Lil Bit Birdie Broach

Just having fun making felt broaches. I like this lil birdie.

Christy

Rupert Bear

My son's sketch of Rupert Bear. Rupert Bear is a long time favourite of many British children. He has yellow checkered trousers, with a red top. Rob's grandma bought him this when he was newly born and Rupert was taken to bed every night until he was a least ten.

Rupert started out as a strip story in I think the Daily Express Newspaper and has been popular for almost ninety years. Each year a Rupert Bear Annual is published. Rob has about ten. I loved these annuals as a child. Lots of pictures with story captions underneath.

So now Rob's Rupert Bear is immortalized in a drawing.

Christy

Re-arranging

I rearranged my sitting room today. We have a wood stove which we run continuously during the winter and heat the house with it. I love it, but it is work, which means a lot of wood being brought up to the house and then into the house. Plus, as we don't have it in a shed, and it has been very snowy and then pouring rain, plus snow again tomorrow. There has been a lot taken down to the basement to dry out. It's great being down there when there's two foot of snow outside. In any case what's a fifteen year old son for? Mum can put that weight lifting to good use. So I cleaned dust, dust, dust as I rearranged. it's hard if I even do, to keep up with. All that fine ash.

Going back to the sitting room. We have a nice size room not too small. It's longer and not as wide as I'd like, plus one must negotiate, two windows, two old wide wrought iron radiators (which I do like, steam heat, when we do put it on) two French doors and one wide archway and one wide granite fireplace. We're all room rearrangers in my family, my mum used to and so do my sister and I. Centering things around the fire place, but trying to use the ends of the room is always an on going composition. Plus where to put the wee tele. Also the fact that we are eclectic. I mean how can you turn down a lovely little vintage rose and leaf round metal table with glass on top, so fifties, for $2.00 in a yard sale, well not me, but then where to put it? Things do go out to the garage and then back in from the garage. Is there anyone else like that?

In spring, I can't do it before, because of the wood fire. But I want to put my dining room in my sitting room and visa versa. I have a long trestle table in a square dining room. I love the table but am dieing to use all the leaves. I had a round one in there before, which yes probably was a better fit, but I fell in love with this set at the Thrift and the chairs to match. Plus I still have the round table. So in spring the big move.

Until then small things keep one happy.

Christy

Heart Felt Broach

Another felt broach, a heart felt broach, with vintage button. That would be a good name Heartfelt. 20 minutes a day, moving on.

Christy

P.S. I look and look and never see any little bits on the felt, until the photo is downloaded, then I do. Why is that? I bought one of those white project boards and card to take photos, but don't do all the lights and that. I saw it on someones blog. If I could remember where, I would link it.

Mariner's Pie

This is one of the set of books my mum bought me.

The fish pie recipe which I made last Saturday and said I would post.

This is such a tasty recipe. I love the fish poached with the lemon slices adds a wonderful zest.

Dunken Donuts on a Snowey Day

I thought I'd show you an American icon, Dunkin Donuts. When ever I go home to the UK I take a dozen with me, I should probably take two dozen. My favourite donuts are a powder donut with white cream and a crueller. Bo likes Boston creams.

I always like to look around the shops when I visit other countries, enjoy the atmosphere and compare items and prices.

So when nothing was on the roads, Bo and I decided to walk over and buy a couple of pounds of coffee beans and some donuts to take home. They were mightily enjoyed.

Christy

Darling Hat, Lark Rise to Candleford

Isn't this such an interesting hat. When I first saw it on Lark Rise to Candleford, I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not. But I've decided I do. I love the way it sits on top of her bun, I wear my hair long and up and that's always a problem with hats.

My grandmother studied millinery in London in the early twenties, and made me a beautiful french navy coloured hat. Unfortunately it went astray when I came to the States. But I remeber it clearly.

Well Monday back to work.

Christy

My Smiles This Week

Dear Boy with his Mad Bomber Hat on. That really is the brand name. He's showing those very Brit rosey cheeks. Those lines are snow.

Dear Tink who always sits with her paws crossed. I got her from the SPCA as an adult cat. No one came and claimed her and I got this dear sweet lady.

Our resident squirrels who live in our Northern Oak tree, out scavaging in the snow. I put out some seeds for the birds on one of those mesh platforms, but it become buried in the snow, but if the birds missed it the squirrels didn't. They were out there digging and digging. My husband took video.

A card my dear friend sent me a little while ago and I put it out to bring me a smile.

Some lovely peach coloured roses from Aldis. I love flowers, but on a budget. $3.99 for 6 roses is in my budget That mid shade of peach was the colour of my bridesmaids dresses.

So this Saturday evening I made Mariner's Pie. I had some fish in the freezer, which I knew had been there longer than it should have been, so what to do with it and not to waste it. I came across the recipe in a collection of books my mum gave me, she collected them from Sainsburys, .99p each. I have about fifteen. I'll post the recipe for the pie another day, it's very good.

Have a great weekend.

Christy

My Sunny Spring Broach

I've made another broach, still working on my 20 minutes a day of creativity. I kept thinking of Provence in France and the lovely yellows and earthy tones. I added this lovely old vintage button and it just brings it all together.

Both this broach and my Skye Foxglove broach will soon be for sale in my "Lil Bit Brit Corner Store"

I've had my store up for a long while but it's been one of those "when I get around to it" so now I have. I'm pleased with the look of it and soon will be adding items into my eclectic mercantile.

So thinking of Spring days and the colour of spring, yellow. Walks along wet country roads, with water running down the banks, babbling brooks and celandines. Daffodils, primroses, forsythia, celandines, crocuses can you think of other yellow flowers? Yes spring is yellow.

Christy

Would anyone like to know how to enlarge their photos on Blogger?

I was lamenting to my husband that I wanted to put larger photos on my Blog, and the only way I know how to do it is to enlarge the photo in Flikr and copy the html code into ones post. My hubby said just go into the html code and change the width and height proportionately.

Well I did that and some photos seemed OK, but others looked pixelated, what was the problem?

Yes I've found the little secret. You used to be able to do it that way, but now you need to know one more piece of code.

So if you would like me to do a posting on this, leave a comment and let me know.

Christy

The Voyage Out, Fifties Colours?

Woolf in Winter has been an enjoyable read for me, as I have always wanted to read Virginia Woolf, but you do need to be committed to do so. I wouldn't call it casual reading. I got this book from the library, the cover was designed by Vanessa Bell and this book is a fifties Hogarth Press release. The dust cover is very Bloomsbury style. I like the colours.

Then I started sorting though my crochet patterns and came across this one, look at those colours. Such a similar colour palette.

Isn't this a nice pattern?

I would imagine the dust cover was designed much earlier than the fifties.

If I remember Laura Ashley had a whole Bloomsbury line, in pale greys and yellow. As an eight year old I had a favourite skirt which my mum's friend made for me, in shades of yellow and grey. I will have to look up my old Laura Ashley decorating book.

Christy

Felt Foxglove Broach

This is my inspiration for my felt foxglove broach; which I have been working on, for my 20 minutes a day project. I've taken it from a foxglove I photographed while on a woodland walk near Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye.

Pinned, ready to sew.

A creation is always a work in progress. I had such fun making this, but it was very fiddly. I added the vintage button, that was an after-thought. The addition of the vintage button just added a little something.

So my foxglove broach helped me to recapture the moment.

Christy

P.S. The bottom two are nearer in colour than the top one.

My Lil Bit Brit Bag

I was able to do a free spec sample at work. It's a very cheap bag, but I did like the way my logo and Etsy Store web address name came out so clearly. I've been using the bag for my library books.

Why I Gave My Blog It's Name, Lil Bit Brit

Her Library Adventures asked the question "why you gave your blog it's name?" I think that's a great question, as I'm sure everyone has a story to tell.

I named my Blog "Lil Bit Brit", because I feel so much of what I say, the way I think, my manners and actions. My eclectic house and so much more are due to growing up in the UK.

Now I live in the USA it probably makes me more conscious of the differences of background, just due to the fact of where I grew up.

What makes you laugh, what you like to eat. Crazy little things, liking things baked with raisins in, rock buns and fruit cake and my American husband does not. All the things that make you who you are.

So my statement was not so much I'm from Britain, but this is what makes me who I am. I'm still just a Lil Bit Brit.

Christy

Husqvarna Manual E-Bay Find

Guess what I found? Yes the exact manual for my 1950 Husqvarna. Not such a common sewing machine over here in the 1950's. I trolled Google looking for a manual to buy or a pdf and could not find anything. The closest I came to it was a very kind blogger in NZ who had a pdf of a 1950's Husqvarna; which she kindly sent to me, but not my model. So to find the exact one on E-Bay and to be on E-Bay at the right time, because I haven't looked for a while is amazing. So here it is.

Don't you love the fifties graphics? I know I do. I thought you might like the Swedish Rug Pattern "Rya".

Christy

Snow at the Park, my white, blue and red posting

Where no man has trod before!

Well it snowed for the second time, twelve inches on top of twenty-six inches. So on Thursday the sun shone brightly. Bo and I got out to the park. It seems that we were the only ones who ventured forth in snow so deep. I kept thinking of the poor people who were on the ill fated Donner Pass in winter time, with snow up to their waists. Settlers who wanted to settle in California, but had to go over the Sierra's to get there.

Bo did offer me them, but silly me turned them down. He's had them from when we used to go skiing. They would be very simple to make, and if we get anymore winters like this, it would be well worth doing so. They're just two layers of nylon, with elastic top and bottom and velcro up the side for a closier. In deep snow they keep all the top of your boots covered and your trouser leg dry. If this winter is the pattern for others, I will be making a pair.

The creek is partially frozen over and hubby got a little too close to the edge, with a hand taking a dunk.

The return trip was a little easier treading in our own footsteps.

The beautiful male cardinal. This is one bird I never miss. Always reminds me of the British Redcoats during the American Revolution. No wonder the Brits lost.

I meant to post these photos yesterday. We took quite a few photos and I stared the ones I wanted to Blog. Realising there were a lot of photos in my stared folder, I put them in a Picassa Album, then promptly could not find the album through my post. So got hubby on the job today, even he could not find them, we decided it must be some kind of virtual file that sits on other files we could locate. So we just put them in a different folder. What a to do.

Christy