Second Best Thrift Find, Easter Feast, Spring's First Flower

 I get sad sometimes when I see how many folks have stopped blogging; several I had quite a nice email friendship with so I miss them. I guess Instagram is gradually getting more popular, but to me, it doesn't offer quite the same level of communication or connection. I'm going to carry on blogging for as long as I enjoy it. You, my blogging friends, have become an important part of my life!  And it is good for my brain too keeping up with all the little bits and pieces of writing a blog...the linking up, searching, cutting and pasting as we called it in the old days, etc. 

We had our Easter feast, a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, on Sunday and everything went well. I enjoyed it all...the lead up- getting the house all clean, a spring tablecloth out, planning the meal and the special shop.  And then the food preparations. I still appreciate not having to rush about like in the old days juggling a work life along with these events. 

I used my Royal Albert Petit Point dish set. The perfect dishes for a cross stitcher!

 I shared this set as my best ever thrift store find back a couple of years ago. (Now I consider it my second best with This quilt find  being the very best). I paid $130 with 10 % off at checkout because I was spending more than a hundred dollars. I learned it had come from a nearby farmhouse. Included were all the side dishes including coffee mugs and even sugar still in the sugar dish. Just for reference the gravy boat alone can cost between $40 and $90 American on Etsy with the underplate going for $40. I realized again that my set included two gravy boats which made me imagine similar Easter dinners at a very long farmhouse dining room table.  

For dessert, I made (should say assembled because I didn't actually bake them) the Profiteroles with chocolate sauce and then decided not to make the Ambrosia salad.  As it happened, while in the bakery section of the store, I spied meringue nests and thought those would be a little nod to spring. I filled them with whipped cream topped with fresh fruit salad.

Kind of on the lighter side (though probably not calorie-wise) which I thought suited after a big dinner. And everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

And still in mind with petit point, well not quite... how I admire folks with the eyesight to stitch petit point! But I did slow stitch a fair bit since my last post. Included was making a start on my Pileated Woodpecker piece stitching around the eye. This is going to be so enjoyable to work on as I love stitching on the 28 count Cashel linen. I use a #26 tapestry needle for those who wondered and I enlarge the pattern too. 

Meanwhile on the Shady Branch Trail walk last week, I photographed this flower that was dotting one side of the path for quite a long stretch. It is the first flower I've seen this spring. It is Coltsfoot, an amazing dandelion like flower that appears before any leaves on trees or other foliage. A welcome sight!

Hope all is well in your little corner of planet Earth!

Happy to link with Kathy's Quilts.