merrie maye

~early ladye's pocket~

“Herbs do comfort the wearied braine

with fragrant smells which yield a certain kinde of nourishment.”

William Coles ~ 1656

Tonight on OPB's Oregon Art Beat~ Katie Estvold of Sparrow's Cottage ~

Books Bound Angel by Katie Estvold

~~~

I'm very proud to be sharing this wonderful bit of news with all of you this afternoon.

My daughter, Katie Estvold, painter & paper artist

and lover of

~all Things 18th Century~

will be presented this evening on Oregon Public Broadcasting

"Oregon Art Beat" at 8 pm.

~~~

Katie will be talking about her art and her love of the 18th c.

from her home, Sparrow's Cottage, deep in the woods of Oregon.

~~~

If you live in Oregon, you can watch the show this evening on OPB at 8pm.

If you are not in Oregon, you can view the show on the internet~

it will be archived, so you can watch it at your leisure at any time on their website:

http://www.opb.org/programs/artbeat/episodes/view/1026

I hope that you will be able to see this segment.

I'm very proud of my Katie,

who as a little girl,

sat by me and her brother, playing with her paint box, paper & scissors

while I sewed and wrote nearly everyday.

~~~

I'm very proud that Katie has this wonderful opportunity

for her art to be acknowledged

and to be able to share her love of old paper

and her art with all of us.

to see more of Katie's work~

Sparrow's Cottage

a beautiful gift

for me there's nothing more wonderful than putting clean crisp sheets on my bed.

freshly washed and dried on the line sheets.

they remind me of being a little girl, playing all day with my brothers and sister

in the bright spring sunshine and then

being coaxed into the house for dinner and a bath...

There's nothing like

putting on "fresh from the clothes line flannel jammies"

after a nice hot bath

stiff from being dried on the line

and so fresh and clean, that the scent stings your nose...

my daughter, Katie, presented me with the best gift ever.

She had made for me this wonderful brown homespun

~ and completely hand sewn ~clothes pin bag.

It's just wonderful.

Inside I found at least a whole dozen or more of clothes pins.

Katie hand carved ~actually, we like to say they are whittled ~each one for me.

and they

every bit as sturdy and useful

as they are beautiful.

Simply hand carved from our own poplar whips and tightly wired together.

what could be better than this...

a nice hot bath after a long day of working in the yard,

slipping into a stiff pair of flannel jammies

and snuggling down

and falling asleep between the first crisp sheets of spring.

Thank you, my Katie.

***

~here's a wonderful tutorial by Katie if you'd like to make your own wooden clothes pins! ~

~thank you dear friends~

all is well.

xo,C

a lovely First Day of Spring & to thank you all so very much~a little drawing

~little cotton tail bunny who lives under the old lilac~

Happy First Day of Spring

~~~

dearest friends,

I'm need a little bit of help, please.

as with all things modern and electronic, I have found that you just can't

depend upon a computer

like you can a trusty ledger and a pen to write with.

There has been a cafuffle with my laptop;

she deciding that she should stop working and leave me without any way of telling anyone

what is happening and in the meantime we have lost a great many emails from my lists.

If you have been a member and/or should like to added to my mailing list,

please do write to me HERE and you'll be reinstated and/or added immediately.

***

To thank you all for your kind help & emailing me~

All of this coming week, I'll be adding all of the names of those

who send their names & email addresses

into the old wall paper'd top hat.

In a week from today, I'll be drawing 3 names from the old hat

for a little thank you treasure.

I'll be sending one of my Deerfield Farmhouse doll patterns to

3 names that are drawn in one week from today.

Thank you all and I look forward to hearing from you.

~*~

I hope that this finds you enjoying a lovely

First Day of Spring.

~*~

Spring dollies are waiting and wanting to be shown!

~*~

I look forward to hearing from you~

thank you all so very much!

love, Christine

~*~

ps. This morning one of the little cottontails that live under the old lilac came out for a bit of sunshine and a nibble of sweet green grass.

Snow flakes have been falling off and on all this past week,

but now,warm sun is

shining through on this beautiful day.

I hope it's shining for all of you, too, wherever you may be.

keeping a merry heart

he that is of merry heart

hath a continual feast.

~

proverbs 15:15

I have much more I want to share with you all today, but for now I'm off to

the city with my sweetheart to visit the lumber man, gather up paint swatches and

look for antique lighting fixtures.

Then off to the greenhouse & nursery to buy a thyme topiary for my kitchen.

....dinner at the old Pine Tavern down by the Deschutes River.

This is the most delicious way to spend the day that I can imagine for myself.

I hope this day finds you all doing something that you love, doing something delicious

and hopefully with your sweetheart and those you love.

keeping a merry heart...

and maybe a little chocolate in there somewhere,too.

a happy Valentines day to you all,

with love,

Christine

hyacinths for a winter weary soul

If you have two loaves of bread, give one to the poor,

sell the other and

buy hyacinths to feed your soul.

~Mother Teresa~

every year at this time, after the holidays have been put away and the lack of anything

green outside my windows begins to feel tedious,

the old farm house seems to be just begging for fresh flowers to warm her chilly corners.

She doesn't really mind what they might be,

as long as they're fragrant and they must be white.

I found pots and pots of my very favorite white hyacinths at our little mercantile yesterday.

Stepping inside from the chill air, their heady scent greeted me before I saw them.

Immediately, I could feel the knot in my neck begin to relax

and myself just drinking it all in.

ahhh...fresh flowers.

I do believe its true, that we need hyacinths for our souls, whether it's a potted bloom, a bouquet of lemony daffodils, a tiny green trailing ivy or the sight of tight bundles of pink edged white roses.

The coolness and freshness of flowers, alive and blooming against the chill.

a balm for our winter weary souls.

So here they are in an old ironstone punch bowl, scenting the room while we read

by the fire. My husband with his book, me with mine~

a new book about 18th century houses & gardens.

those are balms for my winter weary soul.

wishing you all a bright and shiny first day of

February and hyacinths for your soul.

yrs,Christine