Each new month is a fresh beginning--right? I can't believe that I didn't post at all in August. Yikes! I didn't even work on many projects--but I did finish this gnome--pattern by Aimee Ray. I changed the pattern she sells here a little bit with my choice of colors and embroidery.

Whooot....

I was woken this morning by the owl which has been visiting our curly willow tree for some days now. I haven't found any cool owl pellets underneath the tree but we have heard him just whooting away in the late evenings and very early mornings. It is a comforting sound--a sound of home, the woods.

Architectural Relics

Don't ya wish you could go to this "scrap" yard? We came upon these sculptural gems being stored on the inside of a covered stone bridge in Strasbourg, France. We had parked in a car park that was quite a ways from the downtown as I remember and we had to cross part of the canal on a covered stone bridge to get downtown. One other memory from this trip are the juicy fresh red raspberries that we bought at a stall in the market and we ate them--the whole box right there and then.

Forgotten Relic

I think I have a theme going here...things that time forgot. I love the colors of this old row boat--the beautiful turquoise it once was with the rust of time adding its patina. My neighbors would rightfully have a fit but I would love to put this boat in my front yard among the shrubs and flowers. It would remind me of happy water, beach, summer, boaty kinds of memories. ;-)

Lost Shoes

Have you lost a shoe? Maybe the pretty pleated slipper with the elf-like turned up toe? These two shoes have been tacked up here awhile on these fence posts--I have seen them repeatedly over the years--I look for them as a sort of touchstone to reassure myself that this little corner of the world hasn't changed much.

Another shoe story.....
At the end of winter this year just where we turn onto a main street we couldn't help noticing that there was a lost loafer in the middle of the road for weeks. For a while it got stuck in a long pot hole which made for a smoother turn and then one day--sadly--it popped out again. I was amazed at how long it stayed in the middle of the road and wonder who lost it in the first place--didn't they notice on those cold snowy days that one foot was noticibly colder than the other? I have no picture of this shoe because it was just too cold to stop for anything those days--probably why it was abandoned in the first place. :-)

Off Visiting

The girls and I are going visiting and will be away for a week or so. We go to see family and feast ourselves on the trees and rocks and home-land. We are sure to be knitting/crocheting, crafting and going for lovely walks in the woods. I am going to pretend it won't be sticky with humidity, too. :-)
See ya when we get back!

Fresh Berry

Two of my favorite things--polka dots and berries! Last week we visited a pottery painting place and I painted up this curvy bowl. I'm like a kid with a new toy--I've had my cereal in it, fruit with cottage cheese and of course ice cream--even hand washing it so I can use it again right away. :-) The first night I slept with it next to my bed on the table--am I crazy?--made me smile when I awoke.

Carving Up the Rubber

For summer camp last week I made each of the girls a rubber stamp --Em the kitty and Meg the owl--made the babushka for me. :-) I put the stamps into little cloth bags stamped with a "blind brownie" stamp I drew and then carved. We had kind of a secret santa type thing--thus the "blind brownie" at the beginning of camp. Each of us had to make a secret present for the other "campers".

I had forgotten how much I like making rubber stamps. I just drew a little doodle in pencil, flipped it over on the pink rubber, rubbed the pencil back and forth all over the back of the drawing to transfer the sketch to the rubber and used linoleum carving tools to cut around my transfered lines.

Fairy Ring and Some Housekeeping

Last year the girls and I played on vacation and left a fairy house in a hollow in the roots of a tree near the cabin. This year imagine our surprise to find a fairy ring of mushrooms in the front yard of the very same cabin. Meg said they are supposed to be dangerous places, that if caught inside of a fairy ring one can be snatched by fairies. For me it just added to the enchantment of an already beautiful spot on earth.

This is Harry Hedgehog sitting among the fairy toadstools. He is dressed in bathrobe and has his hot water bottle under his arm. This is just the outfit I need today and a hot water bottle is just the thing 'cause I feel kinda out of sorts at the moment.

My very talented Mom knit and put him together for me. It is another Alan Dart pattern.

Here is the newly refurbished fairy house. It was a little weather worn when we first saw it this year so we put together some new accouterments, like a nutshell floor lamp and acorn bowls of red berries, which disappeared during the night (?). Yellow flower tops served up with small pinecones made a splash on a center table of bark.

Also a comfy deer moss bed under a bark shelter. Slightly out of focus beside the bed is an acorn bowl with a snail shell in it. Must be French fairies enjoying escargo in bed. :-)

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! :-)

Blog Birthday Giveaway!!!!!

In honor of my blog's birthday month--yah,yah--I am giving away a little matryoshka that I made. :-)
I will randomly select from comments which have been left on this post before next Weds.--June 4th.
I will announce the winner on June 5th right here on Gingerbread Cottage! Yeah!!!


Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Many, Many Thanks!!!

It is just over a year now that I found crafty blogs--what a find! I was getting ready for my annual summer camp with my two girls, trying to find projects for us to do together and I stumbled upon Molly Chicken and thought I had died and gone to heaven. I was searching for ribbon bracelet examples or instructions and looked under fabric bracelets and the first google hit was for Molly Chicken's tutorial for scrap fabric bracelets. Now while I didn't use this bracelet tutorial for summer camp I did make one of my own later in the summer last year.

I soon found Allsorts and this led to link after link......I soon got rather dizzy with blog overload--a very pleasant place to be ya know. :-) This has been a great blogging time for me, visiting all the lovely blogs out there and having my own blog inspires me to work on projects and post pictures that brighten up my little corner. :-) Thank you--all you fabulous bloggers--you see--you brighten up my life!--and make me smile often! :-)

Who is this?

This little doll is all ready. Check back tomorrow to find out what's going on........

By the way--Happy, Happy Birthday Mom!! :-) Love ya!

Rags

This man is dressed in rags poor fellow and I had to pull out the rags to clean and dust today poor me. :-0

I have no idea where this man was made or by whom, but why the frown? Maybe he has dreams of being a dapper fellow and he just can't get it right. :-)

Mini Dolly

Isn't she sweet? Such a pretty face and a dotted dress! Do you see the lace trimming the bottom of her dress? This little doll is attached to a pink ribbon that makes a necklace. My grandma gave her to me back in the 70's--yes, if you didn't know it from before in looking thru my blog, I am like a squirrel who tucks things away in a nest. You never know what I might pull out next. :-)

My grandma had been on a trip to England and had brought her back for me. In looking at her again just now I see that she is very much like a little babushka doll with her covered head.

Underneath her dress is a heavier bead? that is cloth covered and it holds the doll upright when it is around your neck.