More Waxed Linen Thread and Indoor Garden

After showing you my black and natural white waxed linen thread in my sewing box, I decided I needed a few more colors.  After googling for a ridiculous amount of time comparing prices I found some for half of the price they were on Amazon.  I got some nice primary colors.  I was chagrined that the sellers wrote in huge black marker on the bottom of the neat plastic containers.  This thread is a delight to use for hand-sewing.  It's strong and easily glides through the fabric.  I also love how rustic it is.

Each spool is inside these neat little boxes with a colorful label.  There is a little hole in the center of the lid where you pull out what you need for the project and snip it off leaving a little tail.  I just used the free online translator and guess what Fil au Chinois means?  "Chinese Thread"!  To learn more about this interesting thread, click HERE.

I also got some "White River Shell Buttons" while I was picking out the threads.  The seller is "Thackery" which has all sorts of interesting products.

Do you have house plants?  I got my green thumb from my mother.  She absolutely always had plants growing in our house.  In fact, this green Shamrock plant is from tubers that she gave me from her huge massive pot of them over 40 years ago!  So, if you want a long lasting and wonderful house plant I can highly recommend a Shamrock, the dark red on the left is the other color variety.

This is a new leaf on the plant that sits next to the Shamrocks in our den window.  It's a "Pin Striped Calathea" (thanks Google!).

My severely pruned red Hibiscus is leafing out nicely, but is mad at me and has not produced a flower in quite a while.  I put it in a much bigger pot so it might be putting it's energy in producing new roots?  Or I may need to fertilize it.  

The boy's garden continues to thrive, we've been dining on the lettuce leaves as they grow.  Wouldn't it be amazing if the green pepper and tomato plants actually produce fruit on the kitchen counter?

Dayle picked this Hyacinth up when he ran into the store when we were out yesterday.  I may, or may not have, hinted I wanted one.  :-)  He accompanied me to my annual mammogram yesterday and I also had to have a bone density test.  Ugh!  We consoled ourselves with lunch out afterwards.  

I need to put my nose close to this and see how it smells.  Do you have plants in your house?  My older sister does, my younger sister has not one single house plant.  But she is an avid gardener outside her house.

Kristi got this orchid a few years back and we have been amazed at how it's re-flowered.  

Kristi has used a bread machine that Shawn brought with him when he moved back home with us.  Yesterday it was white bread and today I am smelling the aroma of honey wheat bread baking.  Being low carb with fresh bread smells is not easy.  :-| Kristi has found 3 low carb bread recipes for the bread maker and is going to try making those for me.  :-)

OK, time to pack the swim bag and head off in the cold damp weather to descend into cool water and swim back and forth for an hour.  Can you tell I'm not feeling it today?  I hope you're having a grand mid-week!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Going Irish, Early

I know.. it's a bit early to decorate for St. Patrick's Day.. I know.. it's next month.. I know.. most people don't decorate for it.. but I DO! :-)  

Our little pot of Shamrocks from last year has done well in our den bay window so I moved it to the table and I love how it looks with my small collection of St. Patricks decorations.

I found this little pair of Irish children last year, aren't they cute?

The little girl holds a real woven basket filled with sparkly shamrocks.  :-)

And this little couple, I totally agree with their motto - Live, Laugh, Dance.  I have never been much of a dancer, even though I took classes when I was 12 years old.  But I can sing!

My little knitting bunny makes it to the St. Pat's table because her dress looks like it has green clover in the print.  :-)

And this green cream pitcher brings more "green" to the tableaux.  I'm going to pick some of my knocked down daffodils to put in here and hope they open up.

If you love plants, I can highly recommend having a pot of these darling shamrocks.  And this is the time of year to find them available wherever plants are sold.  Even in the grocery store!  They also bloom, the green one has delicate white flowers and the dark red ones have sweet pink flowers.

I love the lilacs on this cotton tablecloth.

This dining room sure does get a lot of use in this old farmhouse.  The kids eat all their meals here and all seven of us have dinners together.  :-)

Dayle was having a piece of chicken for lunch the other day and I grabbed my iPhone to snap a photo of all three dogs watching his every move.  And yes, each one got a tidbit.  Kristi is finding the whole thing rather comical.  :-)

Speaking of dogs.  Hayden got his "Joker" at LegoLand in CA, and Meeka had found it and begun to chew on it before it was rescued.  This has been sitting in my "to do" basket and I thought it was a good time to do some mending this weekend.  I must admit, it's not my finest stitching, but Hayden won't care.  I took this photo after I'd sewed up a hole in his chest, the fabric was not easy to hand-sew as it was printed with rubbery paint.

Hayden was pretty pleased that I fixed up his stuffed bad guy.

It's a swim day.  Last Friday when I was swimming, the pool guys came and had lots of pool chemicals in boxes to unload, so they propped the door WIDE open and were going back and forth.. and it was FREEZING outside.. literally freezing.  Here I was in a barely warm enough pool and the whole pool room began filling up with freezing air. I was so annoyed.  I kept asking them.. when are you going to close the door?  They said, we're almost done.  For a whole half hour.  ::grumble::

Hopefully they won't do that again today.  And thank you to Lorraine at MamasMercantile blog who played along with the sewing box challenge I posted on Friday.    ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Shaker Sewing Box

Greetings.  I think you all must be tired of my snow photos.  :-)  I ran across a photo of a wooden shaker box on the internet not long ago that was being used as a sewing kit.  I had all my stitching things in a zippered plastic sleeve and I thought.. hmm.. maybe it's time to get a proper vintage container for my needles, threads, scissors, thimble and buttons!  So, after a look-see on Etsy and eBay I found this sweet little handmade wooden Shaker box and now keep it nearby for sewing projects.

I have this cute little vintage needle holder, it's a reproduction but I love the children on the cover.  

I also have 2 little thread spools that I adore, I got one in white and black thread of waxed linen thread.  They come from Sajou where I got my pretty sewing scissors.

Inside my needle book is a rather hilarious mess, the metallic paper where the needle stay was coming away from the cover so I used some of my pretty washi tape for a homestyle repair.

I have an old glass tube with a few seed beads, a packet of tiny vintage mother of pearl buttons, my thimble, etc.

Here is my beloved sterling silver thimble, it has a sailboat on a lake, a stone bridge, mountains and a lighthouse with a keepers home.  *love*

The other side of the thimble.  I wonder where this was made?

My faux mother-of-pearl handled Sajou sewing scissors and my well-used and loved sterling silver yarn needle handmade by my friend Molly at Celtic Swan Forge where I get my crochet hooks.

Every time I take up a needle and thread I feel a connection with my ancestral womenfolk from my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and on back to the times when women sewed hides together with bone and rawhide.  How about a challenge?  If you're a blogger, will you share your sewing kit on your next blog?  What fun!  If you don't blog, can you describe what you use to keep your sewing things in and what you keep inside?  I saw this image on Facebook and grabbed it - how about these ladies for inspiration?

Dayle and I went to dinner at Tad's Chicken 'n' Dumplins last night, I got a kick out of this cast iron lamp base.  I was good and had shrimp prawns sauteed in garlic butter, a salad and zucchini.  

After being homebound for a while in the snow, I am going to venture out to go swimming today.  I just need to navigate through half a mile of icy road before the streets are clear of ice.  I think I can do that.  Have a great weekend!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Winter Continues

It snowed on and off yesterday, it was very pretty coming down.  The temperatures hovered right around freezing, so it's not horrifically frozen, the pond is still ice-free, thank goodness.  Our son Shawn snapped the 3 next photos this morning when he arrived home from working the night shift and shared them with me.

The cars have lots of snow on them.

Right in front of the barn, it's kind of a parking lot.  :-)

This is the view from our master bedroom, we have French doors that open into our little forest on the East side of our property.  This one I just took this morning.

This was yesterday when the snow was lighter in the woods.

We have a big open spot in the woods that Dayle mows with the tractor occasionally.

This is from our bedroom window facing the road, see the new growth on the Quince bush?  Spring got ambushed by snow!

Snow on the garage barn, the chicken coop and the garden shed.  :-)

But happily the creek and pond are still flowing so the koi should be safe.  

The sun is bouncing off the snow into the house and it's very bright in here!  :-)

I have not ventured far from the house for the last few days and I'm getting my photos from inside out of the windows or from stepping out on the deck a few feet.  I am not interested in falling down in this snow!  :-)

Our little shed has a lovely cover of snow.  

The boys little growing garden is working out well, we're able to snip off the lettuce leaves to add to our salads.  The dill is getting big and the tomato plant has a nice heavy stem and the two pepper plants are doing well.

The dog and I have spent many an hour working on my crochet blanket.  This is the backside of the design, the other side is much prettier with a ridged pattern.  

This photo was shared on Facebook by a photographer named Tina.  Wow!

My sister Denise and her husband and their two traveling companions boarded this ship yesterday to head to the Panama Canal, neat, huh?  The leave from San Diego, California.  Then to Cabo San Lucas, Huatulco and Puerto Chapas, Mexico.  Then to Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, through the Panama Canal to Cartagena, Colombia and ending in Miami, Florida.  Wow!

I will not drive to swim today due to the snow accumulation, and am not sure I will be able to get to the lodge to volunteer tomorrow, but possibly will.  Dayle and I are thinking of a little weekend getaway.  More on that later.  What are you up to?  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Snow on the Daffodils

Just when we thought we were going to make a graceful (and warm) slide into Spring, Winter heard how happy we were and decided to come back and show us who's boss.  And it snowed.  Now I must admit, it was pretty.  And it still is!  But I hope all my budded things make it through this "weather event".  :-)

This is looking out the window of our den, facing the front yard.

Snowflakes are so hard to capture.. but do you see them?  Look closely!  :-)

The pond area.. poor daffodils are leaning under the weight of the snow.

The snow kept coming and overnight piled up pretty high.

The Chestnut trees loom dark against the gray sky.

Our grandsons built a little snowman on the deck.  :-)

Our adorable little Caleb stayed out playing in the now for a long time.  

Our son Travis snapped this image from his car as he made his way up steep Corbett Hill Road.  

Dayle just took my Lumix out and took a few photos of the snow this morning, the sky is clearing and the sun will melt the snow pretty fast, but it's still pretty for now.  This is our Walnut tree with each branch and twig with snow on it.

The front of the house with more snow.. and sunshine! 

I think the daffodils will make it, do you?

Daffodils 1, snow 0.  :-)

The barn Dayle built.  Almost completely by himself.  The kids and I helped raise some rafters while he nailed them down.  But he designed it, bought all the lumber and nails, the metal roofing and installed it, he built all the stalls inside for our herd of Nubian dairy goats, our 2 horses, 2 Angora goats and one black sheep.  :-)

And my dream come true, the red farmhouse looks charming in the snow, yes?

OK.. moving along.. how do you like the Valentine card I got for Dayle?  :-)

And here he is during our romantic dinner at Bumper's Grill.  We met when I was 14 and a freshman in HS and he was an "older man" at 16 and a junior.  I love this guy.

I had my favorite, the filet mignon with Bordelaise sauce.  I did splurge and had a baked potato and I must say, after not having one for over 3 months, it made the steak dinner sooOOoo much more delicious.  But I was back on the low carb wagon the next day.  I'm on one of those dreaded plateaus and the scale has not budged for a LONG time.  ::sigh::

Meeka visiting Dayle for a chest rub.  :-)

Dayle made a low carb meal for me this weekend.  Sauteed chicken tenderloins with mushrooms and a sliced perfectly ripe avocado drizzled with ranch dressing.  :-)

I took off the Valentine tablecloth and put on the new spring-y  one I recently got that fits the table now that we have more leaves in it due to having 7 people at the dinner table now.  :-) See the snow falling outside?

I notice that my red leaved Shamrock had a stem of pink flowers blooming.  Sweet.

Buddy on my lap and Shelby on her dog bed by the tv cabinet.

We have a pair of hummingbirds that are wintering over as in past years.  We have to be very vigilant that the feeder remains full as there is absolutely no other food for the little darlings to be found.  

Last but not least, darling little Paige, my younger granddaughter that lives far far FAR away in Ohio.  She's a real character and my daughter Amy posted this photo of her on Facebook.  How cute is she?  

I want to thank all of my readers that commented on my Call to Action blog post.  I remain steadfast in wanting to see the assault rifle ban re-installed.  Wish our country luck in having our legislators see the light and choose the lives of our school children over lining their bank accounts with NRA blood money.

((hugs)), Teresa :-)