Beach Blanket Bunny

Here is Bunny getting a little sun on the porch. The millinery flower I attached to Bunny's ear I found while rolling some yarn into a ball--it was tangled in the yarn. A happy find. :-)

We gardened a bit this weekend--well, I gardened and J dug holes and trenches, how about you? It was a beautiful two days here and the coreopsis is in bloom! :-)

On My Lap

I can't show you my desk full of projects yet--I'm getting ready for an annual "summer camp" with the girls--but I can share what has been in my lap which has been full of yarn ever since vacation. With my mom's help I started my first ever crochet project during vacation and now it's done. We had blue yarn with us and not brown, thus a blue bear. I followed the pattern in this book Amigurumi World Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli but I'm afraid the head was not done exactly as written because I kept messing up the counting, etc. Each of the arms and legs are slightly different from each other too, but I guess close enough.

Then I started on a hedgehog--it has all these added on "prickles on its back--it is taking so long to finish so I started something new! :-)

I was inspired by the cuteness in Molly Chicken's archives of bears and animals and so I just started crocheting a little bear? in a blue and white striped shirt. No real pattern, just an idea of the amount of each color that I wanted and where I wanted it to narrow down. I'll probably show another picture of it when I've finished--if I'm happy with the face. I think that is the hardest part--getting a good expression.

Have a cooooool weekend! :-)

China Pattern

Check out this china pattern--"Oma's House"! Found just this one tea cup and plate up North on vacation. I love the houses and the kids and the tiny ladybug found under the teacup on the plate and after you finish your cocoa at the bottom of the cup. The pattern is produced by Heinrich Leonhard for DEMDACO. I couldn't find it online except for here and a website that said the pattern is retired.

Chilly Days and Yarn

A good place to spend a chilly day--oh, the torture! On our week-long vacation to Michigan which was pretty chilly and sometimes rainy we managed-ahem-to enjoy ourselves. :-) How could we not with the beautiful beaches and a pretty cabin on a smaller lake to come home to. My Mom coached the girls and I in knitting and croceting and it was a regular yarn camp!

Now, you have got to love the mice in the photo below. They are part of a pattern of Dickensian Mice by Alan Dart (Sirdar pattern # 4132). Mom knit the pieces and I put the bits of the two mice together. I made the lantern all by myself with coaching from Mom. This guy Alan Dart is a wonder and here is his website. His patterns are often run in a magazine Simply Knitting out of England, which is on the magazine racks of Borders here in the states.

This is Matilda (Tilly) Pruit and Frederick Lumley.

Sweet Softies & Vacation

Isn't this wee pup cute? I made her from a kit that is chock full of patterns. You have got to check it out! Each softie has a folded card with a photo and instructions and then a tissue sheet of pattern pieces to cut out.

I have cut out the felt needed for two more of the softies to take on vacation. I have prepared way too many projects for a trip we are taking next week. We always pack the car full of art supplies and only pull out half--we get way too busy talking and eating. :-) I want to try a deli we spotted last year and visit all the farm markets for yummy fresh fruits and vege.

This pink and white cake is also from the kit--the felt (acrylic) included in the kit is enough to make this. Even the little pink pompom is included.

This is Em a few years ago enjoying the very sand we will walk on again next week.

Here's to sandcastle wishes and beach-filled dreams!!

See you when we return. :-)

Not Little, Miniature or a Doll!

Switching gears on my love of the small and miniature I made this huge, humongous pincushion for my Mom. I was inspired by a giant pincushion sitting on the desk of Mette on her very cool blog Erleperle. Now, I want to make one for me.......Lately, I keep returning to my artroom in the basement to get something else that I have forgotten as I craft near my kids upstairs--truth be told--to be near the TV, too. :-) I really need all these pockets. I have pulled out some of the fabric that I will use--one with matryoshka all over--to keep them close at hand. :-)

When I was making this--I should have taken pictures because even after trying to make sure that the pocket openings were going to all be on top--I messed it up. I don't even know how I did it, but after carefully sewing the cube up ever so neatly Boom!! I had pockets facing the bottom of the cube! Aaaargh! So, I unpicked and re-attached the offending pockets. All good now and Mom loves it!

Happy Sewing everybody! :-)

Summer storms.........

A wild and windy day here--we had a storm push thru last night that felt like someone was throwing rain at the house! Both of the girls ended up on the main level to sleep....Em in our bed....she loves it best to put her knees squarely in the middle of an obliging? back to return to sleep. I don't like the big storms anymore than our girls do. I do like all the garden loveliness that the summer has brought tho and would have taken a picture but the wind is blowing all the blooms out of focus. I love the lily pad look to these nasturtium leaves, don't you?

By the by, I sent out two of the three matryoshka today--Alexis, let me know your contact info. :-)

And the winner is......

All of you! Yeah!!!

This morning I wrote down all three of your names Lea, Karin, and Alexis to draw one for the giveaway and thought, hey, why not send all three of you a little matryoshka. :-)

So, email me your contact info. and I will send the three dollies off.

Thanks so much for your comments! :-)