Goodbye's...

...and hello's! My blog has reached full capacity and I decided it was best to start over again with a clean slate and some new ideas. I am no longer posting on this blog but will not delete it for the time being. I do hope you will come over to join me at my new blog called All My Scattering Moments. Please take a moment to stop in and let me know that you found me there. I will look forward to hearing from you.

Teatime Tuesdays ... oops ... Thursday

Here I am very late with my Teatime Tuesday. I had a day out with a friend on Tuesday. She came and got me so I had a day out of the house. I was so tired in the afternoon when back home that I did not post my teatime recipe. So here we are on Thursday and I hope you will forgive me but I wanted to share the next recipe.

What is a tea without the English tea sandwiches? They are so very good too. There are many kinds but this is the one I used for my last tea.

Cucumber and rocket tea sandwiches

Sturdy white bread
Cucumber
Rocket salad leaves
Butter
Salt and pepper

Spread butter on one side of two slices of bread. On one slice, cover with rocket leaves and then add a layer of sliced cucumber. Don't slice the cucumber paper thin as you want to be able to really taste the cucumber. Salt and pepper the cucumber to taste. Press the next buttered slice of white bread on the sandwich and cut off the crusts with a sharp bread knife. Slice the sandwich in half diagonally and wrap tightly in cellophane. Keep in the fridge until using. These sandwiches can easily be made up the day before a tea and stay fresh and crispy in the fridge.

One sandwich per person for a tea table.

I have been doing many bigger projects lately and really needed a finish. I decided to pick up a project that I put aside a year ago. I designed a little sampler for one of the hornbooks that my step father made for me. I finally decided what thread to use. I did the entire design in Carrie's Thread "Thanksgiving". I have to start working on a design for the next hornbook he made which is a very special one.

My mother and I have come up with another fun idea for a hornbook and now I just have to convince George to start making it. He said I still had to do the other ones so here is a finished hornbook George! *grins*

Edit ~ There have been a couple of questions about what a hornbook is. See an old blog entry I did about hornbooks here.

I'm in the garden...

Yes, that is where I spent my weekend! Not here through the garden gate at Cranberry Cottage but looking out the window at our city garden. It was a bit too chilly for me to sit outside and stitch but think of the garden I did...


This is because as I mentioned in my last post, I was starting my Nobody Love Me sampler. Now I decided to join Annemarie's Lovelorn Sisterhood as I sang this child's song when I was young and still sing it today. I love teasing my mother by singing it to her! *grins* I have understood that some have never heard this little ditty so check out this adorable version here. How cute is this little boy!?!

Well, when a sampler is dedicated to this, you just have to stitch it, right? That being said...the only worm this girl would put in her mouth would have to be made of yummy pure chocolate but don't tell my mother I said so. I would not want her to no longer take my song seriously of course. *wink*

So here are the fruits of two days of my gardening labors. Gee, this kind of gardening is great fun! It is really going quickly which I am pleased about since I already know how I am going to finish it. I am so excited to get started on the finish but that will have to wait for a couple more weekends of 'gardening'.

The linen is Wilchelt-Permin 32 count Star Sapphire which has a very soft blue hue although it does not show well in the photo.

Getting into trouble once again...

What's a girl gonna do? I came back from my check up at the hospital tired and weary of some news. I have to have another biopsy for sure this summer and my thyroid is hardening from the treatment so it is 'perhaps', as the doctor put it, going to be more uncomfortable this time around. Humm...her way of saying it is going to hurt? I am hoping it will be okay and she gave me some medicine to take starting the day before I go in. Okay, enough of that...it is now out of my mind.

So I came home minding my own business and that business this week is stitching on my French Abecedaire SAL which is very sadly behind.....


When the latest issue of Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly dropped on my front door mat. I opened it to have a little peek. I was really only just going to peek and then get back to my stitching. First, I started reading a wonderful article about a simple little sampler which had me salivating (I think I want to reproduce it and add a copy of the letter dating the sampler to the back of the framed piece) and then...

I browse through the rest and see this! Why did I look??? Now I have to start stitching this wonderful sampler! I remember this little verse from my childhood. The colors are wonderful on it and best of all...look at all those cats! Why did I look???

On top of that, I had planned to get a start on my new project this weekend. I have become one of Annemarie's Lovelorn Sisters and was the first on the Traveling Pattern list. There are 19 of us in the Lovelorn Sisterhood if I remember correctly. I have my marking copy run off so I can start stitching. I also have a fun idea for the finishing which I hope I can make work when it is done.

I pulled the colors today. This however is not going to be the fabric. I have decided on Wilchelt-Permin 32 count Star Sapphire. I hope to have enough of a start to share it with you this coming week.

So as I said, why did I look??? I want to start my next red and white sampler soon too. I really do have more than enough projects in my basket. And we won't even discuss how many other are hidden around my house. And with all this...I really do have to start on a few quilt UFOs as soon as I feel up to it. So here is me getting into trouble once again.

Teatime Tuesdays is seeing letters...

I only just realized a few days ago that I missed the last Teatime Tuesday. Sorry about that. We are trying to find humor in my forgetfulness right now and blaming absolutely everything on my silly thyroid gland. You hear us going around the house with any mishap exclaiming "Oh it's just that gland again!" whether I am the cause of the mishap or not. *grins*

This week, the recipe is one that is good for a refreshing end to a tea but also just a fun summertime treat to be enjoyed anytime.

Strawberry Buttermilk

500 gram (1 pound/2 cups) Fresh strawberries
500 ml (2 cups) buttermilk
1 tablespoon sugar

Wash the strawberries and puree them with a stafmixer or blender. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar. I taste a strawberry first as you made need more if they are not very sweet. Do this according to your own taste. Now add buttermilk. I used probably about 400 ml. Buttermilk seems to be very thin this year while we are used to a thick buttermilk normally here in Holland. You don't want this drink to become too watery. Taste a spoon of it as you go to get it just right. You can use it as a summer drink at this stage or add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an extra creamy treat. For a tea, I place a small scoop of vanilla ice cream in a wine glass and pour the strawberry buttermilk over to fill the glass. Serve with a spoon. Even if you don't normally like buttermilk, give this a try as I think you will be surprised.


I can finally share an update again on my French letter sampler. This is a project I am doing with two friends. We will be using it on a wooden sewing box. It is great fun to let this sampler develop as I go along. Each time I pick a new letter H or symbol that I want to use on my box. I have used scissors and plan on stitching a few more sewing symbols.

I want to include things like my DHs initials but also a silhouette of a cat to symbolize Dagi. Thanks to SS for her help with this but I now have found the purrfect cat! This just looks so much like Dagi. He sat on my lap this weekend while I stitched it so there are even a few of his cat hairs worked into the piece for good luck.

I finally pulled out the stitchs of this little H that were in the very light shade of pink. It did not work well on my linen so I have restitched it in a brick red now that works well on the linen but also with the fabric I will be lining my sewing box in. I am off to search through my charts again for some more motifs. Gee, this is such great fun 'designing as you go' that I would highly recommend it! If you have ever wanted to create your own French letter sampler, just get out your needle and thread and start. You won't be sorry.

Needle in hand...

That is how I have been spending my time when I was not sleeping. I am happy to say that I fall asleep less now during the day and today did not feel so cold until late afternoon when it was back to my clothes closet to slip on a sweater. I do feel while it is slow going that I am improving a little. My doctor felt she was perhaps increasing the dosage of my medicine too quickly which was giving me strange headaches in the middle of the night. She is slowing the pace a little and still assures me to just be patient.

So what do I do to be patient? I sit with needle in hand of course! It has been my best friend through all of this. I don't have the energy to quilt so I am working on my stitching projects and making slow progress. So slow, in fact, that the tortoise would look like a speed demon beside me but that is okay.


We had a long holiday weekend here in Holland and drove up to Cranberry Cottage on Thursday. We stayed through Saturday and decided to drive home last last night as it seems that Holland has discovered the beauty of the north. They were 'all' up there this weekend. Traffic was terrible. By coming home on Saturday night, we were able to avoid the traffic having to return home on Sunday.

So we decided to enjoy our Sunday here in our city garden. I sat in the shade with my stitching while Jos was refinishing an old iron garden table. It has turned out to be a thing of beauty by the way! I tried to spoil him while he worked and made him a fresh fruit salad of Galia melon, banana and strawberries for lunch and then a break later with Ice Coffee. Yep! You can see them next to my stitching. *grins*

My 10 Virgins is coming along nicely and I actually finished 5 more letters from the moment I took this photo. Alas, it is at the neglect of other projects! I need to get back to my French Abecediare SAL very soon. I am so behind on it. I just cannot seem to get away from these 5 giggly gals as my friend Angela has dubbed them. I have decided I am not allowed to work on them this week so I can try and catch up a little on the SAL.

I am also hoping to spend some time visiting many of you this week to see what you have been up to lately. For all our American friends, I hope you are enjoying a happy Memorial Day weekend.

What are you working on???

Primitive ornaments SAL - Candy Canes

Our next ornament is something that every child delights in on a Christmas tree ~ candy canes. A candy cane is a simple way to add festive cheer to even a glass vase during the holidays and I am hoping you will find this primitive ornament adding holiday cheer to your month of May as you stitch your set of ornaments.


Enlarge the hand drawn chart and copy to Word or an email to print it out.

I received the following photos of ornaments finishes. My mother, Nancy, surprised me when she stitched up the Let It Snow ornament. She has said she was not going to stitch them but being a snowman lover, she decided she did need to make this one. She did not tell me and surprised me with it on her blog. I loved the addition of the sweet little snowman button.

Letty finished her ornaments from April and they are both beautiful as ever! Her version of Peace On Earth is just that ~ peaceful and calm in white thread. It reminds me of a snowcovered Christmas eve...

Goodwill to Men works so well with her pretty trims she is using.

This month's winner of the giveaway drawing is Nancy. I will be sending out a little gift this coming week.