DIY Beaded Easter Egg, Some Pretty Roses, and Free Printable Valentine's Tags

From The Merry Olde Dame's Almanac:

Forecast for February 1 - 7, 2021: Wishes for a peaceful week ahead, with scattered bursts of laughter and sprinkles of delight, followed by strong gusts of good fortune and contentment.

The roses above are from a birthday bouquet. After admiring them, I drove from church to church in our parish and laid a bloom at the feet of each statue of my Queen of Heaven. What a delightful drive!

I am mingling Valentine's decor with Easter decor now...I made this egg by simply glueing on, with a "fast-grab" white glue, seeds beads onto a papier mache egg. I do a small section at a time, placing some glue down, picking up one bead at a time with a toothpick (I blunt the end) that was dipped in glue or beeswax. While the glue is wet, you can slide the beads around a bit and get them into position with the toothpick's other end.

It is therapeutic, methodical work, but very easy, so that it can be done while listening to music, podcasts, or television. I am going to try to depict a pansy next. I love their little whisker-faced blooms! I planted their little cousins, Johnny Jump-ups, earlier. Just scattered the seeds and am hoping they will come up.

Here are some free printable tags featuring the wonderful artists of yesteryear. They might be cute for decorating. As usual, use this Google Drive LINK <--- for this large file, so that it isn't compressed and so it will print out the right size.

Anyone else decorating or crafting this week? 

Bee Mine Cross Stitch is Finished! And...Free Valentine's Day Images!

I loved creating and stitching this. It's that durned charting that gets me. I have a new charting program and it's smarter than I am. The learning curve for this olde grey mare is very steep indeed. I have the chart up in my Etsy shop <---Link 

Now I'm working on charting up some little Free Bees charts (freebies, ha ha) that make cute Petite Pinkeeps or Tiny Tucks. I just binge watch on an old phone or listen to Christmas music (I know, I know, it's weird to love to listen to Christmas music all year) and stitch the "littles" up.

In the meantime, here are a few "single" Valentine's images to save, free, gratis, no strings attached. Why single tags? Well, it's all email now, texting, WhatsApp, Zoom, etc. Maybe someone has a friend, child, or grandchild who would like a digital Valentine. In years past, I sold many digital printable Valentines. With COVID, nothing sold this year. Classroom Valentines are just not happening this year! So, I'm thinking some free Valentines for viewing on a phone or screen might be just the ticket for our strange times.

I'll put up a few antique images, vintage images, and modern images below.

Right-click to save! 

Thank'ee for stopping by.

    Kind regards,

    Holly, The Merry Olde Dame

I don't like clowns but the Victorian "jester" kids were cute...Clowns proper make me scream, run away, and just feel very anxious...I had a colleague (teacher) who taught kindergarten, and she would dress up as a blankety-blank CLOWN for the first day of school. I was astounded. As if the first day was not bad enough...but a very hefty lady in a garish outfit, huge red shoes, and badly applied clown makeup scarred some of those wee ones for life...

Oh gosh the boy doggie doesn't look happy...he doesn't like "mushy" stuff...

This one is pretty...love Lily of the Valley...

For the Crazy Cat Lady (CCL) we all know (yes, yes, I'm one)...would also be good for your weird artist friend (we ALL have a weird artist friend, admit it)...

For the Horsey Set. I was "horse crazy" at age 10...would have loved this Valentine...

Another one for the CCL set...or those who are "just PLANE crazy."

Kokeshi style...

LOVE the puns on the old classroom Valentines...

So cute, you can see where to bend her and she would stand up...

Cute hangtag...

Prim crow getting in on the act...

Baby penguin...And I'll leave it at that. NOTHING can successfully come after a BABY PENGUIN.

Also Known As "Noodles" and A Call for "Keeper" Blogs

I'm showing my age, talking of "noodles." Actually, why did I even type that? I don't care that I'm no longer young. Others sometimes seem to have a problem with it, but I just don't care. I feel lucky to be alive. I don't like that my health is so poor and my arthritis is so bad, but as for aging, it's part of the circle of life. Satchel Paige said, "How old would you be, if you didn't know how old you is?" Sometimes you'll see that quote "cleaned up" grammatically, which is totally insulting, if you ask me. Satchel Paige knew what he wanted to say, and the droll way he wanted to say it. 

I saw on another blog a good recipe for pasta. Of course I cannot find it again, but maybe someone will have posted it or seen it, too. I am always on the lookout for good recipes. I never heard of pasta until I was grown, because we called pasta "noodles." Spaghetti, egg, orzo, fettuccini, whatever shape or ingredient, they were all "noodles." A dish I served often as a young bride was boiled spaghetti noodles with canned Chicken a la King over them, and "toast points" balancing on the side of each bowl to make it more filling. Ah, those old days. A "green salad" would accompany the meal, if it was near a paycheck. The "salad" was torn up iceberg lettuce doused with an oil-and-vinegar/salt-and-pepper mix.

I was amazed when grown when I found some people used the noodles we knew as "sliders" in their "chicken and dumplings." Our dumplings were a steamed biscuit-like dough "settin' on top the chicken stew part." These strange dishes called for SLIDER NOODLES in place of the dumplings. They had to be FISHED OUT of the chicken stew part. I marvelled at it, but I could not deny the sliders were great in that dish.

I often eat noodles as shown above: Boiled, and then with anything "to hand" mixed in them. Usually, that means margarine, and then some protein (usually peanuts or pecans), and spices like lemon pepper or salt-and-pepper. When I am in luck, it means cherry tomatoes and an avocado in there, too, or boiled yellow squash. For awhile there at the beginning and middle of the pandemic, cherry tomatoes completely disappeared from our area. Gone! So I'm making up for lost time with them.

If you get a chance, visit the blogs over on my Blog Roll. I just LOVE those blogs. And, if you know of any other "keeper" blogs, please comment and tell me! Blogs are my "window on the world" lately, and such day-brighteners. Long Live Blogging!

    Kind regards,

    Holly, The Merry Olde Dame

A Little Love Banner Free Printable

Here is a thrifty one-sheet banner to print that spells out "LOVE." Might be cute printed out, maybe grubbed on the edges, or sweetened with mica or metallic ink, and tacked on a shelf edge or across the top of an armoire. 

I had the pink version up on my old blog, and have added a tan and black raggedy version.

Use the links to make sure you get the full, uncompressed file, stored in the Google cloud. 

I'm still working on my Strawberry Bunny cross stitch designs. I've got the second one nearly stitched. Where I slow down is translating the actual stitchery to chart form. I dread that part! I like the stitching part best. Of course, I remember when charts were made using graph paper and an old Underwood typewriter!

We had our first foggy day of the year today. It's a rare event and was very exciting to those who have lived hereabouts their whole lives.

Pink Link

Tan Link

Thank'ee for stopping by.

    Kind regards,

    Holly, The Merry Olde Dame

Get Ready for Valentine's Day with These Free Tags to Embellish

It's not too early to begin the Valentine's Day crafts. Not with how time flies by so quickly! It seems I barely get in gear and the holiday -- any holiday -- is upon me. 

Here are some little tags to embellish. Each sheet prints out on a regular letter-sized piece of cardstock or paper.

One set is just plain, waiting to be cut out and embellished by your scraps, buttons, and bits. Punch a hole and add some twine or ribbon. LINK!

One set is already "decorated," but certainly it could be fun to add on some lace, rhinestones, string, flowers, G L I T T E R (or mica, I have a jar of it somewhere around here), or what have you. Now I am second-guessing the glitter idea, although I have so many pretty glitters. I just recalled that some scientists think it very bad for the environment. I do hate to think of some earthworm biting down on a piece. I don't think they can spit it out. Or a plankton swallowing some. Maybe I'll just use mica from now on. LINK!

One page is old Victorian images, to be cut out and glued on with whatever you have on hand, too. I enjoy fussy-cuts but not everyone does. I found I liked them very much once I had the right scissors (slim, small ones, very sharp). Does anyone remember the awful elementary school scissors of yesteryear? Impossible! Those rounded tips, and such poor machining, with the blades wallowing around a loose rivet. They chewed the paper, not cut it. Yet we managed to create many a pretty thing with them. In fifth grade were were allowed to have the "pointed" version. Not much better, but we felt very grown up. LINK!

Use the links, please, so that you get the uncompressed files. Blogger compresses large files, and sometimes they won't print the right size. The links are stored on Google Drive, safe. Get them while they're hot, because I might pull the blank ones down after a week or so.

Thank'ee for stopping by.

    Kind regards,

    Holly, The Merry Olde Dame - Not Always Merry, but Always Olde

It's Good to Be Cross Stitching Again!

Energy, time, and inspiration all in one place -- rare for me! I too often let myself be weighed down by, well, weighty matters. The concerns are real, but sometimes I can break out of the Worry Dome and feel free enough to breathe, to create, without guilt. 

I have been having a wonderful time the past few nights, stitching away to please myself, creating a little series I call "Strawberry Bunnies." I probably will put the charts up on Etsy, but frankly I don't care if they sell or not. Maybe that's why I'm having such a great time with them! 

I had years and years of having to produce saleable stories and designs when I was a writer and a graphic designer, before I tried my hand at teaching. It took all the joy out of art for me, and I'm only just now recovering the fun of creating without an anxious eye out as to what others will think. My husband tells me there is a saying in Spanish, "Los que derán." It means, "What will they say? What will they THINK?" but the saying is to rebuke those kinds of thoughts. It's to give confidence and take away the power of that worry. 

So, I'm having a ball with my bunnies that have somehow crossed with strawberries! I hope your day is filled with fun and whimsy, too. Hope you like the Sneak Peek. I hold my cloth scrunched up and don't use a hoop, usually. So, wrinkles! I am adding much more to this design, whatever catches my fancy. Fun!

Kind regards,

Holly, The Merry Olde Dame

Finished Wall Garland from Cardboard Scrap for Valentine's Day

I finished my little cardboard hearts garland (blog post HERE about sewing cardboard hearts). It is very quick to do. I deconstructed some inexpensive trim from Hobby Lobby and used the flat ribbon part of the trim to glue the hearts on, and the frizzled threads to further embellish the hearts. It's very quick if you use hot glue. I always have my trusty magnifying glass (second picture) nearby. I can't remember if it came from Hobby Lobby, too, or Michaels, or Tuesday Morning. It is metal with chippy, creamy paint, prim-looking.

Glue the hearts along the ribbon or string by using two points on the back of each heart, near the top but just slightly below the notch of the heart. That way, the ribbon or string will not show between the upper humps of each heart, but will still lie nicely against the wall.

I use map pins on my walls, each painted with a bit of acrylic paint to exactly match the wall colors. That way, they almost disappear when viewed.

Inspiration and time finally coalesced and I am busy cross-stitching a little series of what I call "Strawberry Bunnies." Sometimes, I have to give myself permission to create without worrying about what others will think of my ideas! Tomorrow I'll post a sneak peek of the first chart as it's being stitched. It is such a lift to be cross stitching again. I can barely wait until "stitchin' time" each evening after the chores are done.

    Kind regards,

    Holly, The Merry Olde Dame

Two Little Words: Remember Me

I have a small collection of autograph books from long ago, five in all, and that includes one from my childhood, a gift from a kind aunt. I have an early Scholastic paperback with verses to copy, too. In the 1960s, autograph books were having their last hurrah. These weren't books for collecting signatures of the famous; they were sweet little books signed by neighbors, school friends, teachers, and others who were part of a child's world. 

Sometimes someone would just sign their name, but usually, there was a sentiment or brief poem penned onto the page. In viewing some of the thoughts, it strikes me how very rigorous the upper primary grades and junior high grades were. Mixed in with the humorous verses are lofty, elegant thoughts with elevated vocabulary. 

It also reminds me how popular puns were, and how poems in general were more a part of life. 

The lovely "Forget-me-not" plant is featured on many pages, and in many forms. I love the blue of that little harbinger of spring! A hand-drawn bloom graces a page in 1943 that also includes a jesting insult ("You have a shape like the B-19" - a particularly rotund bomber).

One issue of the old "Reminisce" magazine had an article about autograph books. There was a haunting verse written by a young man before he left for World War II, not to return alive. It read:

"You ask me to write;

What shall it be?

Two little words:

Remember Me."

I do my best to remember those I love who have passed. And of course, God remembers us always!

Washing Tinfoil, Using Margarine Tubs as "Tupperware," and Sewing Pretty Cardboard

I still do many of the make-do type of things my grandmother did. If "tinfoil," which I guess we now know as aluminum foil, is not very soiled after use -- for example, if it was just used to shield some baked squash from getting too brown -- I wash it and put it into the warm oven to finish drying. 

If you peek in my fridge, you'll think I eat an awful lot of margarine and am afraid of running out. There are little tubs of "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" sitting on every shelf. The real tub of margarine is always kept in the little butter area on the door! Everything else is holding bacon grease, leftover black olives, baby carrots floating in chicken broth (for the plump doggies to snack on) and so on. 

Maybe this was common in the 1960s only where I grew up, but we had wallets, coasters, collapsing coin holders, and recipe-holders sewn from pretty cardboard. Many department stores placed blouses, shirts, and so forth in lightweight cardboard boxes, usually printed with the store name or initials. Others had fancier boxes with all-over patterns, and the five-and-dime had stationery boxes that were just divine. I remember some gorgeous shoe-boxes as well, back when all shoes were expensive. 

My grandmother would desconstruct the printed cardboard boxes and cut out pieces for useful items, then sew them. Many times, she would sew through a double-thickness of cardboard, with two different patterns, so that the item was "lined." But for some items, it was just a single thickness with the pretty side of the cardboard "out." Sometimes she'd rub beeswax onto the cardboard to "seal" it and make it more durable. Sometimes she used crochet to connect the pieces. Until it fell to dust, I had a sweet basket she had crocheted from the fronts of Christmas cards.

In keeping with that tradition, I have been making both flat and stuffed hearts to make into a garland for the wall. I used part of a lovely old cardboard gift bag that a friend from India gave me years ago. Coral and blue aren't the usual Valentine colors, but they go very well with my Southwest home, and in my stash of collage materials I had paper flowers in all the right hues. Most of all, I just love make-do's. My mind is so happy and engaged, full of memories of my grandmother, when I'm doing the same handiwork she did so long ago. 

I wonder if anyone else has unusual and extremely thrifty little ways that were handed down to them or that they discovered?

Saluting Homemakers of Yesteryear and Today

Oh, I know that those rose-colored glasses we sometimes wear when viewing the world in hindsight do not give us 20-20 vision, but I think there were some beautiful and worthy aspects of the past that have been lost. I'd like to see some features of olden days return. Not all! 

I am not very interested in Facebook, but the small amount I was on during the past two political dust-ups cemented my determination to never bring politics into my blogging! So this is just a peek at the past, not a hidden message as to political leanings. 

Maybe I will retype the creed and add "I Believe...homemaking should include cross-stitch, embroidery, crocheting, or other needlework each day." Ha!

Computer Goes Kaput, And Portable Sachet Making

It started with a funny little noise, a noise of the disk whirring when there was no reason for it. Then the whirring added a tick-tick-tick sound, and the screen would freeze, and a disk error would pop up and require the computer to go through lengthy "checks" which always ended with the funny noise and the tick-tick-tick sound.

And then, the computer was no more...at least for now.

Luckily, I have an external hard drive I keep updated. But it is very difficult for me to do techie tasks and set up a new computer (as in "new old" computer). I had on hand three of the same kind of all-in-one computer that were the choice of a school where I taught a few years ago. I saw the abuse and bumbling the machines withstood, and got these three when another school district upgraded. Unfortunately, of the three, the one I was using is no more, but this "new" one might, just might, also last a couple of years. The other one is set up for my husband. For $50 each, I am happy with them. I have spent 10 times that on fancy computers that didn't last three years, and I'm not doing that anymore! I don't mind being behind the times computer-wise.

But it is working well enough! So now I get the treat of going to various blogs and seeing all the news and musings!

My husband had his first cataract surgery three days ago (on his birthday, no less). He really didn't want to do it, but now he is extremely pleased. I feel it will help him be more involved in life. He was getting very shut down...While waiting at various doctors' offices and the surgery center, I had plenty of time to do some stitching. 

I also made two little hand-quilted coasters out of cotton fabric scraps and cotton batting (shown under the sachets), and another scrap bag heart sachet, this one with beading. Then I started on some little sachets made from velvet ribbon. I just cut a length of ribbon, remove the wiring, fold and stitch. I'm stuffing them with lavender. I use culinary lavender, both to make sure it has no nasty chemicals and because I've noticed the culinary lavender seems stronger.

I like to chew a bit of it to keep my breath fresh. I use clove and fennel the same way.

Hoping everyone had a good week (and a non-kaput computer).

    Kind regards,

    The Merry Olde Dame, Holly