vintage linens

My sister is a garage sale queen.

She recently bought a box FULL of vintage linens for...

one dollar.

She very generously gave me a couple items from said box

which were more my style than hers.

(Isn't she the sweetest thing?!)

Here they are on the line.

The beautiful tablecloth on the right is in perfect shape!

The colors are so vibrant.

Now let's talk about the towel on the left.

This sweet thing is not in such good shape,

but what it lacks in condition

it makes up for in subject matter.

When I first realised what adorned this tea towel

I felt like jumping up & down with excitement.
(Actually...I think...I did.)

There it is. In lovely pastels.

Farmgirl going about their chores in trouser legged overalls.

I'm not quite sure what she's doing in the second row far left...

any ideas?

I think my favorite scene is the 3rd on the top row.

She's on a tractor ladeling a drink of water so generously brought to her by a little girl.

So sweet! :)

What's your favorite scene?

flowers & fruit



saving seeds

This year I'm attempting to save seeds.

My hollyhocks are loaded with seeds,

so I guess I'll be supplying the whole family. ;)

I wish I would've taken a picture when they were all in bloom.

The mix I bought was from Burpee (see it here),

and I really loved the color comination.

I first heard of this heirloom variety of lettuce seeds in my favorite book series,

the Fairacre series, by Miss Read.

These I also bought from Burpee. (See them here).

I had never saved lettuce seeds before so I was interested to see how they would be.

They each have a little piece of fluff at the top like a dandelion seed.

(Please pardon the weeds in the background. Once it gets over 85 degrees I don't like to leave the air conditioning. ) :P

We'll find out next year if they sprout.

hand pies

I made these for my grampa (Papa)'s birthday party on Sunday.

I've always thought hand pies were just too cute,

and had to give them a try.

I made them with cherries that I had canned, last year, from our own tree!

I just get a kick out of making things as "from scratch" as possible.

*Home canned cherries & my chicken's eggs*

To roll the crust out to the required dimensions I used a ruler & marker on the underneath of the parchment I rolled the dough out on. 

 I found the recipe in the September issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Their recipe called for fresh berries. I think they may not have oozed out so bad if the cherries I used had been fresh. The crust recipe they suggested I did use, but I would not use it again. It was a butter crust, which I do like, but I have a tried and true pie crust recipe that my Grandma gave me. It uses lard. I know most people would shudder at the thought of using something they would see as so bad for you. But honestly it's natural, I could make it myself, in my own kitchen, no laboratory required. Unlike vegetable shortening with its partially hydrogenated blah blah blah.

I want to try making some meat pies in this way rather like Cornish pasties. It seems to me that it would be very practical picnic food. :)

If you're interested you can find the recipe for Grandma Linda's Lard Pie Crust on my old blog.

Next post: Saving Seeds

gossamer threads

This morning when I went out to feed the animals I saw this pretty sight & had to capture it.

Finally got a new camera. Can you tell? :)

knit

Above is a fairisle yoke sweater that I made for myself a few years back. I'm not exactly sure when. It is from the booklet Land Girls by Debbie Bliss. The original called for stone background with purple & green in the fairisle. I used Knit Picks's Palette in Mist (very light grey), Rosehip (orangey/red), Conch (light coral), Peapod (a rather bright green), & Alfafa (light green).

***

 Below is my Christmas sweater that I made two years ago this November. The original design, found in Debbie Bliss' Fall/Winter 2011 issue was meant to be done in greys and blacks. It did look very nice like that, but I had this red, green, & natural Paton's Classic Wool in my stash. I added the stripes in the ribbing as well just for fun.

Below is my rendition of Debbie Bliss Shrug from the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of her knitting magazine.

The original pattern called for 7 or 8 balls of her Prima (Viscose/wool) yarn. I happened to find this beautiful coral color of Prima at my LYS when I was there on my birthday. I had to have it! ^_^ So I searched through my hoarded magazines and came across this pattern. The original called for 3/4 length sleeves which I replaced with these fluttery cap sleeves, of my own design, with cute bobble edging. Also the ribbing around the perimeter was meant to be quite a bit wider, but this is all that I could do with the yarn I had. I'm quite pleased with the results. The vintage-y style goes with at least two of my summer dresses! 

Having recently started using Ravelry.

 I've been taking pictures of some of my recent (& not so recent) knits.

 I thought I'd share them here on my blog as well since I haven't posted for such a long time.

In personal news:

 Since I was last on here I now have two new nephews, James & Jack, to knit for (in addition to my 7 year old nephew & 4 year old niece). I'll post some pics of their upcoming knitted gifts as soon as they are finished.

Well that's all for now!

~Miss Michelle ^_^