More sewing in process. Easter memories.

Working on two flower girl dresses for a May wedding....this is the pattern.

Learning to gather and sew tulle...this little red clips help! I'll make the skirts while awaiting the peach brocade bodice fabric to get here.

We had 2 friends come for Easter dinner....here is the table being pulled together with new table runner and napkins as well as a spring wreath.

The grandkids weren't here, but 3 of them had a great time with an egg hunt.....girls wearing the dresses I sewed and sent last week!

Love these little ones! And all grandkids...including this track star...

And this little one on the way...

Who will soon make this guy a "big brother"!

"look Mom, a flower!" Even though dandelions are a "weed", you have to love that beautiful yellow!
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My own version of a field of flowers, this quilt which I am basting today. I will be hand quilting it soon.
The circles are made from 36, ten degree wedges! It was fun it make!

Easter breakfast

Photo through the glass door of the new oven...a oven pancake.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Blend together -- 3 eggs, 1/2 c. gluten free flour, 1/2 t. vanilla, dash of salt (optional), 3/4 c. milk, 3T. butter-melted and in the baking dish. ( you can use a pie pan or a cast iron skillet )

Pour batter on top of melted butter. Place in preheated oven and bake at 450 for 15 minutes.

Turn,the oven down to,350 degrees as the pancake continues to bake.

 

While it is baking, prepare sliced fruit. I used fresh strawberries which were then warmed in a glaze of raspberry jam mixed with orange juice....beautiful!

The original recipe calls for lemon juice and powdered sugar to top the pancake before adding fruit.

Remove puffy pancake from oven...

It will collapse and can be sliced like a pie.....

Top with strawberries and enjoy!

This is one of my favorite spring time breakfasts.....Today I had to work quickly to get to church for Easter mass at 9:00 a.m.

It was a great service, so many families, children dressed up little girls with hair bows and pastel dresses...longer service than normal of course! I enjoy seeing many different ethnic faces in the congregation,which inspires me to want to paint faces!

 

A pier in Jamaica......

A family on the pier in Jamaica.....

A photo of parents and little brother taken in Jamaica....

A happy girl jumping on the beach in Jamaica....

FINALLY! I get to see and share photos from my daughter's Easter trip to the island!

[sometimes being patient is not easy....love these, now off to see more on her Facebook!]

More Resurrection on Easter Sunday.....

Last Mother's Day, my lovely daughter sent me a "Sorbet" peony. I know she thought it would arrive looking like the photo above. [NOTE: the photo of the Sorbet peony was found on the Internet and is from Pamela's blog!]

Instead, it was a plastic bag with a dry brown stick loosely packed in peat moss. Not very exciting.....but there were planting directions and I followed them. Now, the new life is coming up near the fence around our yard! I know it will not bloom this year, but still it is wonderful to see the gift beginning to emerge!

May you have a blessed Easter , finding new life around you!

Happy Easter!!!!!

Bunnies from years gone by.....and paper mache eggs!

Finally, SPRING !

**************************Though it is not official until next Friday, Spring finally came to my yard yesterday!

Our daffodils popped overnight.

I found three for the table top and combined them with a German papermache nesting egg* and some tiny bunnies. Now we know it will soon be Easter!

(For even more springtime delights, visit Tasha Tudor!)

[* now that is an odd term...a nesting egg!]

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Here is an easy recipe for the perfect springtime dessert!

ANGEL FOOD PINEAPPLE CAKE

1 can of crushed pinapple in its own juice

1 box of 1 step angel food cake mix (1 step kind)

Mix these ingredients together and bake in an oblong cake pan at 325 degrees for about 25 to 30 min.
Honest, it is that easy, no fat, very low calories, and tastes great. For an extra treat sprinkle coconut flakes on top before baking. Serve with non-fat Cool Whip.
( or if you don't mind the fat, real whipped cream!)

Off to clean out those flower beds!

Little Rock was dressed in her Easter best!!!!!



We went for a walk in our old neighborhood on Easter morning......It was positively delightful and a literal trip down memory lane!


(Azalea flickr photo by billums)

This neighborhood feels like a time capsule, from the minute we turn down the street where we lived for 15 years, it seems like going home......

We park our car and begin walking our, digital camera at hand!

This is an older historic neighborhood, most of the homes were built in the 1920's.

Following the sidewalk, as the street winds and curves going slightly downhill, we note that the homes have great variety of architectural style...(and not a single one looks like a tract house or imitation French chateau....) we see stucco bungalows , English Tudors , 2-story Colonials and others with a mix of Craftsman elements. These homes were built in the days of porches. Porches on the front to socialize with the neighbors and more porches on the back called sleeping porches. These were used on the hottest nights of summer before the days of air conditioning.

Most of these houses sit up just a bit from the sidewalk. They have well-kept gardens. Landscaping is very important in Little Rock.

Magnolias and Japanese maples are very popular. Azaleas and iris are blooming.

We note one bungalow with classic striped awnings.

Our former house is the sage green 2-story stucco with the large Bradford pear tree in front and coral azaleas in bloom around the front. (The azaleas, dogwood and the pear tree were planted by my husband.)

We also put the Pella windows in the front "music" room. They are still in good shape.

I like how the current owners have maintained it!

It was a house full of light...large windows, hardwood floors and French doors.

This is a house which still occurs in my dreams...

The tall trees cast shadows on the sidewalk, a Japanese maple and a rock garden add interest to the yard of this stucco home.

This shot was taken looking up the street, across the neighbor's yards.... It is a street of tall, older trees.

Several of Arkansas's governors lived in this neighborhood when they were not in the governor's mansion.

Bill and Hillary lived in the neighborhood for a couple of years (when he lost his bid for a second term here as governor.) After the next election, the Clintons invited the whole neighborhood to a Christmas caroling party at the Governor's Mansion...



It was a neighborhood of children visiting up and down the street and carpooling to school.

In the late afternoon, several of us (mothers) would sit and visit enjoying wine or coffee on the deck while the children played in the yard.

Today our deck is still there...however now there is no swing set or sandbox in the backyard....this is a photo my husband took from the alley. (Through a crack in the fence!!!!)

I can look at this and see the "ghosts" of my children and their friends at play here!

We are going to Little Rock for Easter......

This is a quick watercolor sketch of the Rieger Begonia we are taking to my mother's . I don't know the name of this variety, but it really catches my eye!

I love the pink edges!!!!

My husband took this photo of the plant last night....( with a digital camera and a blog no detail of our lives is too trivial!)

These are photos from my cookbook and from the internet of Portugese Sweet Bread.

We fell in love with it from Portugese bakeries on Cape Cod.
It turns out that it is almost the same as Hawaiian Sweet Bread. The reason being that the Portugese were a seafaring people and they carried the bread recipe with them around the globe.

This is the Easter Bread version...(fragrant with lemon zest and nutmeg!)

2 eggs 1/3 c. milk
2 T. real butter 3 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. lemon peel, grated
1/2 tsp. nutmeg 2 c. bread flour
1.5 tsp yeast

I put these ingredients in my bread machine and process to make the dough.
It comes out already kneaded and them I form a round loaf and bake at 350 degrees about 25-30 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow. Cool and slice.
This makes fantastic French Toast the next day!!

My Easter Choice....

This is a German papermache egg and Stieff bunny available from Hearthsong....if I were buying decorations for Easter , this would have to be what I choose!

I had always wondered how the bunny came to have all those eggs. Today I was reading a post from Julie at
Celtic Woman ...her March 19th equinox post...and she had reference to the legend of the Easter Bunny (who is actually a hare)...

Then I found all of this on the Hallmark website.

Easter Bunny • The Easter bunny has its origins in pre-Christian fertility lore. Hares and rabbits served as symbols of abundant new life in the spring season. It really is a hare – not a rabbit – that symbolizes Easter. • From antiquity hares have been a symbol for the moon, and the first full moon after the vernal equinox determines the date for Easter.• Hares are born with their eyes open, while rabbits are born blind. The hare was thought never to blink or close its eyes, and it is a nocturnal creature, like the moon. The hare also carries its young a month before giving birth – like the changing moon erupting into fullness monthly.• According to one legend, the Easter bunny was originally a large, handsome bird belonging to the goddess Eostre. One day she magically changed her pet bird into a hare. Because the Easter bunny is still a bird at heart, he continues to build a straw nest and fill it with eggs.

Remember when spring and Easter meant new shoes?

I'm playing with 4x4's today and hope to catch up a bit on the Finding Water...chapter 3!

Blogging has helped me locate even more "believing mirrors" , who reflect back to me my strengths and give a clear reflection of my best efforts. Encouragement without being mushy.

Thank-you...and feel free to offer constructive insights!

Here are more of my 4x4's from today.

"We are flower girls......"

This is a quote from my friend, Lizzzzy when we were noticing that all the floral dresses had disappeared from the stores.....

and many of the stores themselves were gone!

Last night my HH brought over an article for me to read from "Fortune Small Business" magazine. The owner of this business, reVamp specializes in making vintage style clothing. She lives a almost totally vintage lifestyle, too.

I once had a similar dress business. My sewing partner, Bonnie and I made lovely floral dresses and sold them in trunk shows held in customer's homes. Our business was called "Thistledown" with the fanciful associaton to the idea that fairies wore clothing from the fibers of the thistle seed pod. (My ancient Yorkshire roots coming out again?)

So as spring approaches, I remember those lovely floaty floral dresses...and spent until midnight last night looking at them on e-bay. The only place, other than re-sale shops, to find the Laura Ashley and April Cornell dresses.

This lavendar floral is Laura Ashley...and the pink paisley floral (below) is from April Cornell...both listed for bids right now.....of course, I have a huge collection of McCall's Laura Ashley patterns so I can order some April Cornell fabric (that is one of them at the top of this post,...by Moda) from an on-line quilt shop and make a lovely spring dress myself.....or not!

(I am learning that just because I think of a project does not mean that I have to do it! even if it would be fun!)

[BTW, working with layout on this Blogger post is "something else"....I can have it beautifully arranged here, only to have things "fall" elsewhere when published........too crowded when I put in plenty of visual space, or fragments of sentences remaining in odd places...it's not me...it's Blogger!]