~'Tis a sweet cover for a WONDERFUL magazine!~

Don't you think this is just the sweetest cover? This is one of my favorite magazines. Love it, love it, love it! And I have such a fettish for early lighting, so naturally, when this appeared in my mailbox, I was captivated. She is just the sweetest thing.........

AND

What is it with me? I found this listed on our local Craigslist. Spotty photo, sorry.....



I have always wanted a colonial four poster bed and an antique rope bed, and my patient shopping has acquired both within a year. This is not placed where it is going to be, my husband just put it up so we could look at it while deciding where to put it. (My log cabin quilt is laying out on the floor in the back ground.) I have only seen one other rope bed in person and that was in Illinois antiquing with my aunt one beautiful Fall day. I have loved them ever since. Then I stumble onto this one, complete with a newly manufactured 3/4 mattress. Me and my hair brain ideas! Rest assured, it wasn't $17 like my pencil post bed was, but still, compared to what I see on eBay and what these go for back East, I got a bargain. Maybe living in an 'antique desert' is a blessing for finding the real good antiques that make their way out West. Most people don't shop much for these kinds of things out here. Even though I am LUCKY to find this way out here in Idaho and I am grateful that it is now residing in our home, I am banned from shopping at thrift stores or Craigslist for awhile. My husband is afraid of what I will come home with next!

True Statements and Quilting for the Shop Hop......

A good friend bought me this several years ago and I have enjoyed this sign many times over! I laugh at and curse this statement both at the same time. I am so blessed to LOVE to know how to use a thread and needle, whether it be quilting, cross-stitching, embroidery, punch needle, sewing, mending, and the list goes on. I inherited this from my ancestors, and am so grateful to be able to sew on a button, which some women (and men) pay big dollars for at the local dry cleaners. But at other times, I get frustrated with either the materials I am working with or my limited patience. 'Quilting' and 'mending' are two totally different arts, but I am glad that I can do both, and everything in between.

This past weekend was our local shop hop for us 'quilty' people. One of my local shops asked me to quilt their shop's version of the quilt that all the blocks are given out for at each shop. It reminded me of Christmas, and I loved quilting a Christmas quilt when I wasn't rushed to do it, as I am around the holidays. So, without further delay, Ta Da...........

Christmas in April.... who knew! Could be a new trend.......

Blessings on your work, and find something to mend today, or better yet, learn how!

Shanda

~I'm an Early Weekend Warrior at the Thrift Store~

Sometimes you find things at the thrift store, and sometimes you don't. Wednesday, I did. I found two WONDERFUL things. This quilt was $8. Fairly good condition. Even if I cut it up for projects, it is a great find. I sure wish these thrift store finds could talk. Who wrapped up in this? Who made it? It was quilted by hand, so who is lacking a quilt stitched by their grandmother? Was it made out of the families old shirts, dresses, or other household odds and ends? Where did it originate from? See, all these questions need to be answered! While I was looking around, there was a BEAUTIFUL old photograph, at least 10x12, of a small child dressed in what I would guess was baptismal clothes. Who in the world let that out of the family possessions? Family heirlooms need to be treated with respect and handed down to those who can be trusted. My heart breaks for these family items that are reduced to the level of being sold in a thrift store.

AND I FOUND ANOTHER FIRKIN!!!!!


Legs are already screwed off and this one has a real nice 'hinged' lid. Makeover photo forthcoming, but I couldn't stand it, I wanted to show it to you. This is the biggest size firkin in my collection to date, so authentic or not, I am very excited to have it.

Thursday Night I met my friend Pam for dinner, and look at the goodies she had for me!!!!

She bid on these at a silent auction at her workplace. Two geese, the wooden hayfork, and a cool peg board. Not sure where all of these are going yet, but they are going to be finding great homes throughout my house. Thanks, Pam!!!!

I am so very grateful for family and friends. Simple pleasures always rate the highest with me, and I am mindful of the joy that small events bring me. Today I inspected my budding fruit trees, used a new flour sack dishtowel to dry my dishes, and marveled at the beauty of my VERY pregnant friend, Kim. All of these moments in my day, and others, give me true happiness. It is the simple abundance in my life, and that fact that I recognize it, that makes me sleep peacefully at night and feel fulfilled. For this, I recognize my Heavenly Father's hand in everything. May we all recognize from whom our blessings flow!!!

Shanda

The Case of the Missing 'Thrift Store Bed'

Some of you may remember my pencil post bed I found at a thrift store for $17 last May. Many of you have emailed me wondering why I hadn't posted photos of it finished or what the status of the bed 'makeover was. Well, my husband set it up in our bonus room and tinkered with it for a month and got around to making a 'canopy' for it. Now it just needs to be refinished. But the story has a much better ending than I was thinking it was going to have. All this time, almost a year, I thought it was a full size and it was going to go in our spare bedroom, hence my procrastination on getting it done. Come to find out, after getting it all put together, it is a QUEEN! I think I am very quickly changing my mind and it is going in our room. We currently have a sleigh bed.

But it is either going to be sold, or it will go in the spare bedroom. What a joy I had to discover that I had a queen and not a full pencil post bed! Now to get busy refinishing the find of a life time!

I have been busy while away from my Blog for the last two months!!!!! I made some 'bandanna' ties and flag football flags for our missionaries:


Painted a bedroom that DESPERATELY needed it:


And I am vigilantly still trying to keep up with my quilting customers:



But one night I put myself in a much needed 'time-out' and cleaned up this mess in my sewing room:

So now it is a bit better:

My husband also put this up in my sewing room - a bulletin board with all my 'ideas' pinned up and the shelf above it used to reside in my daughters room and was hot pink.

I did mention in my last post - I know it was in January - sorry for that - had some family things that really needed my attention - that I would show you what was in my sewing basket. I have been working on a cross stitch for nigh unto two years now. And I do have it finished, I just can't show you the final project as it is for my mother and I don't want her to see it yet.....


Lastly - have most all of you have seen these cute 'pouting chairs' at Michaels? They are in the unfinished wood section. I bought one last summer with my 40% off coupon and also finally refinished it in blue. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out:


Hope everyone had a nice weekend and wonderful Easter. I know I did. Life is good, and even though I complain at times, I am glad I have the life I have. I am blessed!

Shanda

Quilting in the Mountains!!!!

The Solaas Bed and Breakfast, Salmon, Idaho

Wow!

Have you ever had such a good time that there were no words to describe the event? Yeah.... that is the predicament I am in!!! Quilting in the mountains..... HUGE homemade soup breadbowls........ VERY creative women....... a DIVINE Bed &Breakfast ....... just take a look at the bounty I had last weekend......

My friend Pam ready to go to her first quilting retreat...

The BEAUTIFUL drive into the mountains, but notice the photo of the rest stop.... at 7200 feet altitude there was NO WHERE to go to the bathroom!!! Thank heavens the nearest bathroom was ONLY 28 MILES DOWN THE ROAD! Yikes....





Sawtooth Mountain Range near Stanley, Idaho

A quaint cabin along the way - now that is primitive for you. I could fix it up real cute...

We finally arrived, so let the quilting begin.....

And in the morning, the most sumptuous homecooked country breakfast...



Pause for group identification..... the Salmon Quilt Guild.....
More quilting.......




More eating - lunch of homemade soup in HUGE HOMEMADE breadbowls.....


WOWZERS! What a weekend! I did a Trunk Show Saturday Morning and taught the ladies how to do a quick nine-patch out of 2- 5 inch squares that they enjoyed making, and then sorry to say, it was over. Pam and I got to stay another evening, as the Solaas Bed and Breakfast proprietors are next to my kin, and it was wonderful spending time in their home again. I grew up there, and it was so nice to be in the mountains again. Thank you all, for a well spent weekend. It was worth the five hour drive into the beautiful mountains of Idaho!

Next post - 'What's in your Sewing Box?'

Until then - Happy end of January stitching!

Shanda

~ 'Tis a Primer on Firkins!~

My friends think I am making up a new 'questionable' word.

I have had several inquiries as to what firkins are. They say with a chuckle ..... 'A WHAT? What is a 'firkin'? Aren't they called sugar or sap buckets?" I submit they are called all of the above. A firkin is described as follows on Wikipedia:

"A Firkin is an old English unit of volume. The name is derived from the Middle Dutch word vierdekijn, which means fourth, i.e. a fourth of a full-size barrel.

The term firkin is currently used to refer to antique wooden buckets, usually with wood handle and lid, about 10 inches (250 mm) high and 10 inches in diameter (about 10L or 2-3 dry gallons in capacity), formerly used to store sugar and other items."

I have a love affair with firkins. Firkins are simple. Firkins are early american art, because true antique firkins were handmade, as was everything else then. Firkins were a necessity, not a want. We have bowls today. Colonists had firkins then. A kitchen and home staple.

I have a couple of firkins, all reproduction, but each one has a story, like all pieces in a collection does. My most 'recently acquired firkin' came at Christmas from a very dear friend. She hand painted this several years ago and wanted it to have a home. Oh, it now has a home - at my house!


The next two are reproductions from my favorite shoppe, Heritage Reflections:


These two stacked firkins were 'finds' that I painted and refinished to look like real firkins, but I still love them:

Firkins are a simple pleasure to me!!!!

I also had a surprise delivery from a dear 'great cousin' in Wisconsin. Cousin Diane has become very special to me because I have only recently discovered her and met this wonderful family member. She follows my blog and sent me a fun Christmas package containing two jewels. The sheep platter in this photo actually stands on a pedestal, but the picture of the sheep was so cute I wanted to tip it on its side so I could see it better.


And isn't this star with a painted bittersweet vine just the best?

Thank you Cousin Diane - from your 'cousinette'!

I have been gone from my blog for too long, but I have had a fun time reading all your blogs! Such creativity out there! I miss them when I can't read them for a while!

I am teaching at a quilting retreat this weekend up in the mountains of Idaho. I will be taking some photos and sharing them with you all as the mountains are beautiful, as is the Bed and Breakfast that the retreat is being held at. New friendships, food, good times...... these are the simple pleasures I am blessed with this weekend.

Blessings on your week!

Shanda