A Vintage Give-Away Post ....

Hello everyone.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth.. 

It is time to thank you sweet people for following the blog.. 

There are now over 500 Google Followers along with Email, Networked Blogs and such.. 

This makes me happy, of course.. 

It is rewarding when you take the time to post and you realize that there are lovely ladies somewhere in the world who are interested in this ancient  older keeper of her home and what she is puttering away at... smile.. 

Thank you.. 

So... 

In return for your faithfulness in reading and commenting I would like to give away a few little things.. 

Nothing much, mind you but just a thought as my Mom would say..

Let's get started... 

This is what I have put together thus far.. 

A couple of drawstring bags made out of vintage fabric and doilies.. 

And... 

A bottle of my home made Between the Sheets Lavender Powder and a few of my Mom's doilies... 

A bar of my Patchouli Soap and a Cider Soaked Pantry Potpourri.. 

And... 

Some little thing will be made out of this Anne of Green Gables fabric.. 

Since her province of P. E. I. is next door to us here in New Brunswick.. smile.. 

Also ... 

Not shown but a few tags and who knows what else.. 

This is not just one prize.. 

I will break it up into 2 or 3 and add a few other little bits.. 

OK?  

Now.. on with the show.. 

In order to win you have to.. 

1. Most important you have to be a follower of my blog.. 

If you are not then just go to the sidebar and sign up with Google or whichever way you like best..  

2.. Leave a comment and tell me something about yourself and what is your favourite topic on the blog. 

3.  For an extra chance you can like the page on Face Book.. Or if you have already then just share this post and mention this in your comment.. 

The widget is at the top of my sidebar and you do not have to be a Face Book member to read that page as I often add other things that are not on here.. 

Sorry if I have confused you all.. xo

Make sure to leave your first name if you do this through Anonymous so I can contact you if you win.. 

It is open to all and I will announce the winners on Feb. 28.. 

That's that ... I think.. smile.. 

 We are still in big time Winter here in the East of Canada.. 

Terry and I took a little trip out to check on the farm and he had to wear snow shoes in order to get in ... 

He actually had to take one off to beat the snow away from the back door as the shovel had blown away.. 

All was well and Spring will come again... 

Thank you so much for your many comments of sympathy last post.. lol.. 

But really... we are fine..

The power has not gone off at all and our son got his driveways done and our other son drove home in the blizzard for a couple of hours but arrived safely.. 

Our daughter is getting in shape to head to Florida next week by helping to shovel the snow away from her deck.. grin.. 

Life is good.. 

And there is always soup.. 

Right??? 

And even if you can't see out your windows there is still light and one can craft... 

 and when you go to the city there are new mountains that reach above the trees.. 

Man made snow mountains made by trucks carting the snow out of the city and blowing it into huge mountainous  piles.. 

Unbelieveable  ... 

 Even when you are Canadian there are still some things that amaze us.. 

Oh well.. 

We can have some company over for dinner.. 

And have some home made no knead bread.. 

I now have a link on the sidebar with the recipe as people request it quite often.. 

This loaf was made in a casserole dish and sprinkled with dill seed.. 

And... 

Just in case you don't believe me here is another pic copied from  Twitter.. 

Now, that is hilarious, eh?  

Seeing is believing.. grin..

We may as well laugh even if we have what I call a wallowing day.. 

The thing is that it can only last for one day... 

Grin.. 

Thank you sweet friends for all of your visits and lovely comments.. 

Looking forward to you all signing up for the give-away.. 

God bless.. 

When the snow just won't stop...

Well....

 Good evening, everyone..

It is finally over.. The worst storm that I can remember.. 

We have lived here in this house for 30 years and I have never seen this before..  

This is what we woke up to this morning.. 

This is our Kitchen window over the sinks.. 

Seeing is believing.. Right?

See the top of the pine tree there.. That is the top of it.. 

The storm started early Sunday morning and went on until this morning.. 

Blizzard conditions with white outs and high winds..

Yesterday, I was speaking to our daughter on the phone and she was wondering what kind of soup I had going.. smile.. 

The kids kinda make fun of me because storm day is just another excuse to make soup,, eh?  

After awhile I did make this one.. 

Olive Garden\s Zuppa Toscana Soup  

The recipe is HERE..

It is on my Pinterest.. 

I made mine with Kale though... 

First thing today, Terry got ready to go in to help Dustin (our youngest son) with his snow removal business.. 

He had done some snow blowing last evening so he would be ready but when he went out this morning the driveway was full again... sigh.. 

He is not a spring chicken any more and I felt bad about him having to do the drive again and then go and push the snowblower all day.. 

But the Lord sent a special someone to plow him out.. 

We have great neighbours... thank you, sir.. 

While I was waiting for him to actually get gone.. 

You know what I mean.. grin.. 

I decided to feed the birds some leftover bread that I had..  

Yup.. This is our front door.. 

See the drift.. 

Right up to the roof.. 

The birds found the bread though.. 

Crows, actually.. 

And this is our front family room window.. 

I cannot see out at all.. 

But that is fine..

 The house is darker then usual, though but the sun manages to get in around the top... 

I will just double up on Vitamin D.. smile.. 

Terry will shovel it away after today.. 

He just needs to help our son as the poor kid has so many driveways to do and there is just so much snow.. 

Really, we Canadians hardly ever whine this much but this is unreal... 

Anyway... 

On with the show.. 

I needed to do something fun today so I made this wreath.. 

I copied it off of one that I seen in a UK Country Living a while back.. 

And glued the pic on my home made calender.. 

Does anyone know what kind of style this is?  

I don't know but it is pretty and brightens up my foyer on this Winter's day... 

You just tie knots in fabric. I used 4 or 5.. 

 I was blessed to have a pile of vintage quilt blocks in my workroom that I forgot I had..

Tie a red ribbon on a grapevine wreath and then secure the knotted fabrics in bunches around it.. 

Top each knotted bunch with an old piece of jewellery..

I used my glue gun.. 

It was a really easy wreath to make.. 

I had to show my friends who do not live here in Eastern Canada and are fans of Anne of Green Gables just what her house looked like today.. 

I found this on Twitter and it was by Scot Meiklejohn..

A 7 foot tall snow drift blocks the front of Anne's house in Summerside, PEI.

Well, dear hearts this is all for tonight.. 

I hope you enjoyed the snow pics and I look forward to hearing from you.. 

The sun is trying to get through.. 

Just like the storms of life.. 

This too, shall pass.. 

I hope I didn't bore you all with the weather.. 

If you are Canadian that is what you talk about.. 

Some weather we are having, eh?  

No.. really.. that is how we talk.. grin.. 

We have reached the 500 Google Followers so next post I hope I have a little give-away ready for you all.. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and following the blog and liking my FB page.. 

You guys rock.. 

xo

Okay, okay... Just this one last one from the weather station .. 

The guy said he thinks he needs a bigger snowblower.. 

Only in Canada, eh?  

LOL... 

Linked to.. HOMEMAKING MONDAYS..

And were featured at Stephanie's Blog HERE...

A Sweetheart kind of day..

Happy Valentine's Day sweet people.. 

Hope you have had a lovely day.. 

The picture above was our last year's dinner.. 

We stayed home and I was the chef.. smile.. 

You can read about it HERE.

It was named... OLD LOVE...

Sometimes we stay home and sometimes we go out.. 

Today, we went out for dinner.. 

It was a cold day here in Maritime Canada.. 

I had planned on having my Mom and Step-Father but when I talked to Mom she preferred to go out and try out a new restaurant they had heard about.. 

So....

That is what we did.. 

And I am so glad .. 

What fun!!

We were served a nice pot of tea right at the beginning.. 

Loose black tea.... 

I love having a cuppa while we are waiting for the food.. 

There was so much choice that it took us a bit to figure out what we all wanted.. smile.. 

I had made hearts from some of the leftover felt from my bed runner and since we did not have Mom here I took them with me.. 

And made everyone put one on.. smile..

As you can see... Terry was so proud of his.. grin.. 

Julia Child had a Valentine party once and made hearts for everyone to wear.. Big ones.. grin.. 

These were very plain but still we were celebrating !!

Right? 

They have a huge selection here at An's... 

We chose Italian.. (of course)  ... 

The portions were very large and delicious.. 

Terry has a Mushroom Lasagne and I had a Shrimp Pasta..

They were served with Butter Bread...

And these wonderful pickles.. 

Korean ones, I believe.. 

They have a selection of all types of food but Korean is probably what they serve the most.. 

Next time.. perhaps...

The dear girl bought me another pot of hot tea.. 

As you can see we really enjoyed it.. 

Mom said it was the best cup of tea that she has had since she left home.. 

That was not yesterday.. smile.. 

This was our server and she was lovely and was so patient with us.. 

My Step-Father was a good sport but this was not really what he generally likes to eat.. 

Terry and I thought it would be a Diner sort of place because that is the kind they like.. 

What a lovely surprise for me..

This Cafe was exactly the kind of place that I love.. 

Terry likes a more plain type of food but if you love the experience as much as the food then you would love it.. 

This is An ... 

She owns the Restaurant and is so sweet .. 

She brought me the second pot of tea.. 

Then we had a couple of cookies.. 

Sugar and Tiger.. 

And the waitress heard Mom coughing and brought her a cough drop.. So kind.. 

All in all it was a fun meal.. 

We enjoyed having Valentine's dinner with my Mom... 

She has not been too well lately and we feel so blessed to still have her with us..

And of course, I am thankful for my dear husband.. 

God has so blessed us with 45 Valentine's Days together.. 

Kind of scary, eh? 

Just praying that we have many more... 

And the sweet man knows that I would rather have this..  

Then a bouquet of roses.. 

Weird, aren't I?  smile.. 

So blessed to be loved by this man still after all these years..

And that was Valentine's Day at the Blessed Hearth.. 

We are to have another huge blizzard tomorrow.. 

When we were in Moncton today we were wondering where on earth they will put another huge bunch of snow.. 

My what a Winter !!.. 

Praying everyone will be safe on the roads tomorrow if they have to be on them.. 

Thank you so much for dropping by and may God bless and keep you.. 

I love your dear comments both here and on FaceBook.. 

Just one more and there will be 500 followers of the blog.. 

We will have a give-away for you all during the coming week.. 

Welcome to all the new followers and FB page likes.. 

God bless.. xo

Hearts ....

A Winter Project.. Felted Bed Runner..

Hello everyone.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth today.. 

This is just a little post to show you the felted bed runner that I finally finished.. 

I was wondering if I would have started this if I had known how much work it would take.. 

I think so.. smile.. 

I saw this idea on the UK Country Living site..

Here

Their directions are much better then mine.. 

The first thing to do is find some 100 % wool and felt it.. 

I found this red wool coat at the thrift store.. I sort of felt bad about cutting it up as it was a London Fog.. smile.. 

Oh well.. it was the color I wanted so I cut it up into as big of pieces as I could.. 

Then I found this old wool blanket out at the farm and cut it into four pieces.. 

Put them into boiling water in my canner on the stove.. 

I boiled them for about 15 minutes, I think.. 

Then put them into the washer with hot water and let it do the cycle with cold water rinse and spin.. 

After that I put them on my wood drying rack for several days to dry... 

I used this old picture frame as a template..

You could use cardboard or such but this was the perfect size.. 

I used a marker to draw them out and made sure it was on the wrong side when I sewed them up.. 

You are supposed to use a tailor's chalk but I didn't have any.. 

For the red ones I measured them half the size of the cream ones.. 

Then I sewed them together which sounds much easier then it actually was.. 

Felt is not exactly the same as working with cotton for example.. 

I found it had a mind of it's own and had to be measured exactly.. 

But I finally managed to sew them all together and pressed them with a damp cloth.. 

They pressed out rather lovely and I was pleased with it thus far.. 

I actually made two runners out of the felt and sewed them together. 

Both sides are felt rather then lining it with a different fabric.. 

I had an old vintage doilie which I teadyed and cut into strips.. 

These went along each edge to cover the stitching.. 

Then.. smile.. 

I made a heart in the centre piece with a piece of the doilie.. 

With some old jewellery I made an arrow (kind of ) smile..  

And added a couple of buttons.. 

And here it is.. 

Remember this is a water bed with a duvet on top so it is a bit fluffy shall we say. 

The pics were all kind of dark so these are the best ones.. 

You get the gist of it all, though, eh? 

Just in time for Valentine's Day..  

Then after all that it was lunch time and we had veggie pita pizza.. 

Such a simple but delicious lunch.. 

Do you make these? 

I thought you might get a smile out of the snow at our front door.. 

Terry was digging us out after the last storm.. 

So far this week we haven't had any, thank the Lord.. 

Well, dear hearts thanks for your visit and for all your sweet comments on my last post.. 

So happy you enjoyed it.. 

Are you making any Winter projects?  

Take care and have a great week.. 

Hugs..