Back to School

It's Shameless Commerce Tuesday, and today I'm featuring my newly-listed pencil-shaped pencil pouches. These cute and colorful padded pencil cases would be a fun for back to school, but they would also be great stocking stuffers.

The pouches were made from a tutorial by Gwen Littler of gwennypenny.com, and I am a licensed seller.

TTFN
LeAnn

Treasury Thanks

Each week I like to extend a huge THANK YOU to the curators of Etsy treasuries who feature items from my Etsy shops, Pasque Flower Creations and Aunt Pheba's Vintage, in blog posts over the past week.  This week, because I was on vacation last week (read last week's 3-part blog series for highlights), I am including TWO weeks' worth of treasuries. 

The treasuries tended to celebrate the last sunny days of Summer -- or look ahead to Fall -- as we prepare for a seasonal transition.

Unexpected Treasure featured my green chevron oven mitt in the CIJ Team treasury, Gorgeous Greens.  This zippered bag set from Unexpected Treasure would be great for back-to-school organizing -- or a thoughtful gift.

 

Edi Royer of memoriesforlifesb featured my yellow chevron oven mitt in her sunny treasury, Eternal Sunshine.  These engraved wooden buttons with a sunburst design celebrate sunshine year-round.

Paige of TheRoomKit featured my poppies on teal oven mitts in her treasury, Summer Colors.  Paige's shop offers design consultations for fresh, modern interior design at affordable prices. I love her use of color in this listing for a custom dining room design.

Carole O'Brennan of TheDishandSpoon also featured my poppies and teal oven mitts (now in scarce supply as the fabric is out of print -- I should have hoarded more!) in her treasury, Poppies.  This lovely spoon ring is just one of the unique creations you will find in Carole's shop.

Carole Russell from AwfyBrawJewellery featured my retro-inspired red linen bow clutch in her treasury, Wedding Clutch Bags -- What every woman wants!  (In fact, my red linen clutch WAS used as a wedding clutch -- it was express shipped to France last year during the holiday rush, and I am happy to report it arrived on time for the wedding. Whew!)

If you are looking for a beautiful necklace for someone who loves purple, check out this plum pink fire leopard china agate necklace.

Ayla of Eyelah featured one of my pencil-shaped pencil pouches made from a tutorial by Gwen Littler of gwennypenny.com (I am a licensed seller), in her back to school treasury, School Year Is Starting . . .   Good luck to Ayla as she begins her year of teaching!  This wonderful handmade zipper pouch would be great for back to school -- or a thoughtful teacher gift.  You'll find a great selection of pouches in Ayla's shop -- she's been sewing up a storm this Summer!

Jessie Noah (buyer only) featured items from my shops in TWO treasuries this week!  My purple and gold fleur de lis baby bib (LSU Tigers colors) represented Lousiana in her treasury, State.  Jessie Noah also featured my yellow pencil-shaped pencil pouch in her treasury, Bee Costume.  I'm guessing there's a story behind that treasury name.  You can follow Jessie Noah on Facebook at

www.facebook.com/jessienoah2.

 

Bonnie and Abby of AidforAbby featured my aqua chevron oven mitt in the treasury, Bullseye - On Target for Success - Treasury List #647.  The treasury is a celebration of aqua -- cool and refreshing on a hot Summer day. 

 

AidforAbby features artwork by a child with autism, language disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.  Proceeds are used to defray medical expenses.  This miniature original oil painting with easel is only $9.99.  I'm thinking this would be a lovely accent piece for my teammate Edi's new studio (she loves pink).

 

 

And last, but not least, Boomer Baby Upcycles featured my red linen retro-inspired bow clutch in her treasury, I Love Fall.  

I couldn't resist featuring this Mad Men vintage pheasant cocktail set from this wonderful vintage Etsy shop!  In my home state, South Dakota, the ringneck pheasant is the state bird, and pheasant hunting season is a HUGE attraction.  All my uncles were avid hunters.  My brother and dad were never in to hunting, but I always admired the pheasant feathers, often used to adorn ladies' hats back in the day when women wore hats to church -- before hats gave way to lacy little chapel veils, and ultimately disappeared entirely after Vatican II.  The church leaders apparently decided St. Paul's admonition that women should keep silent and cover their heads in church should not be read quite so literally, and eventually even the stiff-necked Episcopalians followed suit. 

But I digress ....

And there you have it!  I'm all caught up --- at least with my Treasury Thanks!

TTFN
LeAnn

 

The Trek East - Part 3: New Hampshire

The final leg of my journey brought me to rural Goffstown, New Hampshire, to visit my son Tim and his family.  Their acreage includes a cozy house,

a horse pasture for horses Harley and Lucy,

a great little climbing tree,

a deluxe treehouse, a few acres of woodlands, and (my favorite part), a beautiful babbling brook.

 

Our first outing took us to the Robert Frost Farm near Derry, New Hampshire. 

 

 

 

I have always been a fan of Robert Frost’s poetry – Mending Wall, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, and The Road Not Taken are some of my favorites.  The grounds at the farm include a wonderful hiking trail through meadows and woods.

 

 

And here is the stone wall (one of many in New Hampshire) that inspired the poem Mending Wall – “good fences make good neighbors.” 

The grandkids enjoyed the old climbing tree.  I was a tree climber as a kid, too.  One of my favorite spots was a comfortable cranny in a big old weeping willow tree at the edge of our garden.  It was a perfect, shady place to read on a hot summer day--and I loved the soothing sound of the wind in the willows.

 

 

 

I got the kids a beautifully illustrated paperback compilation of Frost’s poetry, which they enjoyed.

 

  

We lunched at a wonderful Mexican restaurant, then headed to Goffstown to see Garrison’s elementary school (1st grade) and Madeline’s Mountain View Middle School (5th grade).  There really is a mountain view!

 

 

The next day we took a longer road trip, heading northeast to Hanover, New Hampshire, where the kids played on the Dartmouth campus green. 

 

 

We also toured a lovely art museum and ate a fantastic lunch at EBAs (Everything But Anchovies).  

Then we crossed the river to Norwich, Vermont, and visited the King Arthur Flour Company’s bakery and visitor center.  The flour mill has been in operation since 1790.  

After that we headed East into New Hampshire’s beautiful Sunapee / Lakes Region, near the foothills of the White Mountains. 

 

 

 

The kids took a chilly swim in Newfound Lake, where the water was crystal clear.

 

 

 

The next day, after hugs all around, Tim went back to work, the grandkids headed off to Melody Pines Day Camp for their end of summer camp “Olympics,” and after a lovely brunch and a trip to the library,  DIL Carrie and I went  to the airport, where I began my trek home to Nebraska and my transition back to the workaday world.

 

TTFN

LeAnn

 

 

The Trek East - Part II: DC to Baltimore

Yesterday, in Part I, I told you about my adventures in DC with son Jeff.  Today my travelogue continues with our journey from DC to Baltimore.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early.  We printed our tickets for the Orioles game and caught the MARC train from Union Station in DC to Penn Station in Baltimore.  The train was clean, comfortable, and on time -- and the one-way fare was only $7.00.  Such a deal!

I love the grandeur of the old train stations.  Here is a shot of the stained glass domed ceilings at Penn Station:

We then hiked to a great little 50s-style diner a few blocks from Camden Yard, where we joined daughter Allison and Ben, who had driven back earlier that morning from the wedding in Philadelphia, for a truly unique brunch.  Jeff found Jack and Zach Food based on very positive Yelp reviews.  There's a blackboard that lists the local farms that provide the eggs, meats, milk, grains and veggies for the items on their menu.  The omelets were great--served with homemade bread and jam.  Yummo!  No juice, though -- they don't grow oranges or cranberries in Baltimore, and although they DO grow apples, they ran out of apple cider.  Understandable on a game day, I guess.

After that hearty breakfast, we waddled over to Camden Yard -- truly a beautiful ballpark and extremely well-designed.  It was an absolutely perfect day for baseball -- low 80s and sunny, with a faint breeze.  We were in Row 11 on the right field line, barely under an overhang that provided shade.

I've been a baseball fan forever.  We were Minnesota Twins fans growing up  -- and my brother or I could earn a Bye from evening farm chores if we would listen to the Twins game on WCCO radio, and keep a scorebook play-by-play record of the game for my dad.   My brother has every scorecard from every baseball game he's attended since he was 9 years old --that's 50 years' worth!  And he collects baseball hats and t-shirts from every ballpark he visits.  His baseball memorabilia collection fills most of two rooms in their basement.  Here he is sporting a minor league t-shirt and hat -- and talking with his hands:

But I digress. (Ahem.)  Back to Baltimore.

After the game, Ben gave us a lift to Penn Station, where Jeff caught a MARC train back to DC.  Then we went to see Allison's new place, a nicely-renovated row house that she shares with two new roommates.  Her closet is bigger than my sewing studio --- well, almost.

Then we strolled around her neighborhood, had some yummy Greek yogurt with fruit, and headed to BWI where I said goodbye to my baby girl and caught my late evening flight to Manchester, NH.

To be continued...

TTFN
LeAnn

The Trek East - Part I: Lincoln to Baltimore to DC

I spent most of the past week in Baltimore - DC - NH visiting adult kids and growing grandkids -- and unplugged from the Internet most of that time.

My three kids were born in South Dakota, but all ended up on the East Coast, far, far away and in a different time zone.  Fortunately -- it's a great place to visit!  And this year, the weather was PERFECT, sunny and 70s to low 80s every day except one.  I wish I'd have taken more photos, but I was too busy enjoying time with the kids to be searching out blog worthy photo ops at every turn.  Sorry about that!

I've decided to break the trip into "chunks" - -sharing a few highlights from each leg of the trip in separate posts.  Today is Part I:  Lincoln to Baltimore to DC.

I flew into BWI - Baltimore.  My daughter Allison (almost 27) just moved there 4 days before I arrived.  She is working as a New Student Programs / Parent & Family Orientation Coordinator at the University of Maryland Office of Orientation in College Park, MD.  She decided to commute from Baltimore, where housing prices aren't QUITE so crazy expensive -- and  I suspect the fact that Baltimore is closer to Philadelphia just might have been a factor.

Here she is during her first week on the job.  (She's the one in the black shirt.)  Here's a better shot of Allison (sans shades) and her very nice boyfriend Ben.  Aren't they a cute couple?  Ben just started a new job in Philadelphia.

She'll also be attending grad school in her spare time!  Busy girl!  She picked me up at the airport in her little copper-colored near-vintage compact car which she named Penny back when she was in high school.  We chatted our way to DC where we met up with her brother Jeff (32), who works at the Congressional Budget Office.  We "hung out" as the kids would say, at his apartment, and the next day Allison went to Philadelphia for a wedding and Jeff went to work and I went to the Smithsonian!  I could spend a week touring Smithsonian museums, but this trip I chose to visit the American History Museum and the Museum of Natural History.

Inside, I saw this unique abstract flag-like sculpture hanging above the entrance to the Star Spangled Banner exhibit. The people in the lower right hand corner give you a sense of scale -- it was REALLY big!

I also got to see the original ruby slippers worn by Dorothy (Judy Garland) in The Wizard of Oz movie, which I watched every year as a kid (but ran upstairs to hide under the covers when the winged monkeys showed up).

It was such a BEAUTIFUL day, I decided I wanted to spend part of it outside, so I bought a small bag of popcorn and sat outside.  This friendly little bird apparently wanted me to share my popcorn:

Then I wandered down the street to the Natural History Museum, where I hoped to see the live butterfly exhibit -- but it was sold out.

There were some other cool exhibits, though -- sharks and dinosaurs -- I heard one little boy say, "I wish I LIVED in this place!!"

After work, Jeff and I saw the movie, The 100 Foot Journey.  It was EXCELLENT!!  I am guessing Helen Mirren will get an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and Charlotte Le Bon deserves a nomination for Best Supporting Actress IMHO.  I think we'll see a lot more of her in years to come.  It was a delightful mix of culture clash, comedy, romance, haute cuisine, and beautiful cinematography (set in the French countryside).  But it was not just a "chick flick."  My son genuinely enjoyed it -- and he thinks it should get an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography.  The screenplay was based on a book by Richard Morais.

The next day we took in another movie  -- Boyhood.  

I would also highly recommend this film.  It was filmed over a 12-year period, and it is a very realistic look at fractured family life with a mostly upbeat vibe.  Although it is a fictionalized account, it seemed like an ultra-condensed version of a reality TV series.  But it was exceptionally well done, and well acted.  Patricia Arquette played the mom, and Ethan Hawke played the "real" dad.  The screenplay is by Richard Linklater, who also directed the move -- and his real life daughter played the daughter / sister role.

And then we ate some fantastic Portuguese spicy chicken and Jeff scored four great tickets to the Baltimore Orioles / St. Louis Cardinals baseball game for Sunday afternoon.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.... Stay tuned for Part II.

TTFN
LeAnn

Pig Out

It's county fair time across the Midwest.  Back in the day in Lake County, South Dakota, we called it 4-H Achievement Days.  It was a simple little fair with no midway rides and no adult open class exhibits, but it was the highlight of the Summer for 4-H families throughout the county.  

I was a proud  member of the Farmington Farmerettes 4-H Club.  I exhibited Cheviot sheep, vegetables from the garden, canned fruits and vegetables, baked goods, and, of course, home sewn clothing.  My brother exhibited pigs and electric lamps he had rewired.

This Shameless Commerce Tuesday I'm featuring one of several newly-listed items from my Etsy shop, Pasque Flower Creations.  These oven mitts, with pink pigs on dark navy, remind me of my brother's pig showing days.  I think they'd be fun for a barbecue -- or any time you want to pig out.  The fabric was designed by Beth Snyder as part of the 1Canoe2 collection for Andover Fabrics.

Here's a closeup.

There's also a more vegan-friendly print in the fabric line -- mason jars filled with fruits and veggies - but those mitts are still works in progress.

TTFN
LeAnn

Treasury Thanks

Each week I like to thank the curators of Etsy treasuries who have featured items from my Etsy shops, Pasque Flower Creations and Aunt Pheba's Vintage, in treasuries over the past week. (Next week, however, I'll be on vacation visiting kids and grandkids in Baltimore - DC - New Hampshire, but you'll see two weeks' worth of treasury thanks in my August 17, 2014, post.) 

So here's a big THANK YOU to this weeks' treasury makers.  Most of the treasuries this week were celebrating the sunny days of Summer, which seem even more precious now that the days are getting shorter and Fall is approaching.  Some of the grandkids are already back to school, and the others will be heading back to school in a few short weeks.

Duni of PeriDotByDuni featured my yellow chevron oven mitt in her sunny treasury, Let the Sun In! This bright and summery pleated clutch from Duni's shop would feel right at home in her beautiful treasury.

Art of Fancywork from Ukraine featured my retro-inspired yellow linen bow clutch in her treasury, Yellow.  You'll find a number of unique gifts at Art of Fancywork.  I have a friend who collects elephants, so this art glass elephant figurine caught my eye.

Sandy of SanmarnaStyle, a Baby Boomers teammate,  also featured my yellow linen bow clutch in her treasury, Team Treasury #2.  This cute chillin' and grillin' towel would be perfect for a late Summer barbecue or a fall football tailgate party.

Margaret of SplendidLittleStars featured my pink roses oven mitt in her treasury, Summer Color Riot.  This cotton rainbow scrunchie is a cool and colorful way to keep long hair under control on a hot summer day.

Kathy of Tapestry316 featured my poppies on teal oven mitts in her treasury, Summer Fun. 
Kathy and her critters are just completing a big move, so her shop has been in vacation mode. 
But here is sample of Kathy's artwork -- a horse with attitude!

Abigail Jayne of AbigailJayneArt featured my poppies on blue oven mitt in her treasury, Lavender Fields.  This cosmos embroidery hoop art is one of the unique handcrafted gifts you can find at AbigailJayneArt.

Lindab142 featured my little girl's peace symbol skirt in her treasury, Blue Happy Creations.  If you are looking for some pretty blue bling, check out this gorgeous aquamarine ring from Linda's shop.  As I was saving photos for this post, my hubby looked over my shoulder and said, "Oooh!  That's pretty!!"

Lana Moes of LanasArt featured my orange and white chevron oven mitt in her treasury, August Gift Guide.  This colorful Miami Beach art print beautifully captures the essence of warm sunny days and tropical beaches.

Sharla of BeadedTail featured my colorful abstract oven mitt in her treasury, Color, Cookies & Cats.  These cute black ceramic kitty cat earrings would be a wonderful gift for a cat lover -- and fun to wear on Halloween, too.

Som from Soms Studio featured my pink and peach vintage scarf (from my vintage shop, Aunt Pheba's Vintage) in the treasury, Petal Kisses.    These beautiful bridal earrings are just one of the incredible jewelry pieces you will find in Som's shop.

Jessie Noah featured a vintage butter churn from Aunt Pheba's Vintage in her treasury, A Butter Churn Metamorphosis.   Jessie Noah is a buyer only, but you can find her on Facebook and Twitter:

www.facebook.com/jessienoah2 and https://twitter.com/JessieNoah1. 

 

And last, but not least, the incredibly creative Sarah Leonard of ACatLikeCuriosity featured my poppies on teal oven mitts in her treasury, Life, naturally :-).  I just love this blow away your cares greeting card from Sarah's shop:

I'll be blowing away some of my cares as I travel East to visit my daughter Allison, sons Jeff and Tim, DIL Carrie, and two of my adorable grandchildren, Madeline and Garrison, August 7-13, 2014.  I plan to be "unplugged" to savor precious family time.

Wishing you all a wonderful week!

TTFN
LeAnn