Lillybet

I am finally starting to use some of my new yummy felt.

My newest little ellie, Lillybet.

She has big ears, big feet and a big heart!

Stuffed!

A bit if a different picture today.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that I was getting a bit low on fiberfil, so I placed my order. I decided to get not my usual 5 pounds, but instead I opted for the 25 pound box, the more you order the less expensive it is.

I don't think I realized just how big the box would be, there is enough fiberfil in there to stuff a real elephant!

The box is stuffed so full that I think there will be a mini explosion when I pry off the industrial strength staples....think I better remove the cat first!

Have a lovely day one and all....I'm off to stuff something!

Snowballs and Cupcakes

Our trip to the mountains this weekend was just what I needed, although the weather was not the greatest, just smelling that lovely mountain air was enough to lift anyone's spirits.

We saw a lovely waterfall, all misty and beautiful.

We came through a bank of thick fog into this wonderful view.

I made snowballs (this one is for you Annemarie) til my hands froze.

Saw more lovely snow.
We stayed at the top of the mountain and had tea and cookies before coming down into the fog bank again.
It was such a lovely day that I came home inspired and went straight to work "baking" these little cupcakes.

Yes indeed it was a very lovely day!

Not feeling creative!

For some reason I'm just not feeling very creative these last few days.
I'm sure it's something that we all go through, but I wish I would hurry up and get over it, I have a whole bunch of new felt calling my name!

I did manage to get this little felt dress cut out and partially sewn, not sure who it is for yet, hopefully I will soon.

Took some time off yesterday and went walking at a nature preserve near our home, it was very windy and pretty cool, but so much fun.

We spotted this little dragon fly soaking in the sun, he was very co-operative and let my husband take his picture for the longest time until he got that one shot that was perfect.

We also spotted this large heron fishing, he sure caught a lot of fish, we stood and watched him for about fifteen minutes or so, and he was catching them constantly.

Well tomorrow we are off to Mount Rainer National Park, it is such a beautiful place with lots of opportunities for some wonderful photography.

We will be well prepared for snow as they have many feet of it still on the ground.

I probally won't get a chance to post tomorrow, so I want to wish everyone a lovely and safe Memorial Day weekend, hope you all have lovely weather and fun in whatever you may be up to.

Well the housework got done, and the house is spotless from top to bottom. I can now sew til my hearts content, but wouldn't you know it, I'm not in the mood!
Oh well, maybe I will be later.

The photo today is of a little book that my daughter bought me a while ago, it was one of those out of the blue gifts, the ones I love to receive.

It is such a lovely little book, it is about things that a mom gives to her children. Not monetary things, but things that you show, teach and share.

I remember talking to my daughter quite a while ago when she told me that although she may not remember all the things that she received for Christmas or Birthdays, she remembers fondly all the picnic's and trips to the beach, all the fun stuff that we did together as a family.

One of the fondest memories that we have was living in Germany, it involved Lego building with her Dad. Every Sunday afternoon, especially if the weather was cold and snowy, they would be on the floor of our living room building Lego villages.

The Lego was my husbands when he was a boy, and was added to over the years.

Before it was time for bed I was given strict instructions not "disturb" the Lego village in any way.

So for the next few days I managed to vacuum around it without disturbing one single block.

Usually by Thursday we all got fed up tiptoeing around it, and it was taken apart only to begin the whole process again on the following Sunday.

I was thrilled when she told me that those things that didn't cost money meant the most to her.....I think we did OK.

Parking lot full!

Well our weather has turned rainy again so no more sewing in the garden for a while.

It's not necessarily a bad thing as it let's me catch up on house cleaning, yuck!

While out shopping last week, my husband always with camera ready, spotted these cormorant's taking in the sun and drying themselves after doing some fishing.

The funny thing was, about one hour later we came back and there wasn't one bird on the fallen tree, guess they were all done drying!

House work is calling, so off I go, the sooner the yucky house work is over then it's back to the sewing machine!

Have a lovely Tuesday!

Yummy!

What a perfect weekend this was, the weather was beautiful, projects were completed, but best of all my order of lovely yummy felt arrived.

I have been looking through all seventy different colors since it arrived.

My mind is buzzing with new ideas for some new little critters, and I can hardly wait to get started.

Hope your weekend was as good as mine.

The Three Little Chefs

Meet the three Little Chefs, plum tuckered out after a hard day of cooking!

The little Devil in me!

The little practical joke devil in me came out today, it's been a while so I was wondering when it would happen again.

My brother-in-law owns "The Key Antiques" in Lakewood Washington, (sorry that's a shameless plug).
We are both practical jokers, well today he was on the receiving end.

I found some photo's of him when he was quite young and I made copies of them.

You all know the kind of photo's, the ones where at the time you thought you were so cool, but in actual fact you were quite geeky.

I enlisted my lovely husband in my dastardly plan, his job was to distract him while I posted all those geeky photo's (8x12 size) on the walls of his store, amongst all the lovely antiques.

I even stuck one to the wall in the bathroom, right above the toilet, I was certain he would find that one.

My cell phone started ringing before I made it home.

Like the little devil I am, I pretended my phone was cutting out and I couldn't hear him.

My husband says I am quite skilled in pretend phone cutting out.

My was that fun, I am pretty sure he is still looking, I wonder If he will find them all, or maybe a customer might spot one.

Yes that was very good fun!

I wonder in what form his revenge will be!

Have a good weekend everybody.

Three Little Chefs

Three little chefs stopped by today and told me they were cooking me dinner.
They even baked me a cherry pie.

Sigh....what's a gal to do!

Little green frogs

I have in the past posted a photo of these little green frogs that live in our garden, but today's photo is, in my opinion, just beautiful.

My husband managed to capture this little frog before he hopped away to do froggy things.

When we first moved into our house they were everywhere in the garden, so many in fact that you had to be careful where you walked.

Whenever my husband would mow the lawn, I would walk in front of the lawn mower shooing them out of the way.

I'm pretty sure that my neighbors thought I was a little crazy, some probably still do. Ask me if I care....not in the slightest!

On his way to Hawaii

I finally finished the little lovebird that I was asked to make, it was indeed quite a challenge!

Tomorrow this lucky little bird will be on his way to Hawaii to live, I would so love to go with him!

Well the weatherman said tonight that we will be having 80 degree weather in the next couple of days....I so want to believe him, I am really tired of cold weather.

It is so much nicer to sit outside in the garden making things rather than being couped up indoors.

Tea and a card from England

I have been meaning to post this photo for a while now, forgive me Cat I just kept forgetting. The lovely Cat at The Raggy Rat sent me a wonderful box of tea and the cutest handmade card.

It is so much appreciated, thank you.

If you pop on over to her blog you will see some pics of her gorgeous new baby girl, she is such a cutie.

I had a request last night all the way from Hawaii, could I sew a love bird. Never been asked that one before!

Anyway I am going to give it my best shot, it is for a little girls birthday.
So guess what I'm working on today!

What interesting things are you working on today?
Or am I the winner with the love bird!

Sleepless in Seattle!

Well I'm not quite in Seattle but I'm close enough.

There was such a racket going on in our garden last night, and I think the little guy in the photo was to blame, even with the windows closed he was so loud.
At 3 am his croaking was still going on that even I wanted to go out there and help him find a mate!
If all goes well sometime soon we should have a whole bunch of little wiggly tadpoles in our small pond, ah yes, more frogs to keep us awake next year.

Have a lovely Monday.

Knitted Cupcakes

I have finally finished some little knitted cupcakes. They took a while but I am pleased with how they turned out. I will probally list them on Etsy and see how they go.

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day, mine was pretty quiet, which is just how I like it.

I think I will probally sew some more elephants this week, as I have had very good response to the last batch. I'm thinking maybe some circus elephants with really crazy hats....hmmm I better put my crazy thinking hat on!

Mother's Day

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted an arbor with a climbing rose. When we built our house I knew the time had come to finally get my wish.

Today's photo is my arbor that leads into our back garden, it was taken last year in June when my rose is at it's peak.

I'm posting this photo today to wish all the wonderful moms out there a lovely Mother's Day on Sunday, I hope you enjoy my rose as much as I do every year.

Green with envy

I have a younger sister that lives in England, we keep in touch by phone and when we can we visit each other.

About a month ago when we were on the phone she shared with me some exiting news, she and her husband have been given an invite to the Queen's garden party at Buckingham Palace, I believe sometime in June.

I am positively excited and green with envy, not only does she get to go to a garden party at Buckingham Palace but she gets to buy a whole new outfit, and more importantly a beautiful big hat.....I love big hats.

I think I can hear Bethany over at Red Yarn squealing about now, I think she loves big hats too.

My sister and I have always loved big hats, it's finding the occasion to wear them that is somewhat difficult. I remember when we were younger we would go shopping with our mom and we would drag her into the hat department at the store, she would stand and wait patiently while we had tremendous fun trying on all the hats. I think if she ever "lost" us while out shopping the first place she would look would be the hat department.

I titled this blog entry "Green with envy" but I'm really more excited for her, I hope she has a wonderful memorable day that she will remember always....way to go sis!

Changing of the Pillows!

Every year when the weather seems to get warmer, and I think Spring is well on it's way, I change some of the pillows in our house.
This felt pillow that I made a few years back from a lovely pattern, always goes on the wicker chair.
This year for some reason, it got me thinking about growing up in England, my mother would not only change the pillow covers, she would also change the curtains. Away would go the heavy dark ones, and out would come the lighter flowery ones.
I always hated it when the heavy dark ones were brought out, as I new that meant shorter days and less play time outside.
When the lighter flowery ones came out in Spring, that was a different story, I new that meant the weather would be getting warmer soon, and there would be more play time outside.
It also meant more trips to the seaside and more picnic's.

I so loved those flowery curtains!

A little tease about tomorrow's blog topic, Buckingham Palace and my little sister.
Have a lovely day!

The Girls!

Just back from the Kentucky Derby here are the "girls" still wearing their flowery hats.
From left to right we have, Annabelle, Savannah, Dolly, Magnolia and Susannah.
They were so much fun to make.
This was a very busy weekend, but I am so glad that I was able to finish these little Ellies.
Cirque du Soliel was everything I imagined and remembered, it was a visual feast for the eyes, oh how I wish you could have all come with us. I sure picked up a lot of inspiration for some new "little ones" to make.
Have a lovely Monday everybody.

Friday morning elephant making

Well after goofing off all week in the garden I decided that I had better get serious and do some more elephant making.
It's a bit cloudy here today so it's not so enticing to go outside, thank goodness, as I really am so far behind.

This is a busy weekend for us, lots going on, but by far our most favorite thing this weekend is our trip to Cirque Du Soleil. We can hardly wait, it has been about three years since we last saw a show and we having been waiting for them to come back to our area again. As soon as we found out that they were planning some shows here, we went straight out and bought tickets. If you have never been to one of their shows I highly recommend going, you will not be disappointed.

Whatever you all are doing this weekend I hope you will have as much fun as I know I am going to have.

Unexpected guests

Every year in June we celebrate our daughters birthday with a barbeque in our garden.
We invite lots of family and always have a very lovely time. Last year some unexpected guests arrived right in the middle of dinner. Imagine our surprise when a mama racoon turned up with not one, not two, not even three but four darling little babies. They went down to our small pond to get a drink and then explored our garden for about ten minutes or so. It really made our daughters birthday just a little bit special that year. Hmmm....wonder who will turn up this year.