Whiling the Winter day's away

And by spring I should have a nice rug. My friend Kate showed me how to do this with strips of fabric and some sort of tool, (she uses a toothbrush) to pull the fabric through the loops and into knots. And true to my old boss's mantra, "see one, do one, teach one", that's just what my intent is. I love to see how the colors work with each other and am always anxious to move onto the next fabric. (Have I STILL not learned about just being in the moment? ) I'll be teaching this workshop at the library next month.

It's quite beautiful here this morning. The (my) world is covered in new white snow, which makes Laddie look, not so much like a white horse, but one that's been dipped in a cafe latte. More shoveling later, as well as some snowshoeing perhaps. I'm also planning on getting into my studio to work on a page for Sarah's book, 'aphrodisiacs', and I'm planning on basing it around this:

Interesting.

Valentine's Day

I very happily spent time 'in the moment' yesterday and made up a basket of hearts from some of my favorite fabric scraps. Each one is different and all make me happy just to look at them. It's not a Martha thing that made me do it, but a way to bring a little festivity into our all too long winter. And since our kids are grown up and not making beautiful decorations to adorn our walls anymore, and I'm always forgetting to ask our grandkids (who are very artistic I might add) to paint or draw anything for us, it's up to me. So, fabric, buttons, floss, felt and several cups of coffee (love that button!) later, I have a centerpiece for our island.

Harold

Harold is coming to take pictures of the inside of our house today. Harold is the new man in my life. He's the one that's responsible for finding a family who will love and care for our house the way we have for the last 30 years. And do it in a way that leaves us with enough money to build our next house without ending up with a mortgage. Now that we've actually really, truly started this process, I find myself sighing a lot. Such a HUGE thing, to leave a place and start new somewhere else when there isn't any other reason but the idea of doing something DIFFERENT. Spice things up. A new adventure. I sigh, and then I get excited. I'm mostly excited.

Anyway, our house has never looked so good. Clean and tidy. And all the projects that never got done when we built this place 30 years ago: done! Closet doors in my studio: done! Molding here and there: done!

I may freak out when I actually see the "for sale" sign in front of our house for the first time, but I'll get over it. We all need to move on.

More wet felting

Mushrooms!

What I'm doing today:

1. Trying to make online State Park Reservations, with no success. Today is the first day to get the park, site, and date you'd like to camp this summer. System errors. So to the phone. Busy. Redial for going on 3 hours now.

2. Finishing my tea cozy. This is made from felt I made and embroidered. I'm liking the texture and feel, colors and versatility of this material.




Yesterday when I went out for my walk I saw a pair of snow buntings, a bird I've never seen here in Maine.

It doesn't look like the little bird on my cozy, but was certainly the inspiration.

3. Making something called Toasted Monkey's Delight that I saw on Jenny Doh's blog for a special dessert, because it will be a cause for celebration, or a reason to buy a lottery ticket, if I EVER get through to make my reservations!