Fresh and new

I do love how Spring makes everything fresh and new again. It washes away all the drab colors of winter and makes everything light and colorful. It always amazes me that dead brown looking plants burst from the ground every year with new wonderful green shoots. I often wonder how something so delicate could survive the harsh winter... but I'm glad they do.

This little squirrel looked so lovely sitting on a soft carpet of moss. He was only about 3 feet or so away from us, sitting soaking up the Spring sun. Who can blame him, it did look so soft and comfortable. Although not many flowers are open yet this little pink flower was blooming in the woods where we go walking. All around it was brambles and dormant bushes so it really caught your eye with it's lovely deep pink color. Every time we go walking there is always something new at this time of year. That's what makes our walks so interesting. I have been meaning to show this new magazine ever since I made the Lime Pound cake, as it came from here. It really is full of new ideas and recipes for Spring....... I found a lot of really wonderful recipes that would be perfect for Easter...... or even for later in the year, maybe a birthday party or an afternoon tea. I think it will get a lot of use in the coming months.

Well my soap making is on the back burner for a few days as not all of my order came. I am still waiting on the colorant... pretty important unless you want all white soap! But I won't be sitting idle as I always have a gazillion other things in the works.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

I think Spring is finally here!

Now I am sure that Spring is here. A little hummingbird wouldn't lie would he? I took a chance and put the feeder out a couple of days ago and look who turned up. It was so good to see them again. This one flitted back and forth most of the day getting a drink. There is not so much in the garden right now to feed hungry hummingbirds so I will be keeping the feeder well stocked. I have been heating up the sewing machine like crazy these last few days. My daughter is having her very own Craft Fair at the beginning of May. Vendors are already lined up, the hall is rented and even catering is taken care of. My part is to sew like crazy so as I can fill a table with lovely things. I have been making these little purses...... I have even made some clutches...
...and here's the inside.
It has been fun coming up with new ideas but I still have a ton of stuff to make.

I am still waiting for my soap making supplies to arrive. I think everything should be here tomorrow. Maybe this weekend I can finally get started, I can hardly wait. One of these days there will be my very first bar of handmade soap to blog about... I just hope it's a post about my great success and not about my goof up!

Here comes the bride....

Meet the new Mr and Mrs Bunny all dressed in there finery. I finished off these to little bunnies this afternoon and soon they will be going to their new home. I hope their new owner will be very happy with them. I also did some more sewing this weekend and made up this little bag, I love this ribbon and thought it very fitting for this time of year, I have popped it in my Etsy shop already.
Much to our surprise the weather wasn't half bad this weekend. So on Saturday we went on one of our marathon walks again. In a previous post I had put up a picture and spoke about a pair of great horned owls that we had seen. A few people told us that they had seen two little baby owls this past couple of weeks, so we were very lucky to get a glimpse of them on our walk. They were so fat and fluffy, mom and dad are sure doing a terrific job. Believe it or not mum is also in this pic, she camouflages herself so well. If you click on the pic you just might be able to see her.

We are so fortunate to live in this part of the country as there is so much to see and do... if the weather co-operates!

Have a great Monday!

A Special Request

We saw this wonderful tree the other day while out walking. I thought it looked amazing with all these little ferns that had taken up home on it. The whole tree was covered in them and because it had rained a lot all the moss was all green, plump and fat. It really is so lovely to go for a walk in the forest after it rains, everything just swells right up and looks so wonderful and green.

I had a lovely email yesterday from a very nice gal asking if I could make her two little bunnies. Not just any little bunnies but a pair that looks like a bride and groom. She is going to be married soon and wanted two little bunnies to stand beside her wedding cake. So this weekend I will be putting them all together and hopefully have them finished to post on Mondays blog. What a thrill this is, I am hoping she will send me a pic of "their" big day so I can share.

Once again it is grey, dark and rainy here so it will be an indoor day. A perfect day for bunny sewing I think!

Miss Daisy

This weekend I think we had every kind of weather here known to man but I refuse to post any more pic's about snow. Instead I am continuing to think Happy Spring thoughts and Miss Daisy is too. It has been a while since I had sewn a new little one so this afternoon while we were being hammered with dreadful weather I got to work. I quite expected the power to go out but we were lucky and I was able to sew for a few hours.

This coming week I am going to make something that I have never made before... soap!
It is something that I have wanted to do for a while so as soon as my supplies arrive I am going to get to work. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have a great Monday!

Nature walk and loose ends.

We had a wonderful walk on Wednesday, although it was bitterly cold and we didn't stay out as long as usual we still managed to get some wonderful photos. Sitting sunning himself on a rock was this Painted Turtle. He was still there a couple of hours later when we passed by him on our way home. I guess the sun must have felt good. Not too far along the path was this bird. It is a Bittern. Hubby snapped his pic just as he had caught a small fish for dinner. I just love his green legs. This is the first time I have seen a Bittern in the wild, how wonderfully camouflaged he was and how lucky were we to see him. An interesting fact about this bird, when he gets frightened he stands straight up, elongating his neck and sways back and forth resembling blowing grass so as not to be noticed, pretty clever I think. Next on our walk was this little duck and his mates, these are Northern Pintails. We only stood for the shortest time taking this picture as the wind was whipping across the lake and was so cold that it almost hurt your face as it blew.The last photo of the day is this Red Tailed Hawk, although it isn't the greatest pic it wasn't until we returned home and viewed the pic's that we realized he had dinner in his talons, if you click on the photo to enlarge it you should just be able to make it out.

Once again it was another wonderful walk and I marvel at how lucky we are to be able to see all these wonderful creatures.

For quite some time now I have been talking to hubby about opening up an Etsy shop offering his wonderful photography, well I am pleased to say that his shop is now open. TPC Photography went live yesterday offering six different photos made into cards with more prints to come suitable for framing, so pop on over and take a look.

As it is the end of the week I am finally responding to the two awards that I received from Bettina and Sue, apologies to both for taking so long.

First Bettina, I hope I am understanding correctly but I think I have to say 8 things that I wish for or dream about and then pass this along to whom I wish.

1. Peace in the world.
2. Politeness to others.(there is not enough of that these days).
3. More hours to craft and sew during the day. (how lovely that would be).
4. A free "all you can stuff into one bag day" at the sewing store! (a girl can dream can't she???)
5. 75 degree weather year round. (Oh heavenly).
6. That I can eat all the chocolate I want and never gain an ounce. (Double heavenly).
7. Everything I make will turn out perfectly and I can get rid of my misfit box!
8. That I will be able to come up with interesting blog posts so as not to bore you all!

Now Sue who graciously gave me a Sisterhood Award.


The rules are:
1. Nominate women who show great attitude.
2. Link to them.
3. Leave them a comment so they pick up their award.

Here are the women I nominate:

1. Bethany at Red Yarn. Bethany will soon be opening up her very own gallery and I couldn't be more proud of her.

2. Layla at The LadyBlog. Even if she wasn't my daughter I couldn't be more proud of the wonderful productive women that she has become, she amazes me every day.

3. Lisa at Handmade in Israel. Lisa makes the most wonderful cards and always seems to come up with new ideas for them, they are so unique.

So there you are ladies. Now all you have to do if you wish is pass these lovely awards along.

Well I have finally come to the end of this loooong post, thanks for hanging in there with me.

Have a wonderful weekend one and all!

Cake and Acorns!

It's been a while since I baked so today I made Key Lime Pound cake. We had an abundance of limes in the house and I found the recipe in a new magazine that I had bought last week. It went down a treat with a lovely cup of tea, I wish you could have joined me.

After bakng I went out into the garden for a while and pruned back and fed all the roses, I gave them their first feed of rotten banana peels and Epsom salts. Sounds pretty yummy doesn't it, but it sure does help them grow. I was only out there for just a short while as it was still pretty cold but I did find one lonely acorn just laying there so I brought it in the house! It's quite a large acorn... almost 7 inches long, I bet a little squirrel would like to get his hands on this.

Well I think I am all crocheted out now, believe it or not this big acorn actually started off as a crocheted bowl but somewhere along the way the shape changed and an acorn was born. Quite a lot of things I make are happy mistakes, they usually start of with an great idea and sprout into something else. As long as they turn into good mistakes then I don't mind at all. One of these days I will have to do a post about all the 'what was I thinking ideas' trust me there are lot's of them.

Tomorrow the weather looks like it will be beautiful here so I think another nature walk is in the works... I wonder what or if we will see anything, I'll let you all know when we get back.

Snowflakes and crochet!

This is what we woke up to once again this morning, my goodness will it ever end. We had intended to go for another long walk today but Mother Nature curtailed those plans so instead we stayed home and did other stuff. Hubby was doing some work on the computer and I buckled down and got serious about conquering crochet. After much ripping apart and a few choice words I think I finally have the hang of it now. I made this little pot in about 3 hours or so and I was delightfully pleased at how it turned out. Since I was doing pretty good I decided to make this little pouch, I love the pale pink shade and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The trick is to have the house completely silent so you don't lose count, as I did so many times. This afternoon was one of those times, hubby was engrossed in his work, the cat was asleep so it was just perfect.

I was given another lovely award again today, it was from Sue who blogs at The Portuguese Water Blog thank you Sue it is much appreciated and I will get to it real soon. Sue's blog is one of my favorites and I highly recommend a visit, I love seeing all the things that her wonderful doggies get up to. If you are having a down day it is a great place to grab a smile.

Happy Monday everybody!

Hanging in there

A very big thank you to everyone for all your get well wishes but this nasty cold just doesn't want to be done with me yet but I am trying to get motivated and get back into blogging and sewing again. I made these little cotton and linen coasters this afternoon.......they even come with their own little bag. I have really been liking sewing things with linen lately, it is such a wonderful fabric to work with, apart from the fraying of course.

Yesterday I took my first walk since I came down with this cold, it felt good to be out in the fresh air and blow all those nasty germs away. Of course hubby came along and snapped a few pic's of some more wonderful animals and birds. This little coyote was looking for something for lunch I think, he didn't seem bothered with us at all. I just love this little duck, does he have the best 'hairdo' or what! I think this is my favorite pic of the day, it is a baby Great Blue Heron. Some people told us that there was one around but we just never seemed to be able to see it, until yesterday. He was so sweet and stood only about 5 feet or so from us while numerous cameras were taking his pic.

It really did feel good to be outside but I never intended to walk 5 miles or so. I was pretty wiped out when we returned home so it was into a hot tub, with of course my lovely soaps and bubble bar that my daughter gave me last week. I have to say that I love all the soaps but I really love the buttermilk one, and the bubble bar makes so many bubbles that even after an hour the bubbles were still lovely and fluffy.

Finally I have to say a big thank you to Bettina who blogs at Wishes in Pink for the sweet tag that she gave me, as we both speak different languages it is a bit hard to figure out but I am persistent so hang in there Bettina and I am sure I will get it!

Have a lovely Thursday !

Sniffle, sniffle, cough, cough...again!

This little pincushion was about the only thing that came out of my sewing room this weekend as I have caught a terrible head cold that everyone around here seems to be coming down with. So apologies to everyone that sent me an email and hasn't received a response yet, apologies too for not blog visiting but all I feel like doing at this point is curling up on the couch. Give me a couple of days though and I will be back up to full steam!

See you soon.