Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Dutch Delft


My amazing Aussie friend is having a giveaway on her blog.  The lucky winner will receive a beautiful Delft ornament for the tree.  Looking at one of the ornaments she had reminded me of my own little slice of Dutchness.
We have a lot of Dutch farmers around the countryside here.  Several years ago there was a massive influx of them buying farms from retired farmers or from people just wanting to sell their farms.  Land is at a premium in Holland and was not easily attainable so they chose to come here and live the dream!

They keep their properties so neat it puts the rest of the farms to shame.  They have started their own businesses selling organic milk and cheeses,  it's wonderful.
I think one of the reasons why they chose to come to Canada was because our forces liberated the Netherlands at the end of World War two.  They love Canadians.
So, because of all the immigration here, the Dutch people missed their native foods like gouda and all different kinds of things.  One enterprising individual rigged up a big truck and would go around the province selling Dutch delicacies from the back of his truck.  You could just walk inside the back and feast your eyes.  A Dutch friend of mine convinced him to stop at my house.  Every month!  This is what I would buy:


Little houses!

I could just see them all lined up along the canal.

There is so much detail on them.  Even on the sides.

I like to keep them all jammed together though, just like the real ones.


See?  I would love to visit there some day.




So come on up those steps and trough the crooked door and share some gouda  with me.
                                                                      einde!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Straighten Up!

We have a bookcase in the dining room.  In fact we have a total of eight bookcases in our home. It's the dining room bookcase that I see the most often and it is also the messiest.  If we don't know where to put something we just shove put it there. It also has the least amount of books!
Here she be.  Please excuse the quality of the pic, there are two windows right to the left of the bookcase.  It took more time to clean up those shelves than I thought it would.  I filled the dining room table with junk: magazines, useless odd bits of paper and miscellaneous tat.

Et voila!  I actually tidied it up and cleaned off the dining room table.  This is a big deal for me as I tend to be a wee bit messy.
Oh by the way, remember I thought about posting a broken item of the week?  Do you see those two vases on the top of the bookcase?
The one on the left has a great big chunk out of the back of it.  That vase has known my husband longer than I have so I'm afraid it's staying.  Wish me luck on tidying up the Shelves in the living room.  It would be number two on the messy bookcase list.  I'm really expert at procrastinating though so it might be a while!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving American Style

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends.  Blessings to those who cook and cleanup!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Winner Winner!

Okay folks, I drew a name myself for the contest.  My only witnesses were two dogs and a cat so you'll just have to trust me on this one.






And the winner is.....





Linda!  Linda has a lovely blog called Itsy Bits and Pieces.  She also has two vintage shops on Etsy so go and check her out.

Thanks to everyone who entered.  I want to especially thank everyone who reads my blog.  I really appreciate all your comments and I've made some lovely friends through this journey.

Cheers!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Survivor


When hubby and I were first married we lived a four hour drive from our in-laws and out-laws.  We moved back to our home province for a job opportunity only.  Hubby decreed that if we had to move back home he was going to have a horse.  That meant living near family, his and mine. His parents spent their summers in a cottage on the bay.  This seemed to be the congregating spot for siblings and spouses and children Every.Single.Sunday. Did I tell you he had seven brothers and sisters?  And tons of nieces and nephews?  They pretty much all made an appearance at the cottage every weekend. It was a family free for all!


  Hubbies parent's health declined and the cottage life ended.  His family is not especially close so with the end of the cottage each family pretty much went their own way.  Family get togethers were few and far between.

   As the years flew by, his sisters began making a special effort to get the family together at Christmas.  This was great, I could endure an evening with the fam once a year.


   This past year brought a lot of changes due to sickness and other things, so Sis decided to get together more often.  As in a lot.  Today was the latest pot luck lunch Sunday.  In the car I remarked to hubby I felt like we were going to a tribal council meeting and I wondered who was going to be voted off.  Would it be grouchy, irritable brother or gasp, me because I took some ginger ale?  Sis is very health conscious.  Hubby was totally shocked at my reluctance to attend yet another tribal council get together but he had to laugh when I talked about getting voted off.


Now my daughter and her cousin are planning a huge Christmas party with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins' children because we don't get together enough. !!!  I want to get voted off. Please.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Finally...the Giveaway!

Gentle Readers,
Please accept my abject apologies for the delay of the giveaway.  My sweatshop worker sewing guru was unavoidably detained by making six of these:

Why, I ask you, do six angel costumes for the elementary school play take on more importance than my giveaway?
I digress.  Here's the booty:



A sixteen inch square pillow cover designed by me (with help from the Graphics Fairy) and silkscreened by me.
A vintage tablecloth, never used, made by my mum. It is a dark brown and white cloth, perfect for that brown transfer ware!


I'm also adding the pretty note cards shown in the first photo.

I'm so proud of myself for reaching over 150 posts so I want to reward you folks for putting up with me.  You know the drill, become a follower if you haven't already and leave me a comment on this post.  I'll announce the winner on Monday so get your fingers typing.  Also, this giveaway is open to anyone in the whole wide world!

Cheers!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

What's Going On Here?

Lately I've been having these weird anti cravings.  Things that I loved to eat no longer appeal to me.

Ground beef.  This has been on my can.not.eat. list for a few months now.

Ditto ribs.


Pop has just lost its fizz.

My sweet tooth cannot handle candy anymore.  This  just occurred a couple of weeks ago and I'm shocked.  I was born with a sweet tooth.  I have not turned up my nose at candy since I was expecting my first baby.  That phase only lasted a month or two.

So, Gentle Readers, can anyone tell me what's going on?  I'm not complaining, I don't miss any of it. Oh yes, I'm not pregnant!  As if.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Friday, November 12, 2010

Just Thinking.....

Aren't they cute little doggies?  My favourite aunt gave these to me many moons ago.  She had a real dog just like them.  This is a problem I have with purging my stuff.  Most of my things have a sentimental value attached to them.  They are often not valuable or beautiful in the eyes of someone else but when I look at them I remember the person who owned them before I did.

I am thinking of starting  a new segment on my blog entitled Things That Got Broken This Week.
           Case in point:


Remember the moose fiasco?  I can see a trend coming.  I think he's helping me purge in his own, misguided way.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Cupboard Love

Gentle Readers,

Finally after much weeping and gnashing of teeth,  my handy dandy fabric cupboard has been constructed.

I spent today lugging fabric upstairs to the newly erected monument storage unit.  Here are some fabric arrangements:





I can't believe how much it holds.

Everything is sort of neatly folded.  I don't possess the folding knack like some people do.


I have a lot of Rachel Ashwell shabby chic quilt blocks.

I really like the pale, soft colours.
There is a lot of room in that cupboard.  I emptied two plastic crates, a laundry basket, and two cardboard boxes full of material. Now that I have freed up another laundry basket, maybe I can get some more washing done. not.

This is my 150th post! Yay me!  I'm planning a giveaway to celebrate.  Stay tuned.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Monday, November 8, 2010

This Weekend had Seven Days

You know how usually the weekend always seems to speed right by?  Well, this weekend at the LC couldn't get over quickly enough for me!  It has rained nonstop since Thursday evening here.  I mean Noah's Ark type rain.   Friday began with will I or won't I make banana muffins because those bananas sure needed to be used up.  I just kept waiting for the power to go out as soon as I put them in the oven.  The power did not go out!  Behold the muffins:

Here is a gratuitous shot of the ingredients for the amusement of my international readers.  Note the bilingual labeling.
I try to be somewhat educational here for you readers.

Friday evening we braved the wind and rain to head out to our local eatery for dinner.  Upon arriving home, I checked the phone and saw that #2 had called.  I called her to see what was up. She told me that earlier in the day on her way to work her car hydroplaned.  She hit her head very hard on the drivers side window.  Upon arriving at work, when she explained what happened her boss insisted she go to emergency at the local hospital to make sure she was okay.  So her husband picked her up and off they went.  She had a concussion!  The Dr. thought it was a mild to moderate one and told her to go home and do nothing for a day or two.  Also, she was told not to go to sleep until bed time. As soon as she got home she wanted to sleep and her hubby had to torment her to keep her awake all evening.
Then hubby's sister called to remind me of a potluck lunch she was having on Sunday that I totally forgot about.  Hubby suggested I make a chocolate cake with boiled icing for it so I did.
Behold the cake in all it's glory.  The only trouble was that we had to eat it. Right then and there.  So we did.
So that was Saturday pretty much accounted for.  Saturday night we had to set our clocks back an hour for daylight savings time.  I actually remembered to do it.

The pot luck lunch was slated for 1:15 pm.  When we got out of church we realized we were not going to have time to go home and look after the puppies.  We carried on.  Upon driving to said sister's house I remarked how late all the churches seemed to be getting out that day.  Then it hit me.  The clock in  the car had not been changed and now we were an hour early for lunch.  We made a u turn and went to Tims because we didn't have time to go all the way home.
I ordered a smoothie with yogurt and of course they were out of yogurt.  Do you see a pattern developing here people? We arrived on time for lunch and partook of the festivities.  After we had been there for some time I looked at the clock on the stove and told hubby we better get home and let those poor dogs out.  Away we went.  Upon returning home I realized sis-in-law did not set her clock back either so we could have stayed a while longer. 
Now comes the horrible bad part. Hubby went to the barn to check on his horse.  Hubby kept Sassy in the barn for most of the weekend because of all the rain.  She does not like to be in the barn.  At all.  Ever.  So she decided it was time to vacate the barn.  She made a run for it.  She ran.  She ran all the way up our driveway and out to the road.  She ran up and down the road.  She ran to the neighbour's field next door.  Hubby came in and yelled to me to take the car and block the driveway with it.  Might I remind you it was pouring rain this whole time?!  Hubby finally caught her and motioned me down the driveway.  I started to drive down the driveway.  He put his hand up in the universally acknowledged stop signal.

He then beckoned me to come.  Keep in mind he had Sassy's bridle in one hand.  I came.  He put up his hand again to stop.  I stopped.  He beckoned me to come.  I came. He stopped.  Good grief!  What did he want me to do?  Turns out he wanted me to walk down the driveway.  In the pouring rain.  Hmph.  He then wanted me to go in the barn and get some oats to entice Sassy.  I then suggested he put her in the pasture to prevent any more naughty behaviour from Sassy.  He agreed and into the pasture she went.

By the time we dried off, it was supper time.  I was in no mood to cook.  Hubby had hotdogs and I had chocolate cake.  We spent an amusing evening watching a BBC documentary on the merchant marine ships and all the sinkings of them by the German U boats in the Second World War.
Comes time for bed and hubby decides to put Sassy in the barn for the night because it is still pouring rain and we figured Noah was due to arrive anytime now and pick up Sassy.  I begged hubby not to put her in.  What if she ran off again?  In the pouring rain?  In the pitch dark?  He said he would call the police and report a wild horse on the road and we didn't know who it belonged to.
Sassy was tucked into her stall with no further incident.  I don't understand why would a man want to put himself through that?  Pouring rain, crazy horses, why would you want the aggravation?  Hubby says he's going to get a rifle for next time. ( He's kidding people.)  Seriously.  I think.

This was taken when Sassy was in a better mood. So was the weather.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

A Room With a Chill

The cold weather has been upon us here for a few weeks now.  Usually in October, we start lighting the wood stove in the kitchen to keep us warm and cozy.


Here's an old picture of our stove in all its ash covered glory.  Our wood stove has been deemed unsafe for our kitchen by the powers that be. We're shopping around for a new stove because it's getting chilly in here. The other night we had supper wearing our hoodies with the hoods up.

 I hope we get a new stove up and running before this happens...


Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Princess Sophie








                                               Small dog casts big shadow.