

Remember Murphy? He came back to visit during the week between Christmas and New Year. This is the heater we ordered for our living room. If you remember, there were pipes in this corner but no heater connected to them. When the previous owners had the studio and garage built on to the house, they removed it and we think put it in the studio. There was just no heat in the living room and it was cold. We had someone come measure how large of a heater we needed. We decided to order this one which is reminiscent of the old heaters from the 20s and 30s. It was sprayed in a color close to what we used for all the trim, windows and doors in the house and well worth the wait!

Unfortunately, we had to have the man come back three times as it kept leaking. Then the heating system itself started leaking. Oh my!

Finally, Jos decided to call a man to come look at the heating who we used in our previous home. More fun! He opened the heater and discovered that although there is a sticker with maintenance registration, it has never been cleaned or checked. It is not even that old (2004) but was in bad shape and needed three major parts replaced along with a very good cleaning. We had been hearing tiny explosions each morning in bed which was solved by fixing some bad parts. It was simple neglect and such a shame. I still keep thinking will we be finished finding surprises in this house?

A good book and a cookie.....

2011-01-03T03:04:00.000-08:00

Does the start of a new year bring your thoughts to decluttering? It does for me each year. I love reading! I love having books in rooms all over the house. But even with a wall of books, I need more space for them. I decided this year that I will go to one shelf and start reading the books on that shelf before moving on to the next shelf. I am not going to order any new books until I have finished the books on the shelf and passed them on to others to read. I pulled half the books from my top shelf and this is the stack I am going to start my personal reading challenge with...

Included among them are a few children's classics that I had been wanting to read. I do not read fast as I spend most of my time with needle and thread but I am placing these in my book tray and setting myself the goal of finishing these up by spring.

Reading in 2010 was hampered with our busy move but here is my reading list from last year:

BOOKS READ IN 2010

The Villa in Italy by Elizabeth Edmondson
Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Dark Harvest by Karen Harper
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Folly by Alan Titchmarsh
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Shadow of an Angel by Mignon F. Ballard
Summer's Child by Luanne Rice
Flower Fables by Louisa M. Alcott
Jane and the Wandering Eye by Stephanie Barron
Emily's Ghost byDenise Giardina
Rebecca's Quilt by Fran Smith
Jane and the Man of the Cloth by Stephanie Barron
Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron
The Quilt by T. Davis Bunn (reread)
Mariner's Compass by Earlene Fowler (reread)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
The Long Way Home by Jessica Blair
The Letter by Richard Paul Evans

We spent the days around the holidays working on hanging things around the house. There are many little jobs still not done. This weekend, Jos hung some picture racks for me to use to stand my speculaas cookie molds on. We painted the kitchen walls in an olive green which works really nicely with the wooden cookie forms.

I hung all but two of my molds which we have decided to sell in the spring. Jos loves going to flea markets up north and sell things so we have been decluttering throughout the house looking for things for him to take along.

Speculaas cookies are a delicious spice cookie here in Holland and they are almost always what I have in my cookie jar. Nothing tastes better with a cup of hot tea! I love to dunk too. *grins*

Are you weighing in some goals for 2011?

Lazy days of Christmas.....

2010-12-29T10:35:00.001-08:00

With Christmas being two days in Holland, we had a nice and relaxing long weekend other than me cooking three special meals starting on Christmas eve. But since I love to cook, that was no punishment to be sure. But this week seems like the holiday has stretched out even further than the weekend. I cannot seem to decide what I want to do first...read, stitch, quilt, work on things not done around the house...

I like to read a book that has a holiday theme around Christmas, so when I placed my last order from Amazon, I bought "Twelve Days of Christmas" by Trisha Ashley. I keep wanting to read more but need my hands free as I am hand quilting a quilt at the moment. Over the Christmas weekend, I stitched up this little winter design and had the perfect frame for it in house so I could finish it and use it right away.

This was the first Elizabeth Edmondson book I have read..."The Villa in Italy". I loved it so much that I also got two more of her books. Has anyone else read this one?

I have not only sat on the couch with book and needle in hand. While in Germany back in September for vacation, we went to a flea market and found the most beautiful antique tree stand. It is made from wrought iron and very heavy and very rusted under and in the corners. The man only wanted 25 euros for it but, being married to a true Dutchman, we ended up getting it for only 12,50 euros. A friend lent me her sealer for the rust which we used on it yesterday. I leaves the color in tact but seal it so that it does not rust any farther. It was now ready to use and we replaced the stand with the one that comes with a tree I have.

I loved the details on it...holly leaves with red berries.

Even the screw ends are pretty. We wanted to place the new black pencil pine tree my mother bought for me in it. This tree stands in my quilt studio. The size of the tree was not quite right but Jos used slivers of our oak floor and it fits perfectly. I will paint them black after the holidays so they are less visible.

This tree holds all my handmade bobbinlace ornaments in my quilt studio. I have a new ornament on my lace pillow so I guess we can add that to the list of things I so want to do all at the same time. *grins*

I hope you are enjoying some lazy days of Christmas...

Christmas eve at Christmas Village.....

2010-12-24T00:01:00.001-08:00

It is December and once again Christmas Village has suddenly appeared. This magical little village only comes out for people to see once a year. On Christmas eve, it comes to life...

If you look closely, you can see that Mrs. Dewhurst who is the wife of the vicar has just taken a scrumptious looking Christmas cake out of the oven. Doesn't it look delicious? It will be perfect to serve for the annual Christmas tea at the vicarage.

But wait! Mrs. Dewhurst hears carol singing as she passes the window. 'Oh yes!', she exclaims, 'It is already past noon and the carolers have begun. I must hurry and put on my warm coat and mittens and rush to the church square.'

There is already a crowd of villagers gathering. The singing is so beautiful. Mrs. Potts has opened her door to listen and Sister Charity has joined her.

I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas Day in the morning.

The schoolmaster approaches and sees that Sarah and her lamb Snowflake are already there to listen.

But what is this??? Even the woodland creatures have quietly drawn near to hear the singing.

Mr. Rochester pauses from his work. He has brought a yule log in from the woods on his little sleigh for the vicarage Christmas tea.

A visiting family comes out of the general store with some last minute gifts while Peter rides off on his sled.

He is on his way to the other side of the pond where Thomas and Luke are waiting for him. They are going to make a big snowman there.

Mr. Brownlow is bringing the last Christmas tree he has to deliver today. It is for Miss Markham who just moved to Christmas Village recently. She is excited to start decorating her tree for her first Christmas celebration here.

And what was in those ships all three,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day?
And what was in those ships all three,
On Christmas Day in the morning?

The Virgin Mary and Christ were there,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
The Virgin Mary and Christ were there,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Pray, wither sailed those ships all three,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
Pray, wither sailed those ships all three,
On Christmas Day in the morning?

O they sailed into Bethlehem,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
O they sailed into Bethlehem,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

And all the bells on earth shall ring,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
And all the bells on earth shall ring,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

I am including the song on my playlist of Little Toy Village. It is a very old song but one my mother and I love as it reminds us of my sister who learned this sweet song at school as a girl. She sang is every Christmas. I found it early this year but with a shock. I will give you this link to read about my photos being used for the video part of the song. This village is very special to me and unique. It is just like the one my mother made when I was a little girl and remade for me when I had my own home. It is all handpainted by my mother and sister. Each Christmas, I thank my mother over again for my special toy village. Thanks Mom!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! May it be as magical as that in Christmas Village and full of thoughts of the true meaning of Christmas as declared in