My talented Aunt

My 91 year old Aunt Josie

has always sewed beautiful things

for the benefit of the

Save the Children Fund.

"These are a few of my favorite Things"

She belonged to her local branch

which involved a group of like-minded

kind souls who made various

useful items which they sold at

their local Save the Children shop. 

Aunt Josie made many pretty

patchwork bags like these ones

which she still has at her home

hanging on door handles!

There are many wonderful people in

every country across the world

who use their talents and

give their time to help

raise funds for various

aid organisations.

Very few of them get the recognition

they deserve.

Yet little by little their efforts

help people in need all over our

World.

A beautiful bag made up of tiny hexagonal pieces

was made by my cousin Jane (Josie's daughter)

for her mother's 90th birthday.

I'm joining Claudia's

A Favorite Thing

and

Bernideen's
Open House

and

Mary's
Masterpiece Monday

please pop over and see what others

are posting today.

À bientôt

and be kind to one another

hugs

Shane ♥

Spring Inspiration

Over the last couple of weeks

I've been inspired by your posts

welcoming the arrival of Spring

in your neck of woods!

Of all the seasons

Spring is the one we long for the most.

"O wind, if Winter comes can Spring be far behind?"

                                                               Percy Bysshe Shelley

In the Northern Hemisphere
you've come through a very harsh Winter.

I've sensed your longing for
the first signs of Spring ...

and now all of a sudden there's a great flurry 
with talk of trips to the garden centre.
I've seen photos of your trolleys
laden with pots, plants and packets of seeds,
fertiliser, mulch, and even a new garden fork!

So the cycle begins again

of planning, preparing and planting

your gardens

for the long awaited Summer display!

The regular readers of my blog

will already know that I live in

New Zealand, where 

Autumn has arrived in all her golden glory...

so I have dug deep into my archives to

bring you these photo memories of my

glorious Spring from a couple of years back!

I'm joining Mary's "Thursday's Inspiration"

the prompt this week is "Spring"

and

Bernideen's "Open House"

and
Kathy's "Home and Garden Thursday"

I hope you will pop in for a look!

Kathy is also having a a beautiful
Rose
inspired Giveaway here

À bientôt

and be kind to one another

hugs

Shane ♥

MY BLUE TEA SET

I've loved this tea set forever

as it was part of every

family gathering as I grew up.

My darling mother treasured it

and she wouldn't trust anyone else

to bring it down safely from the

top shelf of the kitchen dresser.

It holds such happy memories

of many lovely coffee mornings

and afternoon tea parties.

Mother had several lovely

china tea sets

but this 'Spode Camilla' set

she loved the most.

This is the one she brought out

for special family occasions!

Being the only daughter in our family,

most of her lovely china

was passed on to me.

I in turn will pass it on

to my daughter.

It is used every day now and

I treasure it dearly - it never

goes in the dishwasher

but is carefully washed by hand!

Today I'm joining

 Mary for Thursday's Inspiration

Bernideen's Open House Thursday

Claudia's A Favorite Thing

Terri's Teacup Tuesday 

Martha's Tea Cup Tuesday

Sandi's  Tea Time Tuesday

Kathy's A Delightsome Life

Please make a cup of tea
and pop in to say hello!

Terri of Artful Affirmations blog
is having a beautiful Giveaway to
celebrate her new class
Soulful Adornments here
the winner will be chosen on 1st May!

À bientôt

be kind to one another

hugs

Shane ♥

...his mother put him to bed and made some chamomile tea.

AND she gave a dose of it to Peter!

'One table-spoon to be taken at bed-time'.

Sky...

'I must go down to the sea again
to the lonely sea and the sky'...
- John Masefield   

A Skywatch post

During the Summer months
we spend a lot of time 
on the water and I'm always
in awe of the beauty
of the sky.

The sky in these last two photos

was translucent

and the colors were quite magical.

Today I'm joining

Mary for "Thursday's Inspiration" 

and Bernideen's "Open House Thursday" 

and Skywatch Friday

and Claudia for Favorite Thing Saturday

I would love you to visit

both these parties

to meet other like minded bloggers.

Why not join in - it's fun!

I meant to tell you

that down under in the

Southern Hemisphere

daylight saving ended last weekend

when we put our clocks back one hour

... sad to say goodbye to

2012/13 Summer!

Thank you for your lovely comments

and welcome to my new followers.

À bientôt
and be kind to one another
hugs

Shane ♥

A home needs books...

If you are a regular visitor

to my blog you will know I'm a

book lover.

I've also been lucky to inherit

some lovely old books from

my father 

a very dear bookish man!

Like this five volume set of

The History of England

by

Lord Macaulay

published in London in

1870.

Do you know, that while taking 

photographs for this post

I was leafing through the pages

and to my surprise I became
totally absorbed.

So I've started reading Volume I,
I love history

 but I had thought 

this tome would be too stuffy!

I'll let you know how I get on...

The covers of the books are old leather

and the pages are edged with

gold leaf.

"A room without
books is like a body
without a soul." 
Cicero

The image bottom right is
Lord Macaulay.

Today I'm linking to
Mary's - 'Inspiration Thursday' 
Debra's - 'Be Inspired Thursday' 
Bernideen's - 'Open House Thursday'
and
Claudia's - 'A favorite Thing Saturday'.


À bientôt

take care of one another

Shane ♥