Cheswick...

... the Great Horned Owl! I am sure all the Great Horned Owls everywhere are very insulted by my version but he's mine and I love him! He did give me some grief in the making but he proudly stands atop our bookcase looking down with those enormous eyes.

Speaking of owls so far this year we have not seen the real Great Horned Owls down at the nature refuge. Last winter their tree that they had been nesting in blew down in a bad storm. Everyone is on the lookout for them though. I hope they have found a new suitable tree and will again have young.

Well I am going to take a long weekend staying up at my daughters house. So enjoy your weekend and I will see you all again next week.

Dreaming of Spring

At this time of year when we rarely see the sun I just love it when I am given spring flowers. My lovely daughter gave me this beautiful Hyacinth plant on Saturday. I wish you could smell how wonderfully fragrant it is. I am starting to notice already that there are quite a few spring flowers for sale. Gives me hope that Spring can't be too far away. So far this winter we haven't had too much bad weather. In fact it has been pretty mild here. Not so for the rest of the country. Many places are inundated with snow, poor things. At least we don't have to shovel all our rain!While our daughter was visiting this past weekend we took her to our favorite walking place. Quite a bit of wildlife was spotted. These two Bald Eagles were perched high up in a dead tree scanning the horizon. No matter how many times we see them it is always a thrill.There is always lots of bathing and splashing going on. Now that more and more ducks are returning there is usually quite a bit of squabbling for the best nesting spots. I always love the time of year when all the new babies arrive. Still making those little pouches for my shop. I am also trying to work on some other projects that I have had in my mind for a while. I have been trying to work on a little owl. I just have to keep plodding away until I have it just right.

Wherever you are I hope you are having a great Tuesday.
See you soon!

Unfinished

Unfinished is the right word to describe my week! I have so many projects laying around unfinished. My week started off really well with such wonderful plans. By Tuesday afternoon however all my plans for the week just fell apart. As soon as I got started with a project I had to abandon it because something else came up. It's really been that way all week. Frustrating! Here we are at Friday already and all I have to show is what is on my work table. Even my new sewing machine was cast aside for some other important task. Don't you just hate weeks like that. Especially if you are in a creating mood. Why is it when we have all the time in the world to sew or knit that we really don't feel like it then? Grump, grump, grump!
I do have one finished project to show. Last weekend at my daughters house I wrapped some soaps. These are our new soaps for Spring. It was so much fun picking out the pretty paper and matching up the soap with just the right one. It is nice to take a break from all my other crafting and make soap. It's pretty nice too that at the end of a long soaping day I get to indulge in the products and take a nice long bath.

Well time for me to get out of here for the weekend. I sure hope that next week will be a lot different than this one. Maybe if I don't make any plans it will work out better... yep that's just what I'll do!

See you next week.

My New Toy

Well here I am sitting in front of my brand new super duper sewing machine! What a wondrous thing this is. I think it does just about everything but bake a cake... and it just might do that too but I haven't found that button yet! I am feeling and looking I think, like a deer caught in the headlights. I have never had a sewing machine that could do so much before. Can you believe that there is even a feature that let's me know that it's time to go and make dinner! I kid you not! Hubby really likes that feature! This will take some getting used to before I can just sit down and whip out something great. I have already signed myself up for some classes to learn all the ins and outs of this little beauty. I really had no intention of buying a new machine. We just popped into the store to take my old machine in for a service. It was all hubby's fault as he spotted it first and called me over to take a look. (A big mistake on his part). Anyway, a short while later she was mine. Before I waved goodbye to my old machine I was able to crank out a few more little pouches. I hope to have these listed in my shop sometime today. I was sad to see my Pfaff go as it really has served me well. My goodness the things that I have made on that machine.

I know you'll forgive me for making this a short post as I am going to try to figure out how this new machine really works.

Have a wonderful Monday.
See you all soon.

Excited and Chomping at the Bit!

I am as giggly as a school girl and I know I am probably driving my family up the wall with my exuberance. Something new and wonderful will be arriving at my house this weekend and I just can't wait to get my hands on it! That will have to wait til Monday however as I will be away for the weekend... poor daughter she will have to put up with me blabbing on about it all weekend. My husband saw it first and called me over to take a look.... well one look was all it took and I was sold. Bet by now you are all wondering what it is, aren't you? Well like me you will all have to wait til Monday! No it's not a puppy!

See ya!

Bold and Colorful

I am not one for making New Year resolutions. Don't think they work anyway! But this year I am going to step away from my comfort zone of pastel colors into the bold and colorful. It's actually a bit more difficult than I imagined. In the fabric store with my daughter over the weekend I once again migrated to those "safe" colors. "Mom" she said, as she steered me toward the retina burning neon colors. So home I came with some brighter colors than I would have normally picked.I do have to say though that now I have them I am getting all kinds of ideas popping into my head. Maybe this will work out for me after all!I am also back to working with felt again. Don't you just love felt! It does what you want it to do. Comes in a gazillion colors and best of all it doesn't fray... yippee, lets hear it for felt! I have been cutting out felt shapes for some new ideas and projects. A great job to do while sitting in front of the TV in the evening. I just love those times when my brain is brimming over with new ideas. Now lets see if my making abilities match my brainy ideas!While staying with my daughter last weekend we decided to go out for Sunday lunch. There is a lovely little tea shop in Bothell called Three Cups of Tea. They serve the most wonderful heart shaped scones with strawberry jam, lemon curd and whipped cream.All gone... yummy!

Well off to work I go to work with my new colors.
Have a super day today!

A visitor at breakfast

What a lovely surprise we had at breakfast yesterday morning. This wonderful fellow came to take a bath in our little pond. It is a Varied Thrush. He wasn't alone, he had the Mrs. with him.
He patiently waited on the rock while she took her bath. What a splash of color in the garden at this dreary time of year.

I often wonder who or what uses our little pond... especially at night while we are sleeping. I can always tell when the raccoons have been for a visit as they love to turn over a few of the rocks. Probably looking for a tasty morsel or two. I guess I could get up in the middle of the night and take a peek out there but it is so warm and toasty in bed that I only think about it for a second or two before rolling over into dreamland again. Maybe I could poke hubby and get him to go and take a look.... what do you think? Probably not. So I guess it will remain a mystery.A Northern Flicker has been hanging around at the suet feeder. We sure do go through a lot of suet in the winter.While this is not the clearest picture it is very interesting watching these two House Finches fighting. You can barley make it out but there is a female in the middle of all this squabbling. She is sitting on the fence just minding her business when all the ruckus started. Could be that maybe an early Spring is on tap... I hope so!Still managing to get some sewing done. I made myself this itty bitty coin purse. It is really tiny. Only about 2 inches long. I have lots of wool scraps lying around and there was just enough for this little purse. I also made a couple more pouches for my little shop. This one is made from wool and ultra suede.This one is completely different. Very bold and bright. I fancied doing some applique so this is what turned out. Sure does make a deary dark afternoon a little more pleasant working with such bright colors.

Well that's it from me for this week. I will be staying with my daughter again for the weekend where I will be working at my "other" job... soap making!
No rest for the weary!

See you all next week.

My First Post...

... of the New Year. Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post. As always they are so much appreciated.

Hubby and I went out to lunch today. We ate at a lovely seafood restaurant in our capitol, Olympia. It is surprising to me how many people think that Seattle is the capitol of Washington. Even people that live here make that mistake. Anyway, lunch was delicious. Of course because of the bad blogger that I am there is no pic of my lunch as I left the camera in the car. It was to cold and I was to hungry to run back outside to get it. So you will have to take my word for it that my lunch was scrumptious!
I did take this lovely pic of the view from the restaurant. The misty fog seemed to just hang around most of the day today. Our weather is changing though... back to rain tomorrow. That's not so bad though as it gives me more time to sew. I have been making all kinds of new goodies for my little shop. I just have to photograph them and get them listed. I bought the fabric for this little covered note pad thingy today. (Still having a hard time coming up with a name for it... ideas would be appreciated). Sewed it right up shortly after dinner.
I also made a couple of days ago this little insulated lunch tote for my daughter. The inside has a waterproof lining which was very interesting to sew. It has a tendency to stick to the sewing machine so it doesn't glide freely along while sewing. After a few choice words we came to an agreement and it behaved!

Well so far 2011 is starting off rather well. A lovely lunch and some great sewing time.... hope it continues.

Yawn...time for a warm bath before bed.
See you soon.