Photo of the Week

"Favourite things" is the theme this week.     " favourite - something regarded with special favor or liking" .   That meaning (of several I found) seems to be a good one in my case.  Lots of little or pretty simple things in my life interest me ... make me smile ...give me a giggle, and it seems I tend to list them as favourite things. Where to begin?  I have lots ....      food (baking and cooking) ...  flowers.... bears.... dolls... golf ... ACEOs (art cards, editions and originals) .....

Sometimes it's not even necessary to say too much..... some photos speak for themselves...... however, let me just say something about these beautiful tiny pastels done by a Russian artist and friend that I met online several years ago.  She sent the pics to see which one I wanted...how could I not want both? ... The cat is her own.... she drew many pics of Czenia... and I now have both of these.  I'm sure you'll agree that they are pretty darn amazing.  Click to biggify and see the detail ....

Peonies from my garden...

Buttercup...needle felted from KoolAid dyed wool.  Beads for "dreds" ...

..of course, Scratty Eddy and his cute and interesting little face ...  and his tea drinking buddy Scruffy....

..speaking of tea.... how 'bout tea and scones?  The name of my other blog...and another favourite thing...baking....

...simple, yet very effective... for Christmas...my fav season just for the glitz; the glamour; the beautiful decorations .... the fun creating ...... the perfect way to break up the toooo many months of cold weather....

Let's not forget breads. Brother ....I could go on all day couldn't I?
I've just learned to bake breads the past few years...and oh, YUM....how I love home baked breads!  My very most "favourite-est" of favourites .... ..... lol....... and, now...I'm off to do some jumping jacks....hahahahha ........ NOT.......!!

Panettone anybody?

There you are.  I better stop.  Never just one for photo of the week with me...always several.  I should do something more organized with my photos some day...... I have hundreds...nope....I have thousands..... and I just can't hit the delete button..............

Photo of the Week

This week is ..."something magical".... and one suggestion was mushrooms.... which can be magical in more ways than one.

Like, ....how 'bout in a great tomato sauce?

... along with some of my own herbs that I am growing on the patio... in a terra cotta pot ...

This is the second "Basil".  My first guy croaked .... got frostbite or hypothermia or something.  As a matter of fact...I dragged in the pot last night because after our brutally hot days... a rotten cold front blew in yesterday.. and I mean blew...with high winds and even a tornado warning if you please.  Downtown got golf ball sized hail!  We got heavy rain...but, it said cold overnight and I was afraid if he didn't have a sweater on... well, poor little Basil would be too cold.... he looks pretty robust though doesn't he? ... lovely leaves...

Rigatoni ... lovely tomato-y meat sauce with fresh herbs and mushrooms.... two cheeses melted on while baking and then some parmesan sprinkled on top and broiled til bubbly and golden ...mmmmmmmmmmm ......... magical indeed!

Today...more magic.  It is a very cool +9C... raining and windy...  I wimped out on golf and decided to stay home, turn on the oven and bake. Bread dough on the go.... muffins next.... and hey... maybe I'll make fresh soup for supper to go with a slab of fresh bread toasted.   Just more amazing magic in my book .......

photo of the week...

We've been having great summery days....as a matter of fact, yesterday was more than just a bit summery.  It was darn hot walking around 18 holes of golf..... and humid too after only a few dry days.  Not even a breeze.. and the mosquitoes!!!! oh, wow! .... they were swarming us when we stopped and stood still.  Luckily my Muskol works...but, still...it is annoying when they find a bare patch of skin...or zzzzeeeee in your ear just as you are lining up a putt.

Monday's theme for the photo was "self portrait" .... but, I haven't been in the house long enough to get on here to post ..... so....finally....here's a photo of me....

Hahahahhah.... gotcha.....nah..... it's not really me. I have hair that is straight as sticks.....not a bit of curl to it at all....

......oh, wait!  here's the one I decided to use.... ........ and I will entitle it "Self Paw-trait" .....  'cuz just look at those grubby paws!  Terrible...but, somehow, gloves just end up like a multi coloured trail of size 7 bread crumbs behind me.... I have to retrace my steps several times in an hour to find them ... and ...well, ....after a bit I just give up.  Later in the day I go around picking them all up.... then, go in and scrub.  No wonder my  hands feel like Velcro and look worse... nails? what nails?.... jewellery will not be worn until sometime in November, so as to not draw attention to these hands.

Okay..'.nuff fooling around. My self portrait on this day is me in my gardener's "hat".....  isn't it surprising how many hats we wear on any given day? .... more figuratively speaking than literally of course .... especially for me.  I only have caps, no hats when it comes right down to it.  And, I wear them golfing, gardening, sitting in the sun or walking...or for going to the dump or to the garden shop.  Monday when I went to the garden centre with my little baggy of clippings from my new Caragana shrub..... this was me.  It was cool enough for my big warm shirt at 8 a.m. .... but, I was stripping down by my second stop... the grocery store.
When I show up like this at the gardening centers, or I'm walking around Burnco looking for the limestone to shovel... or other sod or wood places. I invariably get questioned about where things are kept...or if there is still a sale on mulch or how to plant a certain shrub.  It's handy to know a few things...and I've given up telling folks I don't work there .... they get embarrassed ... now, I just point them in the right direction or tell them what they want to know if I have answers.  If I don't know... I direct them to Maureen for info on any plant .. or one of the girls at the checkout for further directions.....

... ask that crazy lady in the gardening duds.....

oh, and ps..... apparently my new Caragana has White Powdery Mildew..... which is what I figured it did have from the look of the leaves and what I found on the internet.  It had it when I bought it.  I thought it was just a bit of mineral deposit on leaves from watering.....sigh......   However, what I didn't know was what to do about it because every other write up said something different.....but, Maureen.... she knows and has helped us with several other shrubs and trees over the past 7 years.  And, so... instead of ripping it out ...I'm trying fungicide... and no watering from the top...and no watering late in the day..and ...well,.... you get it.........

photo of the week...

Do not adjust the colour on your monitor ..... today is retro day.  Well, not really....but, today our theme is "black and white" for our  Monday Photo of the Week group.   I suppose I could have taken a photo of something that is black and white...but, I decided it was a good time to pull out the manual for my little camera and see what it offered.

That was fun.  I had to go to Menu several times.. organize the B & W thingy...find a setting that worked with it...and voila... some B & W pics.  Learned a thing or two and decided that there is plenty more than I will ever use or figure out... but, it seems there are several different settings on which they can be photographed...and I absolutely have no clue what they all mean.  I got a couple I like....one after having to balance on the back of a chair, because the "candle" setting needs to spend time processing... and I couldn't hold the camera still enough..... but... finally got the shot I wanted .... and...here they are.

You may remember seeing the above in living colour from some other theme.... even I can't remember what that theme might have been..... lol......

Some day....this little bicycle will have a bear that is the perfect size to ride it.

This cookie jar almost fits the time frame of B & W photos.... hahhaha...okay...well, not quite, but it is getting almost to the vintage age.  I bought one for my sister one day.... for some occasion.  And...as is often the case with me and gifts I get for her ...it's always something I would like too ... and, I loved the little elephant so much that I had to go back to get one for myself.  When the lid on hers fell inside the jar and broke .. because it is just the perfect shape and size that it CAN do that! acckkk! ....I put it away safely somewhere.... and didn't use it for years.  Forgot I had it actually.  Then, I noticed it while clearing out some things in a big pantry cupboard and immediately decided to use it again.  Lid be damned!  If it breaks...it breaks.  I'm gonna use it and enjoy it.  She planted some greenery in hers after that and it was a sweet little planter for many years as well. ....  my sister was a recycler long before it became all the rage.

Photo a Week...

Get your glasses.... your cuppa ...   and put up your feet my dears..... for this is a long story... made much shorter of course, but...still.... it does have to go on ... and a bit more on yet...   .... in order to get the actual "feel" for things...

Heirloom is the theme for this week.... and I don't have many of those.   I never met my Dad's family...  except one cousin who was older than our Mom..  who came from Quebec to British Columbia (all across Canada) to live with us when Mom was very sick with pneumonia.  She never went back home.  Georgette arrived with plenty of clothes, perfumes, powders, shoes, hair rollers (actually, the most hair stuff you have ever seen in your entire life!) , etc... ... but, that's about it.  Don't get me wrong...we 3 little girls loved it!  But, ...there were no heirlooms.

(of course, I don't have to actually tell you this part..but it's fun to relate and today...I feel like telling a story ... )
When she wasn't home, we tried on her gargantuan Dolly Parton sized bras... clomped around in her lovely pearlized, pastel high heels...and spritzed and puffed ourselves with her wild smelling perfumes and powders.  As if she didn't know...hahahha....with telltale dustings of powder having settled on her otherwise immaculate dresser..    (we learned a lot about housekeeping from her!)  ... but, she never did say anything.  She loved us ... and she loved to play with our hair; try to teach us a bit about some of her feminine ways, (we were such wild tomboys) and in general just be a wonderful friend, confidante and almost a surrogate Mom while ours was unable to even lift her head off the pillow.  We have a couple of photos of my sister with a frizzy perm that Georgette gave her...that was months of fun...  our cousin always wanted to be a hairdresser.  However, she never did take the course, ... made plenty of money as a top notch waitress and that's what she did for many years once our Mom was on the road to recovery.

She lived with us for several years... was such a hard worker at whatever she did and always dressed up beautifully when she went out.  She is now in her nineties... still lives in her own apartment... still looks all "done up" ... and is wishing she had gone into politics ... 'the system needs changing' and 'if she were 30 years younger'...man, I bet she'd be the person to do just that!  Georgette for Prime Minister.  She'd sure as heck get my vote!

On to the other side of the family and the other side of the world.....

Mom's family lived in England, so we never met most of them either.  As a matter of fact , she never saw her parents again once she left home shortly after the war.  Couldn't afford to go ...and even if she could... my Dad would never have allowed it...in case she got smart and didn't come back... hahaha...... well, I laugh now..but, at the time it didn't seem very funny.  Good thing we can put the "fun"ny back in dysfunctional years after the fact, isn't it?

In the 60's, I managed to save enough to get Mom and me on a plane for England... and off we flew. We almost didn't go because her Mom had died only 2 months previously...and her Dad had been gone for several years.  But... she still had a sister ...so we decided we would still make the trip.  We had a month of beautiful weather... did a lot of sightseeing; the sisters got to re-aquiant, and I met a few cousins... along with several people Mom had known in her other life ... the life before meeting my Dad as the dashing Canadian soldier... who later turned out to be not so dashing... or maybe he was the same guy all along, but she just didn't see that.... as is often the case.... love is blind and all that stuff and nonsense ...

My aunt was not in the best of situations either ... uh, oh....  this is getting too long to go into another segue about another unhappy marriage... suffice to say... she came to visit Canada later as part of a tour group which her scheming husband brought here...   only to go home and realize he had duped the group and monies were owing...which she had to help pay..etc, blah, blah.. and on to a few years later when she decided to immigrate ... by herself ... bringing only the youngest of her kids with her. The others were already on their own.  You can't believe the shenanigans a Brit had to go through to immigrate to Canada!  It would have been easier if she had been a refugee with absolutely not a farthing to her name and who would immediately be a burden upon the system.  Anyway... after many months, running to years...she got here.  Loaded down with anything and everything she could carry, box, ship, etc.. which of course, was not much in the scheme of moving your whole life.

She carried in her hands these vases and this tea pot.... for the sole purpose of giving them to me.  Eldest female descendant of the family.  She has all boys....

I love my teapot... silver .. and it tarnishes, but I love the blues and purplies ... yes, I meant to say purplies.... so don't polish it much...
I never use it for tea... just for flowers or to look at behind glass where it usually sits... or to hold in my hands and marvel at the fact that somebody, somewhere, made this pot by hand all those years ago.  It has one small "ding" in it... been there for years...but, in my eyes it is perfect.

And.... my two little ancient vases... which she also carried all the way in her big bag slung over a shoulder...  the woman was tough as nails... I wish I had more of the toughness genes in her and in my cousin.

All the way from England it came... after having lived there for so many years... it is about 200 years old; imagine that..... .. and for all those years it survived intact. One day I found a blind dog wandering around outside and brought it into the house while I tried to track down owners. One wag of its fluffy tail and my dainty little antique vase bounced right off a low table onto the floor...note the one missing "toe".  I do feel I let the side down a bit by not being careful enough in its safekeeping.   I'm very careful with my "stuff" and my "things", but do love to use them... .. missing toes and all....  yes, sometimes they are in the curio...but, they also bring me joy when in use as intended.  Some have said they think this may have been a dainty champagne flute...  I have yet to use it as that..     ..... hmmm...

Photo a Week....

I totally screwed it up last week...and posted the theme for today ... which, on every one else's blog, will be Things with Wings.  So, today I am posting something for last week's theme... got you confused too?  good.... I don't want to be the only one.

It all had to do with the reminders that are sent out...and seeing the one for next week was too much for my pea brain I guess... I went with it immediately ... totally forgot all about the one I was supposed to be doing ..which was "Signs" .... maybe that in itself is some sort of sign.....

The sign I wanted to get for today is too far away to walk to and my wheels are in the shop... so...I'm going with this one....which is pretty cute too.

Several houses down in the alleyway..... 

Somebody has a great sense of humour... also great sense of direction ... and, must have gone to considerable length to look up the mileage, or in our case, the ...uhm.... hmmm ... I guess you just say kilometers instead of adding "age" to it... kilometer-age? naahhh... sounds silly.... 

and... because it is another cold, dreary, moping around kind of day, (because it's too damn cold to swing a golf club or dig in my garden).... I'm posting this for some colour.

I don't know whose it is ... but, I remember it is a guy who paints them....   from a time when I was cruising e-bay buying ACEOs....
It's one of those days when even a cat wants to hug his teddy and snuggle up to a nice warm fireplace with a mug of cocoa...well, maybe not the mug of cocoa...

photo a Week

Today's theme chosen by Serena is "Things with Wings" ....  I'm not fast enough or close enough with my camera to get a great bird shot.  The plane is in the hangar for repairs... (just kidding ... lol) .... the falcon is over at the brother-in-laws... oh, alright kidding again.... and erm let me see...oh, yeh....forget me trying to do bees and stuff... I don't like them all that much....

So.... check out these cute little wings on the baby dragon Maggi made for me....

Yeh....they're small, but they get me around.....

All of a sudden I find it strange that this is one of the only two dolls I've made with wings....and in fact...they share this pair...hahahahh..... depending upon whose turn it is to have her photo taken. Hmmm...methinks its time to make some wings...

Her buddy Sam the beetle has some wings too... my first experience with free motion embroidery.... some fibers under tulle.....

Photo a Week

I declare it summer!!  As usual in this area.... we jump straight from snow and cold to +27C ... too hot too soon!  We just have no easing into it..  No spring to wear the cute little booties I bought... darn it.  Now ..it's sandal weather already.  Well, it was earlier today.  Then, at supper time it kicked up rough.  Wind, rain and thunder.  So, I shut down the computer for a few hours til the weather blew itself out.  Now... sunny and calm as can be.  The house is up to +24.5C so I have all the windows open to cool things down a bit before bed.

Our theme this week is our work space.  First... let me show you this sweet, clean looking little vignette.  Why am I showing you this? ......

You'll know soon enough.......

Here's my favourite corner of my craft room as I call it.  It's tidy and organized and I think it looks pretty.  See how I moved my cute little 10 cent garage sale blue vase into the room as I wandered in to take some photos?  That's one of my little snowdrop anemones from my garden... dozens of them in bloom already.  Even if we have the shortest growing season in the world once things get going... they go!  They all know they have to hurry up or else... yeh, I am dawdling....... standing in the doorway... not really wanting to take the pics I guess...but,  here we go...


.......I resisted the urge to even tidy....so, here it is looking at the big picture .... squint a bit and it looks okay...sorta.....

I usually just shove some stuff to one side or the other ... and use about one square foot of space to play in.  Or.... take a handful of stuff out to the kitchen and sit there.  I do love my special room... really I do.  And, I appreciate it.  It's just weird how I gravitate back to the kitchen most days.  Of course, a lot of days I am also keeping an eye on some baking so there is a reason.  And..also... the sun streams in through the kitchen windows...and the birdies are playing in the patio and the birdie bath and little fountain is burbling....  I'm just a spoiled brat I guess.  I have two places to sit.... so.... I do!

I bought a wall to wall Ikea table for the area.  It is a bump out with windows...and the table with both leaves in fits it perfectly.  You can see that I need all the space I can get .... cuz I like to spread my stuff around.  I don't believe in putting everything away in between my visits to this room... I'll just have to spend an hour finding it when I come back anyway.  And...if it is long time...well, for sure I'll forget where I put it.

Oh, I've got lots of stuff in drawers, cupboards and tote bins too... under the table and on the top shelves of my walk in closet which is just between this room and my bedroom, and in the linen cupboard and in the big storage area under this very room.  Sigh.  As a matter fact, when we first began our renovations...this room was going to be a sitting room off the master bedroom.  But..it quickly became a junk room...and then... I decided I need a craft room instead ..so we re-organized stuff..bought the table, a desk and a barrister bookcase and curio cabinet.  All the dolls and a lot of bears are in this room...the little guys and a couple more dolls are in the front room. .. and the foyer...and the... oh, alright..they are everywhere in this house!

Even if I'm not very prolific with the doll and bear making, I don't usually sell them...so the numbers are beginning to add up.....

That is a coffee table sitting in front of the bookcase... blocking the doorway to the bedroom and closet.... I have no room for it... wanna buy a coffee table...cheap?

Back to the work surfaces...

Maggi says she can tell a former dental assistant lives here....

My family lives here too...in the corner.... nowhere else to put this many photos.  So, they're forced to hang out with me while I hang out...

If I was still dental assisting and left my chores undone this long?...I'd have been fired out on my ass.
You know that old saying .... a stitch in time saves 9? ...hahhaha.... This poor little apron has been waiting months sitting patiently on top of the machine  ...maybe even 9 months now.  ...for that stitch.  And believe me...it is only about a row of 9 stitches it needs!  Acckkkkk....terrible!  That's it, I'm fired!

There is a desk under all that... but, it usually looks pretty much like this....

Maybe tomorrow I will tidy a bit... oh...nope...can't... it's Wednesday.  Golfing with my old dudes.  Well, if it isn't raining.

Okay..if it rains, I tidy.

Photo a Week

Aackk!  It's Tuesday.. almost Wednesday already.  Our theme for this week... (we usually post the photo on Monday)... was something "Mom" in keeping with it having been Mother's Day weekend.

My weekend days were totally confused with Mr. BV being away ... and when I picked him up at the airport I was thinking it was Sunday...and sort of had it in my mind to pretend it was too... because he missed our Sunday here... so I made a little chicken for dinner...and then...well I reeeeelly did think it was Sunday!  So, of course, Monday went by and then all of a sudden here it is Tuesday ... hahahah .... oh, well...

I decided not to whine this year about my Mom being gone.   Not that I don't miss her all the time...but, who needs to hear more whining...and ...well, I guess I was lucky to have her for as long as I did.  I have one friend who lost her Mom when she was only 9 .... that really makes me think how lucky was I?

My Mom always loved little things... which was good, because we couldn't afford much in the early days and she got very little of anything.  All the shops were full of flowers and when I saw this cute, tiny orchid, I decided to get it in memory of Mom.   She would have loved it.
I don't know anything about orchids... and they had no info on it...which I found strange...but, I'll google it and see what it says.

The colours are absolutely beautiful....

Okay...this is amusing.... that large one? ....is a faux orchid.  Plastics.... but, look how real it looks beside the real thing!

Here's to you Mom.......

photo a week....

The theme this week is ... "what's on my bedside table"....

It's Serena's turn with themes...and she wondered aloud if perhaps it would be a stack of books and magazines.... perhaps remotes for a tv....

Not in my space.... I don't read very much anyway..and have never found it comfortable to sit and read in a bed.  So it's a "negateevo" on that score.... ....

And.... I've never had tv in my bedrooms, ever.... ... so..no tv in this bedroom either.... not even a phone or a clock visible.  There is one under the bed, but the light on the face is too bright...so it is under there where I can't and don't want to see it.  

Since I have such difficulty sleeping ...I like to keep my bedroom just for sleeping...  well... sleeping and uhm.. er ... well.... mostly sleeping... ..

My bedside tables are almost spartan, but ... there is a reason on this side.... I wanted to tie it all in with the pictures hanging above..so kept things to a bare minimum..  .. besides, what do I really need on there?

I just know you are squinting to see what's in that water globe.... what?  you're not nearly as nosey as I? ...hmppfff.....

yes you are... aren't you?  Awwww... look... a Mommy and a baby hippo... and the little tune is "Tenderly".  And...it makes me cry every darn time I turn the little key and try to listen to it.  It used to be my Mom's.

She was just as eccentric as can be.  It's a bit cheesy..( although the colours are perfect)  but, little things like this used to amuse her ...as they do me, so I guess I know where it comes from. I am quickly becoming my mother...and don't give a rat's bum, as she used to say.  She was polite...I say rat's ass.  She would often find them (not the rat's asses... the little things) at her favourite second hand and thrift stores.... or garage and estate sales.  She learned early on how to be frugal in order to get by on absolutely nothing and loved a good browse for an hour at them ... or at garage sales within walking distance.  She was obviously well ahead of her time now that I see how popular it's become...... some blogs are totally devoted to just that.

photo a week....

Textures ....today's theme.  I love things with texture... I like to touch everything to feel it.  If you go shopping with me...you'll probably be embarrassed.  I touch it all.  It takes a long time to go through the shops.

I love the smooth, the nubby, the crinkly... the velvety...the ... well, MY list is endless...

Even our walls have texture.  Suede paint.... have you seen it?  It is done in two coats.  One coat with a roller ... and then... when dry.. a second coat with a big brush ... doing big X's...   It ends up looking like it has two different colours..but, it is just the optical illusion created by paint going in different directions.  It looks like you could run a hand over it and smooth it one way and then the other.  Of course, you can't... and it is hard, with a very slightly rough texture close up......but, it's one of the things I don't run my hands over...I just admire it with my eyes. 

Silk..... mmmmm .......love slubby silk.......

Velvety tapestry..... glorious smooth wood....a bumpy row of little smmoooth tacks.....  how I love running my fingers over it all..... just gotta touch it...

And.... this....well, this is the best texture of all...

Cleo..... Vikki's sweetie..... no cats live at my house, so I get my fill of smooooth soft fur at her house.  Three indoor cats and two that live in the shop... all with lovely soft fur to touch.  And...then....two horses .... purrrrfect.....