Simple Pleasures

I am a woman of simple tastes and pleasures.  I am just as content with a good book and a quiet afternoon to read as I am going on a vacation to a far away exotic place.  I can go anywhere in the world with a good book.  I enjoy the simple home arts that are coming back now as more and more young women are staying home to raise their children and are blogging about their lives and learning from each other.

I read several blogs by young mothers and I want to tell you, there are a lot of creative and energetic young women out there raising their children, home schooling and making do with what they have.  It is a joy to read many of them and I learn so much in the process.  People crave a simpler time when family and home were the most important things.  Simple pleasures.

Sewing is my very favorite simple pleasure.  I love to sew quilts and the last week I finished sewing the tops of two of them.

 

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I started this quilt before Valentine’s Day and I hope I will have it quilted by next Valentine’s Day.  It is made from Pamkitty Love fabric which I LOVE and have bought quite a few yards of this year.

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I love the vintage graphics on this fabric.

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Makes me think of Valentines I got when I was a girl.

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I got the border sewn on my coffee cup quilt.  This was also made with Pamkitty fabric.  I hope she designs some more fabric because I really love this.

 

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You know I am never content with working on just one quilt. Here are fabric strips made from two and a half inch squares.  I will need fifty-two fifty-two square strips to make a king size quilt for our bed.  I am using up a lot of my old fabric. It’s fun to see all the fabric I have bought in the past years going into one quilt.  This is one I will work on when I am not trying to get another one done.  Get that?  I do have one I am working on now and will just HAVE to buy more fabric for, but I cannot show you as it will be a gift in the future.  When it is done and given away, I will show it to you.  Simple pleasures.  I love to make things for others.

Chickens!  I promised myself I would not mention my chickens in this post, but I am breaking my promise to myself.

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I bring my black lab, Bonnie, into my shop with me occasionally, and when she discovered the chickens, she couldn’t keep her eyes off them.  Considering what she did to a young robin last spring, I don’t have a lot of hope she will not try to eat one of my chicks, so this is as close as I will ever let her get to them. She is mesmerized by them.

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Every once in a while she will let out a whine as if to say she wants a little closer.  Not in this life, Bonnie.  You will not be having chicken for dinner any time soon if I have my way with it. Simple pleasures.  My chicks and my dogs.  They are so much fun.

A few years ago I discovered a wonderful British series on PBS.

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Rosemary and Thyme.  It is about two women, Nora Thyme and Rosemary Boxer, who find each other in a serendipitous way and become fast friends.   I love finding friends like that.  When you least expect them, they pop into your life.

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Rosemary Boxer is a landscaper who works on the gardens of the wealthy.  She is tiny, but spunky and has gotten herself into some dangerous situations.DSCN5600

Nora Thyme, played by Pam Ferris, who was Miss Trunchbull, that evil head of the school in the movie “Matilda.”  She was so mean in that and very unattractive.  Pam Ferris is really a pretty lady.  Anyway, she plays Nora, a former policewoman who marries and becomes a homemaker.  In this house.

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Couldn’t you just walk through this door and set up housekeeping and be happy for life?  Well, poor Nora’s philandering husband left her for a twenty-three year old “skinny tart,” as Nora called her.  She was broken hearted and moved into an inn where she met Rosemary.

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These two began working together in the landscaping business and what do you know?  They always fall into some kind of crime they have to solve and with Nora’s background doing police work they always get their man(or woman.)

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I love this series because you have mystery, crime, murder, beautiful British gardens and two intelligent women who work well together to solve the crimes.  Since we got Netflix, I can now watch this any time I want.  There are only twenty-three episodes. I wish there were hundreds, they are so good.  Simple pleasures.  A series one can watch and not have to hide your eyes for fear what you might see.  It’s got all the ingredients for a show that I like.

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Nora and Rosemary have just found out something surprising here.  If you can get this show, you should watch it.

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I will leave you with one of my chickens doing the Chicken Dance.  Bye.

 

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