What the Finns need to know about Portugal

I got an email from my sister today.

It had a video attached to it.

A video about Portugal.

Some of you may remember I am originally from Portugal.

And I do not (want to) know (much) about politics

but I do know Portugal is going trough

a real bad financial and political time,

and it's supposed to get a financial help package from his partners of the European Union.

Finland is one of those partners and it seems not willing/agreeing about helping Portugal. 

Have you ever been in a down situation

and been ignored/mocked/stepped on

by someone once you helped out...?

Please watch the video.

You'll never get confused again about this great country of mine!

Penny Rugs - an essay

A few time ago 

I came upon something totally new to me

called

penny rugs. 

Did it ever happen to you...?,

to fall totally in love with something at first sight...?

It does happen to me since in a while.

An that was the case this time.

I just got fascinated by the possibilities!...

But first thing first: I had to find out more about penny rugs.

The wikipedia is a good source of info, of course,

but I'll tell what I found out anyway.

It seems that around the 1800's and after the Civil War,

some women had the idea of cutting men's old wool suits

into circles of different sizes, using coins, or pennies,

to draw the outlines of the circles

(thus the name penny rug).

Using mostly a blanket stitch,

they would sew together 2 to 4 circles of these wool scraps

and then applique by stitching the circles

(again, using a blanket stitch)

on a bigger piece of wool (circle, oval, rectangle...),

creating a pleasant design.

The pieces created could be for a rug or a mat for the floor,

a table center, a mug rug or a piece for the mantle.

All the pieces would have a wool or burlap backing

to hide all the stitching and give it a clean finishing.

I didn't had wool suiting,

but I did have felt,

a really good substitute for these penny rugs...

I just used basic circular shapes, different sizes and colors,

and kinda just played around with it to create my designs.

These are my creations so far.

I can't really pin point why,

but they kinda remind me of Inca or Maya design motifs...

I've not decided their purpose yet,

 maybe as a table center,

or maybe as part of a wall hanging,

but I do know for sure I'll be making more

and also experimenting with different designs.

I hope I made you curios about penny rugs and willing to try to make some.

I'll see you all shortly!

How the neighbour's dogs destroy my yard!

Today I would like to tell you about pets.

I have told you about and shown you Baby,

aka Pooh-Pooh Bear,

my cat.

I do love animals,

and I feed a bunch of cats (mostly the neighbour's) every day.

But there's something starting to bother me, a lot.

These dogs are everyday day on my yard,

barking, pooping, eating the cat's food,

stealing whatever they can find and drag away

(I had to chase them after my crocs,

that they had already carried away to their (the neighbour's) yard).

I don't blame the dogs,

but the owners.

Shame on them!

I know that are things I can do,

but I really don't want to do anything

that will ultimately harm the dogs.

I will never understand why people have pets they do not care about!

Until later, I'll see you all then!

Fabric organizers and drop stitch pinkie scarf

In my baggage going to Canada

were the birthday gifts I've made

for my daughter-in-law.

The scarf bellow

was knitted using three different types of yarn,

aiming a different soft texture,

because she commented she loved these type of scarfs

on this older post.

There you can see the other scarfs

I've made using the same drop stitch and different textures.

And because lately she has been investing

on the knitting and crochet worlds,

I made her a organizer little tote

 to carry along her work and skein

(of course by now I already know

she buys those huge skeins of yarn

which won't fit on the little carrier...),

but I'm sure later on she'll start using smaller skeins...

I really like this organizer that I've found here,

it's a really nice easy to follow tutorial.

This one

 was the first one I made

and I really like it a lot.

I'll probably make a couple more

to give away as birthday or Christmas gifts.

To go with the organizer for my daughter-in-law

I also made a coordinating roll-out organizer

for her knitting needles

and crochet hooks,

 just like the ones I've made before,

for myself and my sister-in-law.

And this will be it for today, and I hope you all have a good one! 

Oh Canada...

 I'm back in East Tennessee 

after spending (too short) five days in Canada

with my son and his family.

As those of you that have been following and reading my blog

may remember,

both of us have been through

some very difficult life situations

and it felt soooo good to see him again!

And my little darling boy,

my sweet grandson...gosh!, had I missed him!

And finally
I got to meet my daughter-in-law,

and she really is everything I expected!

A wonderful cook,

and a lovely person and wife and mom.

You might remember her from her blog,

now with a very nice new format. 

I also got to meet her mother, a sweet lady, I should say.

We deliberately planned this trip
to happen at the same time for both of us 

so we could meet and spend some time with the kids and grand baby

before they move to Europe

(which will happen a week from today).

As you can easily imagine,
it felt very good

but it also felt like time just flew by...

I had been in Canada before with J, my husband,

when K (grandson) was born,

almost 11 years ago.

Those are very sweet and precious memories,

and I am so thankful

to be able to have them.

Before I let you all go for now

I would like to wish you 

a wonderful Easter Sunday! 

Also, if you'd like to see it,
I'm sharing some pics 

from this trip of mine.