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Styles have changed, but the claims and creativity of the advertising world are much the same as 50 or more years ago.

This hat box was found when cleaning out my grandparents' house.

A friend loaned us some old handwork magazines to enjoy. The advertisements were just as interesting and entertaining as the patterns!

The Joys of Reading

Dorothy loves cuddling on the couch. She loves being read to.

This was a happy night!

           
And it doesn't bother her if the book is a school book... or even if it is in Norwegian!

Not Worthless

Linnea-the-Orchid is thriving! "She" has graced different rooms over the past couple months and is still sharing beautiful blooms.

                        

Meanwhile, Mrs. H.-the-Orchid is barely surviving. 

It is hard to believe that this was once a thriving plant, nearly as big as Linnea. This was the founder of my orchid collection - given to me as a gift in 2004. Yes, by Mrs. H. ;-) And what's more... this was the mother-plant from which Linnea grew as a keiki (baby) years ago.

This plant hasn't bloomed in years.  Its roots and leaves have shriveled and dried up. Once it tried sending out a couple new leaves and then gave up again. There it sits. In a coma.

Many would call this a worthless plant and throw it out, but I don't. This plant is special to me. I want to see it grow and bloom again! I plan to keep tending it, propping it up, and giving it extra care and protection.

If that is how I can feel about a plant that is crippled and hopeless, how does God view me in these "useless," shriveled years of illness and disability, I wonder? How does He feel about you? 

You are special to Him, you know!

Mittens in Two Colors

As mentioned in my last post, knitting really didn't make sense to me until fighting through the making of a wool lace scarf in 2014. Then I settled for easy knitting a while longer - lap blankets. It is so nice to have a "mindless" project sitting around for the hours when brain and eyes are weary but fingers are antsy.

                 

A couple of years ago I watched a cousin design a beautiful afghan with Nordic-inspired designs in two-color knitting (colorwork). 

I remember thinking, "I'd never be able to do that!" But in the autumn of 2015 Elsa found a free pattern for Norwegian mittens. Who can resist "free"?!

So, I dug out a handwork book and some scrap yarn to learn colorwork and continental knitting.

And the rest is history...

 

       

This cosy pair - along with mittens our parents bought in Norway years ago - have inspired Elsa and me to design our own lines of children's mittens - all wool and each double-thick for winter warmth.

A few of Elsa's designs are already in her Etsy shop and we are working on more designs and colors for the autumn.

       

Handwork

Handwork has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  

One of the first projects I can remember is embroidering a set of seven white, cotton dish-towels which Grandma and Grandpa gave me. The kind with a full-skirted, sun-bonneted girl going about the activities assigned to each day of the week. Though I now laugh over my color choices, they are still very fun!

Sewing began with my first quilt made of scrap squares at age seven and included more difficult sampler quilt blocks and clothing in the years to follow. 

Finishing a quilt involved learning to hand-stitch it on a big quilting frame. Those were special days spent with mom, sisters, grandmas, and ladies from church. I can still spot my huge, uneven stitches on that first quilt tucked in as a cosy layer on my bed. 

My sisters and I got lots of practice quilting, though, as we loved working on each of the quilts Grandma made for her 18 grandchildren's high-school graduations. The one she lovingly pieced for me is also on my bed this year.

Another early memory involves spinning wool from our own sheep after helping to sheer, wash, tease, and card the fleeces. My first yarn was rather lumpy, but oh, how fun! I would love to get back to spinning some day.

Then came learning to knit with our wool (spun by Mom.) My first knitting at a very young age was a black scarf with red stripes (we dyed with Cool-Aid) as a Christmas gift for little Elsa. Mom had to fix that project several times even though it was just plain knitting. And Elsa had to keep me company as I worked alone in our room by playing outside my closed door.  She also had to make enough noise not to hear my knitting needles and make any guesses at her Christmas gift. :-) It was a successful surprise! 

My next knit scarf, begun at age thirty-one, was the project that pushed me beyond just "knit and pearl" and opened up a whole new love of knitting. Knit in a lace pattern from wool bought at an outdoor market in Russia, this took months to complete at my beginner's pace.

Instead of sitting outside the door to keep me company this time, Elsa and I were stuck on the same couch for months. I couldn't ask for a better companion in illness... or a better knitting instructor.  Her patience was amazing as I regularly shoved a mess of knitted lace at her to "fix" before I slowly learned to do that myself.

Crocheting came harder at a young age. It was tried and dropped once or twice before I finally pushed through my first doily... and was hooked. (Oops, that turned out to be a pun.) Doilies, hats, animals, shawls, blankets, hangers...the options seem nearly endless.

           

   

                

Throw in some weaving, some rug-hooking (learned along the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia, Canada), and a couple other odds and ends of handcrafts, and you'll begin to see why I could rarely understand how my peers could ever be "bored." :-)

I'm so grateful that our Creator gave us the urge and ability to be creative as well!

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring include:

~ Mom is clearing off flowerbeds.

~ Dad is hauling away the piles she creates (after Regi enjoys a night curled up in them - his favorite kind of bed!)

~ The grass is growing, and Dad has started mowing.

~ Elsa and I soak up the anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting, detoxifying properties of a day of sunshine after many clouds.

~ Meals are better on the deck.

Taco-seasoned buffalo on lettuce, topped with homegrown, homemade salsa, a drizzle of olive oil, and some nutritional yeast to supplement iron.

~ The view is cheered by an early Mother's Day gift of pansies. Elsa and I have an "in" with a greenhouse that doesn't actually open till Monday. :-) (Maren and Jason's!)

~ The butterflies like Mom's pansies too!

Salmon

This geranium is on its third year of blessing us with vibrant, salmon colored blooms. Today it is stretching out toward the sunshine - waiting to be moved outside again when we are past the frosts such as we had last night.

Your Story

Don't we all wish at times we could be writing our own life-story so we could fix all the things that seem to have gone wrong?

I love how this cosy children's book addresses that...

"Wouldn't you like to be writing that book with us all in it, Mother, and make Daddy come home soon?"

Peter's Mother put her arm round him suddenly, and hugged him in silence for a minute. Then she said:— "Don't you think it's rather nice to think that we're in a book that God's writing? If I were writing the book, I might make mistakes. But God knows how to make the story end just right— in the way that's best for us."

"Do you really believe that, Mother?" Peter asked quietly.

"Yes," she said, "I do believe it— almost always— except when I'm so sad that I can't believe anything. But even when I can't believe it, I know it's true— and I try to believe. You don't know how I try, Peter."

The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit

First Sweater Finished!

As I wrote earlier, this sweater was torn out and knit backward nearly as much as it was knit forward. But it was finally finished!  And there were even a couple weeks of cold enough weather left to enjoy wearing it this spring!

A Still and Quiet Soul

"My heart is not proud, O LORD,

my eyes are not haughty;

"I do not concern myself with great matters 

or things too wonderful for me.

"But I have stilled and quieted my soul;

like a weaned child with its mother,

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

"O Israel [or insert your name], put your hope in the LORD

both now and forevermore."

Psalm 131

Little Children

What a joy to spend an evening with young children again! And what a treat to hold and watch a tiny baby!

This family of first-cousins once-removed include this sparkling girl, her older brother, and her 9-day-old sister. 

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

- Jesus

Snow Shadows

April 8, 2016

Second morning in a row to wake up to snow. Less today, and gone as soon as the sun hit it. But that means there is actually SUNSHINE!!! A gift, as our bodies were getting starved for it again.  

Fun to see how the snow left in the shade created "reverse shadows" - being lighter (white snow) than the sunny deck (dark boards.)