Easter chickies

Wanted to send off Easter boxes this week to grand nieces. Had some paperback children's books stashed, which I had bought at our church Book Fair a few weeks ago. Got some peeps, because how can you have Easter candy and NO peeps?!? Then I realized I didn't have any stuffed toys. And they had to be SMALL! To fit in the boxes. So got out some bright yellow yarn, made some pompoms, whipped them together, cut out orange beaks and black eyes from felt, glued them on, and stuffed them into the boxes, just barely fitting in. Best of all, hubby got the boxes mailed off today.

Cozy Knitting

Finally finished my winter time project, a shawl made with Lion Brand organic cotton. Started it back in December, but finishing it in time for Easter is a good thing. It is probably the most soft and cozy yarn I have ever worked with. I make dishcloths from cotton, but no cotton feels like this stuff. When our daughter-in-law comes for Easter dinner this year, she will have a new wrap in addition to a chocolate bunny!

Star flowers

Don't remember what the botanical name for these little flowers is, but they have become wild flowers in our woods, after beginning their bulb life in a flower bed in front of our house. Anyway, with the blizzard prediction, which I think the meteorologists seem to be enjoying way too much, thought I had better get out and capture flowers in bloom right now. Got a bucket of daffodils and paperwhites picked, Miss Violet approving of their placement in vases easily accessible to her nose, and digital capture of the little "star flowers" in bloom in front of our dogwood tree. So when it snows 15 inches tomorrow, we still have the memories.

Spring beads even!

Went to a bead show this past weekend. Actually controlled myself pretty well, by passing by those $200 strands, for more economical beads. Sigh. And those African trade beads were SO beautiful...but as I said, I tried to keep it down to a reasonable amount. And did come back with some beautiful beads, like crazy lace agate rectangles and squares, and some gorgeous pink stuff, which actually matched perfectly an orchid I wanted to include in a necklace. Had to make up something for the Special Olympics fundraising Trivia night this coming weekend, so those crazy lace agate beads worked out perfectly. Along with some hemalyke (pseudo hematite I guess). So here is the ensemble I came up with, and I hope it makes some money for them in the silent auction.

Spring thoughts

Everything is finally budding out...the daffodils in full swing, the lilac buds swelling, starflowers in bloom underneath our dogwood tree, tree pollen (excuse me while I sneeze), the first bumblebees, ladybugs trying to get out of our house after they hatched from my wintering-over houseplants, the first purple martins scouting out their house. Yup, I think it is finally spring. Oh, and tax time, where hubby spends time organizing and inputting stuff for filing. All kinds of things sprouting out.

So enjoy the daffodils in our flowerbed, and Miss Violet, our new assistant filer for tax season!

Beady buttons

Have a few old glass canning jars filled with old buttons in my sewing room. Some came from my grandmother's sewing kit, others I have collected at garage sales, flea markets, etc. Went through them to find pairs of buttons the other day, got inspired, and put together some antique button earrings, some with silver chain, others wire wrapped with crystals. We have a Book Fair at our church library this week, with proceeds to benefit Forest Avenue Homeless Shelter in the city, so thought maybe I could add the earrings to the sale, and see what we can bring in for the shelter.

Kitchen thoughts

Been wanting to seriously do something in our kitchen. But with the economy, painting the walls and cleaning up the cabinet faces will probably be it. Got an order from LTD the other day, and it was my slide out shelves for kitchen cabinets. I love the slide outs on my coffee bar, but we are talking serious money on that expense, so got some metal slide outs. After much struggling and huffing and puffing, Mr. Fix-It, my hubby, got them installed. Told me that was the last project he was working on for awhile, then he took a nap. So I cleaned out the cabinets, put down fresh shelf paper, and reloaded. The only things that didn't fit back inside were my stainless mixing bowls. Had to put those in a wall cabinet. Easy fix. We did consider new countertops, but we were quoted a price of $60 a square foot for "granite wrapping" of our old countertops. Nope, too expensive, considering commercials advertise solid granite countertops for $39 a square foot. Do the math, right! At this moment, my old butcher block laminate is looking pretty good.

More BIG beads!

Okay, so remember those crazy horse beads I assembled into a necklace? Well, had more of them, in different shapes and colors, so got creative with another round, and it came together so quickly, it was almost like the necklace made itself! I was amazed! So got another giftie ready, wrapped in bubble wrap, inside a jewel box, tissue wrapped and voila! It's a birthday gift for a friend.

Lenten thoughts

Our church is holding a prayer and fasting week this week, and of course it coincides with Lent. I planned to participate, but after I went home sick on Friday from subbing, realized, "Hey, I can do this, I am already halfway there." Because throwing up for 4 hours straight, and running to the toilet for 48 hours sure purges anybody's system to prepare for fasting. So I am really trying. Of course, hubby attended our Elderberry luncheon on Monday, and had his chance to sacrifice. Right. I stayed away because even the look of food made me nauseous. I am better. Even got a bowl of Costco's organice tomato/sweet red pepper soup with a tuna melt down me tonight.

This afternoon, to keep my mind off food, because I was suddenly bitten by the "hungry bug", I started sewing. Got this really neat book on serger projects from Sewing with Nancy, and threw together something called a neck purse. My friend is flying overseas next week, so thought she might find it handy. Looks like it could contain a passport, credit cards, room key, even a cellphone. The only problem I had was that my serger got crabby over the thickness of the layers. So finally went back to my sewing/embroidery machine and double stitched over the serger threads so none would accidentally break, and lose her stuff. I used some microsuede as the base, which I think was the main problem. If I just keep it simple and stay with lighter cotton fabrics, I don't think Ms. Serger will stay crabby long. I think it was an afternoon spent doing worthwhile things, because I threw laundry into the mix, washing bed linens, pillows, blankets etc. Things you should wash after you are sick, so you don't keep all the germs around.

Spring is coming tomorrow--our weatherman promised us! And through the five inches of snow, which for some reason didn't do much melting today, you can see the tulip and daffodil leaves poking up. Maybe I might even feel like getting out and about tomorrow.