Foggy with a Hint of Daffodils

Hi. Dense fog advisory here today!

It's actually not all that dense but gloomy and I miss my view.

Everyday Mo and I go out looking for signs of spring. hahaha. Hope springs eternal.

We stop off at my friends' garden where last fall I planted daffodils for them. The daffs were supposed to be a bright springtime treat when they got home from their long days in the city. The other day, finally!, an itty bitty green shoot appeared.

We'll be lucky if these daffs bloom before we plant their summer garden. These are slooooow daffs. "Late-bloomers"?

Mo has a snuggle on their cushy loungers---

Then we wander around looking at other folks' gardens and yards. A few hopeful spots are emerging....

Daffodils in a sunny southern facing spot.

I love these tiny fragile crocuses, in their shades of blue.

This is a curly willow that peeks over a fence. No catkins or even buds yet.

But the forsythia wants to bust into bloom despite the cold.

Our prettiest find are these lichens on the alley fences.

So unusual!

Don't the flowers look like the tiniest red toadstools?

Id love to harvest a few bits of lichen for  the terrarium I am planning. [like the Wardian cases at the flower show last month]. But maybe the people would object? Or think I'm a nutcase?

We did get shooed away from the koi pond! How sad and embarrassing.

 It was a bit upsetting, as I love visiting the koi.

See the blue koi with the black polka dots! So handsome. And the harlequin patterned, and the ''white''  one.  He's pale peach really.  They're the biggest of the group, maybe the oldest? The others are mostly big too, you can see all their shades of orange.

We'll go back anyway, it's a public sidewalk! But maybe no lichen snitching.....
Back home the antique quilt redo is coming along nicely. [the ripples will iron out, no worries].

I want to make it quiltable, and fairly square but I don't want to take it entirely apart and redo it with ideas of 21st century perfection. The original maker was so thrifty, and quirky. Her hand sewing is immaculate then she got tired of that about halfway through the sashing and switched to machine sewing. Her main issue for me is that she used the bias edge on the outside of the Chimney Sweep blocks, and she had major stretching problems. No one ever told her to measure the sashings, nope, she just sewed 'em on. I had to use a repro ditsy print / shirting here to add to the sashing. It matches better in real life.

 The quilter made no attempt not to cut off points either And I'm finding tiny mends, even darned spots, squares pieced of bits of fabric no bigger than my fingernail.

It's so fun---a mystery, a challenge.

Have a good weekend.

love

lizzy 

......gone to the beach

The blue and white quilt behind Mo is from
the same flea dealer, who  told me the quilts
[and the blue polka dot star quilt]
came from the same owner/ family home.
To me the two blue quilts look newer,
1920-1950? How I wish I knew their stories.

False Economy

Hi guys! Today's topic--recipes. And Pinterest.
I love looking at recipes on Pinterest. Sure, it's great to be able to access all these wonderful quilt photos...but for me the lure of Pinterest is in the food. I'm such a sucker. Mmmm. Just LOOK at the food. The photos! I sit there and pin ideas for future meals, everything looks so pretty and so healthy to make for my family.

It's very tempting.
And now and then I actually make something from my file. For example "BEST Crockpot  Beef with Broccoli Ever''.  OMG it was the worst fail to come out of my kitchen since I tried to make moussaka for a boyfriend who had just returned from a trip to Greece. Many many years ago. But the beef w/ broccoli? Oh, wow. Nasty. [Way too  much soy sauce, and the beef cooks away to nothing. Waste of good sesame seeds, at best.] here
But that doesn't stop me from looking. Which brings us to another issue--Spring Cleaning. And here on Pinterest was a lovey recipe for a ''green''  / safe/ healthy / frugal household cleaner. Cinnamon Orange Cleanser

The idea looked so pretty. Like Mrs Meyer's Christmas cleanser.

And I had all the makings. Even a big jar of white vinegar leftover from last fall's pickling efforts.

I had an orange. And a jar of cinnamon sticks from my stock of potpourri makings.

I got out  a big glass pickle jar from my stash of useful glassware and filled it with the good things, anticipating a lovely fresh spring cleaning product.

The jar marinated on a dark shelf for a few weeks as directed. I decanted it into one of my not-so-green-so-I reuse them Mrs Meyers spray bottles. I sprayed the kitchen counter, high hopes in hand...

Ugh. It smelled like I wiped down the counters with an old bottle of Good Seasons salad dressing. The vinegar  reeked. [No surprise, I hate the smell of cheap vinegar] It was was disgusting.  What was I thinking? [in defense of the original blogger who posted the recipe, she does say it smells awful. But I was dazzled by the photos. Again.]

And how could this possibly be a frugal way to to clean? The jug of vinegar cost a couple bucks, the orange was at least 99 cents, the cinnamon?---not free anyway. A nice fresh bottle of Mrs Meyers costs 3.99. I think I ll stick with her products, and my beloved Clorox.

I've used both lemon verbena and radish Mrs Meyers scents--and now she has green apple! oooooo! And sunflower! What do sunflowers smell like, you ask? Dirt and green foliage, sap and pollen? Nope, the site says citrus and melon. I'm gonna look for that for summer. Basil sounds lovely too, doesn't it? And Parsley. A far better way to spend a few dollars, I think.

As for the Pinterest cleaner--do you think I could use it to wash my windows? Or will the cinnamon and orange sweetness draw ants and other bugs? Maybe it will make a nice drain refresher instead?
Wasted time, wasted money But kinda fun.

Now where did I leave my Clorox Clean-up?
[my Pinterest food file is here ]
PS I had to add my chocolate bunny for Easter and spring. He's just so cute! And faux.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

PS neither Pinterest or Mrs Meyers in any way asked for my opinion. Products pix are from Mrs Meyers website.

Happy Easter

Hi everyone. April has arrived, with rain and fog and mud. It looks like April may fly by as fast as March and February did, which is probably a good thing. We're all ready for summer days here. Just now Mo and I saw a neighbor barbecuing: salmon, for Good Friday. And a young guy was working in his garden in  gym shorts and tee shirt despite the 40* weather and dense fog.
Since Easter this year is just me and Mo, I'm keeping things low-key.
So far I've resisted bunny ears for Mo.

And I've been adding some springtime pretties to the cottage. My blog friend Kit mentioned awhile ago that the only time she allows pastels in her Montana home is around Easter / April. So when I was hunting for dessert plates a few weeks ago I got out all my pretty flowered vintage plates and arranged them in my plate rack and on the sideboard-dresser.

I included my few pieces of purple, lavender, and mulberry Staffordshire ware too, plus a few pale aquas.

Pretty ironstone jugs with roses.

I've collected floral plates for years, I use them for birthdays and things like Mothers Day tea. But I've never displayed them on my shelf. Pansies are treasured finds, and I look for violets patterns and lily of the valley too.

I like them! It's fun to see flowers if only on a plate.

I set out my special Tiny Baskets quilt from Dorothy in Australia. Its perfection always amazes me and pleases my eye.

In the living room I added a new candle, the Bath & Body Works Peach Bellini candle. It smells amazing!

And is a pretty pastel color.

A small pot of tiny daffs...

A few gifted tulips, up high to avoid the Mo-munchies.

Oh it was soooo hard to resist the Easter flowers today at the grocery store.

I did buy a bag of Cadbury Eggs.

A mason jar of chocolate eggs is a necessity for Easter.

I've been using this scrap of antique quilt as a candle mat recently. (I bought it as is, I'd never cut up such a beautiful quilt). I love its faded sage and cream colors and it's a favorite pattern of mine: Leaf and Reel, I think. Though I don't own an antique quilt in this pattern.

I think the quilting is interesting. It is very like the current fad of Big Stitch quilting, where the stitches are larger and the thread is heavier pearl cotton. The back seems to be homespun, handwoven linen.

This piece probably dates from c. 1850-1880?---so the idea of big stitches is not new.

I'm not going to make colored eggs but I enjoy setting out my bowl of collected real and faux eggs, here in natural shades.

And maybe we'll have matzo ball soup and devilled eggs! Whatever. Enjoy your hols!
Happy Easter, Happy Passover!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach..............

***all Easter pugs from etsy.com