Birds

I've mentioned countless times how much I love nature and pretty much every creature you find out there. Birds being right up there with dragonflies and lady bugs. I haven't posted frenchy's finds lately (actually in a very long time) so here are a few of my latest finds at Frenchy's...

Last summer we bought straw from a local market to put between our potatoe rows and there must have been hay in there somewheres because we got plenty of wheat. It was a pest in the garden but sure looks pretty in this antique pitcher I found about a month ago at Frenchy's.

A mama bird with her baby; love, love. And my favorite color... how lucky am I.

There are two candle holders in this picture. The double-one in the background I found last year at Frenchy's but the one in front I found last weekend. It holds my beeswax candle perfectly.

Frenchy's find and a gorgeous evening

I know I haven't been posting a lot about Frenchy's lately and it's not because we don't go... the reason you don't see a whole lot of Frenchy's finds on this old blog is that the finds are quite grim lately. Above is my latest find - a very soft and cozy hoodie which I will wear when we make backyard fires in the pit...

What a gorgeous evening - bright blue skies, no wind and ''almost'' no little black flies. Dave made a fire in the pit while the chickens roamed around the yard.

Random link love :

I am baking these tomorrow night. I have a batch of sprouts in the sprouter which I will use to stuff these yummy pockets.

I made this for supper tonight, minus the tofu. We are not tofu kinda people. We don't consume meat or pork; only seafood and organic chicken (not ours that's for sure) on occasion. It is a keeper for sure. Both Dave and I loved it.

Frenchy's, herb rack and the Market

About a month ago I mentioned to Dave that a cool gift to have for Christmas next year would be a label maker so he took note of that. With only a few minutes to spare on my lunch break one day this week, I stopped in at Frenchy's and guess what I found...

... well, a labeller of course ! for $2.95 and it works. We bought a new printing ribbon and just like the ink cartridges for a printer, it costs half of what a brand new label machine would cost. I am so happy to have labels on my herb, spice, cosmetic bottles.

Speaking of herbs, here is my new herb drying rack in our newly painted kitchen. It's an antique wooden leaf-rake we found years ago at an antique store. The handle rotted off seeing that it's been laying in a wood pile outside for all these years. Voilà, an instant herb drying rack.

Dave and I went to a special edition of the Yarmouth Farmers Market this morning. I needed to stock up on soap so seeing one of my favorite blogger, that just happens to make fabulous soaps was going to be there I knew I would come home with yummy smelling soap. Dave bought me this cute little frog on a lilypad painted rock.

Suppose to be another sunny day tomorrow. How is the super supreme full moon treating you tonight !!! Time for grounding and renewal.

A few Frenchy's finds

Can you believe it.... last day of February tomorrow.

Here are a couple of my latest thrifting finds at Frenchy's. I kinda like this double candle holder. As some of you know, I'm not a matchy matchy person so I put in one beeswax candle and one pale green soy candle (not seen in the above photo) and of course one is shorter than the other... that's how I roll !!! I love lighting beeswax candles in the house, it smells heavenly.

I am also very rustic in my home decor hence that hand carved wooden bowl up there that I just had to bring home with me. It still needs a good beeswax polishing. Underneath the bowl is a folded cotton yoga wall hang. Yes, I collect them for when I have my yoga studio in the loft of my new barn... it's not a dream; it will happen.

Another golden day

We had two beautiful sunny weeks, than we had a couple of days of rain and today the sunshine was back. Everything seems golden doesn't it.

Fancy shell found at the thrift store.

We ended up buying two more cords of firewood. At this time of the year we don't have a big fire going during the day when we're out of the house but in the evening we boost up the fire. And this can go on until the end of May.

Last but not least - the beginnings of our chicken coop.

My product review is coming up on the weekend... stay tuned.

Out and About

What a beautiful day to head out with my camera.


Checking my camera memory card I found the next two pictures that I forgot I had.

A local craftsman works his magic at refinishing antiques. We had our old antique rocking chair stripped and oiled a few weeks ago. He does everything by hand (the scrapping; no chemicals) than he uses an oil that he mixes himself made up of 6 different oils. We were so pleased with his work that when we picked-up the chair we left him another piece of antique.

Below - two Frenchy finds.

Knitted love, mail and frenchy finds

I always have a project on my needles. I just finished this shawl last week. It's not for me, I might give it to someone special. (It looks like someone is modeling the shawl but it's actually drapped over my sewing machine).

Look at what arrived in my mailbox a few weeks ago. It's from here. It was immediately framed and hung in my craft room. If you don't already visit Heather's blog, well you should. She's amazing. She's the second blog I discovered almost three years ago. The way I found out about blogging (I was clueless about blogs) was with this blog. Her soaps are so delicious smelling you want to have a bit. And let me tell you, she has the cutest little boy.

And last but not least - some Frenchy treasures I found in one 10 minute visit last week. Look at all this bright colored fabrics.

And in the same stash, there were these 8 black and white samples. I'm thinking a simple quilt for a teenager maybe...


And a wooden spool holder. My 10 minute shopping spree at Frenchy's cost me $2.25.

I am teaching myself to knit socks, with the help of You Tube videos and very clear and simple instructions from so many inspirational blogs. I'm almost done with the first sock, I'll post pictures. Things are going well so far, fingers crossed please.

Books

As mentioned here a few weeks ago I've found an enormous amount of good books at Frenchy's in the past few months. Here are but a few I would love to share with you. I think the titles are pretty much self-explanatory.

But the best book to come into our lives lately is our daughter and SIL's wedding album. Dave and I picked it up from the photographer two weeks ago. The newlyweds have not seen it yet. They will be here Friday night for the weekend. They are going to love the pictures in this book (I know I did).

Frenchy's treasures and pies

I realized this past week that I kinda took the summer off from blogging on a regular basis but you know, I was busy with other ''just as important'' stuff. However, I have NOT abandoned my weekly trips to Frenchy's. And boy o boy I found beautiful stuff during the summer. Here are two of those wonderful finds (not found on the same visit) - A North Face jacket and a North Face down-filled vest. Everytime I wear my jacket someone is going to say what I beautiful jacket I have and how they love the color (I agree, it is a nice blue color). And I am sooooooo proud to say where I got it.


As mentioned here in a previous post, last evening I was up to my elbows in apple pies. I made tons of tiny ones for lunch cans and a few large ones to freeze for the cooler weather up ahead.

Wishing everyone a good start of the week tomorrow ! One more week and Dave and I are off water rafting - yippy !!!!!

On my way to yoga...

... last night I stopped at Frenchy's for a short visit and here is what I found in less than 5 minutes - gorgeous fabric for my stash, yarn (the black one is super chunky) and these two books. The Knitting without tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman I was going to order from amazon a month ago but I did'nt and last night I paid $1 for it.

I love thrifting !

Baby project, frenchy's and flip flops

My niece is expecting their first child in August. Perfect excuse to knit, knit and knit some more. Above is a work in progress which, if planned correctly, will be a baby blanket. The ivory squares are 6 different patterns hence the name of the blanket ''the baby sampler blanket''. I have to follow charts to get the proper pattern. Let's just say that I have to be some place in the house where I will be by myself while knitting. However, the colored blocks are simple stockinette stitches... don't have to follow any chart; bliss. The block in the picture is the diamond sampler.

On to Frenchy's. We stopped for a few short minutes tonight and look what I found. Tons of buttons. Old ones (very old; even smelly), plastic ones, metal ones, tiny ones and giant ones... the two red ones in the red box are wooden; oh baby I'm in heaven.

And this book ''ReadyMade - How to make almost everything''.

It is chuck-full of DIY projects - reuse and recyle objects. Such as the project below - hooks made from empty laundry detergent plastic bottles. (Side note - I would'nt be able to build this because I make my own laundry detergent and reuse the same 10 litre bucket).

Speaking of repurposing, check this out. Eco Yogini had it in her comments yesterday. I am so trying this out with my ugly dirty purple yoga mat. I guess that means I will have ugly purple flip flops this summer :-) And by the way, I encourage you to read her blog... I love it and so will you.

Road Trip

Last week it was nice and sunny for 5 consecutive days so on Thursday Dave and I took the day off work and headed out on a road trip up Annapolis Valley way. Did I say 5 consecutive days ? yes I did but Thursday it rained most of the day and it's been sunny most of the days since. We headed out the door at 9 a.m.

We had to make a pit stop...

... car needed oil.


We stopped at a couple of Frenchy's. The best find for me was this beautiful mouth-blown vase in my favorite color, of course.

We were gone all day, driving, stopping and shopping in the rain but still... we had fun. We ate ''yummy'' fast-food which was a treat for me.

We got home at 6 p.m. The rain had stopped by then and we could see a few breaks in the clouds.

This was the scene at 7:30 p.m.

Oh well, we got rained upon for our road trip but our day ended in the comfort of our home with this beautiful sun set.

Sunny Sun-day

My title says it was a sunny Sunday but it was just as sunny Saturday except a wee bit colder. Surely, Spring must be here look at our driveway. It's this way for a few weeks every Spring.

Perfect air-drying weather.


I haven't posted a picture of my finds at Frenchy's lately... that's because we either haven't been or when we've gone, haven't found any GREAT treasures to write home about. Below, a Martha Stewart comforter. Our bedroom is painted Sunshine Yellow so these colors should go well together. Will give the room a nice crisp, summery feel to it.

It's been a while...

... since I posted some of my Frenchy findings. Here are some of the items I found in the last weeks (even months).

This black jacket has to be my best find in years. Honest. It's an Athletic Works feather-filled. I can walk in -22 wind chill and I don't feel the cold on my upper body at all. The scarf is another good find at Frenchy's. It's a William Brunton Hand Knits, hand woven of pure lambswool in Scotland.
I so wish I could have found more of the Cashmereno in the yarn box but this was the only one. I'll knit little baby booties or something. The bigger skein is from Natural Dyed Wools, from Ireland. The dye is from red cabbage.

In one visit I found these three pair of foot luxury. The boots are made of leather, the black shoes are from a company in France and the brown are Born. Was I excited to find a pair of Born - well, yes ! I mainly wear the Born shoes with long skirts and tights. A more Boho style which I love and is so comfy.


I'm not really one to have decorative flags and swirlies hanging outside the house but this one will go in the orchard out back next Summer to keep the birds out of the cherry tree. He's so cute.

And this quilt, I still can't figure out why it was in the $1.25 drop-cloth bin. There's nothing wrong with it really. It's for a child's single bed. I'll store it away until I find a use for it.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and keeping warm. This blogger informed me today that it was 55 days til Spring - yahoooooo. That's not bad - 55 days. Y'all know how time's flying around here. Time to get this out :