Happy St Paddy's Day!

Hi! Happy St. Patrick's Day.

This is a big holiday here in NY, and in other big cities like Chicago [where they dye the river green!].

Mo is all decked out and ready for his green beer and corned beef on rye:

I can dance a jig, mommy!

Today the grocery store had masses of delightful St P flowers, some with cute little leprechaun hats!

Bells of Ireland.

Real shamrocks.

When I was in the check out line an older man behind me had half a dozen big bouquets, he looked so pleased! Though when I tried to ask him about his purchase ["Those are so pretty! For some lucky ladies, I see?"], he ignored me, just muttering  about how I had a full car in a 20 item lane. Gee. (The cashier had insisted on checking me out, he was doing nothing, not a soul around...until this guy arrived with his flowers, and his NYC hurry it up attitude.) I hope the man cheers up for his party or parade.

Funny things seen out and about....

Enjoy your weekend!

love

lizzy

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

PS Sunny today but very cold. 45 mph winds with wind chill in the low twenties. I hope the wind lessens a bit tomorrow so I can go see if my oystercatchers have arrived.

Another Snow Day

Good morning! It's actually just a grey rainy early spring like day--but last night late, when Mo and I went out for a final wee, snow was falling gently in big soft flakes. One of my favorite things, seeing snow floating down in the illumination of the streetlights. So peaceful--and a bit sad? Is this the final snow of the winter?

I finally started my Schoolgirl Album blocks:

This is the Barbara Brackman Block of the month 2018. Here The blocks on the FB group's page are so beautiful and inspiring, each better than the next.

Here is Block One, two versions. The block is called Wandering Lover. [hmmm, hints of schoolgirl crushes, teenage angst?]

I messed around with doing signature blocks, but didn't want the hassle of the quilt not then being washable. I thought maybe mottoes instead of names, Peace, Kindness, etc.

Instead I went more modern, a nod to script and writing/ letters/ diaries long ago, using this white text print in what will be my full sized blue version.

Each 12.5" block will be different shades of blue. My schoolgirl asked her friends for blues but does not expect them all to match. The alternate blocks 4-Patch 9-Patch maybe will be all one set of fabrics because that sewing would have been done by the girl herself. We'll see.

And this is the hideous greens etc group [Jamestown]. I couldn't resist playing with the uglies. I was also inspired by the FB group's use of toile [scenic prints], lots of toile showing up, fussy cut for a little central vignette.

These blocks will be 9" [9.5] finished, with sashing.

I didn't make a pattern for the 9" ; just guessed to reduce the sizes. It will be a small ''crib'' quilt [for no baby imaginable,lol] and probably will be only 9 of the 12 blocks given over the year. I don't like rectangular quilts.

I really love this version, it is so ugly and old-time patchy looking.  I know the blue will be attractive and actually useful, but it is ho hum in comparison.

Later today, as the rain continues, I am looking forward to making block 2 of both versions. It's a favorite pattern of mine, that I call Lady of the Lake. I forget what BB called it. HERE "Lend and Borrow"

...
On another winter projects note, I want to show you the beautiful hand crocheted pieces Mel sent me a few weeks ago. Mel is Melody here in blog comments, or you may know her as her writing name of Harmne. She is an expert crocheter and she so kindly turned her talents to making me some warmies for walking Mo in the cold winter days.

This was a surprise! Color blocked cowl.

Sooo cheerful and pretty and really warm.

And this is the set we designed together. Well, 90% Mel, 10% me.

The fabric is a linen-y/ cotton/ acrylic tweed, soft and warm and  subtle. Mel's stitches are absolutely even and perfect. I am in awe.

I asked for ruffles! I love ruffles.

Also a head band and my requested fingerless mittens.

I love them all. It took me awhile to take pics because I was busy wearing everything.

With the mittens I have the notion to add wool appliqued flowers. Not sure, because it maybe ruins the more grownup sophisticated style of the set?

...

I don't have any new beach pics for you all, the entrance is deeply flooded still. We'll check it later when we go out. Maybe I can cross through with wellies on? It's too cold to wade through like I do with summer storm floods.
 Have a good week!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

from my phone's weather feed

Even a Little Bit is Progress and A Book Review~

Hi! Friday night, ending a very unproductive week here at the beach. We had two big storms, with lots of storm prep, shopping, cooking. Stress inducing if not threatening. (and another maybe this coming Monday?)

I'm so sleepy tonight, just want to crawl in bed with my Kindle to read my latest book. A new mystery by Peter May: I'll Keep You Safe.
I have just finished the six books of his Enzo Files series. The Enzo Files were hard to get going on, unlike his Lewis Man series, but then something clicked and the characters came to life for me. My criticism is that the underlying plot resolution was entirely hidden from us through all six books and the finale all seemed a bit rushed and makeshift. I think if well written a mystery should at last feature the bad guy[s] so we can say, Aha, I knew it!  And indeed as each book also had its own singular mystery to solve, those plots were glaringly obvious most of the time. But by then I had gotten to like Enzo, we share taste in clothes if nothing else. The Enzo Files  Lewis Trilogy  And a beautiful companion photography book of The Lewis Trilogy locales: here

The new book is I think a stand alone, more modern, with lovely Hebridean tweed aspects, plus a possible terrorist attack. I just started it today, chapter two only.

For storm meals this week I made a slow cooked stew, in my le Creuset dutch oven, not in a slow cooker. Three hours at 320*.
The recipe is Best Stew Ever! It was/ is---just like every other stew you ever ate---brown gravy, onions, dry-dry-very dry meat. Not bad but not BEST. I used a top round London broil at $2.99 a pound. Pre-cubed stew beef, aka top round, was $9.99/ lb. For the difference in price I can cut the cubes myself!recipe

I was  going to bake bread---intriguing recipe, HERE. But I tried three stores and never found King Arthur flour (yes, ok, Gold Medal would be fine, but), but I couldn't find any yeast to buy. Isn't that odd.

I like to bake during storms because using the oven helps warm the house.

We had a lot of snow for Storm Two. And the rather fun oddity of ''thundersnow'', a lightning and thunder storm along with heavy snow.

Mo didn't so much as twitch an ear.

He doesn't mind thunderstorms, only the wind upsets him. Probably the wind has a high piercing sound that humans do not hear, but dogs, even lazy pugs do.

The second storm brought a lot of beach flooding, full moon/ high tides, winds from the south that push the water up onto the beach. The waves went up to the highest dunes, but not over.

The dark horizontal line near the bottom of the pics is the ocean where we usually have sand [and those big trucks!].

Waves crashing up on the high dunes to the east, flooding the swales that are at a much higher level than the beach itself.

I spent a lot of sewing room time working on stupid projects and mending, or looking for items put away during stupid cleanup. Where's my vintage velvet stash? Where are the pinkeep bits and pieces? Does the new Rolls Royce printer really need a cover? [yes].
I made very small progress on Schoolgirl Albums.

This is the blue and white version so far. [The pinky spring flowers are my ironing board cover, not the quilt block.]

And I had a very nasty run in with a woman on FB.

Ah the good old old days, just like on Yahoo Groups. Time to drop out again? I feel so fortunate that my blog readers here are friends, not antagonists. Nine years blogging in October, imagine that.
How about you, did you gets lots done this week?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Map My Walk, Feb stats.