Thank you and Happy Halloween!

A very big thank you to everyone who came up with some wonderful ideas for my scrap leather and suede, you all gave me a lot to think about.
Thank you also for your nice comments about the change to my blog, I figured it was time to freshen it up a bit. My lovely daughter surprised me this morning with my new fall header, and she tells me she has plans in the works for some more as the seasons and holidays change...I can hardly wait!I took a little walk in my garden today to see if there was anything worth taking a photo of, I did spot this one little rose blooming all on its own, this is definitely the last one for this year.Another lovely Japanese maple in my garden is turning such a beautiful color, I wonder how my hair would look in this shade, hmmm!Many years ago for my birthday one year my daughter gave me one of the best birthday gifts ever, she strolled around her garden a few weeks before, picking leaves and flowers suitable for pressing, which she did and then gave to me carefully placed between layers of tissue and packaged in a lovely hand decorated box. I still have some of those leaves and flowers, I made the picture above with some of them, they really have been wonderful to use over the years.

Well I guess that is it for this week, I am so glad that Halloween is almost here as I have been terribly naughty and have been munching on the Halloween candy all week long...I'm pretty sure you've been naughty too...right?

Have a lovely weekend and a wonderful Halloween!

Suggestions,please?

Normally I am quite good at figuring out or coming up with an idea on using a new material. The box in the pic above has got me stumped, it is full with pieces of lovely thin leather and suede scraps, some of them are quite a good size and they come in very lovely colors. Whenever somebody offers me anything of the crafting nature I never refuse. That being said I have had this box for about six months now and the only idea that I can come up with is little bags, boots or belts for my little toys. Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.Well isn't this a greusome picture...although fitting for Halloween I guess! As soon as I can figure out what and who goes where then they will be in great shape, and then I can dress them in this new Christmas fabric.......it arrived last week and I have been drooling over it ever since, don't you just love getting new fabric!
Before I can dive right in and start on it I have to finish up a few things first.

Well poop! Why is it when you get new yarn or fabric you want to drop what you are sewing or knitting and start in on the new stuff, or is it just me? Somehow I don't think so!

Have a lovely crafting day!

Maddie and friends

Some little friends came to play with Maddie, meet Freya and Isobel, Freya is in the yellow dress and Isobel is in the green and flower print dress. They stayed all afternoon and were most polite.

My cold is most definitely on it's way out, thank goodness, and so far no one else has come down with it, lets hope it stays that way.It is hard to believe that just a few short weeks ago I was sitting on my little bench soaking in the sun while having a cup of tea and doing some knitting. Although it still looks tempting I think that after about fifteen minutes or so I would be pretty cold. It sure does look nice all decked out in the colors off fall, which I can enjoy from my kitchen window. Hubby spent most of the afternoon tidying up and getting the garden ready for winter, but of course he wasn't without his trusty camera, hence this lovely shot of a grape leaf......and this one of our Chardonnay grapes, which actually do taste like Chardonnay wine...go figure!Hmm... if we only knew how to make wine, something else to add to my to do list!

Have a great Monday!

Sniffle, sniffle, cough, cough!

Well it seems that I have caught that nasty cold that has been going around blog land, not to worry though I am well armed with all kinds of good remedies, and I am sure it will be gone in no time.My lovely sister-in-law is a flight attendant, (oh lucky me) and she just returned from a trip to London and brought me all these lovely magazines. So this afternoon I am going to make myself a lovely hot cup of tea, eat a wonderful blueberry muffin while I am curled up on the couch reading my new magazines, ah heaven, thank you Christie.Well I couldn't go without showing you Mathilda, Maddie to her friends, hopefully by Monday she will have some friends!
I sure hope my newest batch of little Ellie's don't catch my cold, I can just imagine what a racket they would cause with all that sneezing, not to mention all the boxes of tissues we would go through!

Have a lovely weekend everyone, see you on the other side.

Apples!

My first project from my new book, Sew Pretty Christmas HomeStyle, are these cute little fabric apples. They were a breeze to make and I think they would look so wonderful hanging on the Christmas tree...only a gazillion more to go!

I have had quite a few comments on the photo's on my blog, some were taken by me but the majority were taken by my hubby, if you are interested in seeing more of his work you can check out his Flickr site. To answer the question about what camera he uses it is a Cannon 40D, which he tells me he is still learning to use.

I have been tagged by Esther who has a lovely blog called Hetty's happy days. Pop on over and take a look.

Here are the rules that I have to follow,

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.

4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

As I have passed along tags to just about everyone I know I think I will keep this one right here, however feel free to participate if you wish. Well here are my answers.

Lets see 7 facts about me that you don't already know...

I can't stand having sticky hands.
I would rather take baths than showers.
I love the smell of Tea Tree Oil, weird, huh?
I love dates...the kind you eat!
I like Boxing day better than Christmas day, I think only the Brit gals will understand that one.
I hate itchy sweaters, especially turtlenecks!
Don't like lukewarm tea, it has to be hot, hot, hot!

So there you have it some more weird stuff about yours truly!

Have a lovely day everybody.

Monday Washday!

Pretty little dresses blowing on the clothesline, now all I have to do is iron them, and then make the little ones to fit inside them!Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere, big ones......and teeny tiny little ones!
We took a trip to our lovely farmers market on Saturday where we saw all these beautiful pumpkins, I am so glad that I didn't have to pick one out or we would have been there all day.
Back home again and hubby made a quick trip over to our neighbors garden to take this lovely pic, then....
...back into our garden to take another pic of my beautiful pink flower again, this time a wonderful little visitor stopped by to check them out. Lovely Lisa over at Periwinkle tells me that they are Kaffir Lillies, so now we all know, thanks Lisa.

Got to go, I have ironing to do!

Work in progress

An almost finished outfit for a new little someone. Between chores around the house and garden I did manage to get one little shoe knitted, tomorrow there will hopefully be two of them!I found another lovely plant blooming in the garden today, once again I have no idea what it is, other than it is very pretty.I bought this lovely craft book recently, it is just loaded with wonderfully pretty, easy to make things. There are some lovely gift ideas for Christmas presents.......these angels are just so sweet......and who wouldn't want one of these delicious looking cupcakes!I love these little heart decorations, filled with lavender they would be a very welcome gift. Looks like I will be quite busy this weekend making a dent in my Christmas gifts!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Cedric

It was a bit chilly in the garden this morning, so I quickly knit a little scarf and hat so Cedric wouldn't catch a chill! The garden is looking a little sad, everything is slowly going to sleep, there are only a few flowers left to take pictures of. I am not sure what this lovely pink plant is, I do know it is a bulb of some sort, it is usually one of the last things to bloom, and then only for a really short while.
. My little Japanese Maple is starting to turn it's beautiful colors once again... ...and so is the grapevine.Not so long ago this little support grew a wonderful crop of sweet peas, now all it seems to grow are spider webs!
Now that I think about it my little garden deserves a rest, it has fed us well and given us some lovely flowers, as well as some lovely places to sit awhile. Before I know it everything will be starting all over again.

Have a lovely Wednesday!

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

Onslow and Sebastian are feeling very Merry indeed!

Just for me!

I had a change of pace last week from sewing "Little Ones". I made something just for me!

Not one, not even two....

...but three lovely tote bags that I can use when I go shopping at the market, and do my part to help our planet and cut down on those plastic bags! I found the pattern for these lovely tote bags through Jenn Maruska's Blog, She had made some and I just fell in love with them. The tote bag pattern is for sale through Ginny's blog iSew.biz at her Etsy store. This has to be one of the easiest and well written patterns that I have ever sewn with. They are a breeze to sew and would make wonderful gifts for Christmas. Both these gals' have lovely Etsy shops so pop on over and take a peek. I have had my eye on a lovely little Hedgehog sewing set over at Jenn's blog for quite some time now.


We did get some much needed tidying done in the garden this weekend, this is the last of our tomatoes, what a crop we had this year despite it not being one of our better summers. Some of them are still quite green but as it has turned quite cold here in the mornings we had to pick all of them or they would have been hurt by the temperatures. We are hoping that they will ripen off at a steady pace and keep us in tomatoes for a while longer yet.

See you all tomorrow!

We have a Winner!

A hearty congratulations to comment number 17 Camelama who is the lucky winner and new mommy of little Mandy. Thank you to everyone for participating in my second giveaway, we will have to do it again soon.
If Camelama will get her contact info to me then I will pack little Mandy's bag and get her mailed to you.I have been doing a little decorating for Fall and Halloween this past week as have many of my neighbors, it is quite a lot of fun to walk around the neighborhood admiring all the wonderful decorations.
Every year I bring out my little scarecrow and plop him on top of these pumpkins. I must have made him about 15 years ago, he looks remarkably well considering he usually is outside for about three weeks or so every year.Of course what would Halloween be without a giant spider, I am still looking for his web which will probably turn up sometime after Halloween is over!Lastly a quick change of the door wreath from the summer to the fall one and my decorating is almost complete. Now all I have to do is stock up on the candy for the big night and I am done!

Have a good weekend everyone, see you all next week.

Yippee! A Giveaway

I have been meaning to have another giveaway for a little while now, when I made little Mandy I thought she would make a pretty good one.
.
All you have to do to enter is just come on by and leave a little message or just say "Hi" between now and Thursday the 9th of Oct midnight (Pacific), the lucky winner will be announced on Friday Oct 10th's post. The winner will be determined by random drawing once again by my neighbor Annette.

Good Luck to everyone!

Now what is all this about!

Now what could this be about, what could be hiding behind the curtain!
OK I'll tell you.....on Monday!

Have a lovely weekend everybody!

Thank You!

A big thank you to everyone for making my Birthday so special with all your warm Birthday Wishes, everyone of them was so appreciated!

How lucky was I, here are some of the wonderful things I received.......a lovely bouquet of flowers and some wonderful chocolates from my darling daughter, she knows me so well!Another wonderful gift from my Brother-in-law and Sister-in-law, this lovely basket had all kinds of goodies tucked inside, it was definitely a wonderful Birthday!

For a while now I have been wanting to show you all the wonderful decorating my dear friend Cindy does to her house for Autumn and Halloween, here are a few of her pic's.She really does a spectacular job......if this doesn't put you in the Halloween mood....
....then nothing will!

Thank you Cindy for sharing your pic's, I will be posting more in the days to come.

We woke up to rain and fog this morning, so it is a very good day to stay inside and catch up on indoor things that I have been putting off for quite a while.

Have a great day everybody!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well today is my Birthday so I am going to goof off and do whatever I want to do, which of course will probably involve some sewing, some knitting and...eating chocolate!

See you all tomorrow!