Familiar comforts...

Many years ago a dear friend introduced me to the most wonderful book.

We were house sitting for her family so I had a week to immerse myself within those pages and the seed planted in the soil of my creative heart back then has never stopped growing and bearing fruit. 

The book was Jane Brocket's "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" and though it didn't expound on the virtues of living a domestic life (something I added to my life and blog in 2013) it does embrace the domestic 'arts' of baking, painting, reading, knitting, crochet, quilting, embroidery and other such pursuits. I quickly bought a copy for myself and over the next few years gifted more copies to some dear homemaker friends whom I thought would also find it inspiring.   

This past week has been personally challenging for me in a number of areas and I felt the need to take moments of rest and refreshment for an hour or two each day, time to separate myself from the many 'must dos' that never seem to disappear, and the 'need tos' that keep tapping on my diary door. 

So each afternoon with a cup of tea by my side, I settled down to re-read "The Gentle Art of Domesticity"...

Tea and this book are a marriage of serene bliss during times of weariness.

I find myself copying some of Mrs Brocket's quotes, the ones that lift my soul, onto paper and slipping them inside my journal for further contemplation another day, especially the ones which I could have spoken myself, so personally true they are to my life and experiences.

My bible in the morning and this book each afternoon...they've carried me through the week, gently nourishing my fragile heart and filling my thoughts with joy and hope and inspiration for each new day ahead. 

I love her conversational wit in describing the simplest things - like icing a cake, filling a vase with flowers, or spreading fabric across the floor to plan a quilt.  She makes me laugh quite a bit, but then I'll be captured in a thought and sit gazing out the window for ten minutes allowing my mind to travel where it wants, personal inspirations revealing themselves as I do.

The book could be called a springboard I suppose...because it has a tendency to be a starting point from where I launch my thoughts and let them fly free to land where they may, often times creating a new approach to my domestic endeavours. 

I wonder if we all have a book like this, one we gather close when something comforting, familiar and cheerful is required? A book we can get wonderfully lost in, which has the ability to bring a smile to our cheeks, reassure us that all is well, and give us inspiration to try something new or practice things we'd like to improve in. 

Do you have a special book like that?

I'd love to know what it is. 

Something else I've found relaxing this week has been the making of those coasters and finishing a design from last year as a cover for my sewing cushion.

I like all my designs but there's a few which I like more than others so after they've been stitched I store them in a special box where they wait to be made into a project when the time is right. 

 "The Flower Thieves" is one such stitchery.

I use cushions to rest my hands on as I embroider (I don't use a hoop) and one is rectangular and one is square. I have two covers for the rectangular cushion but only one for the square so it's been on my to-do list to make another for quite a while. 

The stitchery block was trimmed and simple borders added before the addition of some hand quilting around the applique sections and machine quilting in the green border. 

The back has a zipper closure and I finished the cushion with quilt binding around the outside edges.

I love how this cushion turned out, but I think it's just too pretty to be hiding under my hands as I stitch.

Perhaps I'll pop it on our bed.

And make a different cover for my sewing cushion. 

Creating. 

Some things don't turn out the way you expect and other things turn out better than you'd hoped. 

I think that's rather lovely as it keeps us creating, and creating is a gift we should cherish and use.

I pray you have a lovely weekend, that you find a book to inspire your dreams and a project that's in need of your wonderfully creative touch.

(and a relaxing cuppa while you're at it)

hugs

Slow days, painting and sewing...

Mr E is still working away on our old Jeep. It seems every time he pulls out one part to fix he finds two more waiting to stand in line.

It's frustrating and his back, neck and arms sure do ache right now, but he looks at the big picture...when all the work is done we'll have a car that will last, one that he knows inside and out. I'm so very proud of his diligence to any task. 

I also appreciate my husband for asking each morning, "What can I do for you today, lovely wife?" and being honestly prepared to put aside his own plans to accommodate mine if I have a need.

Last weekend we decided to have a break from his Jeep repairs and my housework and see what was on offer at local garage sales. At first it was slim pickin's (as my Pop would say) but then we found a few goodies. 

These beautiful kitchen towels are huge and soft as soft can be. They're quite old, the original waffle weave variety. Four have a nice machine satin stitched zig zag trim in pink and green...

...whilst two others have hand embroidered little flowers in single strand chain stitch. Made my heart go pitter pat.

Mr E doesn't quite understand why treasures like this make me so happy, but he's happy for me. 

I paid just $10 for all six.

Another wonderful find was a quilt stand, though I do wonder if it's really a free standing towel rail? 

Never to mind, it was very cheap and in dreadful condition but I could envision it draped with a few quilts once Mr E transformed it with cream paint. 

And so he did...

While he was painting I remembered a little green metal photo stand hiding away in the linen cupboard and ran downstairs to ask if he'd transform it as well.

This little tea set also came home with us and after a jolly good scrub it was ready for Cully May to play with the next night when she, Blossom and Ross came to dinner. 

In the kitchen my baking days have produced Chocolate Brownies, Italian Lemon Cream Cake and fresh loaves of bread...

On the savoury side of life I've been cooking up corned beef and mustard sauce, lasagne, home-made beef and vegetable pies, and the odd chicken stir fry or curry.  The family are all wearing contented smiles this past week and patting their tummies.

Food, the sharing of it, really is good for the soul.

I kept meaning to make a few new aprons (as I'm going through them at a rate of knots) but my time in the sewing room has been producing other things.

I'm currently working on a new design featuring the next Tilda range to be released on August 1st, "Harvest". 

For the longest time I've had a hankering to make some flying geese blocks for a mini quilt project that keeps popping up in my head...

I've made 32 blocks and think that's enough but you know I may change my mind and use them differently to my first pattern draft.

That's why I'm blogging today. Because I needed to put my mind elsewhere for a few hours and then return to the sewing room with fresh inspiration and a clear direction on how I'll complete the mini quilt...

...and you know, I think it's working. 

A slight variation on the original idea is being drawn in my mind's eye as we speak.

But before I return to those pretty blocks there's a fresh baked loaf of bread cooling on the bench ready to slice and I can hear Mr E coming up the back stairs, so I must away and prepare us a stack of corned beef and pickle sandwiches for lunch. 

With a pot of tea.

And chocolate brownies.

I'll miss these slower days when he returns to work next week.

I do hope your days are bringing simple pleasures and delights too.

hugs

It's my turn now...

Children are wonderful aren't they?

We spend all their developing years teaching them to share, with varied results.

Blossom is sharing these days.

I'm the lucky recipient of her flu today.

Obviously my almost 20yo breath-of-sunshine-in-my-life daughter felt she could not keep this all to herself. Oh joy. 

So I'm trying to get done all that needs to be done in the next few hours so that I can head back to my comfy bed and wallow in things that make me remember how great life will be once this virus has done it's best and departed from me searching for healthier folk to waylay. 

Fortunately, my throat is being soothed by banana, blueberry, honey and almond milk smoothies...

 

...and my heart is comforted by the musings of my favourite domestic author, Jane Brocket.

As you can see, it's a well loved and "well-read/re-read/re-read/re-read again" book, having kept me company now for almost eight years since I spied my friend Ruth's copy at my friend Pam's house, and drowned in it's delighted-ness...

I'm reading the chapter on luxuries at the moment.

Let me share a little of what Jane has written on page 178...

"It helps to have a state of mind that can turn even the smallest indulgence into a luxury. This means looking positively at your life - considering not what you want to have, but what you can, or already, have. It means deciding for yourself what you class as luxury and not following the media's overblown ideas. Couture dresses, private jets, huge yachts and large gems are very wonderful, I'm sure, but doesn't the fact that only a handful of women in the world can afford them strike you as ridiculous? Far better to treat yourself to a couple of skeins of lovely yarn, afternoon tea and a film, a bright bunch of roses, or a small, but perfectly formed box of chocolates."

I pondered her thoughts, then asked myself what constitutes 'luxury' to me.

You know, it's very simple things, really.

Like painting my toenails: I don't often take the time to soak my feet, or preen and primp them. But I did yesterday. And I felt all warm and fuzzy inside, and couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I padded barefoot backward and forward across our wooden floors...

 

What's your simple luxury? I'd love to know. We can chat in the comments while I'm laid low with my not-so-popular-friend Mr Lurgy.

hugs,

(but not too close a hug 'cause I'm really not in a sharing of the flu mood - despite what I taught my children)

jenny