Pilgrim Cupcakes

These are adorable! 

 Can't wait to make them for my grandchildren!

Click here for recipe

http://www.tonyastaab.com/2011/11/pilgrim-cupcakes.html

Screened in Porch

Here is some porch furniture I inherited from my Dad.  It was in pretty bad shape, but it's base was oak, so I knew it was quality made furniture. The fabric was just a little tired.

I hated walking out in the porch area, this rug and the upolstery,  YUCK

I figured it was time to recover and get a new rug. Now, what color?

 

After I painted it this color, I felt like it I was on the Golden Girls Lani, it had a shimmer to it.  Which wouldn't have been so bad, but the fabric has a shimmer to it also.  So back to the Menards to save big money. And this is the color I chose below.

Much Better!

Just to ease your mind, those aren't pee marks, The furniture was so dirty, I took a scrub bursh and a hose to it. It was dripping wet when I was finished with it. Ever try to pick up a couch that has been saturated.  Couldn't budge it.  It wasn't going anywhere. 

Took a whole day to dry out down in the Carolina heat.

 

Now I am not a blue person, but this fabric just jumped out at me, I fell in love with it.  And it looks like the rug is a keeper now. Doesn't look bad with it.  I love it when that happens. 

That's Magilla Gorilla in the corner there

 I was considering painting the brick wall behind the sofa, after consulting with my designer (my son) and got a definite NO! But he did suggest a mirror.  Now for me more is better.  So off to the garage to look at the stash of mirrors I got at the auctions.  

                     He was right.                                       A wall of mirrors.                                I love it!                        

The only bad thing is I finished it at the end of the summer I can't enjoy until next season. It's full of all the outside furniture.                                                                                                           Thanks For Stopping By!

KIWI MOMENT

This Kiwi moment belongs to Ethel:

  
She goes over to her brothers to let the dog out while he is away.  Doing a good deed.  Well that deed got her is quite a pickle.  Bobby, her brother has this contraption called an inversion machine. She knew what it was and how it worked, but never tried it. So she walks over to it, gives it the once over, and thinks, "I can do this."  Empties her pockets, money and cell phone on the table. Straps herself in, and flips upside down. This isn't so bad.  Her legs are pointing to Jesus.  Then the blood starts to rush to her head.  Ok, enough of this.  Time to get out, she tries to pull her weight up to right herself, BUT SHE CAN'T!  NOW WHAT!  There she hangs, OK let's try again. No luck!  After several attempts panic starts to set in.  
"OMG, what am I  going to do?"  She looks at her watch and realizes it's been half and hour of hanging upside down.  Know wonder her head feels like its going to explode. No matter how hard she tries she can not pull herself up.  Her feet are numb and cold. She has no choice, it's either die hanging here or call someone and humiliate herself to come and help her.  She reaches for her phone. 

 IT"S ON THE TABLE!  JUUUUUST OUT OF REACH.  Oh if she can just stretch a little bit more she can get it.  Starting to hyperventilate!  WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?  Well Ethel realizes she's all alone, except for Ginger the dog,  and has to get herself out of this mess.  Let's give it one more try.  Straining with every ounce of her being, she slowly pulls herself up.  "I'm almost there, oh please, please!"  I MADE IT!  Doesn't waste anytime unbuckling her feet.  Stands up and has the worst headache know to man.  Grabs her phone, that was of no use to her, and stamps out slamming the door behind her.  I think it took the rest of the day for the blood to get back to the rest of her body. 

Vintage Tidbit Tuesday: Ride a Hobby Horse! (part 2)

Lot's of hobbies lead to business successes.  Fulton's hobby led him to invent a steamboat.  A veteran I know makes a living raising tiny parakeets.  Another got interested in poinsettias...so his interest blossomed into a growing business.  Maybe you'll find a new recipe for popcorn or popovers, or raising mushrooms!

But even if your hobby horse doesn't carry you on to fame and fortune, it'll be yours.  Many a gal met her husband over the tennis racket of the ski boots.  All you need is a mutual hobby like horseback riding or deep-sea fishing.  It's a sure heart-winner.  You don't even have to be good at it...just be there!

Even hobby horses, however, have some requirements.  Materials aren't so difficult to get.  A child's box of paints will do to start.  A famous French artist made brilliant posters of Paris dancers on cardboard...and today you're seeing moving pictures of his life.  Materials for weaving and flower-making are not too expensive...some hobbyists even use odds and ends...string and hosiery they find in the workbasket or about the house.

Often second-hand materials will do for a start.  Many a famous poem has been scribbled on a piece of wrapping paper...one of Shakespeare's sonnets once turned up as the lining of a pie-pan!

In general, don't try too many hobbies or you'll be Don Quixote...too busy chasing windmills to accomplish anything.  Then, too, you've got to think about space for your hobby...the attic studio, basement workbench, or garden garage.  If you have to start out in a corner cubbyhole...keep planning, keep dreaming, and some day you'll have the space you need.  Start now to ride a hobby horse.  Everybody's doing it!

YoYo Foot Warmer

YoYo Foot warmer in neutrals

Close up of yoyo's.  They are joined inside the yoyo, so you don't see the stitching. Here's the tutorial

http://mousechirpy-polkadotpineapple.blogspot.com/2008/03/tutorial-joining-fabric-yo-yos-in-quilt.html

I Love Little Toes

Vintage Tidbit Tuesday: Ride a Hobby Horse! (part 1)

Riding a hobby horse is one of the easiest ways to perk up and live.  Develop your interest in ceramics or electric trains...a doll collection or a dancing course...tennis, painting, weaving, jewel design...or star-gazing, stamp collecting, miniature railroads, sailing.

Take a subject like gardening.  There's a wide choice just from that one subject.  You can concentrate on radishes and onions, cabbages and parsley in your own backyard or even a window box!  Or maybe your taste will run to orchids.  You can raise them, too, in a window or an indoor container.  Or maybe it's waterlilies or camellias or roses.

It doesn't matter much which hobby horse you set out to ride...just so it's one that interests you.  One in which you can put your heart.

Did you know that there are societies for almost every hobby you can think of from canaries to African violets?  Some of the organizations are like craftsmen's guilds and have certain standards for membership.  Most of them, however, are open to healthy amateurs...and they are a good way of meeting pleasant people!  Grievances have a way of disappearing over a coffee cup...especially if the topic of conversation is a mutual hobby.  Most folks with a given hobby are broad-minded, ready to learn from the other fellow...willing to give credit where credit is due.  You'll find a fair and square bunch of people ready to help you with your hobby.

So ride a hobby horse!  Have a good time...but let someone else ride, too.  The hobby horse answer really will work for you as it's worked for hundreds of others.  Where ever you find folks interested in something which is constructive...something they can build with their hands or think about with their minds...you will find barriers being broken down and understanding growing up and flowering.

Some folks have a hobby of good eating.  They organize themselves into Epicurean Societies...and the menus are really out of this world.  Those people would never think of being alcoholics.

Art and music has been used on mental cases.  This cure works also as a preventative!

Get yourself a hammer and some nails, some lumberyard pieces, and dig out your tools from the basement.  Build a boat or toy horse.  Be Santa Claus...you'll feel as young as the grandchild who gets the toy!  Or take a paint-brush and make a picture...Grandma Moses and Winston Churchill both recommend it!

Try it once and then there's no stopping you.  The hobby horse idea is wonderful for you...it's not a dead-end street to nowhere.  It's an open window...a new horizon...a ride on a rainbow.

To be continued next Tuesday!