::'~

Little girl curls up in the orange chair before supper to watch Daddy play his guitar.
"Daddy, blenkeet!", she says. She wants to be all covered up and cozy.

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* * * * *

My morning buddy in her pink stripey dress and her ever-changing zip-it-up sweater on top. Knitting a soft blue kerchief to keep Rosie's head warm during the Spring walks that I am looking forward to in a couple of months. Love these bamboo needles.

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Livi Grace~ don't forget this yummy, easy recipe! It will be dinner at my house today. :)

:: inspiration for winter days ::

::'~ Greta and I got to listen to a sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones yesterday on audio while we did laundry. You can listen to this sample sermon, "Mind, Heart, and Will", for free online at the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust. I would love to hear more of these!
.
::'~ I was thoroughly inspired this morning by Rae's post about cooking Rajma. I can't wait to try it. It's exactly the sort of cooking that makes sense to me and can just flow naturally from your person once you understand, as she says, the players...how the ingredients fit together in the dance of your recipe. I know what to put on my grocery list for this week now! I am so blessed to be married to a guy that loves to have flavor in his food...garlic and chiles and ginger and curry. He could so easily hate garlic and only want potatoes, but as it is we can have fun trying new things together. I am looking forward to each of Rae's food posts to come.

the book lover

Delicious. Unposed. So colorful.

.::.

This is to show Mama my nifty $5 clock. :)
Caleb-And finds the best things to get me. ♥ ~'::

There were three lemons, and it looked best that way, but my rubus was calling for slices of the lovely fresh stuff...

::'~ picture

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Of Mama and me and her great new haircut!
Taken last Wednesday evening during supper prep. ~'::

Ready to go out

(She's very imaginative when it comes to dressing up, the little sweetie!)
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~':: from my week

Lovely flowers from my beautiful valentine

(Love you, Man!)
~

::

Snuggles and silkies and songs at bedtime for Greta Rosie. Instead of noonies.

My doctor says that my progesterone is dipping again, even with the shots

I'm getting twice a week. Hopefully it will help some for my body to be

getting a rest from nursing. Rosie has done wonderfully; an explanation

and some hymn-singing was all it took for her to go to sleep. I am so

grateful!
~

::

Afternoon Sweet-face snuggles and napping

Rosie needs lots of snuggles this week. She's had some sort

of virus and is sniffly and has a bad cough. (Fever, ears, etc.)
~

::

Putting the finishing touches on a granny square ottoman cover for Mama.

We're letting her use our rocker and footstool for the next several months.

We don't have a great space for them, and she'll need a comfortable place

to recover from surgery. Her cancer has returned after eight years, and

surgery is scheduled for this Friday. Its seems that there is a fairly

simple treatment for it, but it will take the better part of this year to

deal with. The granny pattern is Attic24's again, and the

colors should match Mama's kitchen beautifully. I will have to post pictures

of it in it's new surroundings, maybe they'll be over on her blog when we get

a chance to take some. :)

~

::

Sewing a new denim skirt with some great heavy-weight denim.

It has a mind of its own yet but will soften enough in time,

and it has room for my expanding belly. :) It is so fast to

sew...four simple gores and elastic & drawstring waist.

The longest part was sewing the ribbon onto the bottom

by hand. The ribbon is so lovely: gold with maroon and

pink rosebuds. I never can make up my mind whether

I'm trying to be medieval or a hippie. I just love long skirts.

They're so comfortable and comforting to me.

~

::

(Rosie was feeling a bit clingy while I tried to take a picture of my skirt!)

{hearts}

Pictures so Mama and Olivia can see my heart garlands! I got inspired and had to make two. :)

(I just don't remember it being this...orange.)

~ :: ~

This is my lovely morning-buddy

getting ready to go in the "ruck" (truck), for pretend of course,

with her pretty purse and play keys :)

~ * ~ * ~ * ~
It has been requested that I include instructions for these little heart garland things. I will attempt to retrace my steps to please. It was very complicated and well thought out, I assure you! ;)
I had a thought one day about cutting out some hearts for Mama and Livi out of some cardstock-weight scrapbook paper that I had leftover from making Christmas presents and stringing them in a garland of sorts to pin to the wall. As a present, to be sent for Monday Tea next.
My next thoughts consisted of color combinations of said paper leftovers to coordinate with rooms, and also a decision to have more than one heart shape (soft but not too sugary, if you take my meaning).
Next came a delightful while of tracing and snipping and configuring and reconfiguring orders of pattern and shape...Balance, my dear Watson, and flow. Harmony without perfect symmetry.
I originally thought ribbon for the base of the garland, and then I thought Not so! I had some leftover cotton yarn from making washcloths, and I used it to chain crochet a string for each.
You can see the one stitch per heart that I used to sew them on. With quilting thread.
Somewhere in there I made supper: eggs and toast and sautéedonionmushroomgreenpepperzuchinistuff to go on top. I’m sure that had something to do with it.
And that in a Brazil nut shell is what I did. :)
~'::

2.9.10 ~'::

a granny square ottoman cover in progress, hot tea steeping and banana oatmeal cookies cooling
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visiting with auntie and uncle, dancing with Mama (we love dancing!)
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waiting at the window to wave goodbye to the folks

happy days

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granny flowers pillow

for Greta's bed
(she's pleased that it's her very own!)

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Inspired by Attic24's crocheting greatness and made using her pattern for a "Summer Garden Granny Square" ~'::

pillow

I got a bag full of throw pillows from Grandma yesterday when she came with my people for Tuesday tea. I was very pleased. I have had fabric to cover a pillow for my living room with but so far had had no pillow to cover. Now my lovely fabric is out for me to enjoy. Next on the list: a granny square pillow cover for Greta's big girl bed.

(Does anyone have wisdom on how to stuff a pillow and not get lumps?)

::'~ the meadow fairy in her kerchief ~'::

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My morning buddy ♥

The face that greeted me from the top of the stairs yesterday morning. :)
I hear: thump... pad, pad, pad..."Mama?"
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* * * * *
Time for good oatie-meal!

(Mimi&co.-rolled oats, yogurt, flaxmeal, brown sugar)

Mama's winter window

Evening at Crickhollow

s they walked up the green path from the gate no light was visible; the windows were dark and shuttered. Frodo knocked on the door, and Fatty Bolger opened it. A friendly light streamed out. They slipped in quickly and shut themselves and the light inside. They were in a wide hall with doors on either side; in front of them a passage ran back down the middle of the house.
‘Well, what do you think of it?’ asked Merry coming up the passage. ‘We have done our best in a short time to make it look like home. After all Fatty and I only got here with the last cart-load yesterday.’
Frodo looked round. It did look like home. Many of his own favourite things—or Bilbo’s things (they reminded him sharply of him in their new setting)—were arranged as nearly as possible as they had been at Bag End. It was a pleasant, comfortable, welcoming place; and he found himself wishing that he was really coming here to settle down in quiet retirement. It seemed unfair to have to put his friends to all this trouble; and he wondered again how he was going to break the news to them that he must leave them so soon, indeed at once. Yet that would have to be done that very night, before they all went to bed.
‘It’s delightful!’ he said with an effort. ‘I hardly feel that I have moved at all.’

The travelers hung up their cloaks, and piled their packs on the floor. Merry led them down the passage and threw open a door at the far end. Firelight came out, and a puff of steam.
‘A bath!’ cried Pippin. ‘O blessed Meriadoc!’
‘Which order shall we go in?’ said Frodo. ‘Eldest first, or quickest first? You’ll be last either way, master Peregrin.’
‘Trust me to arrange things better than that!’ said Merry. ‘We can’t begin life at Crickhollow with a quarrel over baths. In that room there are three tubs, and a copper full of boiling water. There are also towels, mats and soap. Get inside, and be quick!’
Merry and Fatty went into the kitchen on the other side of the passage, and busied themselves with the final preparations for a late supper. Snatches of competing songs came from the bathroom mixed with the sound of splashing and wallowing. The voice of Pippin was suddenly lifted up above the others in one of Bilbo’s favourite bath-songs.

Sing hey! For the bath at close of day
that washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is a noble thing!

O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain,
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.

O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer, if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.

O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!

There was a terrific splash, and a shout of Whoa! From Frodo. It appeared that a lot of Pippin’s bath had imitated a fountain and leaped on high.
Merry went to the door: ‘What about supper and beer in the throat?’ he called. Frodo came out drying his hair.
‘There’s so much water in the air that I’m coming into the kitchen to finish,’ he said.
‘Lawks!’ said Merry, looking in. The stone floor was swimming. ‘ You ought to mop all that up before you get anything to eat, Peregrin,’ he said. ‘Hurry up, or we shan’t wait for you.’

They had supper in the kitchen on a table near the fire. ‘I suppose you three won’t want mushrooms again?’ said Fredegar without much hope.
‘Yes we shall!’ cried Pippin.
‘They’re mine!’ said Frodo. ‘Given to me by Mrs. Maggot, a queen among farmers’ wives. Take your greedy hands away, and I’ll serve them.’
Hobbits have a passion for mushrooms, surpassing even the greediest likings of Big People. A fact which partly explains young Frodo’s long expeditions to the renowned fields of the Marish, and the wrath of the injured Maggot. On this occasion there was plenty for all, even according to hobbit standards. There were also many other things to follow, and when they had finished even Fatty Bolger heaved a sigh of content. They pushed back the table, and drew chairs round the fire.”

FROM The Fellowship of the Ring

by J.R.R. Tolkien

winter room