some birthday stuff

Amidst all the painting, I was happy to take a sewing break. Stephanie is 19 this week and loves pajama pants, so I sewed these up the night before her birthday. New Look 6160 Easy in a comfy flannel with a drawstring...

(Sorry about the poor pictures.)

She did accuse me of 'showing off' with my new machine when she saw the posy stitch on the hem...

The birthday cake was Gateau Moelleux au Chocolat aka French Chocolate Cake which I have raved about before~its scrumptious! You can find the recipe and the story behind it, here.

Thanks for all your kind comments!

resurfacing ~ some works in progress

Life has gotten so busy that before I knew it a week+ has flown by. In the middle of the kitchen facelift, our washer died. Since the dryer is verrry old we decided to replace both ~ another frontload washer and a stacking dryer. Of course, since I've been wanting to replace the 15 year old wallpaper in the laundry room, now would be the time, right? So we quick switched gears this past weekend and started stripping wallpaper and painting the laundry room; meanwhile the kitchen is in a semi state of disaster with a counter removed and a wall cabinet emptied and relocated in order to put in the new countertop. If I'm not back for awhile, you know why.

Anyway, I thought I'd take this time to post some works in progress.

This bag, using the little red riding fabric, is actually finished and waiting to be listed in the shop

This is my current knitting project that has fallen to the wayside. Seems I just cannot get motivated lately to work on it ~ I really need to get it finished. It's a short-sleeve t-shirt pattern from magknits, and I'm using Knit Picks Main Line yarn in cocoa. Everything stalled when I came to the design on the front... This hasn't stopped me from starting more projects. These are some pear pincushions made of vintage barkcloth and just waiting for a little stem at the top...
Lastly, a peek at the farmhouse sink sitting in the basement. To save money I was ready to go with an acrylic one, but we found a great deal on e-bay for this porcelain fireclay sink with free shipping...
My afternoon is to be spent painting and removing wallpaper, with lots more painting over the weekend.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

These beautiful roses were waiting for me this morning, a Valentine's gift from my sweetheart!

Outside, today, things are pretty blustery thanks to a winter storm. I took my camera with me when I went out to the barn and henhouse...the birds probably do not think this is looking very welcoming...

The hens will not step foot outside...

When I got to the barn door, Bailey (our barn kitty) was peering out the door at me. Her little escape route under the big sliding doors was completely snowed in ~ she was very happy to see me with her afternoon snack, as were the horses...

Have a great Valentine's Day!

weekend eating & a facelift

Over the weekend I tried a couple recipes from the Saveur magazine 'Cream Tea' article. The scone recipe is delicious, one of which I had with tea this morning along with a modified version of clotted cream and some blackberry jam. I am sure I have added a couple pounds in the last three days!

Below is my attempt at the Victoria sponge cake. Not quite as pretty as the Saveur cake, but really delicious...

Deb and Kim asked about the cook book stand...I found it at the flea market last Memorial Day and after a trip to my husbands workshop, it is now being put to good use. I think it was probably an old music stand...
Since February is such a looooong month around here, it's the perfect time for a project. We've been wanting to give the kitchen a facelift, so this weekend we got started. Hopefully after some paint, 'new' countertops (using salvaged flooring), and a farmhouse sink, it will have a new, brighter look. And the goal is to do this all as frugally as possible!

This is one of the 'before' pictures, with one of the cabinet doors already removed ...

More pictures as we make some progress...

Cream Tea

When I was at the library yesterday, this Saveur magazine on the sale cart immediately caught my eye, because I love tea time. For 25 cents this May o5 issue was mine...

The article "Cream Tea Country" by Megan Wetherall is described in the table of contents ~ "A quest for the perfect English cream tea takes the author to Devon, where clotted cream, homemade berry jam, butter scones, and steaming tea served from bone china define a vanishing was of life." The photographs in this article are a feast for the eyes!

My goal for this weekend is to make the Victoria Sponge Cake pictured on the cover (I will have to improvise for the Devon cream), while wishing I were really at The Old Cottage Tea Shop in Bovey Tracey.

For some on-line recipes, check out Cream Teas , Cornish Cream Tea, and this recipe for Victoria Sponge Cake.

I would also like to mention a very wonderful person named Peggy, of Homemade Simplicity. She has kindly asked to highlight Homespun Living as her 'blog pick for the month' for February. And she has very generously treated me to a one year subscription to her E-zine, The Simple Home Almanac. If you would like to check out her lovely website, just click on the Home Made Simplicity icon in my sidebar; I'm sure she would love to hear from you!

corners of my home

Today was my shopping and errand day, and after making all my stops, even though I told myself I shouldn't :), I headed towards the new thrift store in town. Since last week, I'd been thinking about a $5 oil painting I had seen there, and I was happy to find the painting still unsold. Right now it's propped up in my workroom until I find the perfect spot for it. It's not signed and looks like it may have been painted by a beginner~I love its imperfection!

And here are some pictures of the storage cubby I painted green to match the little chest of drawers...

I'm still in the process of getting it organized ~ hopefully it will be good for holding magazines, idea files, cardstock, etc....My next project in here is to sew the simple swedish roll-up blind, and I found some fabric today that I hope I will look good ~ just need to choose a matching fabric for the lining.

the 'anna corba' pedestals...

This morning I worked on laundry and refinishing a section of the pine flooring in the kitchen. Glad to be done with that job, I took some time out to finish the wooden pedestals I started here.

The painting and decoupage was done earlier, so today I just did some distressing, gave the bases a couple coats of wax, and glued on the pom pom fringe.

I really did not stray from the original design shown in the book. I used images from some old music books for the background, and added some flower images on top of that.

These were really a fun project, so I'm going to keep an eye out for more salvaged finials!

Thanks for all the well-wishes. My kind husband waited on me over the weekend so I could rest, and I'm feeling a lot better.

thrifty goodness

These goodies are the result of three recent thrift store visits. Since I'm just sitting here recuperating, it seemed like a good time to post them. I found three of these plates with roses and morning glories at the Salvation Army for under $2...
...which just happen to be very similar in color to this little creamer I found for a couple dollars at the antique mall. It is made of the thinnest, most delicate china and in perfect condition. I couldn't resist...
A new thrift store opened in our town awhile back, and I finally got around to checking it out. Wow! The building, which was an old men's shop~old as in shop, not as in men~is chock full of stuff. There are unloaded boxes of linens, sewing stuff, kitchenware, and piles of more stuff that you have to step over, in addition to furniture. A little bit of everything, and lots to be discovered if you have the time to look and sort through it all. Seems they are bringing in boxes faster than they can unload them.

I found some paper lace doilies, linen napkins, some bias tape, and buttons...
There were tons of old books, so I grabbed an old dictionary and music book for paper crafting...
I hope to be feeling better this week, cause I can't wait to go back there...I still have the basement level to check out :)

mail to brighten my day!

After spending the week fighting off a cold, it has finally gotten the best of me this weekend. I have spent the day curled up in front of the fire with a box of tissues, so it was really nice to receive a special package recently from Clarice.

A beautiful handmade valentine from Clarice, Auberne, & Chloe...

this very cute picture trimmed with ribbon and little jewels...

some really heavenly chocolate....

and the the most beautiful thank you note ~ isn't this pretty!

A huge heartfelt thanks!!

today's 'corner of my home'

February is a tough month for me as far as weather goes ~ it's been very gray and bleak here, and we are all beginning to crave more sunshine ~ our area is very low on the list as far as percentage of sunshine across the nation. I'm not sure if our local groundhog saw his shadow today, but either way we always have at least 6 more weeks of winter weather.

So, at the grocery store I picked up some roses. I put them in a favorite old pitcher, whose color and crackly worn surface I really love, pulled out this floral runner, and decorated the kitchen table.
Hopefully this will help tide us over.
Happy Groundhog Day!