Photos from Fun on the Cape with Friends

Today’s post will be filled with fun, somewhat silly photos from our recent Cape Cod getaway. Cap’t Cass  Rock Harbor Seafood was not yet open for the season, but I couldn’t resist photographing the collection of buoys.

One fun shop we always visit is Buddah Bob’s in Eastham. How can I describe this funky little place? “Eclectic” best describes it. You can find crystals, amethyst, rose quartz, jewelry, antiques, and garden statuaries there. 

And you never know who might be lurking about. . . 

We went out to eat one night and because the restaurant was crowded our group sat at two different tables. The other table ordered sensible, semi healthy food. Fortunately, I was at the cool kids table. :-) When Kathy’s friend Kathy decided she would like nachos, I suggested we just order appetizers and so we did. Yes, nachos, potato skins, and chicken fingers . . . It wasn’t healthy but it sure was fun.

 

Final photos . . . 

Thrifting Fun on the Cape with Friends

 My friend Kathy invited six friends down to her family’s summer home in Eastham for a few days of thrifting fun. The weather was gorgeous and happily, many thrift shops were open. 

Here’s our hostess Kathy (on the right) with her forever friend Kathy.

Here’s the rest of the crew. Except for Kathy’s friend Kathy, we had all taught in the Weymouth Public Schools for many years.

Nauset Light in Orleans

Across from the Coast Guard station in Chatman, I spotted these shiny, smiley, happy fellows.

Inflation hasn’t affected the price of these viewers; they still cost a quarter.

So, what did we do on our getaway? We laughed, shopped, ate, laughed, ate, shopped, . . . 

What did we buy? Well, one friend seemed to find a black top to wear on an upcoming trip at nearly every shop, and another found treasures to add to her extensive vintage jewelry collection. When we would return to the house each day, we would have a show and tell to ooh and ahh over our purchases.

What did I find? Do you remember the $4.00 watermelon pitcher that I showed in a recent post? I  found three pieces to go with it. Each piece was $2.00. . . ;-) Won’t they be fun to use on my sunporch this summer?

My best find was a bag for $12.00 with six wooden spools/bobbins. That was a bargain!!! They will be used in future cross stitch finishing pieces.

There were a few other small items. In total, I spent about twenty-five dollars, but the adventure of thrifting with friends was priceless. 

Part Two in my next post. :-)

Mary Poppins Cross Stitch Finish

I’m just poppin’ in to wish you all a very Happy Easter and to show you my latest cross stitch finish which I picked up from the framers on Thursday. :-) Non-cross stitchers would be surprised at how many different Mary Poppins charts there are available, but this by far is my favorite.  It is a design by Laura Rimola, the Little Stitcher. 

This was my birthday start last July, and it was stitched on 14 count Denim Dyed Effect from Fabric Flair. There was supposed to be some wording in the middle but it was awkward, so I skipped it. I used the ‘called-for’ floss, but I added a different color floss to emphasize the upper structure of the clock tower. I am thrilled how it turned out.

Now, less you think this is the end of the story, there is more. Way, way back when I was in college, my cousin Jane and her husband welcomed a baby girl to our family. I was given the great honor of being her godmother. I was excited beyond words and wanted to make something special for baby Kristin. Mary Poppins came to mind. In those day I did both needlepoint and crewel. I purchased a Mary Poppins book and a coloring book and designed a crewel piece to stitch. My dad made the frame and cut the glass for it. 

This Mary Poppins piece hung in her childhood bedroom and later moved to her home when she herself was blessed with two baby girls. It still hangs in her home today. So, here is the piece that I created and stitched fifty years ago. :-) (Even then I put my initials and the year in the lower right hand corner.)

Isn’t that fun!!! 

Happy Easter! Happy Passover! Happy Spring!

Spring Is Here!!!

The crocuses are blooming, the daffodils are up, and my favorite sign appeared at the garden center: 

Pansies 

Are 

Here.

Indeed, I planted my pansies two weeks ago, but since we have had a few days with some pretty cold weather, the display is not very impressive at this point. Soon enough their cherry faces will be swaying  in the breeze.

I don’t have much work to show, but I have been in the middle of a few different projects. Later this week I will be picking up a piece of cross stitch that I had professionally framed. Here’s a child’s quilt that I finished yesterday to be donated to DCF.

I’ve been doing my spring cleaning and dropping items off at local charity/thrift shops. I have learned it is best to just drop off the items and not look around the shops for fear of bringing items home which defeats the purpose. 

Okay, well,  I did come home with one item,  this $4.00 watermelon pitcher which caught my eye. :-)

Back in January, I resolved to not buy any fabric unless it was absolutely necessary to complete a project.  I have done great in terms of fabric. I also resolved to not buy any cross stitch patterns, kits, fabric, or thread, but I am totally hopeless when it comes to cross stitch. So, once again, I’m resolving to not buy anything cross stitch for the rest of the year. So, what’s with this lovely collection of perle cotton you ask? Well, I may have seen a spring themed piece of wool applique on the Shabby Fabrics site, and, yes, I bought the pattern and wool kit. :-) I’m working on it now, and when you see it, you will understand why I couldn’t possibly resist purchasing it. ;-) Wool applique is fun to stitch, and I already had these luscious balls of perle cotton in my stash.

Wild Kingdom:

As I always do, I took Emma out one last time before bed. She was on a leash as she is nearly impossible to keep track of in the dark. Things were fine until she started barking. I couldn’t see anything in the woods, but fearing it might be a black “kitty” with a wide white stripe down its back, I hustled her inside. This morning when I took her out, she again began barking wildly and racing back and forth along the fence. (There is a drop off beyond the fence.) This time to my horror I saw in the woods what she was barking at . . . a coyote!!! It was curled up sleeping (probably in the same spot as last night.) I was able to get hold of Emma, and her barking prompted the coyote to get up and move along. 

If you have followed this blog, you know that there have been an abundance of bunnies and squirrels, deer, and turkeys, but hopefully the coyote was a one time thing. I never let Emma out by herself as you just never know what might be out there.

[Update: I mentioned the coyote to neighbors who live further down the street, and they showed me footage from their trail cam showing two or three coyotes in their yard at night. There have also been nightly visits from a small group of deer. Good Heavens!!! I hope they all stay way down the street.] Suddenly a flock of turkeys doesn’t seem all that bad.

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One last thing . . . 

This a blog which focuses on happy, positive, upbeat  things, so I will make no comment on what happened in Manhattan Criminal Court this afternoon. I will simply observe that for the first time in our country’s history, a former President was arrested and arraigned on thirty-four charges. 

Succulent Head Planter

 

Here’s the fun project that I mentioned in my last post. If you regularly follow my blog posts, you know that I watch a whole lot of Youtube. I enjoy flosstubes, quilting, music, gardening, decorating, crafting, antiquing, and many other subjects. I follow Friesian Horses - Follow the Herd, “The History Guy,” watch old episodes of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, heck, I even follow a young couple in Oklahoma who raise bison. Why? Who knows? There is always something fun and interesting to watch.

One of my new favorite Youtube channels is “Garden Answer.” Last week, the lovely young gardener on that channel showed how to create a succulent head planter, and I couldn’t resist making one, too! 

Amazon has a number of head planters: some lovely and some others somewhat strange. I paid $16.99 for this small Greek maiden head planter. This concrete planter has a drainage hole which is important. It is filled with a blend of succulent and cactus soil, and I purchased the succulents at two local big box stores.

Here’s a view from above. I believe that her planter was more tightly packed, but some of my succulents were small and will fill in the spaces as they grow.

Right now it is sitting on my kitchen counter where it simply makes me smile, but I will move it to the sunporch when things warm up a bit.

Isn’t she sweet? If you, too, wish to make one, go to ‘Garden Answer - Planting a Succulent Head Planter’ for a step by step tutorial and to get tips on how to water it.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring; let’s hope Mother Nature doesn’t have any mean surprises up her sleeve.

Have a wonderful week.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!

Calendar Girl - March

This sweet colleen is a cross stitch design by Diane Williams for Little House Needleworks. The name on the chart is “Calendar Girls - March.” This wooden display piece from Hobby Lobby allows me to easily switch out pieces.

I added a bit of lace along the border since she is after all Irish. :-) 

No quilting finishes to show yet, but fingers crossed I may do some quilting tomorrow.

In other news, family and friends attended the Arlington Children’s Theater production of The Sound of Music last Saturday night. My young cousin Miss T enjoys acting, and her performances each time get better and better.

Plans to get together with friends on Tuesday were postponed by a nor’easter. While we ended up with wind driven rain, some folks in the western part of our state received twenty-four inches of heavy, wet, ‘heart attack shoveling’ snow. 

That’s it . . . short and sweet. In my next post,  I’ll show you something fun that I worked on today. 

Lulu et Ses Cactus and Casablanca

Here’s a recent cross stitch finish, Lulu et Ses Cactus by Jardin Prive which I started back in March 2021. I had originally seen the piece on someone’s flosstube and thought it was cute and colorful. (This photo doesn’t quite do it justice as it is much more colorful in person.) It was in my stitching rotation and probably eighty percent done when I decided to make it my 25/7 focus piece and just get it finished. 25/7 means stitching on the same piece for twenty-five minutes each day of the week until a piece is completed. I’m here to say that that strategy works! This was my after breakfast stitch to start my day. 

My plan was to purchase a narrow metal frame matching one of the bright colors in the piece, but I was unsuccessful finding one. Happily, I found this perfect size piece in the wood section of Hobby Lobby.

I’m making steady progress on my current 25/7 piece and cannot wait to see it completed. It’s amazing how allocating a set amount of time daily can help you accomplish things. Maybe I should thus allocate two hours a day to quilting??? H’mmm, that’s a thought.

Yesterday afternoon I went to see Casablanca on the big screen at the Showcase Cinema in Randolph. I’m partial to movies from the 1930s and 1940s, and Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergmen was brilliant. This is a movie that I have seen many times through the years on tv but seeing it on the big screen was like seeing it for the first time.  I wish showing classic films such as this was a regular feature of this cinema, but there are no more vintage movies on the schedule.

Lastly, I am happy that the Alex Murdaugh trial is over. Though I never ever watch any of the true crime programs on tv or follow any such podcasts, I found myself drawn in to watching far too much of this trial. What an horrific  crime. If I had been on the jury, I, too, would have voted him guilty. 

Let me leave you on a brighter note.

This amaryllis had been a Christmas gift and had already put up two stalks with multiple blossoms. I read a few articles and watched a number of youtube videos showing how to get your amaryllis to rebloom next year. The first step was to cut down the stalks and treat it as a houseplant. I moved it to my sewing room and after a few weeks another stalk emerged!!!  The first set of blooms had been in January. The steps to follow to get it to rebloom next year seem simple enough, so I am going to give it a try. :-)

Here’s looking at you kid and have a lovely week. :-()