Mickle Rare Perfume~

"And lavender, whose spikes of azure bloom
shall be, ere-while, in arid bundles bound
to lurk admist the labours of her loom,
and crown her kerchiefs with mickle rare perfume."

                    William Shenstone The School Mistress 1742


I keep a dictionary at hand whenever I'm reading. I am fascinated by words and love to expand my vocabulary. I remember as a child asking my mother what a particular word meant and she usually told me to 'look it up'. This probably stemmed from the fact that she didn't want to explain the definition to me, but it actually engendered a fondness for the dictionary!  

mickle [ˈmɪk^əl],

adj~great or abundant

adv~much; greatly

n1. a great amount

I contemplate the 'mickle rare perfume' of the lavender as I watch the bees from my comfy bench in the sunshine. My tea of choice today is Lyons loose Gold Blend, which a friend from Ireland sent to me. On the Lyons website it states, "Tea is the age-old solution to every dilemma, and we Irish just can't get enough of it! Out of a population of just over 4 million people, three million of us drink tea, giving us one of the highest consumption levels of tea in the world! As a nation we drink up to five cups each a day." Sounds like my kind of place!

I think this cup is perfect for my morning with the lavender, don't you?

This cup is Sheltonian Bone China from Staffordshire, England.

sharing this post with~

Antiques and Teacups 
Rose Chintz Cottage 
Whatever You Want Wednesday 

Milk or No Milk?

Did anyone have pie yesterday to celebrate Pi Day? It had not even occured to me that it was Pi day until I got a fun text message from College Girl..."Happy Pi Day, mom. You know, 3.14!" March 14~

And speaking of fun things, Craftionary has 60 free St. Patrick's Day printables for some last minute crafting and decorating~ I'll bet you find something you'd like to print!

College Girl is taking an Intro to Film class, and this weeks' assigned movie is Psycho....not my first choice of a movie to go with a pot of tea!! But I watched it with her this afternoon while we sipped robust cups of Barry's Tea, an Irish favorite. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon we'll watch The Quiet Man~

I have 2 other Irish dolls to share with you this week. The first one is from the American Girls Doll Collection~

She is a dancer and holds a medal she just won at the Feis~

 Feiseanna are generally centered around Irish Dancing competitions, and sometimes include music competitions, art competitions, Irish language classes and soda bread baking competitions. An Irish Dance competition that features only dancing is called a "Feile", or simply "Feis" in the U.S.

College Girl got this doll when she was reading the American Girl book series...that was a few years ago, now!

This doll has Celtic knots embroidered on her dress and cape~

Her hair is fashioned in long tight curls for the competition~

 Next is a Marie Osmond doll called Adora Belle. Marie sculpted the face for this doll, which has big eyes and comes in a variety of outfits: this particular one wears a green dress perfect for St. Patrick's Day

She has a crocheted collar, her hair is plaited, and she is vinyl. There are some versions of Adora Belle which are porcelain. Can you just imagine her looking for a four leaf clover, making sure not to step in any puddles...she wants to keep her new ghillies clean!

Under the crochet made by her grandmother, you can see that her bodice laces up~

Dainty, sweet and feminine, this green eyed girl bedecked her hair with wild flowers she found on her shamrock hunt!

Doesn't she have a button nose?

   I have a giveaway this week in celebration of St. Patricks Day and Ireland. To enter please tell me if you drink milk and sugar in your tea:

milk or no milk?

sugar or no sugar?

If you do not have a blog, leave some way for me to contact you. Give away ends March 24. I will send a box of tea to the random winner!

sharing all my Irish posts this week with;

Mrs. Fox's Sweets Irish Party

If you want to read a fascinating bit of history about Ireland and

 St. Patrick visit:

The Writers Reverie

A Bit O' Green for Her Pocket ~

The day is almost upon us...St Patrick's Day! I have buttermilk in the fridge and fresh flour and soda for baking. I will be making Irish Soda Bread this weekend~ Here are some interesting facts about the U.S., Ireland and St Patrick's Day~

• There are 34.7 million American residents with Irish ancestry. This number is more than seven times the population of Ireland itself.  Irish is the nation's second most frequently reported ancestry, ranking behind German.
• Across the U.S., 11 percent of residents lay claim to Irish ancestry. That number more than doubles to 23 percent in the state of Massachusetts.
• It has long been recounted that, during his mission in Ireland, St. Patrick once stood on a hilltop (which is now called Croagh Patrick), and with only a wooden staff by his side, banished all the snakes from Ireland. In fact, the island nation was never home to any snakes. The "banishing of the snakes" was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland and the triumph of Christianity. Within 200 years of Patrick's arrival, Ireland was completely Christianized.

I made a little 'happy' for a friend to brighten her St. Patty's Day. She will be able to microwave her gift and tuck them into a pocket to keep her hands warm. I used festive green fabric, a simple pattern and some flax seed.

You could use dried/dehydrated corn (you dont want it to pop in the microwave! lol) or flax seed, which I found at the grocery store.

I drew a simple shamrock design on a piece of paper, then cut 4 shamrocks from my project fabric. Use pinking shears for quick results; you won't have to worry about frayed edges as these wont be washable. If you want a cleaner look, you can sew the shamrocks right sides together, leaving a small spot to turn, fill with flax, then finish off the open spot with top stitching.

Since these are handwarmers and will not be washable, I opted to pink the edges and sew wrong sides (not printed) together!

These can be microwaved for 5-10 second intervals until warm, then put them in your pocket or hold in your palms...cozy! I have a larger heart shaped one that I bought, and I use it all the time on my lap or lower back when it is chilly outside and I am online or reading.


sharing this with Brambleberry Cottage

Irish Daydreaming

I love St. Patrick's Day~ I like making Irish Soda Bread, drinking Irish tea, wearing my claddaghs and Aran sweater, and crafting green goodies for friends and family. I was inspired to make the ornament above when I saw one like it in a gift shop recently. The one in the shop was made of sturdy lightweight wood, and had an image, glitter and ribbon, although no eyelets. I went to a hobby store and found the perfect wood for this project. It is wood used by model airplane builders.

 Directions~

• print image you want to use (try Gecko Galz, Graphics Fairy or Sweetly Scrapped for freebies)
• use an Exacto knife or box cutter and straight edge to score/cut a square or rectangle to fit under the image. A trick I learned was to use a strip of blue painters tape on the wood, draw the cutting line on the tape, then cut through the tape and into the wood. Using the blue tape helps prevent "break-outs"
• craft wood is 1/8 inch Micro-lite by MIDWEST. I bought a piece that was 6"x12" for $2.99. Rigid cardboard can also be used, but it won't be quite as durable.
• glue image to wood piece
• punch holes, install eyelets if desired to hang
• lightly sand edges. I also distressed/sanded the edge of the image

 Embellish ~

 Use Stickles, Liquid Pearls or whatever you have on hand.

 As I let the ornament dry, I decided to have a cup of Barrys Tea. Barry's selects tea from Kenya and the Assam Valley of India for their Gold label, which is a favorite of mine. The tea is blended in Ireland. 

I set the tea table with our shamrock tablecloth and got out the claddagh napkin rings! I love me a theme!

Love, loyalty and friendship...what a nice sentiment~
I also had a moist shamrock cookie iced with Anise glaze that College Girl made.

I spent some time looking through one of my Irish cook books called The Irish Country Kitchen by Mary Kinsella. The book has recipes for everything from breakfast to dinner, with lovely photos of Ireland.

My favorites are included: scones, oat cakes and barm brack. A little fella joined me for tea...he is not a leprechaun, but close enough! He is actually a Madame Alexander Peter Pan doll. I bought him years ago when McDonalds, of all places, was giving out a special Madame Alexander collection with meals. I do not eat at McDonalds but I spent weeks visiting different locations collecting these adorable dolls. (I will share more of them later!)

                  
                   Isn't he cute? See his freckles?

The cup I used today was a gift from my sister-in-law. It has a quote on one side, a shamrock on the other and a Celtic knot design along the bottom.

   
 There is no mark or brand on the bottom~

    
Doesn't the handle look like a leprechaun ear?

I enjoy reading cookbooks, don't you? Even if I don't plan to make every recipe, it is fun to read the ingredients, learn the techniques and methods, and gaze at the delightful photos~

The author, Mary Kinsella, grew up on a farm in Ireland. She writes, "Eighteen pints of milk are needed to make one pound of butter. The dairy at home was a little building attached to the main house. It had it's own entrance. Not only butter but milk, skim milk, cream and eggs were stored there." I loved reading about her childhood days eating sausages and soda bread slathered with fresh churned butter, washed down with big cups of hearty tea. Yum!


sharing this post with~
 Artful Affirmations
Martha's Favorites
Sandi's Rose Chintz Cottage 
Bernideen's Teatime 
Return-to-loveliness 
Brambleberry Cottage