LizzieJane

Wolf Haven

2011-03-25T10:30:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago my husband was lucky enough to go on a photography tour at a wonderful place called Wolf Haven. It is about 25 miles south of us in Tenino, Washington. I say lucky enough because there are only two photography tours a year. One in January and the other in March. The tours are limited to winter time because as we later found out that is when wolves are the most active. They set off after breakfast at around 9 am. On the tours there is a guide and a professional photographer. My goodness what a day he had. I hope you enjoy his beautiful photos as much as I did.This is Bart.This is Cadeus. Cadeus was raised by humans as a pet which of course is never a good idea. He was turned over to Wolf Haven when he just got to big and a bit unmanageable.This photo with one of the people on the tour will give you some idea of his size. He still enjoys humans and hubby was lucky enough to get slobbered on. He returned the greeting with a tummy rub.This is Spruce and Cricket, brother and sister.
This is Ladyhawk.

Want to howl with the wolves? Yep, they even have Howl-Ins. You can howl to your hearts content. Pretty good way I think to get rid of the stresses of the day.

Wolf Haven is a lifetime sanctuary for wolves. Since 1982 they have been helping these wonderful creatures. Most of them are rescued from private ownership. So if you are thinking about owning a wolf.... don't!

As hubby was about to leave all the wolves got up and started howling. The end to a simply perfect day. I hope you have enjoyed hearing all about the wolves at Wolf Haven.
All the photos can be made larger if you click on them.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Finally!

2011-03-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

At last I can now sit comfortably once again at the computer and do a blog post. I am so happy that my back is now back to normal. Thank you for all your good thoughts. They were much appreciated.

Not to much has been going on around here. I am getting a jump start on Easter by doing a little egg decorating. This idea was from Martha Stewart Living. I brought some natural colored eggs at Michael's added a few stickers and within minutes I had some sweet looking eggs. Wish all projects were this simple.

I spent the weekend with my daughter again making soapy things but on returning home, look what was waiting for me....... this lovely book that I had ordered. I had actually forgotten that it was coming. What lovely cute things there are to knit and crochet.I am super pleased that I ordered it.Along with this book I also ordered this one...... it is so nice to come home after a long working weekend and have little surprises waiting. After taking a warm bath I put on my jammies and fluffy slippers and curled up on the couch and devoured them both from cover to cover.I think I am a bookaholic as well as a chocoholic!Shame I didn't have some chocolate to munch on while I was looking at them.... I ate that before I left for the weekend. Must plan better next time!

See you soon!

Down but not Defeated!

2011-03-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

Sacroiliac Joint Inflammation has been my not so nice friend for the past two weeks. It makes it quite difficult to sit or lay comfortably. Hence no bloggy posts from me for a while. Bending to put on socks or shoes usually takes a good five minutes and a few choice words. Not to worry though with the help of my wonderful chiropractor I am finally on the mend.

How did that happen you might wonder. I would like to say that it happened while I was sky diving in Hawaii. Or when I was bungee jumping off the San Fransisco Bridge. I am afraid it was nothing quite that glamorous. I was bending down one morning to put on my underwear and I felt a funny little zing in my lower back. It really didn't hurt that much but by days end I was looking like a gorilla trying to walk upright.
With the help also of some not so lovely smelling creams I finally look like a human again.
I am not very good at sitting around doing nothing. I tend to drive me and hubby crazy. So I started a hexagon lap throw. At least thank goodness my brain and fingers still worked OK. It is quite amazing how doing something helps you to forget about the pain for a little while.Of course right in the middle of all this the rest of my fabric came to add to my colorful squares quilt. I was sorely tempted to go and sit at my machine a while but I didn't want to undo all the progress that I had made with my back. So patient I will be... ho hum.We still on occasion get some snow and pretty cold temperatures. All kinds of little birds are flocking into our garden. We have the feeding station set up next to our pine tee. They love using the tree for shelter from the cold and wind.The amount of bird food and suet we go through is quite astonishing. But it makes us feel really good that we can help them through the winter.Hector our little hummingbird still comes to the feeder and still puts up a fight if any other hummingbird tries to use it. I wonder how long he will be with us.

Well I have typed all this out while I have been standing up and my legs are getting just a bit tired.

Have a great day everyone.
I'll be back soon!

Quilting and Snowing

2011-02-23T17:25:00.000-08:00

Our weather was so yucky and very unpredictable today. One minute it was snowing hard and that next the sun was out and the sky was blue. It has been doing that all day. So it was the perfect day to stay inside and have fun with my new sewing machine. I have started working on a quilt. Nothing to elaborate just a simple sew squares together kind of quilt. I am loving this fabric from Moda. In fact I am loving it so much that I ordered more so as I can make my quilt just a bit bigger. Hopefully it will be here in a few days so I can continue on.

Hubby was working from home because of the bad weather. During lunch he spotted this lovely male House Finch.He was sitting up high in our pine tree. He just happened to appear between snow showers. The sun was out so it made for perfect picture taking. All the male birds are starting to get quite colorful in hopes of attracting a mate. Ten minutes later the sky turned black and down came the snow again and all the birds took shelter. I hope he stops by our garden again. Maybe he just might have the Mrs. with him next time.

Well dinner is calling and I still haven't figured out what we will be having yet!

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Sewing Roses

2011-02-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

I was out in my garden yesterday looking at my roses that soon will need pruning back. I cannot wait until they bloom again. So until they do I satisfied myself with two little rose pouches. First this pink spotty one.Then this green spotty one. I really felt like sewing yesterday so I also made this one...It's really fun to sew when you have lots of ideas rumbling around in your head.... and you feel like sewing.

We have a wonderful weather weekend coming up. Lots of sun on Saturday, so a good long walk is in our plans.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend in your little corner of the world!

Wishing there was two of me!

2011-02-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

I really do wish that there was two of me so I could manage to accomplish everything that I need to do. Most weekends I am staying at my daughters making soapy stuff. During the week I have to play catch up and I am not always successful. I try to squeeze in sewing time wherever I can. I was thrilled when I actually managed to finish this little pouch just for me. It will come in handy on my weekend trips.One of the things that I miss doing at the weekend is walking with hubby. I miss seeing all those wonderful birds and animals as well as walking in that great fresh air. Last weekend he went for a walk and took some lovely photo's. So thank goodness at least I have those to enjoy. This little shore bird is a Greater Yellowlegs. Pretty good name I think!He finally managed to get a pretty decent photo of a Kingfisher. These little birds are a challenge to photograph. Just when you think you have them in the lens they fly away.

Time for me to go and catch up on all your blogs and find out all that you have been up to.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

... and all before breakfast!

2011-02-09T11:25:00.001-08:00

All winter long we have been feeding our little resident hummingbird. In fact hubby has named him Hector. Some days when it has been below freezing the feeder needs changing almost every hour. We like to think that we have aided in his survival this winter. Hector is a hummingbird with a bit of an attitude. He lets you know when you are getting to close or that you better hurry up filling his feeder. I say his feeder because he chases everyone else away that tries to use it. He makes the loudest chirping sound when he is mad or not happy.

So this morning it was below freezing here and when I looked out I saw that the feeder was frozen solid. Still in my pajamas and before breakfast I thought I had better see to the feeder before I saw to me. Normally hubby does this duty before going to work so I don't know why he didn't. It is a whole lot easier for him as he is quite a bit taller than I am.

I took the chair from the kitchen so as I could climb up to reach the feeder. Once inside I thawed it out and then filled it with nice new sugar water. Outside I went again. I climbed up on the chair and I guess I wasn't watching what I was doing and proceeded to spill this lovely sticky sugar water all over me. It is really quite amazing at how fast it pours out of those tiny holes!

By now I was feeling quite cold and sticky and Hector was getting a might impatient.

In I come again, repeat the process of filling the feeder. Out I go again, climbed up on the chair and could not get it hooked onto the hanger. Even more spilled out this time not only covering me but also the chair. Apparently there is some kind of trick to getting the feeder onto the hook which hubby hasn't told me about. I actually stood there in disbelief that twice now I had dumped that lovely sticky stuff all over me. Adding insult to injury Hector appeared around the corner of the house and gave me what for in his loud chirpy little voice.

So here I am freezing cold, sticky, still in my pajamas and so far no breakfast. Not even a cup of tea!

If I told you I did it a third time you wouldn't believe me so I won't!

Finally the feeder got filled. The chair and the deck got washed down. Me? Well I am still sticky and cold. I did decide to have a quick cup of tea though before I went upstairs to take a hot shower.I even used my brand new cup that I brought myself over the weekend. So there I was standing in the kitchen looking out at Hector drinking away at the feeder while sipping on my warm delicious cup of tea. The phone rings... its my mother-in-law. "My furnace isn't working" she says. Sigh... I knew I should have just stayed in bed this morning.

As a side note if any of you want a punk rocker spiky hairdo I highly recommend hummingbird sugar water... it sets up like concrete!

Pincushions and Twilight

2011-02-03T08:51:00.001-08:00

I finally was able to get around to making myself a couple of new pincushions. I was going to make just your old run of the mill pincushion. But then I thought why not make something pretty and sweet so I finally settled on a couple of cupcake pincushions. I have a tendency to not take to much time when I am making something for myself. Don't know why that is other than I have so much other stuff to do. Well from now on I get some of the pretty stuff too!I have been meaning to blog about a trip I took with my daughter and niece last October. My niece Chloe was visiting from England and is a huge Twilight fan. So we just had to make a trip to Forks Washington the town that the movie was about. We set off very early and very excited. It was a wonderful trip and a wonderful weather day. The scenery was spectacular. Around every corner it just kept getting better and better. We finally arrived at Forks around lunch time. We stopped on the outskirts of town by the "Welcome to Forks" sign and took some photo's. Of course apples were brought along to re-create the front cover on one of the books. They were of course promptly eaten as by this time we were quite hungry.Forks is quite a small little town but we found a restaurant and had some lunch. This was one of the items on the menu. After much laughing we settled on something else for our lunch. I guess a lot of the businesses in Forks were cashing in on their new found fame.Lunch over with we took in a spot of sight seeing. Here is one of the trucks that Bella used in the movie. I say one because further down the road we came upon another one. So we will never know for sure. It was still fun anyway.You can even have your photo taken standing next to these cardboard cutouts of the characters in the movie. Not going to tell you if we did or not... it's to embarrassing!
Down the road we went to the Cullen house. Edward wasn't there of course but we took a photo of his mail box.It took a bit of searching but we finally found all that is left of the high school that Bella and Edward attended. Just the front fascade is still standing. They are building a new high school so they pulled that old one down. Apparently they are trying to raise money to save and I think move this piece. I hope they manage to do it.Last stop in town was Bella Swans house. I stood there wondering how many times a day this little house gets photographed. I wondered too if the owners got fed up with all the cars pulling up out front.
Anyway on we went with our trip.After driving for what seemed like forever we finally ended up in La Push. My goodness what an incredibly beautiful place.... and incredibly windy too! This is the place that they all went swimming or surfing. At least that is what they would like us to believe.
What a day we had! We still had a very long drive home but on the way back we decided to cut out some of the driving and take the ferry part way.The sun was starting to set as we got on board the ferry to take us back home.
Hope you enjoyed our little Twilight trip, we certainly did. In fact I can't wait until I go back again. Want to come along?

See you soon.

No Snow Here!

2011-02-01T14:46:00.001-08:00

I almost feel a little mean doing this post today. With a good deal of the country battling snow and ice here I am showing you how incredible lovely it was here. The sun was shining brilliantly and the sky was as blue as could be. Although it was pretty cold I took my afternoon tea out on the front porch and soaked up some Vitamin D.Right there, the chair on the left is where I sat. I had actually thought about bringing out some knitting or crocheting but I did have to keep reminding myself that it was February.The Flowering Plum Tree in the front garden is already full of buds.The only plants that are blooming at this time of year are the heathers. This one is in need of a trim after it has finished blooming. Must add that to my to do list.Through the gate and into the back garden I went. I was very surprised to see that the Daylilies had already popped through the ground. The temperature difference from the front to the back is quite amazing. Sometimes it can be almost 8 to 10 degrees cooler back here. It does make it nice in summer though when it can be blisteringly hot on the front porch.My Flowering Currant Bush is also full of buds. This is one of the first plants to bloom in Spring. The returning Hummingbirds are all over it once the flowers come out.Last stop in the garden... my little bench. Looking a bit sad without the Honeysuckle vine in bloom. But watch out in a few months, it will be buzzing with Hummingbirds and Bees.... and of course I'll be sitting there sipping tea and sewing something or other.

So I hope that my little garden tour has brightened up your day if you are dealing with lots of snow and ice. Just remember it won't last forever.

See you soon.

Cheswick...

2011-01-27T14:04:00.001-08:00

... 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

2011-01-25T15:36:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-21T13:49:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-17T08:57:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-01-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-11T08:39:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-06T16:23:00.001-08:00

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...

2011-01-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

... 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.

My Last Post....

2010-12-30T11:18:00.000-08:00

... of the year! Did I worry you all? Tee Hee!
I had intended to blog earlier today but the battery in my camera needed charging... I just hate it when that happens. Well anyway here I am so let's get started. Walking and sewing, two of my favorite things. First the sewing. I have been making a few new things for my little shop. Eyeglass cases and some more pouches. These little pouches are a bit smaller but can be clipped onto a belt loop, which makes them really great. They are very handy if you are out taking a walk and want to take along your cell phone, house keys etc.

I love having a bright colorful eyeglass case. I so enjoyed sewing these that I have made a few of them.
Are you a sock monkey fan? I just love this fabric!How about a fun little turtle pouch. As you can probably tell I am having great time with all this new wonderful fabric.
A special request from my daughter had me making this ID card holder. She has to wear one at work all day and wondered if I could come up with something that also was combined with a small pouch. How lucky was she that I was in a very creative mood. I made her not one but three of them. (Sorry I forgot to take pic's of the other two). It is so much fun when you have an idea in your mind and it actually turns out the way that you see it. Quite often I have a great idea and it turns out really crappy and I have to go back to the drawing board.

Well that's the sewing part now for the walking part. Yesterday was just a spectacular day here in the Pacific Northwest. It was very cold but the sun was shining. So we bundled up and off we went. Hubby's camera was working over time. If you can believe we actually counted 35 Bald Eagles down at the Nisqually Refuge. They were all high up in the trees overlooking the Nisqually River. It was indeed a sight to see. This one flew right over the top of us. I thought hubby was going to fall over backwards taking this pic. All the ducks are starting to return and a whole lot of pairing up is going on. This is an Asian Wigeon. There were several Sea Lions in the river. Just like the Bald Eagles I am sure they were getting their fill of salmon.

Well the sun is shining again so it's time for me to bundle up and head on out.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!

See you soon!

Once upon a time....

2010-12-23T08:26:00.000-08:00

.... a long time ago ( well just over 3 months ago) I used to blog! So here I am back again hoping that I will be able to blog a bit more regularly than I have been doing.

What a year it has been! I have made pounds upon pounds of soap and bath products that I think I could now do it in my sleep... in fact I think at times I probably have. Every weekend since the middle of July I have stayed at my daughters house soaping away, sometimes til 2 o'clock in the morning. As we got closer and closer to Christmas we were literally working around the clock. It was a tremendous amount of work for just two people. We made it fun though and chocolate helped a lot!

I do have to admit that I did have some time for other things to. I still ventured out on my lovely walks and hubby still took those great pictures. This is Joan. All 1500 hundred pounds of her. I met her on a delightful day at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. She was so very kind to share her wonderful fishy breath with us! I kind of like Joan... what a gal!

I made a point of trying to walk regularly down at the Nisqually Refuge (one of my favorite places in the whole wide world). We have so many terrific photo's that it is going to be really hard to pick some, but here goes. A Yellow Rumped Warbler sitting atop a measuring stick.
A Golden Crowned Kinglet looking very beautiful on a moss covered branch. A tiny Hummingbird catching snowflakes on his tongue. A Ruby Crowned Kinglet that was quite hard to photograph as they barely stay still for a second. I have to admit that this was the first time I had seen a Great Egret down at the refuge so I was pretty excited and stood watching him (or her) for quite sometime.
Well I could fill many pages with all of the animal pic's that were taken in the last 3 months. I will save the rest for future blogging.

Like many of you I still have sewing and knitting projects that are unfinished. I did manage to get some more socks knitted though and were very welcomed by my feet while out walking.

I also made a few things for my little Etsy store... and even sold a few things too.
These little pouches were fun and pretty quick to make. I just realized that I never showed some of the soaps that I made. We had an idea to make tiny guest soaps like little cakes for tea. We were really pleased with the results. Many people bought these for stocking stuffers.

Well I think that is about it for now... don't want to bore you with to long of a post.
Before I go I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the most wonderful New Year.

See you soon... I promise!

Cooking, Walking and Knitting

2010-09-07T16:13:00.000-07:00

Once again it was another busy weekend... they all seem to be like that lately! Hubby found a wonderful recipe from this magazine. Have I mentioned that hubby is a bit of a wine aficionado... don't you love that word. I can hardly believe it. I just did a spell check on it and I got it right! Good grief, I am so surprised! Anyway where was I... Oh yes the recipe. It was on the front cover and it looked really yummy and best of all it called for lots of fresh tomatoes... and those we have by the ton! So here is the finished recipe. It tasted as great as it looked. The addition of all those fresh from the garden tomatoes made it light and wonderful. It was the perfect meal after returning from a lovely long walk. I hope that this photo of a young Peregrine Falcon having his dinner doesn't make you to squeamish. I had thought that maybe I shouldn't post it but it was on our walk and as you know I always take you along and show you all the wildlife that we spot. We watched it for the longest time. He was about 150 yards from us and didn't seem to mind that we were looking at him. Toward early evening on our walk we spotted this very large Beaver having his dinner... this time it was more of a salad. He was happily munching away clearing a path as he went. I always love walking in the early evening. We see so many different kinds of animals than we do during the day. Not to mention it makes me really sleepy and ready for a good nights sleep. Sometimes I can hardly keep my eyes open sitting on the couch after we return home. But I did keep them open long enough........ to get started on the sleeves of daughters sweater!
All in all I was quite pleased with our weekend. We saw a lot and did a lot. I like weekends like that, don't you?
See you soon!

This and that!

2010-09-01T19:05:00.001-07:00

What a wonderful crop of tomatoes we have had this year. Not sure if it was the weather or the type of tomatoes, but we have a ton. The neighbors are happy of course, as they get plenty of them. I already have noticed a difference in the garden though. I don't think summer will be with us to much longer. Some of the leaves on the trees are already changing color and some of my flowers are starting to look a little tired. Looks like soon I will be doing some garden work getting it ready for the Autumn. I have had this lovely pattern book from Rowan for quite a while. There are lots of great patterns in it that I would love to make. Quite often I can only find one or two that I like and I really dislike having to by the whole book just for a couple of patterns. So this summer I have been working on a lovely sweater from this book for my daughter.
It really is a very easy pattern to knit. If I can just get to sit awhile and work some on it then I just may get it finished so she can at least wear it once before the cooler weather comes. I already have the front and the back finished and it has been blocked. Now I just have to finish off the sleeves. It is made in the loveliest shade of pale pink. Maybe I will just have to turn off the phone, not answer the door and just say no until I have it complete! A few nights ago we had the most wonderful full moon. Hubby was home so out came his new camera. Yes I did say new camera.... this is becoming a very expensive hobby! Well after numerous shots he was very happy with this one. He was in and house a lot and just happened to let in a pesky mosquito which proceeded to make a meal on one of my arms which itched immensely and produced a lump the size of a small mountain. Needless to say I wasn't a happy camper that night! It's OK though he made up for it by making me a lovely cup of tea... so all is forgiven.

Time to go and water those tired looking plants... see you soon!

My wonderful goodies!

2010-08-25T13:24:00.001-07:00

Just thought I would pop in and show you my wonderful goodies that I received today from the lovely Pat who has a blog called The Sewing Room. I was simply overwhelmed with her generosity. Pat and I were swap partners from a swap over at Lisa's blog a while ago. It is strange how we were both paired up as we have both had a bit of a tough summer this year. If you go on over to Pat's wonderful blog you will understand. So sit back and let me show you all the wonderful things in my swap package.
All the little packages were beautifully wrapped and came with a very lovely card.
The first thing that I unwrapped was this great apron. It was so expertly sewn and I am just thrilled that it is mine!
Next was this wonderful hat and a matching pair of fingerless mitts! Oh my goodness, how did she know that I needed both! These will be sure to keep me warm this fall and winter while hubby and I are out on our nature walks.
After opening another little package I was rewarded with a new pen. This one is going into my purse for jotting things down while I am at the fabric, craft shops etc;
Can you believe there is more! Candy for my sweet tooth. The little packet of Love Hearts made me smile as I haven't eaten them since I was a child.
Look at these beautiful beads. These will come in very handy for some upcoming graft projects.
Yes there is still more! A lavender filled heart... how generous is she!
A little note pad to go along with my new pen.
Whew! Finally a British knitting magazine! This I will savor from cover to cover this afternoon while having some tea.

Thank you Pat. I am just speechless with all these wonderful gifts.
Hope you have enjoyed my "show and tell" today. It actually felt good to blog again. I promise I will try to not stay away so long before my next post.
See you soon!

Still here

2010-08-02T16:18:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to pop in to say that I am still here and enjoying the summer as I hope you all are. My goodness August already. Time is just flying by.

I am so pleased with my hanging flower basket again this year. It does take a lot of water and feeding but it is oh so worth it. I can only imagine how much it must weigh and hope that my poor old porch can take all that weight!

I do still have quite a few things to take care of but I will be popping in from time to time just to say hello.

See you soon!

Sadness

2010-07-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

We lost a dear family member over the weekend so I will be taking a little bloggy break. I won't be gone long... I just need a little time to myself.

Knitting

2010-07-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

I really am addicted to sock knitting. My blue socks are almost finished. I once again stuck with a very plain rib pattern and concentrated on knitting a good sock. When I was a young girl and just starting out with knitting I wanted to jump right in at the deep end and knit a sweater with a lace pattern for my very first project. I can still hear my mother telling me that I should learn to walk before I run! So here we are all those years later and I finally did listen to her and made two pair of plain decent socks that I am quite happy with. But now.... ....well I think I am ready to run a bit and get a bit more adventurous! Look at this scrumptious yummy sock yarn. I just couldn't resist buying some. It's lovely and soft and I can hardly wait to get my little itchy sock knitting fingers on it!
But it will have to wait for just a little bit as my daughter and I will be going to the annual Lavender Festival in Sequim on Friday. We love taking a trip there to see and smell all the wonderful sights and to indulge in our all time favorite... Lavender Ice Cream! If only we could bring a trunk load home with us. So it's been a bit of a busy week trying to get everything finished around here before we go. We will be leaving quite early on Friday so we can get there at a decent time. I should have lots of pic's to show when I get home. Now that our weather has warmed up enough we have been having our dinner out in the garden. It never fails that there is at least one uninvited guest that shows up. This time it was a little chipmunk. He sat up in our pine tree staring at us while we ate. I think he was hoping for us to share our meal. Such cute little things, aren't they? Earlier in the day... and I mean really early we went out for another nature walk. It was around 7.30 in the morning and it really is a lovely way to start the day. We were the only two people about so it was nice and quiet and the air was fresh and cool. The young Barn Swallows are all leaving their nests now but still trying to get that last feed from mom. I am amazed that one of them didn't fly into us as they were swooping down everywhere. The highlight of the morning though was watching this amazing..... ... River Otter. There were actually three of them. We think it was a mother and her two babies. They splashed and played and even caught a good size fish which they all squabbled over. We stood for the longest time while hubby happily clicked away with his camera. I don't honestly think that they would have stuck around as long if there had been more people about. Lucky us!

Well that's it from me until after I get back from my little trip. Enjoy the rest of your week. See you soon!

Wool and Mink

2010-07-06T07:36:00.001-07:00

Well these are definitely not the prettiest socks in my drawer. But they are certainly the warmest. I had this yarn laying around the house and I wanted to see if I could knit and also enjoy making socks. Well yes to both! Although not very pretty they will be wonderfully warm this winter paired up with my boots. In fact I enjoyed making these so much that....... I have started another pair! With the temperatures starting to warm up here I find sock knitting much nicer to do right now than my big ripple blanket. It is going to get just a bit to warm to sit under my ripple while crocheting it. As you know I do so love knitting with thin yarn. So making socks with this type of yarn is just so much fun. I have started off with a very plain pattern but as time goes on I am hoping to get a bit more fancy.

Now for the Mink part, I bet you are all wondering what I am talking about. No I didn't knit a pair of mink socks! But we did see...... this wonderful little Mink down by the river while walking. Isn't he wonderful! He was happily rolling about on the bank in the sun. We also watched as he went back into the river and nabbed a fish for lunch. This is the first time we have seen a Mink while out walking. I hope he sticks around. We also saw a mommy Wood duck and her babies. She was being very protective of them and kept them all very close to her.

Now I am off to catch up on all the things that were put on the back burner while we were enjoying our long July 4th weekend.

Have a super Tuesday!

Birthday and Twilight

2010-06-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

Today is officially our daughter's birthday but we celebrated over the weekend. Her birthday barbecue was just lovely even if we did have to move the whole thing indoors. Our backyard faces a bluff that over looks the Puget Sound. Even though we are quite a bit a way we still get all the cool breezes that come off the water. It's great when we are having a hot summer day as it cools us down quite nicely. But not so great when we are only having lukewarm days. All in all though it was a terrific day. When you have wonderful family and good food what more could you ask for.
Her birthday cake was just delicious! As usual we all ate far to much so Monday was a lighter meal day to try and even things out a bit. To cap off her birthday we are going to a sneak preview of the new Twilight movie tonight. We have sneaky peek tickets for the 9 o'clock showing. Looks like it will be a late night for us. It wasn't all play and no work while she was here. We made up several batches of our whipped soap. I just love taking a bath with this! Not a bad afternoons work even if I do say so!

Well that's it for now as my day is going to be a busy one. I do have one other bit of news though... can you believe I am finally knitting a pair of socks! I have one and a half socks done already. So far things are going smoothly and I am just thrilled. I'll show them off in my next post.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Middle of the week

2010-06-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well here we are at Wednesday already and I haven't posted once this week. Shame on me! I have a good excuse though. This upcoming weekend is our daughter's yearly birthday barbecue. So I have been shopping and cleaning in preparation for the big day. I am not sure if it will be a back yard affair as in previous years as mother nature isn't really co-operating. Rainy cooler weather will be here by the weekend so we may have to move the whole thing indoors. Oh well wherever it is we will still have a lot of really good fun.My mother-in-law came for a visit on Sunday afternoon. Even though it was a bit rainy we ventured out for a walk at our favorite nature preserve. These little baby swallows were being fed constantly by there mother. I couldn't help feeling sorry for her as she had four of the little ones to feed. We watched her fly back and forth feeding each one in turn. I bet she will be very glad to see them all on their own.
This year the Great Horned Owls only had one baby and we found him sitting on a tree branch. We think he is pretty much reared and on his own now. Although I do think that his parents are still nearby watching. He still has some of his downy feathers but he is looking more like an adult owl everyday.We were all a bit damp, tired and hungry on returning home so coffee, tea and cake helped to make us feel a bit better. This was a Raspberry Bakewell cake and it was delicious and so very easy to make. I think you could make it with whatever fruit is in season. It's definitely a keeper and the recipe is here if you would like to try it.

Well that's it for me for this week. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week and your weekend.

See you soon!

Ella

2010-06-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

Lovely Ella and she is all mine! I have always loved Sweet Nellie's work and now I have one of her crocheted little ones. Sweet Ella arrived at the beginning of the week and I fell in love with her instantly. It is a good job the poor dear has a knitted scarf as it has been chilly ever since she arrived. So she sits on the wing backed chair in my bedroom and I get to see her every morning when I wake up... lucky me!
A couple of weeks ago I kitty sat for my neighbor while they took a short vacation. Just taking care of that wonderful kitty was payment enough. But today she came for tea and gave me this lovely little bag with three dish towels in. So how lucky am I again! Alex her kitty is a large very lovable Maine Coon whom I just adore. He is very gentle and very sweet, so it was such a pleasure to be his "mommy" for a week.
After cleaning the house this morning I decided that I had better mow the lawn before the next lot of rain came our way. I also had a quick lookee around the garden and spotted for the first time this year one of our little green frogs. I was delighted to see him. So upstairs I ran to grab the camera. I am wondering if our unseasonably cool, rainy weather is keeping them still hibernating. I don't blame them one bit for not wanting to venture out.

Well I am venturing out of here for this week.
See you next week!

Wonderful Weekend Again!

2010-06-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while between posts this time. Good weather finally arrived and I went outside to play with it! It was another busy but fun weekend. It started on Friday when I finished up making some body cream and massage bars for the store. All to be delivered to daughter on Sunday when we went for dinner and a visit.

Our really fun stuff started on Saturday morning when we went for a morning walk. The above picture was taken during that walk. We had never seen a baby hummingbird begging it's mother to feed it, so we were thrilled when we came upon these two. What a lovely way to start off a weekend.
Right place, right time comes to mind whenever I look at this picture. If we had been 10 seconds later or earlier we might never have captured this tender moment. A big thank you to my hubby for giving me access to all his terrific photo's. No matter how many times I say "Oooh I want that for my blog" he always obliges... he's a keeper! Of course being his "assistant" might just give me a bit of an edge, don't you think?
The Cedar Waxwings are still around. We spied this one feeding on Elderberries. I vaguely remember someone in our family making Elderberry Wine. Hmmm I wonder who it was? I will have to ask my Auntie Di the next time I phone to see if she remembers who. Funny how a memory floats back into your mind like that.

Saturday over with our Sunday was great fun too. Cirque du Soleil is back in town and we were lucky to have tickets to a show on Sunday afternoon. Sorry no camera's allowed so you will have to take my word for it that it was fantastic! What talented people they all were.

Right after the show we ended up at daughters house for that wonderful visit and that scrumptious meal. What a great way to end up our weekend.

I did have plans to work some more on my ripple blanket which has been a bit neglected these past few days. On returning home though I was barely able to keep my eyes open. So it was a quick bath then off to bed.

So how was your weekend?

Ho Hum!

2010-06-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

It's one of those days when I just could not think what to blog about. I know we all have them. I can only drag out my ripple afghan so many times to take a photo of it before I bore you all to tears with it's progress. It is still growing but not enough for you to see such a big difference since the last time.

So I decided to take a walk in the garden. Yes, the sun was shining so I headed outdoors to see what I could find.
The garden is a bit behind this year due to our cool rainy weather. Things are starting to come along though.The hanging basket is exploding into color. I can't wait til it is in full bloom. It always looks so spectacular hanging on the front porch.The roses are starting to bloom. It was quite lovely standing in the rose garden.Once again our lovely Dogwood tree is in full bloom. It never fails to please year after year.The hummingbirds are just loving the Honeysuckle. They have been buzzing all over it for a while now.Busy little bee hard at work. Which is what I should be doing, and I really was intending to until........ my wonderful mailman brought me this lovely little book! I have been wanting it for a while now and I had actually forgotten that I had ordered it. So it came as a nice surprise.I am already seeing some things that would make for good blogging........ time for tea I think!

See you soon!

Friday Again

2010-06-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

My goodness is it really Friday again. This week has just flown by so quickly. As usual like most weeks I am behind.... again. I did manage to make something new though. A vase cover. This time instead of crocheting one I made one out of fabric and lace. It is just a simple cuff that slides over the glass vase and covers up all the stems that you would otherwise be able to see. It went together in about 10 minutes or so and I am really liking how it turned out. I guess the possibilities are endless when it come to fabric choices... especially in my house! It's a really good way to to use up small scraps that I know we all have saved away somewhere.

I do like fresh flowers in the house. When I go grocery shopping I look to see what is on sale. I picked up this little bunch for $2.99 and brought them home to brighten up the house. Which as you all know needs some brightening up lately... but I refuse to talk about how dull and rainy it is again today!
Well here is an updated pic on the ripple blanket that I am currently making. It has grown quite a bit and I am so enjoying rippling away in the evening while relaxing watching television. It is now big enough to snuggle under while I am hooking away.... which is pretty nice right now due to all that gloomy rainy weather that I refuse to talk about!

So that's it for another week. I hope your weekend is a fun one. Ours would be except of course for that subject that I refuse to talk about!

See you next week!

90 Minutes

2010-06-01T22:18:00.001-07:00

90 minutes was just about the amount of time that we had this holiday weekend that was somewhat dry and just a little sunny. So we grabbed our coats... yes I said coats, as it was still a bit chilly and went out for a walk. We were going just a little loopy from being couped up in the house for so long. It was amazing at how much we saw. First was a Cedar Waxwing........ then...sorry to all you that are a bit squeamish... a Garter Snake soaking in what little sun that we have had. This lovely insect was drying his wings. Isn't he the most wonderful shade of green. A Yellow Warbler... it's nice to see something sunny and yellow up in the sky! Am I sounding like an old grump again?

I know our weather will get better soon and truth be told I would much rather have our rain than 90 degree weather. One of the good things about being stuck indoors is spending lots of time working on my ripple blanket. It really has grown quite a bit in the last few days. I will post an updated pic soon.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Rain, rain go AWAY!

2010-05-27T07:04:00.003-07:00

This is where we should be sitting but instead we are couped up indoors! Now while I do completely understand that rain is good for the garden I think my garden has had enough already! Don't I sound like an old grump! It's rainy and chilly and I want some of that warm weather that you are all talking about... send some my way please.
Despite all the rain there are some nice things. This beautiful rainbow appeared in between showers. Kind of reminded me of a ripple afghan... love those colors.
So if I can't potter about in the garden at least I can potter about in the kitchen. Banana Pecan Muffins just the thing to chase the rainy day grumps away.
I can always bring a little sunshine in the house with some lovely flowers. I even crocheted a little vase cover... hmmm I think that the rainy day grumps are going away. I wonder what the weekend will be like?

Well off I go. I can't put it off any longer... grocery shopping! I don't like doing it at the best of times and I really don't like doing it in the rain! Oh dear I am sounding grumpy again... maybe I should eat a muffin before I go. Yes that will cheer me up!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Color and Cravings

2010-05-23T22:29:00.001-07:00

Good Monday morning to you! I hope your weekend was spectacular. Mine was once again jam packed with lot's of fun stuff. But now it's Monday and time for me to unwind a little. I do so love Mondays! It's nice to be able to ease into the week with a carefree laid back day. I try not to plan anything on a Monday, including appointments etc. I just sit back and let it happen.
Over the weekend the yummy yarn that I ordered arrived. Wonderful Peruvian wool and it is incredibly soft and great fun to work with. I went straight to work and wound it all up into nicely shaped balls...with a little help from my cat of course!
What could I possibly be making with all that brightly colored yarn you might ask?
This....... my newest crochet project. I have always wanted to make a ripple blanket and when I saw the lovely pattern on Lucy's blog I had to give it a bash! I am really loving how bright and beautiful it is starting to look. What a colorful cheery blanket to chase the winter blues away. If I keep plodding away at it I am pretty sure that I will have it done before next winter shows it's face. Of course I am still plodding away too with my lovely granny squares. I keep making them and piling them into my crochet bag. Maybe, just maybe I will have two scrumptious blankets to sit under... bliss. I find as I am getting older that I crave color more. I always used to like more subdued pastel shades in everything from clothing to home decor. Now it is the bolder the better. Strange isn't it how sometimes your tastes change.

Well color and cravings were my title of this post today and here is what I have been craving..._
... Apricots! Isn't that a strange thing to have a craving for! Believe it or not I even passed up chocolate and ate apricots instead. Unbelievable I know! I will probably eat them until I have had my fill and then I won't want them anymore. We humans are a strange bunch, don't you think? Or is it just me? So how about you... what strange edible thing are you craving lately?

Enjoy your Monday!

Happy!

2010-05-19T15:48:00.001-07:00

I have had a smile on my face for the last couple of days. Crochet seems to be doing that to me. My little project that I was working on turned out just perfect thanks to a wonderful pattern from this lovely blog. It's not wonky, befuddled or messed up! I love my crochet bag. Thank you Lucy!

I was asked the other day what made me decide to start a blog. To be honest I haven't a clue! Normally I am a very quiet private person who still blushes embarrassingly when someone gives me a compliment. Silly I know. I am one of those people that likes to quietly sit in the background working away on one little project or other just doing it for my absolute pleasure.

Last summer I took a couple of months away from blogging that I thought were going to be fun. I also thought that I would get a lot more accomplished not having to find things to blog about. Not so! After about a week or two I found myself constantly seeing and doing things that would be "just perfect to blog about". So I think my little blog and I are joined at the hip. Even if no one stops by I think I would still blog just for me. I guess my little blog is a diary of my daily life. Maybe not exciting to a lot of people but just fine for me thank you very much. I can honestly say that I wouldn't change a thing. I am having a grand old time!

Crochet and Me!

2010-05-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Well another wonderful weekend has come and gone. They seem to go so quickly lately. Maybe it's because they are so jam packed with lots to do.

We walked and did some gardening and I crocheted my little heart out. I don't think that I can call myself a "hooker" yet but I am getting there!
My colorful little granny squares are piling up. I am weaving all the ends in as I go along so I am not left with a pile of yucky ends to do once I have crocheted them all. Hubby keeps looking to see if I have made two squares that are alike in color. So far each one is different... don't know how long that will last though. It will be so lovely to snuggle under when winter comes. I can see myself now snuggling beneath one blanket while crocheting another. Drinking tea of course and munching away at something sweet and wonderful. Well I am never one to just do one project at a time. This is another crochet piece that I started over the weekend that was promptly stolen while I was making dinner. Contrary to what the cat thinks it is not a cat bed! I think I will keep it to myself as to what it is just in case it doesn't go as planned. That way if I make a mess out of it and it gets all befuddled then I won't have to embarrassingly show it to anyone... coward that I am. So far though it is going as planned and I am quite thrilled. I must say I am finding crochet quite relaxing and wonderful... who knew!
I finished off another little bag last week and I kept forgetting to take a picture of it. I hung it in our almost blooming Dogwood tree, I thought it was lovely and summery hanging there.
Toward the end of the weekend I realized that I still had these little marigolds to plant. They will have to wait until tomorrow to go in the garden. It's getting late and I am pooped! Besides I think if I listen really hard I can hear my crochet calling me. Do I hear the kettle boiling... could hubby be making me tea?

See you soon.

Perfectly Perfect!

2010-05-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

Perfectly perfect is I think the right two words to describe my Mother's Day weekend! Notice how I say weekend and not Mother's Day. We quite frankly deserve more than just one day, don't you think? A bit of a long post today so you might want to get some tea or coffee before you come along.

It actually started on Friday morning when I happened to spot out the window this wonderful bird. Luckily hubby was working from home. I tore up the stairs and managed to utter these three words "bird, garden, camera". By now he knows when I utter those words that it must be something very special and it was.
This a Yellow Headed Blackbird. Apparently quite uncommon in our area. We had certainly never seen one before. He actually stayed all day in our garden, and our neighbors. He would fly up to the top of the tree then fly back down for some food and water. At around 7pm he had his last feed and then flew off over the golf course and then he was gone. What a thrill though while he was here. I like to think of our garden as a pit stop for migrating birds. Somewhere to rest and replenish before continuing on their long journey.
On Saturday morning we were up early and hubby spotted this little bird taking a morning bath in our pond. This is a Black-Headed Grosbeak. First time seeing one of these in our garden too. We watched him for a while taking his wonderful bath. He really seemed to enjoy splashing around in the cold water.
By now we were wondering what else was going to turn up in the garden! We did however leave and went for a walk down at the Wildlife Refuge. The air was cool and fresh, just the perfect temperature for taking a walk. The swallows are back and as usual arguing over something or other.
We also spotted an enormous....
... frog! Yes it's that time of year when they are all looking for mates. They sure do make a lot of noise calling for one.
Anyway back home we came to a nice lunch and to tackle some gardening. I still had quite a few flower plants that needed to go in the ground. I fed my roses and as usual one...
... bit me! That's OK though as nothing could spoil my perfect weekend. We pottered around some more then it was time for tea.
So while I sat here and crocheted Granny Squares my lovely hubby made tea. I must have sat for an hour or two only stopping to eat some of these....... lovely handmade chocolates from my daughter. I would have loved to have shown you them but I had to eat them rather quickly as the sun was melting them quite fast! Of course I just had to eat some strawberries on my perfectly perfect day in the garden and these were perfectly delicious! Finally the weekend came to a close with a wonderful dinner in the garden. I think when I rolled into bed that night I still had a smile on my face. It was indeed a perfectly perfect Mother's Day Weekend!

See you soon.

Quiet please

2010-05-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

It was anything but quiet around here yesterday. We had such very strong winds that it even blew the barbecue grill off the deck! Let me tell you when it hit the house it made such a loud noise that I wasn't sure what had happened. No damage though...thank goodness.

This little hummingbird just decided to sleep through it all. He was on the tree outside my kitchen window. Totally oblivious as to all that was going on around him. I was worried that he would be blown out of the tree.
Today is a much better day so I managed to get another one of the bags that I have been making photographed. I quite like the color of this one. Something a bit lighter for summer.
Every year in February I always order my summer hanging basket from Edgewood Flower Farm. They are ready for pick up around the 1st of May or so. Last weekend I picked up this years basket. We have it on a cart right now as it is still a bit to cool to leave it outside over night. It makes it very easy to just wheel it in and out as it is very heavy, even more so after it's watered. In a couple of weeks it will be hung on our front porch. By summer it will be enormous and in full bloom. Of course once again I will fret about it being to heavy for the hook and wondering if it will come down. Never has yet but silly me I still continue to worry!.
This lovely cow was out at the farm and of course we are never without a camera. She looked up just as we were taking her picture. I thought she looked so lovely and peaceful chomping on some grass. I quite like cows. I remember as a young girl growing up in Scotland I always wanted to have a Highland cow as a pet! I can just imagine my poor mother telling me why this was not possible and I am sure I must have kept insisting. She must have gotten through to me though as I don't remember ever having one!

Well now I am off to get some lunch and have a putter about in the garden. After all the wind yesterday who knows what I might find!

Enjoy your day.

End of the week smile

2010-04-30T13:08:00.001-07:00

The world needs more smiles so here is my contribution.... hope it makes you smile as much as I did. Have a great weekend!

Spring in Washington...

2010-04-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

.... ah yes what lovely weather we are having! I was going to do some more planting this afternoon but it seems that Mother Nature had a different idea. One minute the sun is out and the next we are being hailed upon. There was me thinking that I wouldn't have anything to blog about this week! I was going to post a pic of another bag that I finished but that will have to wait a bit. Normally I hang them on the garden gate which is a great place to photograph them... except for today!
I am safely tucked away inside the house enjoying a warm cup of tea and some cherry pie. The perfect combo on a day like today.
I did make a quick trip out this morning to drop off a DVD at my brother-in-laws store. It was the movie Avatar which was quite amazing. Go see it if you haven't already. Hubby and I watched it the other night and the special effects are breathtaking. I also made a quick trip to a fabric store and picked up these wonderful Japanese inspired fabric's. I have plans for more bags with these. Well I couldn't finish today's post without one nature pic. This big guy was on our fence last night. He was I am sure hoping for a quick feed by grabbing one of the birds from one of our feeders. Luckily the birds are pretty smart and stayed clear until he moved on. We think it is a Sharp Shinned Hawk. We have seen him around here before looking for dinner. Thankfully he went away hungry.

Well lookee the sun is out again... maybe I can nip outside and photograph that bag after all!

See you soon.

House Washing and Bag Making

2010-04-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Today was house washing day. Every couple of years or so we get the outside of the house pressure washed. Living in the climate that we do it doesn't take very long for dirt, grime and mold to attach itself to the house. Of course having a white house is probably not ideal either. That was my doing. I always wanted a white house with black shutters. So today was a stay at home day while listening to the noise of the pressure washer roaring away. I am pleased to say that they have finally finished. They were here about eight hours working away with only a short break for lunch.

So all day I have been in my sewing room working on some bags. Right now bags seem to be my thing and I am having so much fun stitching away.
I am going to pop some in my shop once I have done a few more. It really was a lovely way to spend the day. Right after the washing crew finished I hurried outside to photograph the bags on the garden gate. The sun was starting to fade but I think I just made it in the nick of time.

Well my fun sewing day has come to an end and now I have to go and figure out what to have for dinner!

See you soon.

Congratulations!

2010-04-19T07:29:00.001-07:00

Sammy P. Jammies would like to send a hearty congratulations to lovely Annemarie, the winner of my giveaway. My dear neighbor Annette picked the number 17 which was Anne. If you would email me your address Anne I will get your fabric basket into the mail to you. Thank you everyone for participating. We will have to do it again very soon.

In case you are wondering about the kitty, he is the little rescue kitty that my daughter had run into her garage in the middle of the night a few months back. Sammy is now 11 months old and is such a wonderful big boy. What a surprise that he grew up... and is still growing into such a wonderful gentle kitty. I visited her on Saturday and he gave me the best soft squishy hug!

Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was very full! So today I am going to try and catch up on all the stuff I should done over the weekend.

Have a great Monday!

Hooray! Time for a Giveaway

2010-04-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well it has been such a long time since I had a giveaway. So today I am having one and you are all invited! I love these little fabric baskets so much that I wanted someone else to have one too. All you have to do is drop on by my blog and just say hello between now and Sunday night at midnight. Stop by as many times as you wish. On Monday's post I will announce the winner. I will once again ask my dear neighbor Annette to pick a number. Good luck everybody. Oh, and sorry but the yarn is not included!
Well now on to some other stuff. Isn't this the most amazing azalea. It was in the little town of Steilacoom were my mother-in-law lives. We were on our way home from shopping and I just had to stop and take a pic. For once I had my camera with me!This little bird is a Ruby Crowned Kinglet. He is quite difficult to photograph as he is very timid and flits about a lot. We spotted him last weekend while out for a walk.
Mr Owl was still sitting up in his tree. This time we were able to get a good unobstructed view of him. Still haven't seen the baby yet, maybe this weekend we will be lucky.

Well that's it for today. Once again good luck to everyone. I wish you all could win.
See you soon.

Almost the Weekend!

2010-04-09T16:15:00.001-07:00

Well here we are again at almost another weekend. I bet you can guess what I will be doing? Yep, your right... planting some geraniums. Every year I buy my geraniums in these tiny pots. It is a whole lot less expensive than buying them full grown. With some tender loving care and a really good fertilizer they will be big and blooming in no time at all. I buy them this way every year. When you need sixty of them like I do that is the only way to go. I am only going to be planting them in the front porch patio boxes as it is still a bit to cool to plant them in the garden yet. The rest of them will stay put in the sun on the front porch waiting their turn to be planted. I have been meaning to make a knitting needle case for sometime now. Well today was the day as I felt like sewing more than I did knitting. I am very pleased with how it turned out and it came together in no time at all. I think these would be good to make in different sizes. Great for keeping crochet hooks safe.

Well I am off to start the weekend. I hope that whatever you are doing it will be a fun one.

See you next week!

Alfie

2010-04-06T14:45:00.001-07:00

Alfie would like everyone to know that I am opening my little shop back up on Etsy again. Sometime in the next couple of hours all my new little ones will be for sale... Oh dear that sounds a little sad, doesn't it.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We had a lovely time down at my mother-in-laws house. The weather was not that great but the company more than made up for it. As usual we ate far to much, and as usual I forgot my camera so I could share our day. Oh well there is always next year.

See you soon!

Easter

2010-04-02T08:55:00.001-07:00

I hope the Easter bunny is good to everybody and that you all have a wonderful Easter.

Sugar Scrubs, Boots and Chocolate!

2010-03-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

I was a very busy little bee over the weekend. I made some more sugar scrubs that are already listed in the shop. I love using these scrubs in the bath. They have just the right amount of sugary scrubbiness and almond oil to buff and smooth the skin. Just perfect to get rid of all that winter dryness.
Harry finally got his boots and he did indeed share some chocolate with me. Of course I still have my....... own stash of chocolate just to be on the safe side!

It occurred to me today while doing this post that most of my blogging is done in my jammies. Either really late at night or very early in the morning. If I had my way I would live in jammies all day long! Whenever I am asked what I want for my birthday or for Christmas the answer is always the same...jammies!
I think we should have a National Jammie Day. Everyone would be required to wear jammies all day long no matter where they went. I think everyone would be smiling a lot more because they would be a lot more comfortable. Lets not forget Big Fluffy Slipper Day either!

Oh well a girl can dream can't she?

See you soon!

Harry

2010-03-26T12:47:00.002-07:00

Harry was so impatient to have his photo taken that he posed before his boots were finished. He is hoping for lots of chocolate eggs for Easter...which of course he said he would share with me!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Finn

2010-03-23T09:15:00.001-07:00

Why is it that when an idea comes into your mind for a new pattern it never comes out the first time you try to make it? Or is it just me! I wanted Finn to have shoes that looked like loafers. It took me ten tries before I finally got it right. In my mind it is crystal clear. Somehow there is a disconnect between my mind and my hands! In the end though I am pretty pleased with his little fiddly shoes.

I am really enjoying myself knitting tiny clothes for little animals. Beats making a sweater for hubby any day! Today I am going to be making some bunnies and some soap. I already have an idea in my mind for both..... hope my hands are listening!
There was excitement here over the weekend as the first little hummingbird arrived at our feeder. These little guys come a long way and are pretty hungry when they get here. It is so good to see them again. It's like having a dear friend come for a visit. I expect in the next few days more will be returning and fighting for the best territory. As tiny as they are they can really get angry when an invader tries to take over their chosen spot.

Well knitting needles are calling and bunnies are getting cold without some clothes.

Have a great day!

Gracie

2010-03-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

Gracie and I are going to start our weekend early. She did insist on coming by to say hello. We hope you all have a lovely weekend. We will be spending ours in the garden, as good weather is on tap!

See you next week.

Loofah Soaps

2010-03-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

Here is what I have been busy with the last few days. Lovely loofah soaps! Excellent for rough knees, elbows and feet. These smell especially yummy. I made them in strawberry, orange, lime and lemon fragrances. I really wanted a big bowl of fruit after smelling these all morning. For sale now in our Etsy shop.
With our mild weather that we have been having there is already a lot of territorial squabbling and early nest building going on in our back yard. The birds are also sprucing themselves up to look good for a new mate. This little guy was just about to take a bath. It makes me shiver when I see something this tiny in the really cold water. Brrrr!This beautiful little Song Sparrow just sang and sang and sang. It's fun to go out into the garden at this time of year and watch it all come to life again. I am always amazed how quickly the buds come onto the trees and shoots start popping through the ground.Even the bees are appearing again. This one is tucked deep inside one of my daffodils.

Yes I do love this time of year!

Callum

2010-03-11T07:30:00.001-08:00

Oh what fun Callum was to make. Definitely nothing girly about this little ellie. As you can see he did indeed find his pants and his other shoe! He is going to need his pants and his shoes as it has turned much cooler today with wind and rain on the way.

It is going to be another busy day for me. Lots of errands to run and soap making when I return. I am hoping that I can fit in some more little critter making somewhere in my day.

See you soon!

How lucky we are!

2010-03-08T15:32:00.001-08:00

My goodness how lucky we are to have such a terrific winter. Spring is already all around us. I even spruced up the front porch with some new cushion covers and a pot of hyacinths and daffodils. It is a wonderful place to sit and soak up the sun while I am knitting.
Of course with the great weather we took our usual walk down at the wildlife refuge. We didn't have to go far before we came across some beautiful creatures. First pic is of a Great Blue Heron. Sitting so still just soaking up the sun. A little further down the trail we came across....... this little Downy Woodpecker. He was going up and down the tree poking holes wherever he went.

To our delight once again, the Great Horned Owls have returned. We were thrilled to see them. Last year they had two babies and we are hoping that they will have young again this year. Our next little critter was a complete surprise. He is a little hard to see but you can make out his head. It is a Beaver just about to dive under the water. Hubby just managed to snap the pic before he disappeared. We could not believe how lucky we were to see so many little creatures in just a short amount of time.

There is just one more little critter that desperately wanted to show himself. Unfortunately he couldn't find his other shoe...or his pants! He is hoping that in a day or two they will show up and he can come on by and say hello!

See you soon!

Lynnette

2010-03-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a while since I made a new little ellie. For some reason last week I felt like I wanted to make one again. Lynnette has been picking daffodils all morning and now she is hungry for lunch. I have to admit it was fun seeing her come together. I quite often start off with an idea and as I am stitching along it changes quite a bit. I am pretty happy though with how she turned out.
Once again we took our usual weekend walk. And once again the geese were making a racket. This pair flew directly at hubby while he was taking their photo. They were about three feet above him when they flew over. That's dedication for you!

Well just a short post for today as I hear my knitting needles calling and an idea has just popped into my head. Wonder if it will work...hmmmm...

Have a super Tuesday!

Weekend Bliss

2010-02-23T07:50:00.001-08:00

I had originally intended to do this post on Monday. Monday however was filled with appointments and errands and not a spare minute to sit and do much of anything. I'm here now though so I thought I would show and tell you what a lovely weekend we had.

We did a lot of walking over the weekend, as once again we were blessed with magnificent weather. It starts off frosty in the mornings but warms up as the day goes on. We started our walk very early in the morning. Only a few serious photographers were about, so it was lovely and quiet. The perfect way to start the day. The first pic is of these wonderful barns which just happen to be along one of our favorite walks. I have always loved old barns, they have so much character. These looked especially lovely in the early morning. They were a part of an old farm that has been long gone for many years now.
Further along the trail we came across this bent over tree that formed a circle with its reflection in the water. My hubby titled it "It's all about the O". It was still and quiet except for the birds that were singing...just for us of course! Just as we were about to make for home hubby heard a rustle behind us. There hiding in the long grass was this wonderful bird. It is an American Bittern. It was so well camouflaged that it took me a while before I saw it too. When they feel threatened they sway just like long grass stems making it even harder to see. What a great way to end our walk.

Returning home we realized how hungry we were. So lunch was a grilled cheese, tomato and avocado sandwich. Sorry I was just to hungry to take a pic. You will have to believe me when I say it was delicious!

As if my weekend wasn't wonderful enough, I then settled down in my favorite chair to crochet with this... .... yippee! Yummy new yarn that arrived the day before! Sheer bliss I tell you! Peruvian wool yarn, so soft and cushy! It came from a company called Knitpicks. At $1.99 per 50 gram ball I thought it was a great bargain. It comes in such great colors. This is fingering weight, I think that would be 3 ply in England. I love working with thinner yarn so I was in heaven.

So there you have it, my perfect weekend!
See you soon.

Ahead

2010-02-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

For once I am actually ahead with things. Bunnies are made for Easter already, so I can scratch that off the list. It's not often that I manage to get so far ahead. I often start off with good intentions and planning. But something comes along that has to be done right now, and all my plans go into disarray. For now though I will just enjoy being ahead while it lasts.
.
I am not the only one that is ahead. Mother Nature has given us the most incredible winter this year. Everything is at least six weeks ahead of schedule. During our weekend walk, (to which I might add I even took off my coat because I got to warm) we spotted these little flowers blooming. I was so happy to see them as I know that the little hummingbirds can't be to far behind. These are one of the first flowers they feed on after coming back to our area.
This lovely little bird sang his little heart out, just for us of course. I think he was enjoying the nice warm day too.
Of course not everything is peaceful and serene. There was a whole lot of squabbling going on as the geese all vie for the best nesting spots. My goodness they do make a racket! Hubby has a new more powerful lens for his camera so he was having a grand time taking photo's.

After today's morning rain we have another incredible week of sun and mild temperatures. So a lot of walking and garden tidying will be in the works. Sorry all you people that are still knee deep in snow with more coming. Hopefully my little post today will bring a little sunshine into your day.

Have a lovely Tuesday!

Moss and Sugar Scrubs

2010-02-11T07:51:00.000-08:00

Firstly a big thank you for all your get well wishes. My back is feeling so much better. In fact I even took a stroll around the garden. The first in a long time.

I came across one of our raised flower beds that was completely covered in moss. A lot of people around here just hate moss and spend lots of time and money trying to get rid of it. Of course the moss always wins and comes back year after year. I happen to love moss. The different types and colors are just amazing.
It grows on everything. Come summer when the sun stays for longer than 10 minutes it dries up and crumbles away until our next rainy season.
Of course as you would expect not much is blooming, except the Heather. I think and hope that is the only white stuff that we will see on the ground this winter.
I even sat for a while on the front porch. I was well sheltered and the sun was out for a bit. It did seem a bit unreal though sitting on our front porch in February!
Back in the house again I went to work on a new product. Foaming Sugar Scrubs. This one is Pink Grapefruit.
This one is Italian Granita Ice. Loaded with Fair Trade Organic Sugar and infused with soothing Almond Oil. They are wonderful for gently exfoliating while taking a bath. Which is exactly what I did when I went back into the house. One of the benefits of making new products is being able to try them out! If I do say so myself I think we have winner here. The only problem was deciding which one to try first.

Have a great Thursday!

What to do...

2010-02-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

... when your back goes out and you are bored to tears just waiting for it to get well again? Why a new crochet project of course! That's what I get for rolling over in bed and having a wonderful stretch and then something went pop. Nothing serious though, just a strained muscle but it sure did hamper me for a few days. I think there is nothing worse than your body not being able to work right, but your brain is still going a hundred miles an hour brimming with ideas. So it was crochet to the rescue. Thank goodness that was a least something I could do. I think I am going to make these grannies into a blanket. Or at the very least a lap throw. It all depends on how bored I get making a ton of little grannies. I have decided to put this together as I go along. That way I won't have the daunting task of sewing in a gazillion little ends once all the squares are finished.

Of course walking was out of the question over the weekend. It was a shame though as we had great walking weather again. I did make a short visit to my 93 year old neighbor to pop her mail over to her. We both had a giggle when she was able to get up out of the chair much faster than I could. Stayed for some tea and then waddled home....
... to this lovely dinner. There is something to be said for being laid up for a few days and being taken care of.
We are so lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest and have such an abundance of yummy salmon. So dinner was salmon coated with herbs and spices, spicy rice and asparagus with olive oil and lemon. Yummy, yummy, yummy! I always think it is such a treat to have dinner cooked for you. I really enjoy the meal a lot more than if I had to cook it myself.

So having your back pop out isn't really so bad...not that I am recommending it. But it does have a few little advantages!

See you soon!

Thursday

2010-02-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

I managed to finish the front of my crochet pillow this week. Now I am on the hunt for a recycled sweater, hopefully in a yellow or green or even a white color. I plan on making the back from the sweater. Maybe I will be lucky and find a cashmere one at the thrift store. I have been pretty successful before at finding them. Then all I have to do is stitch the two together.
Of course I am still soap making. I cut these three yesterday. From left to right, Oatmeal Milk and Honey. Wonderful for dry itchy winter skin. White Lavender and Violet and Geranium and Bergamot.
Ever since I have started using handmade soap I no longer care for store bought soap. It is loaded with drying detergent. Sure it gives lots of bubbles but handmade soap is a lot kinder to your skin.

Well the new season of the TV show Lost started a couple of days ago. I have been waiting forever for it to start. All I can say is I am well and truly lost. I am hoping that bits and pieces will start to fall into place as the weeks follow and I will have that, "Oh now I get it" moment. But for now I am left scratching my head and wondering what it all means. Am I the only one that is lost?

Looks like another OK weekend on the weather front. I am pretty sure a walk is in the works. I have to say that we are having a pretty good winter here. Daytime temps are usually in the low fifties. Compared to the rest of the country I think we are quite lucky.

See you soon!

Loose ends

2010-01-29T09:28:00.001-08:00

I was in a crochet mood yesterday so I made a bunch of these little granny squares with the plan to make up a pillow. They really come together quite quickly. It is a very good project to do while sitting in front of the TV. As you can see though I have a lot of loose ends that I have to take care of. I am hoping that by early next week it will be all finished and I will have something to blog about. I really like the colors that I have chosen. It reminds me of spring daffodils so I think I will call it my daffodil pillow.

See you next week.

"Ifits"

2010-01-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

Winter in the Pacific Northwest can be at times very dreary and gloomy. Sometimes we don't see the sun for days on end. But just once in a while it decides to come out and play and the wait is worth it. This is the view from the back of our house. It was so nice to be greeted with this amazing sight as soon as daylight approached. I am afraid not much was done at the front of the house on this day. I tried to stay on the back side as long as I could. It didn't last long though as we are right back to the gloomy's again.
We did manage to get out for a short walk over the weekend and spotted quite a few bald eagles along the way. Only this one was willing to sit for a bit so we could take his photo. He is an immature eagle and he still looks that scruffy brown color. It's not the greatest pic but hopefully as the weather gets better and we venture out more we will have lots of opportunity to take more pics.
I am patiently waiting for all of these lovely soaps to finish curing. We have about another week to go. I think that is the only thing about cold process soap making that I don't enjoy...the waiting. I am sure that most soap makers feel the same way. I can't be the only one...can I?

I have been racking my brains all day trying to decide what to have for dinner tonight. Some days I could just cook up a storm and other days I am at a loss. Wonder why that is? If I do try to cook when I don't feel like it then it quite always turns out not so great. It's the same with sewing and soap making too. When I am not feeling creative then it is best just to not do anything.

So I guess tonight we will have "ifits". Translated it means "if it's there then we will have it, if it's not then we won't"!

See you soon!

Lovely New Things

2010-01-21T12:07:00.001-08:00

Some lovely scrumptious new things came in the mail this week. I fell in love with this tape as soon as I saw it. Isn't it just so sweet! Of course being a tea drinker I just had to have it!
The next two lovely things were these wonderful embroidery books. There are so many embroidery designs to chose from.
Here is a peek at the inside......and some more...
...and even more!
So I think this afternoon I will kick back on the couch, with a nice cup of tea of course, and drool over these new books.

Soap making is done for the day...
I made these two soaps yesterday and unmolded them this morning. This one is Champagne and Strawberries,
and this one is called Dewy Cactus Flower. Both should be ready in about three weeks or so.

Hubby is off tomorrow so that's all the blogging for me this week.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Another Soapy Weeekend!

2010-01-18T08:08:00.001-08:00

Well once again last week just got away from me like I am sure it did for some of you. I really do think the weeks are getting shorter!

I had intended to blog more and do so many things. But then they arrived. My new soap molds finally came in the mail after waiting so long for them. They sure were worth the wait as I think they are amazing. I just love this little pink heart soap. What a great gift to give to a knitter. When it first popped out of the mold I let out a little girly squeal, embarrassing I know!
Then another little squeal as this little beauty emerged. Then I was well and truly hooked and everything was immediately put on the back burner, including dinner. Who needs to eat, right?
It's hard to pick which one is my favorite. I just love them all.
My husband was partial to this one. He likes the calmness and simplicity.

I could go on listing soap after soap. It was one of the funnest weekends I have had in a long time.

While doing this post today I realized that my sewing life is slowly being taken over by my soaping life. I think my little blog is turning into a soaping blog. I do understand that not everyone is into soap and I may lose some lovely friends that visit here regularly, and for that I am feeling sorry. Maybe along the way I will pick up some new friends that enjoy looking at and making wonderful soap.

I finally finished my soaping day and sat down late on Sunday evening to wind down before heading off to bed. On the TV was the show "Last Restaurant Standing". In case some of you haven't seen this show it is about couples that compete each week against each other. The object being who ever is the winner gets to open their own restaurant. After the show ended hubby turned to me and said "What would you name your restaurant if you were the winner"? Two hours later I was still tossing and turning in bed trying to come up with a name can you believe!
Lizziejane just seemed to much like a diner to me. As hard as I tried I just couldn't come up with anything. So my question to you is "What would you name your restaurant if you were the winner"?

I hope it won't take you a long as it seems to be taking me!

Have a lovely Monday everyone.

Little Sisters

2010-01-11T17:34:00.000-08:00

Aren't little sisters just the best. Look at what mine sent me. These wonderful flowers arrived on Friday afternoon and were a complete surprise. Even though we live so far apart we always keep in touch with each other on a regular basis. I do wish she lived closer though as I miss her terribly. Thank you little sis!
As if the flowers were not enough I also made some lovely butter cream frosted cupcakes. Sometimes you just need a cupcake! These were just lovely with afternoon tea.
It was just so dreary and gloomy here today that it was really hard to roll out of bed this morning. But roll out I did and tackled some soap making. These soaps are fragranced with Lush duplicate fragrance oils. They should be ready in about three weeks or so. Some days I could make soap all day long and other days you couldn't drag me into the kitchen to do it.

Well that's about it for today as hubby has just walked in the door and dinner is calling.

See you soon!

What a mess!

2010-01-06T19:25:00.001-08:00

A few weeks back we had an unusually cold spell here for a few days. Numerous people had pipes burst and our daughter was one of them. Over the course of two days two pipes burst in her house and caused major damage. I don't think she will look back on Christmas 2009 fondly. As she put it " I am living in a Swiss Cheese house".
Many holes had to be cut into the walls and ceiling to find the offending pipes. Then came the tearing out of walls and the big drying up. A total of three rooms were destroyed. The kitchen, the media room and the laundry room. I am thankful that one of them was home, as I can just imagine what more damage there would have been.

Things are starting to come together a bit though. The fact that it happened over Christmas time made it tougher to get the renovations started as everyone was on holiday. Yesterday some more progress was made so hopefully things will be back to normal soon.
On a lighter note I did finish off some of those little acorns that I have been wanting to make. Of course I probably went about it the wrong way but they turned out OK in the end. First I wet felted the fibers into these cylinder shapes. Then I cut them in half to make two acorns.
Then with a needle and some glue I put the caps on. I think I must be secretly looking forward to Easter already as I seemed to have picked out Eastery colors. I don't think they turned out to badly for a first attempt. My acorn caps were all different sizes so some of them were quite tiny. I think I kind of like that.

Well here we are with another weekend almost upon us. I am keeping my fingers crossed that our weatherman is correct when he tells us that this Sunday will be dry and somewhat mild. We haven't been out for one of our really long walks for quite sometime. We also have some pruning to do in the garden. So I hope we will be able to get it all done before the weather turns rainy again.

I hope you have a lovely weekend whatever it is that you will be doing. See you all next week.

New Year, New Bags

2010-01-05T13:11:00.001-08:00

Well finally I have come back to my little blog! I never realized how hectic the Christmas season could be when you have become a soap maker. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be in my kitchen at 11 o'clock at night making soap and filling orders. As grateful as I am for all the wonderful sales, I am secretly a little glad that it has slowed down a bit so I can try to catch up on all the things I missed.

I actually managed to get in a little sewing. I have in my fabric stash lots of fabric that is really wonderful for making bags so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I am quite pleased with how these two pieces have turned out. I think I might add some to my long, also neglected little shop.

I am of course still working on all the other little projects that I have started and hopefully as I manage to get them finished I will post them all here so you can get a look see!

The weather has been not so great here. We have had lots of rain but we did manage to get out for some walks and spotted this wonderful goose sitting in the grass. They are starting to all congregate now down at the animal refuge. It really is an amazing sight to see so many of them altogether...noisy too!. It was bitterly cold and I thought that my ears would freeze off during our walk. It is nice though to get out of the house and breathe that wonderful fresh air after being couped up over Christmas. It helps to walk off all that extra food that we ate too!. Of course I am still making soap. Here is one of our newest creations...Neapolitan Ice Cream that really does smell of Strawberry, Chocolate and Vanilla. I really got quite a craving for some after I finished making it.

Well I think that is all I have for today. Hopefully I will find some interesting things to show and talk about so I won't be gone so long. I really missed my little blog and you a lot.

Have a great day!

Merry Christmas one and all!

2009-12-24T08:17:00.001-08:00

I couldn't let the Christmas Season pass without wishing everyone a warm and wonderful Christmas. I am afraid my little blog has been dreadfully neglected this past few weeks. I hope that soon I can get back to regular blogging again now that the Christmas "crazies" are almost over.

There has been lots going on, some good, some not so good. Our poor daughter had a couple of pipes burst in her house and had a major flood. So now they are in the middle of having walls ripped out and some major remodeling taking place. Will be back in the New Year to talk more and show some pic's.

All in all it was a very good year for our family. I hope that it was for yours too.

See you soon. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It can't be that hard, can it?

2009-10-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

I have seen on Etsy for a long time now those cute little acorns that are felted into real acorn caps. Well how hard can it be thought I! I already had the wool part and my lovely former neighbor Rose collected me some acorn caps from her garden. So this weekend, hopefully I will give them a try. I actually have my wish granted for getting a whole extra hour when the clocks go back this weekend. I always love it in the fall when we get to do that. So next week you may see some darling little acorn pictures posted on here. Or you could just see pictures of my poor bandaged fingers as those felting needles are pretty darn sharp.

Yippee, thank goodness it is almost Halloween and I am so happy as I have been nibbling on our Halloween candy stash for the last two weeks. I will be glad to get it out of the house. I so hope that our weather will be dry for all the little trick or treaters.

Well that's it for this week. I am of to go and make some more bath bombs. I did make such lovely ones a couple of days ago but I forgot to take pic's before I sent them to my daughter for the shop. I will try to get some pic's from her to show next week.

Have a wonderful Halloween!

What I did yesterday

2009-10-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a soap making day. In less than two weeks is our (that would be my daughter and I) first Christmas market. So it was full steam ahead to make sure that we have plenty of products on hand for all the upcoming shows. First up were Peppermint Bars. Next came... ... Lavender Pumpkin Bars... then came...... Lavender Vanilla Bars. Of course you all know me well enough to know that I had to make something that smelled of chocolate. So I made Chocolate Fudge Brownie Bars! Last but not least I finished up with...... some Woodland Soap for men.

My garage smells wonderful (that's where I do my soap making). My hands are lovely and soft and we have quite a bit more product to take to the Christmas craft fairs.

I am hoping that I will still be able to blog on a somewhat regular basis as well as trying to do the craft shows and make more product as orders come in. So if I am gone for a few days I apologize ahead of time.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Still making hexies

2009-10-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

I am still plodding away with my little hexies. For a change of pace I have been sewing some together just to see what they will look like. So far I am quite pleased with the results. It really is a great carry along project so hopefully they won't take to long to finish. Still deciding on the centers though so I thought I would do those last when I find the right fabric. We had a lovely visit with our daughter over the weekend. Of course I couldn't go empty handed. So I made her a little bucket filled with all kinds of goodies. I even made an early Christmas ornament. A big thanks to Lisa at the lovely blog A Spoonful of Sugar for giving me the idea for that sweet ornament. Fall is well underway in my garden. This is my witch hazel. It really is a wonderful plant to have in the garden. It turns the most beautiful colors in fall and blooms beautifully in winter. It is so nice to look out in the garden and see wonderful flowers when nothing else is awake. Our Japanese maple once again has turned into it's great orange color. Unfortunately it won't stay that way for long as the rain and wind usually strip it of it's leaves pretty quickly. Not everything has changed color. This lovely plant is still nice and green. I thought it looked quite interesting all covered in water droplets.

Well I think it's time for me to go and make some more hexies. Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone.

Not straight, undo it!

2009-10-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

I loved going to school on Fridays. Not because it was the last day of the week, but because it was the day when I had my very favorite class of all... sewing class.

I always knew that I was never going to be a great scholar, as reading, writing and arithmetic never really had my interest. I quite liked history and geography though. I found learning about the past and new places quite interesting. I also had a cooking and a gardening class which I really liked a lot too. But number one favorite was sewing.

At precisely 2.30pm the class started and ended sharply at 4. I remember the first day I walked into that classroom and saw all the wonderful sewing machines lined up around the room. My heart gave a little flutter of excitement as I envisioned myself sitting there creating wonderful garments, quilts etc.

The sewing classroom was one of the biggest in our school. Partially due to the fact that attached to the room was a very large storage area that held the most wonderful treasures. On seeing the storage area for the first time I thought I would faint dead away. There, on numerous shelves were stacks of the most incredible fabric. The smell of the new fabric almost made me giddy. There was spool after spool of every color thread imaginable. As well as binding, lace, sewing tools and whatever else a sewer could possibly want or need.

Class finally started and I was more than ready. In fact I impatiently and naively asked "What will we be making today, Miss Banks?".

Looking me straight in the eye and bringing me down to earth with a bump she replied "Nothing". We all looked at her just dumbfounded as she went on to explain that for the first couple of weeks we would be learning all the correct sewing terms and the correct way to do hand sewing.

As the weeks went by we did indeed learn all the correct terms and sewed by hand until my poor fingers felt like they had been used as a pincushion. I am pretty sure that I muttered some nasty things about Miss Banks under my breath!

We were all given a very large binder to put our samples of hand sewn seams into. When we had perfected hand sewing the time came for a chance to move on to the sewing machines. Not just any old sewing machine mind you. But one that made you work out while you were sewing. Yes our first sewing machine lesson was on an old treadmill machine. It was awkward at first. Kind of like patting your tummy and rubbing your head at the same time. It didn't take me long before I had that thing whizzing along at break neck speed. Of course we had to do the same seam samples that we had previously hand sewn.

All our work was inspected by Miss Banks very detailed eye. It was then I heard for the first time her sewing battle cry. "Not straight, undo it"!. How I hated hearing that. For it meant that we couldn't move on to the next phase. And I was just aching to go into the storage room and pick out that wonderful fabric that I had been dreaming about.

For a few weeks the seam ripper and I became intimately acquainted. Listening over and over again to Miss Banks battle cry.

Then one day, miraculously she said "All complete, good work, time to learn to sew with a pattern!" Yippee, Yippee, Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The following week we could have our pick of three patterns. One was for a baby bib. I remember this because it was the one I picked to do.

So into the storage room we went and pondered over all the fabric. It was a lot harder choosing than I had thought it would be. I still have that problem today. Sometimes it takes me forever to make that choice. I finally settled on a pale pink colored fabric and binding to match. Binding I thought would be a lot of fun. It would really finish off the little baby bib quite nicely. Again naive me.

I don't know about you lot but I need a cup of tea about now. Be back in a minute. Wondering about the above pic? Well that's a new project I'll tell you about next week.

Anyway back to my story. New material chosen with matching binding I set to work. I nervously cut out the bib from the pattern under the watchful eye of Miss Banks... so far so good! I then proceed to the trusty treadmill sewing machine and settle down to attach the binding. Hmmm... this is a little harder than I thought it would be. I struggle along and finish the last of the attaching. Miss Banks comes by to inspect it. Well you've probably guessed it. She now uttered those famous words once again, "Not straight, undo it!". I did proceed to undo it many, many times before it was given her OK.

As the months went by I learned a lot from my sewing teacher. It finally culminated during my fourth and last year at Holywell School for Girls when we put on a fashion show proudly showing off the garments that we had constructed.

As frustrating as it was for me in the beginning I learned that you have to walk before you can run and I have Miss Banks to thank for that.

She is of course long gone now, probably sewing with the angels somewhere. I sure do wish I could thank her though. It is because of her that I just adore sewing and try still to be patient when completing a project.

So thank you my dear sewing teacher for all your hard work. And yes, sometimes I still don't get it straight and I do indeed have to undo it!

Bucket Crazy!

2009-10-12T13:31:00.001-07:00

First on the agenda today is a very big thank you for all your get well wishes. I am still coughing and spluttering but I am hanging in there.

I just love these buckets! I found the pattern to make these on Etsy last week and have been making them ever since. They remind me of Jenn's little taskets only much bigger. This one has become my new knitting bucket. It is so handy to take along in the car when we are going on a trip as it stands perfectly on the floor without falling over.
This one I made from a colorful cherry motif tea towel. I was thinking when I was sewing this one that it would make a lovely gift to a new neighbor welcoming them to the neighborhood. It could be filled with all the fixings for a cherry pie, including the pie pan. Who wouldn't like that! My last bucket will be used in my bathroom to hold my brushes and combs. But right now it makes the perfect place for a little elephant playing hide and seek!

The possibilities are endless. The other nice thing is if they get a little grubby you can just toss them in the washing machine. Yes I sure do love my little buckets!

Beautiful Tree and Yucky Me!

2009-10-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

I am afraid that this beautiful tree is about all I can upload to my blog right now. As much as I love Autumn it seems that every year I come down with a stinker of a cold and some sort of viral thingy at the start of the season. So I am parked on the couch just generally feeling yucky. I do believe though that I am feeling a bit better today than I did yesterday. So with luck maybe I have rounded the corner on this monster.

I hope you all stay well and I will see you next week.
x

Enjoying Autumn

2009-10-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

My little bench taking on the the colors of Autumn. It is so tempting to go out and sit for a bit, but I think it is just a bit to cool. Still never mind I can look at it from my kitchen window and still enjoy it. Even soap making has taken on the colors of Autumn. Warm Rum Nut Cake. Doesn't it make you want to go into the kitchen and whip up a real one. The smell of this one makes me want to bake a real one and eat the whole thing. I guess aromatherapy really does work. Some of the fragrances make me very relaxed and sleepy, and some make me very hungry!

Well that's it for the week. Enjoy your lovely Fall weekend!

Shopping and a walk

2009-09-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely leisurely week while hubby was off. We visited our daughter who just happens to work not to far away from this wonderful quilting shop called The Quilting Loft. How can you resist not buying some beautiful fabric while you are there. Of course I didn't..,.resist that is. I could have bought half the shop but I didn't. I was a pretty good girl I must say. As well as fabric they had numerous patterns and great quilting books. I was lucky to have been able to meet a wonderful lady that runs the quilt shop and also has her own published quilting book. How gracious she was to let me take a photo of her with her wonderful book. Thank you Laurie, it was so nice meeting you. We also took time out for a walk in the woods. The leaves are just starting to turn and fall here. It was a lovely walk listening to the wind rustle the leaves and watching a few of them swirl down to the ground. An unexpected surprise was seeing the otters again that we have photographed in the past. They were quite far off but you can just make out their little heads bobbing up in the distance.

Shopping and taking a walk, I highly recommend both as wonderful fall activities!
Have a great Wednesday!

Sweet Things!

2009-09-22T08:18:00.001-07:00

Our little Sammy who is now 4 months old and is as sweet as ever. Sound up when watching this video and you will see how happily and loudly he purrs. He was so sleepy after a fun play time with his new big brother. Sure do love this little man! How sweet are these! These little taskets are a purchase I made from the lovely Jenn at her Etsy shop. I had originally intended them as gifts for Christmas. I thought putting some soap and lotion etc. inside would make such a lovely gift for someone. Well that was before they turned up and I saw them. Now little piggy me can't bear to part with them! I have one on a small table by my bed to hold all those little bits and pieces that seem to somehow gather there. I have another one in my sewing room filled with, yes, candy. It helps me get through some difficult sewing days. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it! So sorry all those people that were going to receive them as gifts, I guess you will be getting something else instead!. I had to include some new soap in my sweet things post. This is Wild Mountain Raspberries and Cream soap. Hungry yet?. I think this scent is one of my new favorites, of course I think I say that with every new soap. Not a fruity person, well how about.......Moroccan Mocha! My kitchen smelled like a wonderful coffee shop on the day I made this. It was amazing and I don't even like coffee!.

Well that's it again. Hubby is off for a week but I will still be blogging. Hopefully I will see some interesting things on our fun day trips together. Of course you will all be the first to hear about them.

Have a great weekend!

Yummy Things!

2009-09-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

Lots of yummy things to show in today's post. New fabric which of course you just have to get when you have a new craft book. That is true, right? Yep I thought so! Even though we are just turning the corner into Autumn I just couldn't resist these beautiful summer colors.
My next yummy thing is this wonderful Alpaca yarn which will soon be turned into some more cuddly neck warmers. I wish you could feel how incredibly soft this feels. I have been cuddling it all day. This yarn was an Etsy purchase from a little shop called Irish Meadows. I can highly recommend them, they have the most beautiful yarn in natural colors. One of the fun things that came with the yarn was......these little cards showing you which lovely Alpaca your yarn came from, complete with their name. What a fun little card to include with the scarf when giving it as a gift. Some more yummy handmade soap. This is a cranberry scented one and it makes me hungry every time I smell it!. My last yummy thing for today is an apple pie. Unfortunately it is just about gone now but it was so delicious! So there you have it a day filled with yummy things.

So tomorrow we start another season. I have to admit I think I like Autumn best of all. Maybe that's why I have been making things with cranberry scent and baking apple pies. Have a wonderful first day of Autumn!

Knitting, Soapmaking and soon some Sewing

2009-09-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

I am feeling quite pleased with my old self this week. I am going full speed ahead with quite a few projects. I have already started on some small Christmas gifts....I know, I know, who wants to think about Christmas while you are still trying to hold on to summer. I have been knitting these little neck warmers for myself and family. They knit up so quickly and take very little yarn. It really is a great way to use up all those odd balls of yarn that I know we all have lying around. Buy of course that wasn't enough for me, I had to make a trip to the yarn store and pick up just a few more balls of this seasons wonderful new yarn. So I guess my yarn stash will be forever...huge! I also picked up this wonderful book which I am sure some of you have already. It is chock full of lovely ideas and sewing projects. These little birds look like such a fun project. Or how about these ones. Not into birds well how about...... these little cuties. It will be hard deciding which project to make first, but I am sure I will be able to pick one.
Soap making still continues on a daily basis. This is one of our newest soaps, it is Zucchini Flower soap. It really does smell wonderfully fresh and is such a lovely soap to shower with in the morning. Of course I couldn't forget the men in our life so I came up with......Grubby Hubby soap! Yes girls, it is just how you would want your man to smell... incredible!

Just an update on my last post. First of all a big thank you for all the great name suggestions for our wonderful new little kitty. He is now officially going to be called Samson, Sammy for short. He is such a strong, tough little boy that we thought that was the perfect name for him. So welcome little Sammy to our family, we are so lucky that you belong to us now.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Little Garage Kitty

2009-09-14T18:27:00.001-07:00

About three weeks ago our daughter was woken in the middle of the night by a big commotion outside her bedroom window. She said it sounded like the most awful blood curdling sound that she had ever heard. She immediately flew downstairs and opened up her garage door and this little fellow came scampering in. She thinks he was being attacked by an older, larger cat that roams the neighborhood. Where he came from and how he got to her house is a complete mystery. She of course took him in and set about the next morning trying to find out if he belonged to anyone in the neighborhood. She even posted on the Internet to see if she could find his owners. When no one came forward to claim him she did the only thing that she could possibly do, and that was add him to her brood of critters that live in her home.

First up was a trip to the vet where he checked out just great. The little guy didn't even have one flea on him. Some blood was drawn and everything came back negative. The vet said he is about 13 weeks old, and as you can see as cute as could possibly be.

I think he stole her heart the minute she laid eyes on him. So he has quite happily settled down in her home, where he is well loved, well fed, (his little pink belly is getting quite round) and is safe and warm.

The dilemma now is to come up with a name for this little sweetheart. We have been calling him Little Garage Kitty, but of course that won't do. So if anyone can come up with a great name for our newest little angel please leave a comment and let us know.

This little guy had not been outside long, so we are wondering if someone just dumped him and then drove away. How can someone abandon such a precious little life is beyond me. Anyway he is ours now and we are so blessed to have him.

Have a great Tuesday.

Lazy afternoon

2009-09-09T16:18:00.000-07:00

What more could a girl want? A wonderful cup of tea, some yummy cookies, warm sunshine and my newest crochet project. Apart from trying to find a clean spot on the garden bench, (it was a little bird poopy) it was a perfectly lovely afternoon.

I decided sometime in the summer to make myself a crochet blanket to snuggle up with this coming winter. I had no trouble finding yarn for this project as there are balls of yarn galore all over my house. Normally I am a pastel color type of person. But with this blanket I decided to go a little more wild and colorful. The winters here in my little corner of the world can be so dark and dreary that I thought these bright colors would cheer my up a bit. Because I took the summer off from blogging this year I never got to show you all the wonderful goings on in the garden. So here are a few of my little garden friends that kept me company. Once again our wonderful little hummingbirds entertained us all summer long. I am always so sad to see them go. The dragonflies were about, not only in blue but...... in this incredible bright red color. This sweet little bird made us giggle with his punk hairdo. Sometimes mine looks just like that when I wake up in the morning!

Anyway that's it for today. I hope you are all taking time out for a bit of laziness too.

Summer is slippping away

2009-09-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well I have goofed off long enough and am ready to get back into the swing of blogging again. I really have missed it and all you lovely people. I can't imagine what you have all been up to while I have been away.

It was a wonderful summer and I am still enjoying it before it quietly slips away. Our little garden beds provided us with all kinds of great things to eat. It is so lovely being able to walk out the back door and go pick what you need for a meal. Yesterday hubby and I harvested over 10 lbs of carrots, already washed, cut up and put in the freezer for those cold winter months when soup and stews are on the menu. The onions were also lifted and are drying in the shed. It is quite amazing how much you can grow in just two tiny garden beds.

I know that you were all expecting to see tons of sewing projects here on this post, well surprise, surprise, I am afraid there aren't any. I don't think I was in my sewing room but a handful of times this whole summer. That's not to say that I haven't been doing anything. On the contrary I have been doing lot's of fun stuff. Take a look at these wonderful Pumpkin Cheesecake bars that I made......or how about this lovely Chocolate Coconut cream cake......just kidding, they are all made of soap!

I am so enjoying becoming a soaper, at least I think that is what we are called. It is funny how you seem to stumble into different interests as you go through life. I never thought I would ever be making soap. I think I am well and truly hooked!

I still will be doing sewing and knitting though, I cannot imagine never doing these again. In fact I am working on a brightly colorful crochet blanket for those cold dreary months that will soon be upon us.

But that will have to wait until my next post.

I am so glad to be back!

Just dropping by for a visit

2009-07-07T08:48:00.001-07:00

Just thought I'd stop by to show you all what I have been up to. We had a wonderful July 4Th/Birthday barbecue last weekend. It was our daughters birthday so we combined the two and had a wonderful day. Family and good friends came by to help us celebrate and eat lots of yummy food. The weather was just about perfect, not to hot and not to windy, but just right. We had a wonderful birthday cake, it was lemon berry and tasted as good as it sounds and looks. We sat around for the longest time drinking wine and having lots of great conversation. We all agreed that we would have to do it again real soon.

It wasn't all partying and relaxing though. Our daughter spent the night and early next morning we started right in on making products for her store. We made bath bombs and bubble bars...... some Lily of the valley soap, and...... some Jasmine soap. Hubby kept us well fueled with a wonderful lunch, then it was right back to work again. At about 4 o'clock she made for home with all the days wares carefully loaded in the back of her car. It was a lovely, if a little hectic, weekend.

Hope you are all having a great summer, I know I am!

Summer bloggy break

2009-06-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

After steadily blogging for about a year and a half I have decided this summer that I am going to take a bloggy break. I'll still be around though visiting your wonderful blogs and occasionally popping back in here when I have something exciting to show.

Hope you all have a wonderful Summer!

Lettuce anyone?

2009-06-18T21:55:00.001-07:00

I honestly don't think I can eat anymore lettuce, if I do I think I will turn green! The only meal that I don't eat lettuce is breakfast. I have been patiently waiting since last year for some homegrown lettuce. After eating it for a few weeks now I can hardly swallow any more of it. Maybe I will give it away at the garage sale... buy a book, get some lettuce. I can't even offer any to my neighbor as she has the same problem as we do. My daughter and my mother-in-law will be here for this weekends garage sale... guess what they will be going home with! I know once the season is over I will be longing for more, but right now I have had my fill. My little veggie beds are really doing well this year, I think it's because of the wonderful weather we have been having. Although we haven't had rain for almost a month now, with our wonderful sprinkler system our little veggie plot keeps well watered. The lilies are once again blooming although I think something seems to be nibbling on them, I will have to check on that.
I came upon this little bird nest this morning. The babies have been gone for a while, all successfully raised and well on their way.

I do love my garden in the Spring, there is always something new happening every day. Now I am patiently waiting for my tomatoes to appear and ripen. I have been longing for a homegrown tomato since last year... I just hope they don't all ripen at once!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Down by the pond

2009-06-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Not far from our house is a group of wonderful ponds. They are the perfect spot for spying all kinds of wildlife. There are lots of dragonflies in many different colors...... We were told by a lady taking photos that this blue one is a male and this... ... lovely hard to spot green one is the female. We learn all kinds of information from the people we meet there. Of course there were lots of frogs in the ponds. Some were a little hard to spot as they were well camouflaged. I think it would be a really lovely place to live if you were a frog! A little further along the path were these wonderful wild raspberries. A tasty treat for all the birds, me too if I could only reach them! On the way back to the car we saw numerous swallow nests stuck up in the rafters of the wildlife store. This one looks like a condo! We even have a little barn swallow that zooms in and out of our garage as soon as I open it. He quite happily sits there watching me as I am making soap. I have really grown quite fond of him and will be sorry to see him go when he leaves for the winter.

Well once again this Saturday is our town wide annual garage sale. I can hardly believe that it has been a whole year already since the last one. Our daughter and my mother-in-law will be joining us again, so fingers crossed for good weather and lots of buyers. If you happen to be in the Dupont Wa. area come on by and join us, it starts at 8am and finishes at 3pm. I know you will have a great time!

In full bloom

2009-06-11T13:47:00.001-07:00

Everything in my garden is just about in full bloom right now. This is my Japanese Snowbell tree. Around our small pond we have three of them and they smell just incredibly wonderful. The bee"s just adore them and they were buzzing all around me as I took this picture. All the rose bushes are blooming too...... it is just wonderful sitting in the garden when a gentle breeze is blowing.... there are lovely fragrant perfume scents coming from every direction. It hasn't all been leisure time around here though. My daughter needed some coconut lime soap for her Etsy shop. Poor hubby thought I had been baking. Glad I stopped him before he tried a bar! I have been waiting for this knitting pattern book to arrive for a while and it came today. The patterns in it are just so beautiful, my daughter already has her eye on ...... this one. I am afraid she will just have to wait a while though. As you all know I already still have two that I'm working on. Of course it wouldn't hurt just to go and look at the yarn store just to see if they have the yarn for these patterns, would it? Well maybe not!

Oh Dear!

2009-06-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

These two little Ellies have been waiting so long for their clothes that they decided to take matters into their own hands.... I'm thinking of calling them Adam and Eve!
All I could think about last week when it was so hot here was getting away to someplace cooler. So this weekend we made one of our trips back again to Mt. Rainier. First stop was this little place, it doesn't look like much but they have the best burgers and fries for miles around. When we were all sufficiently "fueled" we were on our way again up the very windy road to the mountain. The winters do take a toll on the mountain roads and a few of them had sustained quite a bit of damage. At one point the two way road become a one way road as part of it had gotten washed away in the winter storms. Along the way we were greeted with these wonderful mountain wildflowers. Only a few are blooming right now but as time goes on more and more will wake up. They are so delicate looking that I often wonder how they survive the harsh winter storms, but they do and return every year. There were waterfalls everywhere, already gushing with the winter snow run off... and yes the water was freezing! It was misty and cool and I just loved every minute of it. We even stopped to take this shot of the road that we had come up. If you look real hard you can just spot a car taking the same road. This van caught my eye, they do expeditions and even have a mountaineering school. What fun, maybe one day I might be tempted. On the other hand I could just find a wonderful spot to sit and do my knitting. Yep that sounds like better fun to me!

Have a great Monday everybody!

Hot!

2009-06-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

My goodness have we had hot weather the last few days. It was over 90 degrees here today. My roses have been opening so quickly that you can almost here them pop! I know I shouldn't complain about the weather being so hot when that is normal for some parts of the country, but we here, up in the Northwest are just not used to it at all. That will all change tomorrow as we cool down quite a bit, thank goodness. My roses aren't the only things that are blooming in the garden. The dogwood tree is in full bloom right now and looks wonderful. It has been a bit of a challenge to make sure that everything is well watered. Unfortunately my poor lettuce is not looking so good, the heat really took a toll on it. I think I will have to plant a new batch which hopefully will be ready in a couple of weeks or so.

The heat took a toll on me as well, as sewing and knitting were out of the question. The last thing I wanted to do was handle wool felt or yarn. So the only thing I have to show for today's post are these flower pic's. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you enjoy your weekend too!

A Very Happy Day!

2009-06-02T08:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the day for the dreaded six month check up at the vet. Our cat Mitzi sees it nothing short of torture. I have to admit I dread it too especially as we were expecting her thyroid test to come out abnormal. Six months before it was starting to get a bit elevated so we were advised to have it checked again in six months. The rest of the appointment went very well and we came home to await the phone call with the results this morning. At exactly 8.30 the phone rang, the caller I.D said The Pet Doctor. I gingerly answered the phone only to hear Mitzi's vet tell us excitedly that her test came out normal! She was so happy and surprised and I thanked her for giving me a wonderful start to our day. So no matter what I have to deal with today at least I won"t have that to fret about.

I hope your day will be as good as mine is going to be.

I shouldn't have, but I did!

2009-05-28T12:28:00.001-07:00

I have been wanting to make this little knitted top for quite a while, but I promised myself that I wouldn't start on it until I had finished with my purple sweater. The yarn had to be ordered as I couldn't find it anywhere so I figured that would give me plenty of time to finish the previous one... wrong! The new yarn came in lightning speed time...... and I was dreadfully naughty and just couldn't resist to knit just a couple of rows with it, just to see how it feels. Well more than a couple of rows were knit and I am happy to report it is just yummy.

My mother had so much more willpower than I have. She would never start any new knitting until the previous work was all completed. Not even if there was a bag of the most wonderful new yarn sitting alongside her knitting basket, she would always complete the item she was working on. I can hear her voice now telling me to "finish what you have started." I guess no matter how old we get we still sometimes don't listen to our mothers!

Now I know that you all do it too. You do, right? You can tell me I promise I won't breathe a word to anyone... honestly!

In just one hour...

2009-05-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

... oh the things you can see while walking in the woods. Sweet little woodland flowers. In all colors and ...... shapes. A tiny little chipmunk enjoying a tasty meal. A very large ant nest, moving with what seemed like a million ants. I have to admit that this was not my most favorite thing in the woods. In fact it made me downright itchy, and I convinced myself that one or two of them had crawled onto me. The mind sure can play tricks sometimes. But all in all it was a lovely walk in the woods. You should try it now and then.

Remember Memorial Day

2009-05-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

As the wife of a retired soldier as well as the daughter-in-law of yet another soldier, Memorial Day is special to me. We took time out this weekend to visit the New Tacoma Cemetary where my father-in-law rests. To me, Memorial Day isn't about sales, shopping or celebrating. It's about remembering. It's about being thankful. It's about honoring. It's about not forgetting sacrifices made. Please take a few minutes out of your Memorial Day to remember.

I'll be in my garden

2009-05-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

Right behind this gate is where I will be spending this lovely long weekend, soaking in the sun with plenty of sunscreen of course. Hubby has already powered washed the deck and our garden tables and chairs already for this weekends entertaining. He even left me a little message on the garden fence.... sigh. This will be the afternoon spot for tea. The honeysuckle vine is just starting to bloom.......much to the delight of our little hummingbirds. If it gets to sunny then I can move to this shady spot and watch the birds come to our little pond. It is always such fun to watch them take a bath. Yes I think it is going to be a lovely weekend. In fact I think I am going to get a start on it right now. I hope your weekend will be as lovely as mine.

See you all next week.

I should have...

2009-05-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

... been working on these. Except I was in the garden working on... ... these, and... ... this!

Today it is a little rainy and a bit overcast here, and I'm glad. When we have a few days of sunny weather I am rarely in the house. Which of course puts me all behind in the work I should be doing. I had great plans to get so much sewing done but the sun streaming through the window kept calling my name and I answered loud and clear.

I remember sitting in class at school just shortly before we would go on our summer break finding it so hard to concentrate on lessons. I would usually be staring out the window then too, only to be brought back to reality by my teachers stern voice. Which of course usually resulted in some sort of after school punishment. Well school is long gone and I can stare all I please!

Have a wonderful day!

Sassy Sally!

2009-05-13T22:15:00.001-07:00

I call this little doll Sassy Sally because she has a little bit of an attitude, hence her little quirky smile. It was a bit difficult to photograph her in the garden as we have had copious amounts of rain. This weekend looks like it will be quite a bit better, in the low seventies believe it or not. I can almost hear the plants and grass growing! I visited one of my favorite garden nurseries a couple of days ago and saw this lovely garden man. He looks very laid back and comfortable don't you think! I was thinking the other day about all the things that we have added to our little garden over the years. If I had to do it all over again our little pond would be one of the first things I would put in again. It has given us so much enjoyment seeing all the wildlife that use it on a daily basis. It also attracts a lot of birds that probably would not come into our garden. So I would say that it is my most favorite thing in the garden. If some of you are thinking about adding a little pond, I would highly recommend it. It will give you lots of smiles.

Hedgehogs

2009-05-11T13:31:00.001-07:00

Look what I found in my garden today. This sweet little hedgehog was just looking around and decided to make my garden his home!

When my daughter was little we would quite often visit her Granny and Grandad in England. One of her fondest memories was pottering around in the garden with her Grandad. Living under the garden shed was a hedgehog. Before coming inside for bed she would always leave a saucer of milk out for her new little friend. In the morning all the milk was gone and all that was left was a couple of tiny muddy footprints on the saucer. Of course she had to name him and decided that the name Sammy Slurper fitted quite nicely. So here is my little Sammy Slurper. It was a lovely Mother's Day weekend. The sun was out and it was quite lovely for this time of year. These beautiful flowers arrived for me for Mother's day from my sweet daughter, I thought the colors were just wonderful. The weather was so nice in fact that we sat outside and had afternoon tea. Hubby's camera is never far away, thank goodness, as he spotted these two sweet little goldfinches having a tender moment. They actually kissed several times before flying off. There seems to be a whole lot of loving going on in my garden right now. This morning I spotted a whole bunch of frog spawn in the garden pond. Now if I can just keep that pesky snake away that was here last year. I haven't seen him yet this year so I am keeping my fingers crossed he has moved on elsewhere.... lets hope!

Happy Mothers Day!

2009-05-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

A Very Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful Mom's out there in blogland!

A Treat For Me

2009-05-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

I must confess that I am not usually Martha's biggest fan. While out shopping the other day I came across this very large book of crafts from Martha and after skimming through I just had to take it home with me. I was pleasantly surprised at the numerous different crafts this book contained. What made it even more appealing was all the wonderfully colored photo's.... I do like to see what the finished project is supposed to look like. I finally settled on making some fabric flowers. First I had to stiffen the fabric and then let it dry. Next it was just a matter of punching out the flowers with a flower punch. Once the stamens were added and wrapped with some floral tape the flowers were done. What fun these would be tied to a birthday gift, I must admit it could get pretty addictive making these. I love how they have been glued to these branches and placed in a vase. It would be fun to color co-ordinate them with any room. I think there is something for everyone in this book, I just adore these little pom pom critters....... and there was even a chapter on soap making. I thought these soaps were just so lovely. As you have probably guessed, I am pretty pleased with my new book.

Bloggy break is over!

2009-05-03T14:22:00.001-07:00

As much as I have enjoyed taking a little break from blogging I have really missed posting on my blog, so it feels really good to be back.

The craft fair was terrific and terribly tiring all at the same time. The pic above is of my daughters booth. All her lovely products made the building that we were in smell wonderful. There was a crafter that made coffee and tea mugs with whatever picture you wanted on your mug. My daughter surprised me with my very own LizzieJane mug, I just love it! There were some really talented crafters and I had a hard time not spending all my profits. It was fun to look around and see what other people are making. Every one was so very friendly and helpful, all in all it was a very lovely fair. It wasn't all sewing and craft fair while I was gone. I spent quite a bit of time out in the garden and going for walks. I came across this dear little baby bird sleeping in our pussy willow tree. At one point he woke up somewhat startled to see a human so close and then promptly went right back to sleep. After my hubby took his pic we left him alone so as he could enjoy his afternoon nap. We also had this big guy on our fence one morning. I wasn't to happy to see him as he was after the birds at our feeder. It wasn't to long though before he gave up and flew away. With the arrival of Spring so comes lots of pollen in our area. This little squirrel was almost yellow after foraging in one of the trees for food... I wonder if they get allergies like us humans, I would think not!. Another big job that finally was tackled during my break was the dreaded tidying up of my sewing room and sorting out all my fabric. I have to be the messiest sewer on the face of the earth. When I am working on a project I get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I don't really see the mess until I stop for the day. I took this pic to prove to my hubby that once in a while it does get tidy in there.

Well it's time for tea in my new mug, and then I am going to catch up on all of the wonderful blogs that I missed reading.

Have a wonderful Monday!