Category: Favorite Things

Binding, a find, and a bird

Happy Finds, Quilting and Sewing

I promised myself that my Christmas gift to myself this year will be to finish up some projects that have been waiting for attention.

So, I stole a few minutes and made my binding for two quilts that I REALLY want to finish (one has been waiting for months!)  I’m excited to get them on the quilts and finish them up.


When I was at the thrift store recently looking for ugly sweaters (what’s with EVERYONE needing an ugly sweater this year?), I found these great little miniature compote dishes for $4.  They stand about 1.5 inches tall and about 2 inches in diameter.  SOOOOO cute!  I can’t wait to find something to do with them!


And finally, my quilt is back from the quilter’s.  This one is a fun combination of three different ideas that sort of happened as I went along.  I’ve been in love with all things birds for a while now, but this is the first quilt I’ve made that includes a bird.


I’ll show more pictures of this quilt when it’s finished.  I’m really happy with it.

I’ll get to work on this ASAP, but first I have to finish (I mean, start!?!) my Christmas shopping.
I think this is the year of lowering our standards so I can impress everybody next year.  Oh well.

Have a great day!

Jennifer

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Christmas decor pick

Happy Finds

I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy any new Christmas decorations this year.  (I’m allowing myself a small project or two.)  For the most part what I’ve seen in stores and catalogs is beautiful, but I can use what I have to achieve the look I want.  I really just want a feeling of peace in my home, which has more to do with squabbling children than with decorations!

But if I was going to buy anything, it would be this:
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I really love these vintage looking bells from Pottery Barn .  They’re larger than they look; I really like the smaller three.

Viva Terra also has some really pretty tiny ones that would be fun to tie on a wreath.

I was honestly very tempted by these.  I don’t think I would pack them up after Christmas, but would probably find a use for them around my house.  BUT, by the time I buy one of each I’ve just spent close to $100, which makes it not so tempting.  But it is fun to dream of hanging them!

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Blue bowls… what a find!

Color, Dishes

All of a sudden, whenever I need a bowl I find myself reaching for one of these little blue ones.
And every time I put something in one,  I want to take a picture.
And several times I have.  Perhaps you’ve noticed these little beauties in recent posts.
I really like these bowls.
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Today was no different.  Not only are they the perfect size, I’m loving how food looks in them.
It’s a color thing.
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Do you want to hear something funny about me and hard boiled eggs?
Earlier this year I set out to come up with a Potato Salad that I love.  Well, we all know that potato salads need hard boiled eggs.  For years I’ve tried to get my hard boiled eggs to be perfect, without the ugly greenish-gray color in the yolk, without any cracks, and so forth, but perfection always eluded me.

Until this summer.  One day I put a bunch of eggs on the stove to cook, and then promptly forgot about setting my timer and went to do other things until suddenly I remembered the eggs.  I figured they must be done so I removed them from the heat and placed them in ice water.

They were the most perfect hard boiled eggs ever!  The funny thing is that this has happened to me every time I’ve cooked eggs since.  Now I’m at the point that I don’t know if I dare to actually pay attention to how long they’re cooking for because I’m just sure I’ll ruin them.  Today was no different.   And the eggs were perfect.

But I digress.  We were talking about my blue bowls.
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Let me just say here that I bought these bowls over a month ago, and have stored them stacked like this in my pantry since then.  Every time I look at them I have to smile because they’re so pretty!  And every time I’ve looked at them I want to take a picture.

So today I gave in and did it.  Some a pale blue and some are a deeper aqua color.  I like them together.
Here’s the best part of all:  I got them at the dollar store!  That’s right, Dollar Tree.
Like I said, I found them about a month ago and bought a nice, tall stack of them (remember dishes need to come in sets of at least ten at my house).  This morning I was there looking for something else and they had a few more.

I bought them all.  Okay, it was only five of them.  I couldn’t help it!  They were so cute!
And, I must say they’re a pretty amazing find for $1.
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Did I mention that I love the colors?  Wow, I’m such a sucker for blue.

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