Quilter's Basket

The basket is resting.


It is waiting for later use. This basket will be used when I make my quilt, because it is called the Quilter's Sewing Basket with dowel.

I prefer to call it the Quilter's Basket of Dreams since every time I pass its resting- self I dream of the quilt I shall make one day in the future.

In the meantime I will find some sort of use for it because nothing created for such purpose should be resting for too long.

Ice Skates

Just in time to prove how easy the Olympic ice skaters truly make it appear, the girls were able to go ice skating this afternoon on an inside rink.

For me this visit was like going back in time and I experienced those tingly feelings of a deja vu magnitude. This particular sports center contains not only a ice skating rink, but a pool as well, and happens to be the same one I spent many a Saturday attending swim meets when Witt was a year round swimmer.

We would sweat in the humidity and warmth on the poolside, then hurry over to the rink side from time to time in order to cool off.

Today I was freezing but I did not hurry over to the pool side to warm up, I drank hot chocolate instead.

Smocking

Over a period of time and posts I have mentioned the hand smocking I do on some of Charlotte's dresses. Several of you have stated you do not know much about it and some have even requested to know more. Since I am in the midst of smocking Charlotte's Easter dress as I watch the Winter Olympics on some of these February evenings, I thought I might share a bit.

Smocking is an beautiful old art. At first the Anglo-Saxons would wear a "smock" which was a type of undergarment worn under a woolen dress. They would decorate this undergarment with fine stitching and then cut the neck of the dress lower in order to display the hand work.

I can still remember my mother pleating, by hand, a blue dress for me and then smocking a geometric design across the front. Today, however, pleaters will do the pleating for you by gathering the fabric in even pleats. There are several basic stitches of smocking. By the arranging and combining of these basic stitches in different ways you are able to create the lovely designs.

While pregnant with Charlotte, smocking was birthed in my life. I was taught to smock and I can't adequately describe to you how it feels to make the needle threaded with embroidery floss pass through those tight little pleats and watch it form those beautiful designs. Smocking to me is simply...gratifying. I believe I could do it for hours on end.

gathering of hearts

I envisioned little wool hearts

here, there, and everywhere.

So I picked up my small crochet hook and fingering weight red wool and made myself some.

But the most treasured hearts of all, are already mine.

granola

Keeping a container of home-baked granola in the kitchen pantry has become routine at my house. I have learned to throw it together almost with my *eyes closed* as I go about some other task while in the kitchen- homeschooling Charlotte, folding a load of clean clothes or while making telephone calls. Granola gives allowance in changing the recipe a bit with either the addition or the omission of certain ingredients. In attempts to cut down on the brown sugar in this batch, I added an extra tablespoon of honey along with 1/3 cup coconut.

Inadvertently, I had bought whole allspice while at the market. Since I like this spice in my granola, my porcelain white mortar and pestle worked nicely in grounding the allspice, a fulfilling task, rather reminding one of an apothecary of the past.

Just as I thought, delicious!

Domesticity

"Last of all came Domestic Science. One great advantage to being a junior girl was that you were eligible to take Domestic Science.

"I think I'm going to love Domestic Science," Betsy said.

Betsy Was A Junior

Maud hart Lovelace

"For me it is recognition - recognition of the worth of homemaking, of overlooked skills, of ordinary things. Above all it is the recognition of the small but significant moments of pleasure that come with an acceptance and enjoyment of the domestic space."

The Gentle Art of Domesticity

Jane Brocket

Domesticity presides over my life, yet I am certainly able to master it and even take delight in the substance of which inevitably creates the minutes and hours of my day. I swell in the very meaning of the word and I willingly abide with the satisfaction of knowing there is no better place I would rather be.

Some domestic pleasures on this day:

:teaching Charlotte how to crochet

I love to crochet. She would comment every once in a while, "I thought you said it was easier than knitting."

: smashing and chopping of fresh vegetables

Preparing guacamole to go with the pot of beans simmering on the stove for tonight's dinner.

:sewing a sleeve on the silk peach colored dress I am making

Rose will be attending a Regency Era Ball in March, more on this later.

:completing the fingerless mitts made from Malabrigo yarn, a heavenly blend of wool and silk.

I had knitted a pair of mitts from the same pattern in a luscious shade of creamy sand for Claire as a Christmas gift. They were lovely on her long slender hands.

: hand washing the dishes from our afternoon tea

Even though my automatic dishwasher is always in some process of being loaded or unloaded, I savored those few moments of washing those pretty china things in the soapy suds.

How was the art of domesticity revealed in your life today?

Daily Light

First published in 1794 in Great Britain by Samuel Bagster, this little black book is a treasure and has never ceased to feed me. It consists of two scripture readings during the day, one for the morning and one for the evening. It contains no additional devotional thoughts, only pure light from the Holy Scriptures. It sits on the table in my kitchen's sitting area, a feast.

And if you do not have one to hold in your hands, you may read the daily readings here.

China Teacups

We were passing through a popular department store for some reason or another recently; whatever the reason, it has completely slipped my mind. But as we walked by the china department I remembered that Witt and Claire had registered their china pattern and I wanted to see the pattern they had chosen.

A glimpse of a shelf containing mix matched china caught my eye. Three matching teacups and saucers were setting there waiting for me at an unable to be resisted bargain price, almost a steal.

Especially pleased to know it was Waterford.

I am thinking these china teacups cups would make nice gifts, to be given with a special blend of tea, and maybe a little dish of homemade scones on the side, tied up with satin ribbon.

points of view

It's all in the angle. This past weekend the angle of the kitchen rocker was adjusted to look outside the windows at our winter wonderland.

It was a favorite viewing spot throughout the day.

Some of us sat and drank coffee.

While others sat and smocked.

That is when we were not outside viewing this.

An exceptional batch of biscuits

The secret to a very good biscuit, versus a good biscuit, is to cook them on a high temperature. It makes them slightly crusty on the outside and deliciously moist on the inside.

However, there are some other things that make a batch of biscuits rise to higher levels of excellence in taste and texture.

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup, plus 1 Tablespoon butter, cut into pieces
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat to 500 degrees.

Whisk dry ingredients and cut cold butter into the flour. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add all the buttermilk at once. Now here's another trick, do not over mix the dough, just stir until incorporated, the dough should be sticky. ( If not add more buttermilk, 1 tablespoon at a time). Pour onto floured surface, knead briskly but gently about 8 times then roll with floured roller to 3/4 inch thickness. Prick the dough with fork tine and cut. Place on baking sheet and bake in hot oven for 8 to 10 minutes.

The bottoms should be brown, but we like our biscuits with the slightest touch of golden glow on top. ( I bake mine 8 minutes).

I fed yesterday morning's leftover biscuits to the neighborhood kids when they came in to get warm from the cold weather. They gobbled them up, absolutely no jelly, honey or butter was necessary!

Purple Toile T- Cozy

Marvelous purple toile waiting for the perfect day to be made into a tea cozy.

I only wished I could have finished it before nightfall and then I would have set it amidst the beautiful snow for photographs.

Something called gimp cord, made by Mettler, was used to create almost a shirr with a strip of fabric; I must say this gives this tea cozy a more formal look in my eyes.

I am dancing a merry step very much like that woman on the right. My family is cozy, and now due to this perfect snowy Saturday, so is my teapot.

The variants in the shades of purple are manual versus automatic focus. The lighting outside would have been so much prettier.