Wishing you beautiful days in May!
And another gorgeous painting by Claudia Diller
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Girlhood and Springtime seem naturally meant for each other, don't they? These are some lovely romantic images of girlhood culled from my dusty stack of vintage Victoria magazines....from sometime around 1993 and '94. That can't be like...15 years ago...can it??? Say it isn't so! Springtime is great for barefoot boys, too...and always sweet chubby babies! But we'll save them for their own day in the Spring sunshine. Today we'll just soak in our most nostalgically wonderful girlhood memories... And perhaps dream up a few more! Some 15 or 16 years ago when I first happened onto these beautiful images, I didn't even have children...including a son and 3 darling daughters of my own! Oh! The blessings that time does bring! It just so happens that Girlhood Home Companion has come out with their new Spring edition now! Yay! Jill Novak speaks to all our romantic girlhood notions...I would even dare to say almost better than vintage Victoria! I can't wait to get this Springtime inspiration for birthdays this May and June! They've also added a Tea Cozy club and Happy Trails Horse club ...plus a blog!...to their delightful mix. So go be inspired... and swept away into beautiful girlhood once again! xxx On our way down to Portland this week, we managed to get left from the house in time for a side detour...which is a miracle in and of itself!
This 'Shaker Village' doesn't officially open until Memorial Day, but when he heard that we were from St. Albans...and that our neighbors raise Scottish Highlander cattle...and that their bull, Atta Boy, is REALLY big...he suddenly said, "BIG! I'll show you BIG!" and took us down to introduce us to his BIG Scottish Higlander bull, too! I'm finding that St. Albans is developing a reputation as Scottish Highlander breeders. Small world. They have some lovely historical residences and buildings dating back to the 1700's and the village is absolutely lovely! I tried to take more photos, but the batteries died on me! boo! They're also opening for Maine Free Farm Day from noon to 4 p.m. if you'd like to visit them and tour the sites for free. It's a beautiful drive and an enjoyable find! So how could I...or better yet...should I stock my pantry? I've discovered Heidi Swanson's marvelous recipe blog on Amazon...after stumbling upon her new Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways To Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking which is a cookbook garnering some appetizing reviews! In Ch. 1 Build a Natural Foods Pantry of her book she begins: The more I find out about Heidi Swanson, the more intriguing she becomes. She's started 101 Cookbooks.com she states as an attempt a few years ago to use the many recipes she already had on hand...as opposed to succumbing to the overwhelming temptation to buy the latest cookbook on the market. She's also an amazing food photographer providing all the photography herself. We don't have to buy her book, though, in order to treat ourselves to the massive abundance of recipes and her scrumptious photos that accompany them...she already has tons available online! I would be inclined to get the cookbook however, just based on this review by Cathe Olsen in regard to the manner in which Heidi formats this particular book. Evidently it's not just the standard cookbook fare as Cathe points out: We bid "so long!" to March... And Hello dear April! I wasn't able to find much on Kerstin Frykstrand...other than that she was a popular children's book illustrator...and wrote a comic strip with adorable little bears! She also illustrated a lovely music book for children that cropped up under a few searches...with most of her illustrations dating to around the 1930's and '40's. It's rain...not snow!! The snow is melting...the rain is raw and cold! Is there a silver lining in this anywhere? Yes! There is!! We drove down to Camden yesterday...and drove back home at night in sheets of pouring rain. But as we meandered along the coast to Rockport and then Rockland yesterday afternoon, we chanced to pass a quintessentially quaint little store called none other than Fresh Off The Farm StoreDespite the rain and drizzle, we promptly pulled a U-ey to check out this winsome little place with birch-branch wreaths hung across its porch posts and bushel baskets of large yellow daffodils peeking at us from under the awning porch. And not only bushel baskets of daffodils, but pots upon pots of promising blooms of tulips and hyacinths ready to burst open at any moment! We then drove down by the ferry just in time to see the cars loading up... and a few passengers hurrying down the ramp...bags in hand, hoods pulled tightly down against the rain...ready to make their 10 mile trek to North Haven Island. They were loaded in no time...then the small ferry pulled away quickly... disappearing into the mist and fog. We could still see its small light rolling and rocking its way to an island life I long to discover. Oh how we wanted to board that ferry and be whisked off to some rocky distant island shore...despite the eerie mist and rain! However, we had to suffice just listening to Captain Jim regale Anne and Gilbert with another tale from the sea as we listened to Anne's House of Dreams on the way back home. It's all part of our life now...in the cold, raw rainy romance of Maine in early Spring!
Along with Spring wishes comes wonderful Spring wear. Spring is still whispering to us with more snow this morning, tans and browns of the grass and trees, and the slender birches still crisp and white against the gray blue sky. This is part of their Spring collection called Nordic Light. I would say 'light' is perfectly right...and sea shore serene. It's a touch of Scandinavian...a touch of whimsy...a touch of old world...a touch of folksy peasantry... Another part of their Spring collection is what they call Down on the Farm... talk about eclectic and whimsical! Talk about folksy peasantry! I'm not sure how many farm maids will show up at the barn looking like this...but it sure would be fun! : D The first part of our pot pourri would be....pantaloons for Heather!! I finally have gotten around to sewing up pantaloons in her favorite fabric that she picked out a few weeks ago! Better late than never... Now we just have Asheley left to 'pantaloon up'...but she hasn't picked out her fabric yet... whew! We also met our friends from over in Plymouth at the Pinnacle this past week...for some slippin', slidin', sleddin', and skiing! What a workout...and what a blast!! : D Our other tid-bit of pot pourri is that we're closing in on XC ski gear for the family! Yay! We found a super bargain from a guy in the U. Henry's (sort of like a locals Craig's List kinda thing) who happened to have various sized boots and skis in kid's sizes! So Heather's now outfitted... Some little snow shoes for Asheley... We moved Caitlyn up to some slightly longer skis... So now Asheley can try this XC ski thing out, too! Our son now is outfitted with some skis his size...hubby and I still have to do some swapping out...but we're definitely closing in on the snow equipment here! This is called Criss-Cross Skiing here...which we all do on a regular basis! However, Asheley somehow manages to work in her very own ski lift...with handsome lift operator, too....how does she do that..?? Finally, our winter pot pourri brings us to a gorgeous mid-winter sunset...taken by Heather...she LOVES capturing our beautiful sunsets...among many other things! I've also just finished a book this week that I've been meaning to borrow from my friend, Karyn, for quite some time. Back in November, my homesteader friend, Heather, asked me if I'd heard of Joel Salatin. I hadn't, but turns out our other 2 homestead neighbors had a couple of his books. If only I'd gotten to it sooner! Well, actually, it's both...candy...and cabbages.... For a Pre-Valentine treat... from this beautiful site full of romantic treasures and homespun delights...Cabbages and Roses... Recently I found these wonderful knitted items at one of the thrift stores and decided that I really needed to scoop them up and send them off to my husband's sister, Lynn, and her family...now having moved to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. For the past few years, they were living near the coast but are now enjoying some true winter mountain weather! The fun part for me was that I took the opportunity to try my hand at some embroidery embellishment! This white sweater and little white mittens I thought would be so sweet for my 2 yo niece, Lydia, perhaps with some little blue flowers to match her buttons...and make it a set! Here's what I did on the front of the sweater... And also on the little cuffs... Then I felt that Mommy (Lynn) could match daughter, too, with flowers on her socks done in ice blue... And of course Papa Will mustn't be left out! I found these crocheted slippers...a really unique design....don't you think? Your foot just slips in between the triangles on the top! I need to find this pattern! |
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