Happy Easter!

Wishing you and your loved ones a most wonderful and joyous Easter!

I managed to crochet ten of these cute Easter eggs in time for Easter.

(Click here for pattern and details)

Hubby and I are enjoying the TV Series "The Bible" on cable's History channel.

And yesterday I recorded "The Ten Commandments" with Charlton Heston as Moses.

I remember my Mother taking my brothers and me to see this movie in 1956 when I was ten years old.

I haven't seen this movie in ages so I'm looking forward to watching it again after all these years.

Thanks for visiting me!

Eggs R Us

These are so much fun to crochet!

Easy, pleasy!

Eggs R Us...

ah...

Eggs R Me!

The 4th egg...

Fifth one...

And my sixth...

of course, I have to have a RED one!

Six eggs so far all lined up...

Today I hope to add more colors to the group.

Happy Easter to you and your loved ones.

Go (here) for link to free pattern and more details.

Crocheted Easter Egg

My first crocheted Easter Egg!

It helps to use the stitch marker for each round.

This is a great way to use up all those little cotton yarn ends I've been saving.

A little bit of batting added before starting the decreases.

Isn't it cute!

I love it!

Here's where you can obtain Kara Gunza's (Petals to Picot)' free Easter Egg pattern (here).

And for details of my project just click (here).

I'm off to crochet more cute eggs so I have an Easter Basket full of them.

Thank you Kara for this adorable pattern!

Wishing you all a wonderful Good Friday!

Flower Garden Doily & English History

I finished my Grandmother's Flower Garden Potholder pattern last night. 

 I didn't make it as a two-sided potholder. 

You can read more details regarding this project (here) at Ravelry.

I revised the edging to a round of green single crochet, another round of cream single crochet and a final round of *single crochet in next stitch, spiked double crochet into the next stitch's previous round* repeat from * to * around in green.

I'm using it as either a doily or a dishcloth.

You can purchase the pattern (here).

Today we visited our local Barnes and Nobles bookstore to pick up some current guide books for Great Britain and London for our Grand Circle Tour of England/Wales/Scotland next month.

The Michelin London book is from 1997 when Hubby took his first and only solo trip to Europe.

We have some free time in London so we're making a list of our must sees. 

I love English History.  

My love of English History started at an early age when I read a book in my Mother's bookcase entitled, "Forever Amber" by Kathleen Winsor.    It's still one of my most favorite historical romance novels.  It's set in 17th Century England during the reign of Charles II.  "Forever Amber" tells the story of orphaned Amber St. Clare, who makes her way up through the ranks of 17th century English society by sleeping with and/or marrying successively richer and more important men, while keeping her love for the man she could never have, Bruce Carlton.  The novel includes portrayals of Restoration fashion, politics, and public disasters, including the plague and the Great Fire of London.  I was sad to learn that the publishers edited the fifth draft of Ms. Winsor's book down to one-fifth of its original size to its published size of 972 pages.   I would have loved to read all of it before it was edited down.  Believe it or not, it was the best-selling US novel of the 1940s.  It was also responsible for popularizing "Amber" as a given name for girls in the 20th century.  And to this day it's still my favorite name for a girl.    

I just finished reading "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett and last night I started its sequel, "World Without End".  Both of Mr. Follett's historical English novels have been made into TV mini-series.   There are excellent reviews for the first TV mini-series but many reviewers felt the second TV mini-series didn't follow Mr. Follett's sequel book at all.  I have seen both TV mini-series but can't pass judgement on the second one until I finish the novel.     

Anyways... Hubby bought the book "British History for DUMMIES" because he doesn't read as many any historical English novels like I do and needs a crash course.    

This book is so funny and presents its topic in an easy-to-read manner.

And, of course, we needed a more serious look at British History too. 

Our packing for our trip across the pond is almost done.

And we still have a few weeks before we leave.

So we are in good shape.

Just getting a little more excited as the time goes by.

Yesterday I updated our chalkboard sign for Easter.

That's it for Easter decorations here.

It's Snowing!

No Spring here...it's snowing big fluffy snowflakes.

If you look closely you can see the snowflakes falling in front of my crocheted heart.

This picture was taken this morning and it is still snowing this afternoon and is suppose to keep up until midnight.

I found another adorable FREE crocheted heart pattern entitled "Grandma's Heart" by Carola Wijma.

It has popcorn and puff stitches to add texture and interest.

And thank goodness Carola's pattern includes a diagram.  

Because I needed it.

I was having problems with the third round.  It just wasn't working out.  Then I thought "Dummy...look at the diagram!" When I did... I realized the second round had double crochets in between the popcorn stitches.   My popcorn stitches didn't have any double crochets between them.  I forgot them.  Duh!

Once I frogged the second round and redid it correctly I didn't have any problem with the third round. 

It would be cute to sew two of these together for a child's purse.

I must make some colorful hearts like (these).

They would be beautiful as a heart garland.

Hop over to Ravelry for my additional project details and click (here) for the free pattern.    

I don't mind snow when I don't have to drive in it.

I love to watch it come down from the warmth of my home.

With our cold weather we have been enjoying a lovely fire in the the fireplace in the evenings.

Thanks for visiting!

Peter Pan Crochet Collar

I have always loved Peter Pan Collars.

I don't like open necklines. 

Never have. 

I prefer collars on my tops.

I love crocheted collars.

This pattern grabbed my eye the other day.

It seemed easy.

And it was.

It took longer to sew on my vintage pearl buttons then it did to crochet it. 

Jump over to Ravelry for additional details (my hook and yarn info).

Free Peter Pan Crochet Collar Pattern (here).

My flowers are still blooming.

It's another cold day here.

Hubby found this cartoon yesterday and sent it to me.

Ha!

Where's Spring?

BUNCO is done. 

 It was a success - all the gals had a fun time. 

 Unfortunately as host I didn't have a chance to take any photos with the food set up on the kitchen island but I did take some pics of the tables set up in the family rooms prior to the arrival of the gang.

My flowers were the center piece on the kitchen island.

I bought a new pink plastic table cloth for the island too and set some china bunnies around the flowers.

It looked really pretty.

I managed to take a few photos of the tables set up before the gals arrived.

I moved two of the chairs back into the corners of the family room to make room for the two card tables.

Today we got up early and drove to the RV dealership to pick up our travel van (it was in for some repairs that were still under warranty).  

It was cold this morning - only 29 degrees - and trying to snow - luckily there was just some very light snowflakes in the air.  

This evening we have a lovely fire going.

See how neat my crochet area is?

I put all the yarn and stuff away upstairs for BUNCO and haven't bought it back down yet.

I'm enjoying it all clean and neat without my piles of mess all around me.

Isn't it pretty in our family room and kitchen with the sun shining through the french doors?

This is one of the appetizers I made (recipe here) - Bacon-Wrapped Li'l Smokies in a Brown Sugar and Maple Glaze.   They are ready to go into the oven to bake and then into the crock pot to keep warm.  

I also made this one (here) - Sausage & Cream Cheese Crescents. 

I found both of these delicious recipes on Pinterest.   

The gals don't eat much and I had too much food left over...again.  

Our trees have buds on them.  

I sure wish it would warm up.

Think SPRING!

One Day To Go

Bunnies and Teddy Bears...

I got lots of them here at Teacup Lane!

Sorry...

I've been so busy readying my home for BUNCO tomorrow night...

 both blogging and crocheting have been put aside.

See the cute hat with the rabbit ears on my teddy bear cookie jar?

I'm thinking of wearing that bonnet at BUNCO tomorrow night.

It's a silly thing but I think it will be fun.

Or maybe I'll just let the teddy bear continue to wear it.  

This is my bunny water fountain.  

I hope I remember to fill it with water and turn it on tomorrow.

The house is clean and ready now.

 I'm just gathering stuff for the food preparation and the set up.

This is the cleanest my first floor has been in quite a while.

Starting VERY early with the de-cluttering and sorting through our kitchen drawers ready helped to get rid of lots of paper and other junk.  

I missed posting on St. Patrick's Day but I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

We had a lovely time.

Friends invited us over for a delicious corn beef and cabbage dinner.

Getting Ready...

For Spring!

For BUNCO!

For EASTER!

And it's trying to snow here!  

The nerve of Mother Nature!  

Flower Garden Potholder

I find that I like small potholders and dishcloths for use in my kitchen.  

  

Here's a cute one I'm working on called "Grandmother's Flower Garden Potholder".

The pattern can be purchased (here).

It's a Leisure Arts publication called "Kitchen Basics in Cotton" by Carolyn Christmas.

I'm not sure why it is considered a grandmother's potholder.

Maybe because it has a vintage look?

I chose some Lily Sugar n'Cream cotton yarns in cream and lime green.

Did you notice the green yarn is Tinkerbell green!!!

You crochet all the little "flowers" individually and then sew them together.

Two left to do and then a simple edging will finish this one off.

And then into the kitchen it will go.

Click (here) for more details.

I also use them as potholders for my cast iron skillet's hot handle... like I'm doing here with this little round red and lime green one.

It just fits my hand.

Do you cook with cast iron?

I love my cast iron skillet.

I have the delicious cornbread recipe from the Trail's End Restaurant at Ft. Wilderness (Walt Disney World, Florida) that I want to try baking in my cast iron skillet one of these days.  

Just had my cup of Keurig coffee and have some cleaning to do this morning.  

Having to host BUNCO has given me the inspiration to spring clean...and that's a good thing because our home needs it.

Ha! That's not the only thing coffee makes go "weeeeeeee"!

I go "wee", "wee"....all day!

Have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by.