Tea Towels and Friendship

Thank you for the kind words regarding the sheet music yesterday. As you may imagine, I sat down to play many of those pieces and pulled a few right back out of the pile. Perhaps you'd  be surprised to know which ones. Only White Cliffs of Dover actually made me tear up, though Tennessee Waltz came close just because both my mother and grandmother played it often.  I'll get all Susan Branch-y on you and share this clip sung by Vera Lynn, which you can listen to while you read, if you'd like.

Why does it not just feel like nostalgia, but a longing even for today? One day...

Someone asked about my grandmother playing the piano. Yes, she was an accomplished pianist who took lessons for twelve years. The first six were with a piano teacher and then, when Nan went beyond her first piano teacher,  she was referred to a "maestro" for the final six years. I am told that she had her own weekly radio time in Moncton, NB, when the station was in danger of dead air back in the early days of radio. Fun memories. My mother also played the piano and I play a little. 
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Happy mail, gotta love happy mail, and especially since this week I also booted a lot of tea towels and bath towels and facecloths. 

Deanna must have been paying attention to my kitchen with its blueberry mugs because she sent me this darling blueberry tea towel. It arrived just yesterday! (I used to have a blueberry themed kitchen; blueberries are my favorite berry; and I like the book Blueberries for Sal, too.)

Love this note with its "blueberry" ink. 

Thank you, Deanna! I love it!! (I love her more.) You can see where this story began at Creekside Cottage.

See you tomorrow with some questions about wildflowers. Brush up please. Ha!

Bookmarks and Things

This morning I was on a mission to be dressed and out the door to capture that fleeting two-hour window when our post office is open in the morning. Has your post office cut back its hours a lot? Ours sure has.  

~morning light~

Then I remembered that I had received beautiful gifts last week from Linda at Linda's Life Journal that have gone unacknowledged.  Linda is an extraordinary woman who really does it all. In addition to being the grandmother of quadruplets and other lovely grands, she is an artist, a decorator of her charming abode, Love of her Beloved, and a wonderful daughter, mother, sister, friend. You would be blessed to visit her blog where you can read all about it. If you like a prolific blogger, Linda's your gal!

These are my precious bookmarks. My address book of blogging buddies has become a scrapbook of sorts, though my bookmarks are being put to good use elsewhere, trust me. You can find the little artists in training right on *this post.*

I love these kiddos and family and can see a lot of promise in these budding artists.

Thank you so much, Linda! Hug those quads for us!

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This morning I was shipping a few things off to my friend Vickie who, like Linda, also happens to live in Texas. 

These little cottage-style tea towels are fun and easy to make. They also are charming little Christmas gifts, don't you think? 

One time, when I had featured a little box of Bell's Seasoning, Vickie commented how much she loved the graphics. I do, too, and often have it sitting out as a little Thanksgiving decoration. Can you get Bell's where you live? I think it may be just a New England thing. Anyway, Vickie will have a wee box of her own to display this Thanksgiving. When Vickie blogs, she does so at Sand Flat Farm. 

Another connection between Linda and Vickie is that they are both artists. You will find a link to some of Vickie's work in her sidebar. 

Consider this a warning or a promise and act accordingly, but if you come back tomorrow, Friday at the latest, I have another Pilgrim story to share.  

A happy day to you!