time goes by fast

Wow, it's been awhile, but life got busier these past few days.  My house is a work in progress, it is like a little cabin... a vacation cabin, but I like the country early pioneer feel of it and so it is somewhat like that.  We have been working on it for 5 years now, my husband and I retired and I still work from home, I teach English and am a Certified Public Translator, and now I have decided to take up my crafts projects and make a go at working with it.  Since we are building without a huge loan to built it, we don't want big monthly bill, so our house is small. But now my some will be here with us while he's working on pilot license, and this means we need to built some more so we can a little more comfort in the house!
So we decided to close in our veranda and it will look like a winter garden, with huge glass windows so we can enjoy the view of the trees and flowers out there... but what I am most excited about is the work will do in the kitchen... it will be a little bigger and better organized!  I am so excited about it!  I hate small places and it will be more pleasurable to be in the kitchen...maybe I will cook a little more! 

So, this past few days I have been running around buying materials for the remodeling!
The fun part was going around demolition yards ... it could almost be compared to a flea market... except that's just one place to shop at... and there 's all sort of things and you never know what you will find!
I was able to find windows, doors and other things I am going to need and the best part is how much i was able to save...Plus the fun in cleaning, sanding and working on the pieces and getting them ready to be placed.  I will have pics of it tomorrow, it was just delivered and my camara batteries were dead.

But here are some pics of what the house is like now ... and will have photos as the work progresses!

Sa�dos da Concha

Life is full of things happening at the same time! The challenge and what makes it to a successful or fail trial is how we are able to manage and juggle all the balls at once and not dropping a single one!! It sometimes seems to be an impossible task !
Be it as it may try we must!

On a lighter note, I found this cute girl in England, but she is from Portugal! her blog is very classy and it has beautiful pictures... go pay her a visit! I really enjoyed it!

You all have a wonderful day!


Sa�dos da Concha

Lace

I just love lace!  I often  think I was born in the wrong era...I would love to wear the pretty lace dresses and blouses full of lace and the embroidery,  but here in Brazil the fashion is not vintage, and most people are not into it...but I still like it... have a small collection of it, always weary of parting with it...


And here I found these beautiful pieces, and here is her blog  www.cabanedeviolette.canal.blog.com

and there is so much more !!!

eille avec plaisir Mayeul and co vous acu

C'est un plaisir de visite c'est blog ci!! Il y a toujours des trés jolies choses!! Merci pour ça!


eille avec plaisir Mayeul and co vous acu

Blomsterverkstad

Browsing through the blogs today!!! This is so addicting!!!
and there are so many wonderful blogs!

Anyway!!, browsing I found this BEAUTIFUL shabby look garden decor and flower/fruit/vegetables arrangements!!

My visitors, you need to check this one out!!
Just lovely!



Blomsterverkstad

spring is really here!

So now we are officially in spring season and the weather has already turned; it's more humid and warmer, it has been raining and now all the plants have new buds, my maple tree is green again! But the best part is that we feel like being out and about!  The cold wind doesn't invite for being out.  Just came in from working in the garden a little bit!  it is such a pleasure to play with the plants!... another week and everything is going to look much better.

this little Timon - from King Lion - Tim-tim

he doesn't want to let me sew!!! he wants to play!

Tim-tim and Cosmo (the cougar cat Brigham Young University mascot); they are brothers and the always liking each other!

this is older brother Simba, from King Lion! the furiest ball! the little brothers take him for a mom!! it's so funny!

more flowers from my garden

my peach tree... 2nd year, a small tree! this year is full of little fruit!  Let's see if they stay on!

 

this is one of three mulberry trees I have; they are 2 years old, and this year it is full of berries!! yummmyyy!!

practical magic!

Today is the day all the witches are flying around ! People say in Brazil that August is the month for them to come out, and everything that comes out wrong is blamed on them!!  However, according to Celtic tradition, this event happens in the Night of All Hallows, Halloween night!
Well I want to go with the idea that ALL women have something of a Witch (quote from the movie).  Women are forever in the quest of conjuring a brew to make life around them enchanting and magical, or whimsical! Women enchant!  I rather be counted among the Good Witches! 

For two sisters from a family of witches, falling in love is the trickiest spell of all.

Quotes from the movie I love!
          aunt Frances

My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!

Sally

Can love really travel back in time and heal a broken heart? Was it our joined hands that finally lifted Maria's curse? I'd like to think so. But there are some things I know for certain: always throw spilt salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck, and fall in love whenever you can.

I believe that these gorgeous  little creatures are flying around my garden

helping me tend for all my beautiful flowers!

musing!

I have just realized in a very clear way how my Hungarian heritage speaks out in my choices of colors and patterns in my drawing and designing!  Very interesting, since my Magyar experience comes only from my mother and the things we had around the house. Strong colors speak out to me... although I do like the shabby and pastels colors, every time I choose colors for my house I end up with reds, yellows and blues!

But here I have a bag made for my hubby, he wanted a bag to take to church, with the colors he chose. It has many partitions, one for his computer, and another for the books, a pencil holder, shoulder straps and handles, zippers and pockets.  It was fun working on it, and he is very pleased with it.  It is made of a strong 100% cotton similar to light jeans, easy to wash, and best of all it won't show if it gets dirty!

 

This came out fuzzy, but you can have an idea

 

a pocket with a pen/pencil slot

 

shouder strap and handles

  

zipper thingies

 

computer pocket with pads

 

second pocket

and a side view of the pockets

some twinkling

Since I heart my leg, ankle and foot, I had to rest with leg up... bending the knee was and still is a little painful... so sitting at my sewing machine wasn't an option, so I have been doing some crochet which will be used on some of the sewing I have planned, my bags, girls dresses, etc. I also am working on a rug.  I need to switch tasks because my thumb gets sore, so I have all of them going at the same time!

This a rug similar to a rag rug made from string, natural and colored, 100% cotton

 

This a thicker and stronger floss, and it lends itself very for rug making; a very used item in the households, in the kitchen, bathroom and as door mats. Some are made very big either round or square for the living room.  In the summer they are a favorite because it can be easily washed and it keeps the house cool and fresh.  Installed carpets don't work so well for us because it is harder to clean and in the summer they make the house too hot.  In very humid places it may be a disease trap... due to mildew, so not very welcome.

Mine is not following a pattern, I don't like to follow patterns very much, so I'm just making it up as I go; this one will have an orange color next to the pink, then the natural again... and so on and so forth.

  

in these other ones I'm playing with the floss and the colors to see what I like most, and then work on details for my bags and girl's dresses and shirts

 

I tried to make the little flowers look like yo-yos

!

 

 

 

Country Threads :: Country craft | Cross stitch | Quilts and projects

This is a sample of what I found in this site.. and if you want to know about some traditions and how some things came to be ... such as the Teddy Bear!!! take a pick!!

Wonderfully winsome words Include these sayings on your stitcheries, gifts and cards, or just absorb their yuletide message. "I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year." – David Grayson. "Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." – Hamilton Wright Mabie. "I like the days when feathers are snowing and all the eaves have petticoats showing, and the air is cold, and the wires are humming, but you feel all warm with Christmas coming." – Aileen Fisher. "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be." – Sy Miller and Jill Jackson "’Tis a time for celebration in the company of others and a time for making magic now and then. ’Tis a playful time, a fun-filled time, a time of warmth and wonder – ’tis the season to be jolly once again!" – Jan Miller Girando "There's a magic in the season, in the kindness we do, whether joys are shared with many or among a special few." – Jan Miller Girando "Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore. Faithful friends who are dear to us gather near us once more."

Country Threads :: Country craft | Cross stitch | Quilts and projects

Flea Market Style

Don't you just love to go to flee markets? Rummaging through all the old stuff and trying to see what it will be like in your house or in your yard? Or maybe imagining how it will look like after you do something to it? Maybe paint, or sand , or wax, or nothing at all ... just as is?
Well, I do... I love it... in fact my house is being built like that, a work in progress!!! for sure! but what I like the most about it is that my house is like no other... I don't like sameness; I do like character, personality, yourself ... so it reflects you (me)... thinks one likes, feels, or plainly is!!

well, there is this new magazine out, and it seems it had a good acceptance...take a look! The ladies seem to be having lots of fun with it! I wish I were closer to be a part of it in person!... oh, well... the magazine and the blog will have to do for now...

Flea Market Style

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!

On another note!!  I fell in my house... slid on a slick something and almost broke my knee ankle and foot!!  That was 2 weeks ago... boy! did it hurt! and consequently I was put to rest ... did a lot of crocheting though! have to take pics and post! 
But lots of my sewing is behind... and I had planned on working on lots of projects! c'est la vie!
In Brazil, crocheting is a big thing because it is a craft that requires very little and inexpensive and it is an easy skill to master.  So, one item that is very popular is the rug making; it is make of packing string and it can be done on very thick string, or a thinner one .... it comes in a variety of textures and colors!
I love them because they are very sturdy, stand lots of washings, therefore they last a long time and you always have clean rugs very easily, if the washing machine does the work that is!
My house is always open, windows and doors, for I love the sun shining in and the fresh air coming in, and of course it is bound to get dusty since we live in a country like place, and the wind sometimes blows strong bringing in leaves and whatnots!

 Since I was now bound to a chair and legs up on a rest, crocheting seemed like a good idea, and so I decided to take up rug making which I had never done!  My 1st one didn't come out as I wanted because I wasn't used to the string... it is rather thick and my hand was sore at first.  Soon I got the hang of it, but the turning around was trickier since the string doesn't give like yarn does. It came out ok though!

Now I am working on a second one, and this time I'm putting a little color on it, unlike the popular trend which is the string natural color, and most people used the same patterns... it isn't finished yet but it is beginning to look nice!  pics soon in a following post!

Ah, and I am glad to say that my leg is getting better... I can't stand too long or even stay on it for too long.. but I'm able to walk without crutches now...they are a bother...

Bye for now!

from France

taken from the blog....take a tour to see some very nice pictures and places~~

Un Coeur en Provence: Recevoir

bon voyage!

la trés jolie visage de France

un trés trés charmant blog

*** DOUCE ETOILE ***

I love love how the French bloggers present their blogs and their gorgeous pictures of the little nooks and corners of beautiful France, more especially Provence, I love the colors and the beautiful decor!!!

Merci beacoup mes cheres amies de France!! Je vous aime bien!