Snowball Fringe

It's a little early for snow :-) but I adore this balled fringe. The yellow polka-dotted fabric is so sunny and cheerful in our bathroom. I have wanted to use this fringe for so long now but the houses we have lived in didn't seem to want this cottage look. Finally, I can indulge.

Gardens

side garden.........

secret garden.........

front garden.........I love them all. We have seen so much garden loveliness this summer, it is so inspiring.

.......and the crepe myrtle in Charlestown. So pink and beautiful. :-)

Resting Comfortably

Finally--good news to report. My Dad is doing much better and is to be released from the hospital soon. I am exhausted from worry and trips to the hospital, but overjoyed that things are going so well right now.

Our funny little dog, Giz, found it very comfortable in this basket, above, that the girls fitted out for him. He climbed in and out of the basket himself and even loved being carried around in it.

By the way--Mickie--thank you so much for keeping up with my blog and all your very warm thoughts--it is hugely appreciated. :-)

Tranquility

I am working on tranquility and calm in the midst of all the hospital flurry and tension. Dad having some trouble recovering right now......

Rock Art Heart

This is a heart image that Em spotted on our hike a weekend ago in the Hocking Hills. It is made from natural water and mineral deposits in and on the rock face. Humans have made scratches near it and I turned the photo upside-down.

I wanted to post it today as my thoughts are on my Dad who is having heart surgery today.

State Fair

The State Fair is over but all the fun is remembered. The lemon shake-ups, mini donuts and look at this meat extravaganza-below. We didn't eat here--we passed by too early in the morning and ended up eating later elseware--I had a footlong hotdog--eeegads--all the junk food was yummy!

That is a lot of food. We rode past the same vendor at the end of our day on the sky ride and it was still piled high with just as much meat.

This dolly was in the creative arts building's amateur showings. Very simple and cute!

The embroidery wowed me on this welcome sign.

I like the depression era fabrics used in this Ohio Star quilt.

Soak up the Shade

Imagine---you recline in the dappled shade, slowly gazing upon the sparkling lake gently lapping against the shore in the slight breeze.

Beans & Cherries

I will slowly catch up. We have not totally unpacked yet. We left for almost the whole month of July. First we visited family in NC and then friends in GA. After coming home we set off almost immediately for MI with my mom and dad.

We are really loving the fresh garden food lately. We have a vege/fruit market just down the street--corn on the cob, green beans and peaches. Then just to spoil us rotten, our town's farmer's market on the weekend. We picked blueberries in Michigan last week--the absolute best bluberries in the world. We overdosed on fruit up in Michigan. Yummy!!

Back to the Hills

We made our big move. So much has been going on I haven't a clue how to summarize it. I was last on here moaning about cleaning and arranging the house for placing it up for sale. Well, of all the luck we put it up for sale on a Thursday and Saturday was a first showing. That did it--the first people who saw it fell in love with it and made an offer that we accepted.

So much for my complaining and worrying. But wait, I wasn't done worrying, oh no...that had just begun. I worried the roof would rip off in one of the many storms that seemed unending and I slept very little thinking about what could go wrong before closing. What a mess I was!!!

A few things did manage to go wrong--a roof repair and an icemaker that got all blocked up but in the grand scheme of things I should have slept more. Sheesh!! That is my 8 year old's favorite expression right now--how suitable.

We are now ensconsed in a pretty little ranch--in need of paint and loving care. We have rented for now until we can find a place to buy. The pictures above are a slice of heaven that is within an hours drive. I love the woods and we missed them so.

Now, if we could only have convinced our good neighbors and friends to have moved with us. We miss them.

I don't know how often I will be back on here but I will try to update on how the fixing up goes. Don't you just love the wooden floors.

Half-empty Vase

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, ours was busy with vacumning and dusting and cleaning marks off the walls. We squeezed in an egg hunt or two though and yummy ham for supper. Em's egg hunt for us grown-ups was fun. She claimed to be all worn out when it was over because we had acted like such kids, J and I.

>:-)

I am really feeling under the weather with a cold right now---so I am curling up in a ball under a blanket for a few days.

Take Care.

Soft-boiled

I have been meaning to get on here and share the knitted egg that I made last week. I used the free pattern shared by Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits. I fiddled with her pattern because I couldn't make the number of stitches come out right. Dummy me didn't realize that different ways of increasing produce different counts. So I re-figured the increase part of the pattern to work with knitting into the front and back of the stitches. The first one I made Em absconded with and I haven't seen it since. She is planning an egg hunt for her father and I and she needed a prize egg. :-)
Anyway, the bluey one above and below is the second one I made with varigated yarn from knitpicks. I wish I had time right now to make more.

The crocheted egg is from a shop in Evanston.

On the Faux

Painting in the kitchen is done--whoops--except for the kneehole of the desk--dang if we didn't forget that. Meg added our faux cherry blossoms here in the picture--we don't have any spring blossoms for real yet--forsythia is barely beginning to open around here. All these fake flowers have snuck their way into our house it seems--a few here and there and now we have five rooms graced with them. I'm sure I will keep them until they look all tatty and dusty because they sure are pretty.

:-)

Speaking of faux--let's be real here--my kitchen never looks this good--pots always drying on counters, piles of papers, etc.--but right now we are living the faux life. We will be listing our house for sale soon and so we have started to live this crazy life of having everything in its place as if company--like the queen were dropping by any moment. Of course, I still have more personal stuff to pack up--you can see examples in the above picture, like the ceramic plaque in the shape of a bear that Em made in art. I feel so resistive sometimes to putting it all away--makes me sad.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

No time for foolin' around

Fresh Bundle

I stopped in at Vogue Fabrics in Evanston to see what that store was like. I was loving the shelves chock full of ribbons. The very yummy cake ribbon is by artist Laura Foster Nicholson.

Sanrio in downtown Chicago (Shops at Northbridge) was a must stop for Em. The Hello Kitty egg sitting in my pile of ribbons has a rubber stamp inside. :-)

Chinatown, Chicago

Last week when we visited Chicago for a couple of lovely sunny days we stopped at Chinatown just south of the main downtown and here are a couple of photos taken there. The Nine Dragon Wall is like one in Bejing and the ceramic tile were very cool.

We went into a bakery, while in Chinatown and bought a couple of cookies, some juice and a cake--which I forget the name of. I kinda knew I wasn't going to dig the cake---I am downright picky--but I love the impressed top and had to get it just for that reason alone. It looks like a coin on top doesn't it? Well.....guess what we found when we opened it?

A beancurd, seafood mixture--which to some would be a delightful yummy thing. Not my thing however so, I threw it away....sorry. We did all have a very good time---even if I didn't like the food. The street was busy with shoppers going into the local groceries, bakeries :-), and seafood markets. We went into a little store fairly busting with paper lanterns and umbrellas, silk slippers, and all kinds of nic-nacs from China. (no photos please) The small woman running the store spent the whole time convincing my husband that everything would bring him prosperity and good luck. She was just right and it makes me smile to remember her--a good memory. :-)

Doll Bed

In all the hubbub of packing we have worked on a few painting projects. This is a sweet little one. Em wanted her doll's bed painted and decorated so, she sat right down and drew up a picture of what she wanted for the painted end. I drew it on the bed and painted it up for her. All this time Em has had a plain unpainted pine bed for her dolls when they could have enjoyed a splendid blue bed like this. I have been meaning to paint it for some time now--sometimes my procrastinating habits serve no purpose. Arrgh! Anyway, it is quite a success--Em loves it. By the way the quilt on the bed was made a while back by Em and me. She likes hearts like I do. :-)

Isn't this a sweet design that she wanted.

Museum Fun

We are making some progress on the packing thing and also the having fun on spring break thing. We visited Chicago for two days and had a whooping good time. Now, while most of the time we seemed to be going from one ethnic enclave to the next, we visited the Oriental Institute on the Univ. of Chicago campus first. Chock full of artwork from Babylon, Persia, etc., it was just perfect for us. Loved all of it.

Don't cha love the blurry pictures from museums? Anyway, the two little objects on the left here are "coptic dolls". They can still find similar items today with rag doll bodies attached to the head-neck piece shown here. Doll, dolls, everywhere dolls for me. :-)

Just a Pretty Face

As you can see I have gotten a little further on the babushkas. On the first babushka doll back in January, I put round cheeks of pink felt and this time I've opted for a small amount of blush rubbed into the fabric. Does this stay on very long--does anyone know?
We've been busy, busy, busy around here, trying to box some stuff up in preparation for a move we have been planning. I might not be on here to update--not that I am that good at posting regularly anyway, but I will try and keep things going on here.
We have a lovely break from school this coming week. I am trying to come up with small, fun things to do with Em--she is not very excited about packing up boxes--go figure. A while back she asked where we were going for spring break and the light just dimmed in her eyes when she heard we were going to have fun packing up boxes. I don't blame her one iota--doesn't sound all that fun to me either. :-)
Take Care!

*W*I*P*

Working on a couple more babushka dollies for my girls. Ever since I put one together in Jan. they have wanted one for themselves. I'm glad for such appreciation around here!

Hats

Forgot to show the hats I made for two dollies around here. It was fun and pretty fast. I followed a pattern by Jessica that I found on her blog Zakka Life and zip,zip,zip I made two of them. One out of blue wool and one of red. The only difference from the pattern was a larger needle size. I think she calls for a size six and I only have tiny sizes and a size 8 so I went with that size 8. I have a tight gauge usually so I measured what I had knit after a few rows and measured the dolls head. It seemed that I was knitting about the right size and it worked out. Viola!

Looking at the photo, I guess dolls get redeye, too. :-) Isn't that weird?

A Favorite Scrap

A beauty of a fabric don't you think? I have this teeny tiny scrap of it and I just love it to death. Love the people, flowers, birdies and HEARTS. One of my favorite scraps right now, what are yours?

Pretties

Lucky girl, I am today. Look at this beautiful fabric from Lakehouse Drygoods, by Holly Holderman. Yikes! It is the most beautiful fabric I've seen recently. The 100% cotton has the most wonderful "hand". It is lovely, soft and scrumptious.

Both prints come from Holly's Doll Dresses line, one is called Posy Pretties-Robin and the other Cherry Toss-Pearl.

I found the fabric at BessieMary and it came all packaged up so sweetly, with a checked ribbon and a fabric swatch packet. In the swatch packet there was even a little bundle of hot pink baby ric-rac. Woo-hoo!