http://zenrevolution.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/chop-wood-carry-water/

Sock Monkey in Distress

Really, this is the most ridiculous outfit for a Sock Monkey. 

I found this monkey at the G'will and just had to rescue her. She is missing an ear, but otherwise a fine monkey. Took the outfit off and she looked so relieved. Tossed the dress and hat into the 'redonate' bag, but then thought I really needed a pic.

I

 Maybe for blackmail.  In case she gets out of line.

One Wild and Precious Life

This weekend, my brother is riding his bike 57 miles to celebrate his 57th birthday.  He's also using his ride as a fundraiser for Living Water International, which works to provide clean water.

I am so proud of him.

Each morning, I go out to water our garden.  This fellow greeted me today. 

He brings to mind the Mary Oliver poem, 'The Summer Day', which ends "Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?"

I'm sending the poem to my brother.  I love what he is doing with his precious life.

Garden Observed

Saturday morning these little mushrooms appeared.

Delicate, silver-gray on thin stems.

They disappeared only hours later.

It makes me wonder what happens in the garden when I'm not there?

How many times have hummingbirds visited?

When does the toad come out from

under the hosta leaves?

Are the goldfinches

feeding on the salvia seeds right now?

This place at this time.

It is fleeting.

This morning in the garden . . .

delicate pink hydrangea

another view of the (growing) fairy garden

old urn with ajuga

castor bean

A Fairy Garden

Would you like to see my new garden?

A miniature garden in an old wheelbarrow.

A boxwood tree, bonsai begonias, little sedums and ajuga, a tiny fuchsia . . .

and a gazing ball in a miniature pot and a bench for the fairies to sit on.

Thrifty Thursday

Here's a few of the goodies from last week's thrifting:

Cute Coke glasses -- juice-sized, for those who like to begin their day with toast and Coke. And four funky daisy mugs + sugar and creamer. These must be from the 70s? when gold and avocado were the 'in' colors. For some reason, I could not overlook their cheerfulness.

Here are my favorite finds of the day. Vintage fruit crate labels, all framed up. And at a fantastic price. (More colorful than shown here. Hard to capture.)

I heart 'Chickie'. That one may end up in my kitchen. But first I'm offering all three to Z, for his new apartment. He thinks he'll like 'Buckingham' but he might want all three -- certainly has more empty wall space than I do.

Oh, and see the vintage tablecloth above? It's next on the Flea Market Bag worktable, perhaps.

Thank you, Salvation Army!

Another Flea Market Bag

I'm just so excited about this bag! It's made from pillow ticking (from an old feather pillow), an old embroidered doily, and some polka dot fabric -- love me some polka dots, especially white on red.

The ticking fabric had limitations -- size: slightly too small for the pattern; condition: a couple of stains. So I made the bag slightly smaller than the first flea market bag I did and used the exterior pocket and a little button heart to cover the stains.

I also had to use some canvas for the interior of the top placket and had to piece the handles just a bit to get the right length. (So pleased about the change of stripe-direction piecing on the handles.) And I lined the handles with the red/white dots.

Love!

Thrifty Thursday, er Friday + Wristlets!

Just popping in to show a couple of fun finds from last week.

A pair of '70s pillowcases and some vintage patterns. Thinking of sewing up some library totes from the pillowcases. . . .

And I'm sewing wristlets -- these from some fabric scraps that I 'won' from sewmamasew blog. I'm trying out the side zipper idea -- I think I like it a lot.

And -- big thrifting news -- the Salvation Army thrift store closer to me seems to be undergoing a transformation. Usually this particular store is a mess, with chipped china and stained linens and total chaos in the book section. Only occasionally do I find anything I want.

I popped in there yesterday, hoping to find maybe some more pillowcases, at least, or tablecloths for sewing projects. And, oh my! Shopping-cart-fuls of goods were being unloaded onto the newly organized shelves. After circling the aisles again and again as the carts were emptied, I emerged (was it an hour or two later?) with many many goodies, most destined for resale on Ebay or at the Inn Shop. I'll show some of my finds next week.

Enjoy the weekend. Spring seems right around the corner here, perhaps as soon as the 8" of snow (remaining from our recent 16") melts. The light is just beautiful.

Flea Market Bag

Oh, hello!

I haven't been here in a long time. But now it's February: almost spring and time to make great bags for all the wonderful markets -- flea, farmer's, antique -- that will soon be here.

This great bag is from Carry Me: 20 Boutique Bags to Sew. It measures a very generous 18" x 17" x 5.5" and has wonderfully deep side slits that allow the bag to open wide.

I decided to sew it up exactly per instructions, using an Amy Butler print for the outside and a thrifted piece of soft-handed woven green/blue fabric inside. I also put in the zippered pocket, using a technique I had not tried before: after attaching one side of the zipper tape to the pocket, the other side of the zipper tape is attached directly to the lining and then the pocket is topstitched down. I'm not convinced that this is the strongest pocket, but I wanted to try the technique. And I do like a zippered pocket in such a deep bag.

The outer fabric has ironed-on interfacing, which gives it just the right amount of body. I did add a second piece of regular interfacing to the top band to give it a bit more body and prevent droopy-droopy. But that's the only change I made.

All in all, a great pattern, easy to follow, and good results, I think. Am thinking of more more more to make -- especially with vintage tablecloths?

Thanks for reading my blog. And I promise not to disappear again.

Christmas Corners of My Home

A little peek . . .

at two of my Christmas trees.

Don't eat the candy canes!

Merry Christmas to all.

A Golden Harvest

The bees have done so much work this summer. And now, in autumn, our neighbor returns to harvest the honey.



Some of the frames were almost empty. I think the additional levels of frames were added a bit too soon. Next year we'll wait a bit longer.

Jimmy took some frames for harvesting with a centrifuge. He left several levels for the bees' winter home and food.

And he gave this frame to me to harvest by hand. You can see the caps on top of the honeycomb. I scraped those off very lightly. The honey just glistens! I'm so grateful to the bees and want to give them more flowers in their garden next year.


These jars are from my harvesting efforts.

The honey is light and delicate. So beautiful.

A sweet golden harvest.

A little 'Inchie' book

This has been my obsession over the past week.


It's a little 'inchie' book -- 2 1/2" tall and 1 1/2" wide. (Although I think an 'inchie' is really an inch-square collage. But anyway.) When I saw this project at the Stampington website, I just had to try it. Right then. At 5: 45 a.m.


I put it together using materials on hand. So some of the pages are rather boldly patterned papers, but I think they work. This is maybe my favorite spread -- with the tiny ferris wheel on one side.

I love this page with Mr. Lincoln, too.

Each page is a little collage, and I found the size to be so right for a project to turn back to again and again in the spare moments of my days. And I can't wait to do another. Maybe one for Christmas? What do you think?

Little bundles

The garden is in its late autumn beauty now: seed heads mark where the full garden glory once stood.

The larch tree has dropped its needles, and a few fallen branches with cones are treasures to me.

The feverfew and lady's mantle are a froth of dried flowers at the edges of the beds. Rosemary and thyme offer still-green beauty; the rose gives its loveliness.

I gather bits of the garden into little bundles to bring inside. I'm not ready to say goodbye.

In the Autumn Garden

Amber hydrangeas

Little pepper ornaments

The angel with one wing

A Project, Completed, in Season

As the season turns, I need to put away my farmers' market bag project -- juicy peach print + green-and-white polka dot fabrics -- and turn to the fall/winter schemes. This little bag is an Amy Butler Frenchy handbag, using a squishy green chenille-like fabric for the body and a cute-cute bear print (Japanese fabric) for the upper part. I cut the pieces out last year but never sewed them together before the season changed again.



So, with fall here quite officially (both calendar and temperature say it's autumn), I took the pieces from the sewing armoire and put them together. I used the longer handles of the Frenchy shoulder bag and the smaller body of the Frenchy handbag.

The button is decoration; it mimics the pleats of the bag. I'm loving this bag.

Next up: finishing the curtain for the patio door (fabric purchased 4 years ago; cut out last year). Then, on to some holiday sewing projects, to get ahead of the season for once!

Are you finishing up any projects from long ago?

Thrifty Thursday: Vintage books

Of the many things I search for at the thrift or at garage sales -- rickrack, vintage ephemera, dishes, always dishes -- old books seem the easiest find. Here's a stack from the last few weeks.


Anchoring is the red book with gold: 'New Dictionary of Thoughts.' Well, that should cover about everything, I suppose! In case I need more guidance, there's 'Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette.' Useful info, like how to address the children of a Baron. ("All the sons of a Baron and their wives have the title Honourable. The daughters of a Baron also have the title Honourable," fyi.)


Isn't this a lovely book? 'Complete Book of Needlecraft,' c. 1959. And it is compete, I must say. Knitting, crochet, embroidery, quilting, rugmaking, tatting -- all the needlecrafts I could imagine ever attempting.


What really revs my creative engines, though, are foreign language dictionaries. This one is special: it is a Spanish - German dictionary: 'Suer Spanische Konversations-Grammatik.' No copyright date, but quite old -- the German words are in calligraphy -- love that!

Don't you love old books? I'm wanting to do some altered books this winter. . . . after the flannel quilt is finished, the patio door curtain is done, and some wristlets are made. Too few hours in the day for us dreamers.

Sewing Round in Circles

I got a song, it ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends
I got a song, it ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends



Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

lyrics by Billy Preston

potholders sewn on 'Ginette' from pattern found in Handmade Home, Amanda Soule

Linen, lace, and mother-of-pearl buttons

Sewing again!

This is my take on the wonderful linen bags I've seen in Japanese craft books. I love how soft and scrunchy the linen becomes as I use this bag.

And this was the right bag for some vintage mother-of-pearl buttons that I'd been hording, er, collecting for a while now.

Oh, and I love to do a hanging, quilted pocket inside for my cell phone . . . and to do a little patch or two on the inside of the handles, for just a glimpse of what's inside.