only 9 weeks ....

I've been thinking SPRING and it's only 9 weeks away in my neck of the woods - woo hoo!!

I couldn't resist making this wee pincushion in honour of the coming season and  a Spring door hanger   .....

The idea came from here .

And the door hanger was a design from here.

And this card  was for a pair of cat lovers  ....

they've received it so I can show it off  share it.

time flies

This time last year I published my first blog post -  wow, time flies when you're having fun!  I enjoy reading blogs and I created one only to satisfy myself that I could - to prove to myself that this old dog could learn new tricks - I really didn't know what I'd blog about or if I'd even continue to blog.  I've learned what I like and dislike about blogs and I know that I still have some fine tuning to do.

I am grateful to all my followers, to everyone who reads my blog, and to all of you who comment - I appreciate you ... without you this would be 'Dear Diary'.  This is where I'm supposed to have a giveaway - right? - but you all deserve a gift.   Unfortunately, I'm not a designer so I can't even offer a free design.  I can only offer you my gratitude.  In honour of all of you I made these mug rugs that will be used regularly as a constant reminder of your kindness and friendship.   Blogland is rather awesome!

"Life is too short to go through it alone."

 

bunnies, butterflies .... and knitting?

This wee bunny and butterfly caught my eye and I simply had to stitch them....

You'll find the chart here.

I quite surprised myself the other day when I picked up a pair of knitting needles and a ball of yarn and made this..... 

 I haven't knitted for years ages but when I spotted the crocheted  and knitted version of this neck wrap over at Fiberflux I knew I had to make one ... I preferred the knitted version and the pattern was so easy.  Mind you, when I was finished I had to look up how to cast off ... for the life of me I couldn't remember how.  I used yarn that I had on hand and the colour works perfectly with my winter jackets. 

snowing again ...

dolce far niente

Dolce far niente....I love saying that!  I think they're good words to remember.  It's ok for us to enjoy dolce far niente - the sweetness of doing nothing - which is why I stitched this wee ornie and hung it up as a reminder to ourselves.

This  week there is an 'in your words' blog hop - a novel idea and it's been fun seeing what they've come up with and why.  If you haven't seen it you'll find the blog hop here.

keeping busy ....

With the hustle and bustle of Christmas over with it was time to find other things to do and this is some of what I've been  up to ....

Clockwise from the top are fabric bookmarks, a journal cover, lavender sachets, a table/candle mat and a pair of pillow cases.  The bookmarks are quite popular and I only had two left to show off.

I used our bread maker for the last time the other day - we knew it was on it's last legs but we were still sad to see it go ... I do believe we've had that machine for 20 years and it was used regularly.  We only used the dough cycle and the last 'loaf' that it made was beautiful but when I took the dough out of the machine it looked a bit bluish grey so the investigation was on!  Turns out that the grease in that bottom thingee had leaked through to the pan and become well mixed into the dough.  I dumped the dough into the kitchen garbage can where I discovered sometime later that it had continued to rise ....that was interesting.  Fortunately, we were prepared for its demise and had purchased, last fall, a food processor that could mix bread dough and it did a mighty fine job! 

new sewing room