turkey feathers

Dolly's Delights

Grace has been busy over here whipping up more petite confections. 

These tiny cupcakes, fresh from the dollhouse bakery, are for Jenny (Everyday is a Holiday). 

They are the teeniest cupcakes ever!  I can't even fathom this, and yet here they are.  Each one is about the size of a blueberry, the platter an inch-and-a-half in diameter. 

They'll be on their way soon.  Right after I stop drooling and staring at them. 

And another doll quilt.  This one is 12" x 12".   I'm really fond of this simple block pattern and strip-piecing in general. 

The embroidered bunny is from this old pattern set. 

At Your Service

Head Cook, third in command: 

" Her first duty, in large establishments and where it is requisite, should be to set her dough for the breakfast rolls, provided this has not been done on the previous night, and then to engage herself with those numerous little preliminary occupations which may not inappropriately be termed laying out her duties for the day.  This will bring breakfast hour of eight, after which, directions must be given, and preparations made, for the different dinners of the household and family." 

~Mrs. Beeton (1861)

Speaking of Mrs. Beeton's handy book of household management, I'm glad some of you had a chance to watch the program about her life recently; thank you for pointing me to the biography that's out now too.  I have added it to my reading list.

On another note, I'm nearing the end of Astrid and Veronika. Another tragic tear-jerker. It's books and stories like these that can make us thankful for so many things. 

Fortunately, for balance sake, Ginger and I are reading Ida B: and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World.  This book is beautifully written and light-hearted, even though life deals Ida and her family a few blows.  But we are nearing the end now and things seem to be sorting themselves out.  Whew!  

One of the things I love about children's literature, is the inevitable conclusion and the happy ending.  Eventually, we learn that real life is not always so neat and tidy. But without a happy ending, where is the hope? 

Just knowing that certain things are possible is very encouraging somehow. 

Like chicken servants. 

Aren't these two cute?  I'd hire them to do my cooking in a heartbeat.  But for now I will just have to be content with them gracing my dishtowels. 

Janet (Primrose Design) shared the patterns with me a few months ago and I finally got them done.  You can find them here on her website. 

Marvelous Mail

The mailman was smiling when he came around to the back door carrying the big pink polka-dot box with butterfly stickers all over it.  I am sure he thought it was someone's birthday. 

It felt like mine, let me tell you.

I did a little swap with Calamity Kim;  a mini-quilt for an apron, and this is what she sent me. 

Oh my.

Every package held something special.  Packages within packages, all wrapped in delicious scraps of cloth and yummy trims.  This treasure box was for Mother's Day.  (How sweet is that?)

It was packed with many, many delightful things.

There were vintage hankies, seed beads, mica glitter, a flower pin, miniatures for the dollhouse, a tiny paper umbrella, alpha deck of letter cards. 

One package held a very cute heart-shaped pincushion on a stand. Everything seemed to be sprinkled with flowers and butterflies. 

And I hadn't even gotten to the package with the apron yet. 

Which was exquisite.  White chenille layered with flowers and butterflies, fairies, and birds, lace and yo-yo's.  Like a fabric collage. 

Grace walked into the room and immediately put it on. It matched her outfit perfectly.  I think I'm going have a heck of a time wranglin' this away from her.   Especially now that she's noticed it's reversible, with CUPCAKES on the other side. 

 

Well.  I just couldn't be more pleased with this swap.  Thank you so much, Kim! 

Also, Kim started a new flickr group called, Doll Quilt CrAzY.  A place to upload your doll quilt photos and to find inspiration for making some. 

All Or Nothing

This is the hanging berry basket i bought from the farm stand a few weeks ago.  I love it and have been fussing over it, moving it around to various sunny spots under the trees on the patio.  Yesterday it was really loaded with ripe strawberries and this morning I went out to pick them. 

Every berry was gone, and half the plant.  Yep.  You guessed it.  We had visitors.  Two bucks.  And they even had the gall to lounge around on the grass afterwards patting their bellies and licking their chops.

Talk about wearing out your welcome.

But (sniff) there's still a bit of GOOD NEWS:  the roses have not been touched.  Not a single bud or flower has been munched.  So it's not all bad. And that can only be attributed to the Mister's magic concoction.   I truly hope so anyway, because several people have been asking for the recipe, which we are happy to share--I just don't want to make any wild claims.  You know, just in case.  Here it is:

Deer Repellent Mixture

To 1 quart spray bottle add:

1 beaten egg

1/4 cup milk

1/4 teas. dish soap liquid

1/4 teas. vegetable oil

5 drops clove oil (available at craft or health food store)

Water to fill container after all ingredients have been added.

It's recommended to spray this mixture once a month, but I have been misting a few times a week, because I'm still not totally convinced this is all it takes.  So far it does seem to be working though.  Just for fun, I'd love for anyone else to give it a try and tell us what your experience is with repelling deer, bugs, slugs, aphids, or whatever you discover it's good for. 

So dear ones, that concludes our garden tour for this week.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Thanks for coming along and drying my tears.  

Experimentals

Our garden tour continues with a stomping cute birdbath or maybe it's for squirrels.  Either way, I wish it was mine. 

And yes, I definitely think I need to plant a snowball bush now.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts and information about it.  I've been doing a little more research and was surprised to learn that it's a distant cousin of the hydrangea.  Which would explain a lot of things, in my mind anyway, like size and shape similarities.  I've always been fascinated by how you can enrich the soil and change hydrangea blossoms from pink to blue.  Our soil is on the acid side, so I see a lot of blue ones around our area.  Last year, I planted a hydrangea start as an experiment.  So far, it's not going that well.  It faces west and gets too much late sun, to the point where it faints--and I have to revive it with a cool drink of water, and hold it's leafy hand and encourage it to hang on. Oh, the drama!  I plan to move it to another location.  Right now, it looks rather pitiful surrounded by chicken wire, sometimes draped with a wet sheet, which is even more ridiculous looking.  Maybe when its all grown up it will thank me one day with a few glorious blooms.

There are 3 kinds of flower varieties at my house: annuals, perennials, and experimentals.  When something survives around here, I feel like throwing a party.  It's not easy.  Weather aside, we have deer.

Even the lupine, which the deer have never bothered, have become a target.  I just happened to catch these spires standing tall and graceful in our backyard this morning.  Then looked over and saw a bunch on the other side of the path that were eaten down to the ground. 

Oh the sorrow and utter horror of it all.  It hurts, it hurts! 

Especially because these flowers are friends to endangered butterflies.  Like our Fender's Blue Butterfly, particularly.  Although it prefers the Kincaid's lupine for laying eggs.  I actually spotted it twice (for the first time), in the last week now.  It made me so happy to see it! 

So, I'm thinking I need to mix up some deer repellant, some of the "magic concoction". 

And quick too!!  I think I hear rustling in the trees.

Snowballs & Cottontails

I keep seeing these snowball trees everywhere lately.  Their fluffy little flower globes are hard to miss.  Apparently they attract bees & butterflies.  All the more reason to plant one, I say.    This one was growing in a neighbor's yard we visited over the weekend.   It was twenty years old and about ten feet tall.  I just stood right here staring up at it for the longest time.

But it was only one of many mesmerizing wonders that were growing over there. 

The entire garden had deer fencing around it.  Something I found very encouraging as we continue to work on our own fortress.   .  .

. . . which is coming along nicely, despite a few small fuzzy distractions. 

Miss Kitty Takes a Bow

I am thinking about dolls right now. 

Because what is a Doll Quilt without a doll?   

Enter stage left; Miss Kitty.

She has been dancing around in my head for a while, and I thought it was time I got her out of my daydreams and onto the dance floor. 

Kitty here, is made from an old pattern I designed many years ago, when there were small children in my daily life.  I was sewing quite a bit in those days--mostly out of necessity, and I made a dangly cloth kitty doll as a teething toy out of some left-over scraps.  It started a frenzy of doll making, and soon I was off and running with my first business enterprise.  I made dozens of them for friends and sold some in shops and craft fairs.   

So, recently I went digging through my files, pulled this pattern out again and dusted it off.  (I save everything--to my credit and dismay). 

With a little revamping, a star is born! 

Tickled Pink

I was outside puttering around in the warm sunshine this morning, and did a double-take when I saw this rose. 

Yes, I do believe I'm seeing a rose growing happily.  Out in the open.  In MY backyard.  With all the deer roaming around, this is a miracle.

It's almost too good to be true.  I really do want to believe that The Mister's "magic" concoction works, but I have to admit that I'm a bit dubious when it comes to the roses.   

See how shiny the leaves are?  They've been sprayed about a dozen times now--total overkill I know, but I am not quite convinced this works yet. 

The spray mixture is a simple one using harmless ingredients from the kitchen: milk, egg, cooking oil, dish liquid, and clove oil. 

It smells something awful and probably tastes even worse, which is why the deer possibly haven't eaten these yet.   

Will wait and see though and report back on the success or failure of this experiment.

Another solution for marauding munchers: hanging baskets.  We got a pair of these over the weekend to hang on the porch.  (An early Mother's Day present!)  They are just gorgeous.  The petunias smell heavenly sweet and the white flowers are the cutest, most perfectly shaped little things, called Barcopa.   

Well, that's all from the home front for now.  Need to get back outside and enjoy this supreme spring weather while it lasts.  Even if it means another day spent on my hands and knees pulling weeds. 

Birds of a Feather

Still going with the mini-quilts over here.   My theme lately seems to be chicks.  Not planned, just something I noticed when I grabbed these three to show this morning.   Must be the influence of spring and all the birdsong in the air.  I've been getting emails asking, how I do the binding.   There are different ways, but I like these mitered corners.   I don't think I could explain it better than what Heather Bailey has already put together here.  It's an excellent tutorial in PDF form that can be printed out so you can take it to your machine and go step-by-step if you need to.  And also this video demo for joining the binding ends neatly, is very good.  Have a fun, crafty weekend!

That's what I'm planning on doing anyway.

Stop & Smell the Cookies

These yummy things were sitting on the kitchen counter cooling when I got home yesterday afternoon.  Ginger and I had gone out to visit friends, while Grace stayed home and baked these for her music teacher.  She pays for her guitar lessons with cookies.  It's a sweet deal for both of them.  The hardest part is keeping us from gobbling them up before she gets to class.  Well, no wonder.  The whole house smelled utterly scrumptuous when I walked in.  It wasn't easy, but I did restrain myself...only snitched one.  (OK, I had two.)  How could I resist?  So good.  Soft, chewy.  Still warm from the oven.  I think the addition of chocolate compliments the molasses perfectly.  Our dear girl used a recipe from everyday FOOD, the *Collectible Cookie Edition* (Holiday 2006), but added her own powder-sugar icing, with "lots of butter",  she told me.  Uh-huh, she's learning.  She also substituted (good quality) chocolate chips instead of the coarsely chopped chocolate squares called for.  I looked, but couldn't find this particular recipe for chocolate molasses cookies to link to from the MS website though...that search engine is so broad and not very helpful or maybe it's under another name.  Anyway, I ran out of time and patience hunting for it, but it's a simple recipe, old as the hills as far as soft-molasses cookies go, with the addition of the melted chocolate.  Oh, and I noticed these when I was clicking around.  Might just try and talk her into making them next.   

And this little cake?  It's her latest creation from the dollhouse bakery.  A special order from Jenny, who requested a miniature of this popular cake made by Miette Patisserie in San Francisco.  I think it's a pretty good likeness.  And no calories!  It's about the size of a quarter in diameter.   Grace just added a few things to her ETSY shop this week.  Many things sold before I had a chance to mention it here.  But there might be a few crumbs left.   If you hurry. .  .  .. .

Like Bookends

Yesterday's visitors made themselves right at home.  There were six that I counted wandering around throughout the day grazing on things they're not supposed to like.  They sense, of course, that my roses are about to bloom.  Or maybe they've just heard the news, about the fortress, and have come to check it out for themselves.  Hey!  Shoo! Get away from those flowers!  (Note the terror I inspire?)  Sometimes it all seems quite hopeless.

But then, there's a knock at the backdoor.  And The Mister is standing there, looking bashful as a schoolboy, with a most wonderful surprise!

May Day

And a new month.  Just where did April go anyway?  It was here a minute ago.  Time to turn another page on the calender.   "April showers bring May flowers" as the saying goes, and today is the day for honoring Flora, but since I've shown practically nothing but flowers this past week, I thought I'd share this little message quilt I finished up instead.  I used Yo-Yo's to make my posies.  If you haven't tried making yo-yo's yet, you have no idea how much fun you're missing.  (Hey, it's the simple things, remember?)  There's a great tutorial here if you suddenly feel a calling.  And check out this pattern for making heart-shaped ones.  It's amazing how many variations and uses can be found for using these, like quilts, dolls, crafts, and pillows.   (There's this new cool tool, but really, they are pretty easy to do after a little practice.)  I'm still using what I have, so some left-over strips of binding worked really well for the stems.  I was going to add leaves, but then decided I liked the simplicity of form, like a child's drawing.  The colors too are a little different here, and may not be everyone's cup of tea, but they suit me just fine and dandy.  See the whole happy little thing over here.