Monday's Studio Update

I have had an exciting week as far as creative work goes.  I'm about to list several shirts on Etsy. Trying a new avenue should be fun.  There seems to be such a great and growing community of crafters on Etsy that I'm finally diving in.  I am also working on designing a hooded scarf similar to the one I sold recently on e-bay.  Instead it will have a wider opening framing the face.  I was reading Mary Engelbreit's illustrated collection of fairy tales this evening with my little girl.  I was so surprised to see the hood I'm trying to create on a cloak in the Princess And The Pea story.  I hope I can nail it!  I  promise to post pictures as soon as I'm done.  I love Mary and all her work!  She is such an inspiration in the way that she finds and creates magic in all things.  She traps those purely exciting, beautiful moments of childhood and makes you remember that connection no matter what your age.  I hope to do the same in my creations, capture a feeling to be able to hold it any time.

Here are some of the shirts I'll be listing later this week:

Friday Tip: Help for Smelly Laundry

I have now tried this idea for the past two weeks and I am happy to report I have found a way to get just about any smell out of the dirtiest of laundry.  If any of your laundry contains sweaty and therefore smelly laundry you have to try this. Ifyour laundry contains no sweat then you muct not be living in the U.S. in the summer, and especially not living in Virginia this summer!  Though I have to say, today has been a welcome break from all that heat here.  Somehow we managed a day a good twenty degrees cooler than it was yesterday.  Nice!  Anyway- back to the tip!  All you have to do is let the water sart filling up in your washing machine.  Add whatever detergent you normally use.  Next, add white dilled vinegar.  I put in a healthy pour- maybe a half to three quarters of a cup. Let about half of your normal water fill up before adding the dirty laundry.  This gives the vinegar a chance to work around.  You won't smell any vinegar when the clothes are done I promise!  Just clean, lovely clothes!

Well, since I don't think you want to look at pics of my smelly clothes here are some much prettier pictures of lovely flowers from my garden last summer:

World Wednesday: Nature Lover?

Today I wondered if I am becoming a nature wimp in my old age.  Since I was a kid I have loooooved being outdoors- anywhere, anytime.  Since having a child, however my joy for meanderings has slowed down.  Oh I'm outside all the time, but somehow it's not the same.  One reason could be the joy she takes in slogging through the most briary, bush choked realms of our property.  Another could be our growing copperhead population.  We've had a lot of construction on both sides of the property and it would seem the copperheads have decided our property would be a lovely haven. Yeck!  I don't mind the kinder, friendlier snakes but I don't enjoy the thought of one misstep ending with me loosing a leg.  A little dramatic?  Oh yeah baby!  But we set out- properly attired in leg gripping socks.  Not the trendiest, but they'll do against ticks!!  We had fun for a short while, battling agains the hottest day of the spring yet (almost 95 by 11:00 this morning!) I realized that I still love to be outside, it's just te added danger of protecting someome who thinks watching where they are going means looking at the sky and flora all around.  Of course that is nice too...when you're planning for it and it's in safer land.  We found a spot to stand and listen to the crazy cicadas and take tons of pictures.  It's a jungle here in Virginia already and it's just the first of June.  My little one took all of the following pictures all by herself!!  No doctoring at all.  Not bad for five!

Fairy House

The only thing better than being outside on a warm spring day is making your own fairy house to enjoy it in.  My mother-in -law found a huge piece of lace in an antique store for a ridiculously low price.  She bought it and brought it home, knowing her granddaughter and I would certainly find some use for it.  She was very right!  It's been many many things, but this is one of my favorites.  We used the lace to make a sweet roof for our wonderland home.  We used another bargain find for the "floor" or rug.  After filling the house with herbs (Fairy food according to my girl) and Nekots and water (girl food according to me ) we were almost set!

With the addition of a Nancy Drew book we were reading for an hour of reading.  I couldn't believe a five year old could sit still for so long!  Rose petals fresh from the garden made our rooftop dreamy...

Cathedral Quilt

I started a cathedral quilt last week and have become quickly obsessed.  Yes they are complicated, but I've wanted  to make one for a long time.  I love the option of including so many different colors, kind of like framing beautiful individual pieces.  I have so many fabrics that I love, I just wanted bits of them all together.  Some people do these quilts in tiny pieces.  I knew I would not have the patience for that, so I started at about triple the size of the normal quilt.  You have to fold and fold and fold these suckers- Origami Quilt might be a better name in fact.  After creating a rather large piece I realized that I didn't want every diamond to be filled in with a patterned piece.  I wanted some places for the eye to rest.  Here I noticed my mistake.  If I left the quilt as it was, there would be more solid pieces than fantastic patterned pieces, no matter how many squares I added.  I let it sit for a day.  Could I really undo all those squares I had completed?  All of that hand stitching?  I made my choice this morning.  I set to work with some trusty scissors and undid them all.  I knew that looking at that quilt as it grew and grew and wasn't quite what I wanted would eventualy break my heart.  Sometimes it's worth a little...okay a lot of extra time invested to get something you'll be really proud of.  I feel oddly relieved.  I made the right choice in something!  It's not a What do I do with my life kind of something, but it will bring comfort and joy to me every time I look at it.  That's great too!


You can see I'm really into oranges and greens right now. 

I've decided to do a lot of rearranging since I have to take it all out anyway.  This red piece will move to a completely different part of the quilt.  It was too big of a show-off here!  I love this print though- it looks Scandinavian to me, or maybe like a story book pattern.

Cicadas, Lavender and the Search for Spring

I have had the pleasure of spending some lovely time outside the past few days.  Even though my daughter would have everyone believing it is full on summer with her chants of "PLEEEEEZE can I run through the sprinkler!" (at 8:30 in the morning when it is a balmy 45 degrees and overcast with rain likely) or "Let's go swimming in the river!! (later in the day- basically same weather conditions.)".  She simply can't fathom why everyone doesn't want to be in water all the time...okay she comes by that honestly!  So despite her desires it is Spring.  This is certainly spring, with it's fickle weather and lovely beginings everywhere.

These lovely baby lavender blooms caught my eye today.  I didn't even see the spider web line as I took the picture.  I love the general soft  green that fills the landscape.  These petals look soft and they are, already fragrant too.  The leaves smell wonderful and taste pretty good too.  I've baked lavender in bread before, but only recently tried it on its own.  It's slightly spicy and bitter at first with a very sweet aftertaste that lasts for a long time.  Definitely worth the initial bitterness.

Also new this week were these red eyed cicadas.  Apparently the Joe Schmo every year cicadas have black eyes, but the ones that are cyclical, with long underground larvae stages have red eyes (or other colors).  These guys live years- from 2 to 9 years underground where they feed on plant roots.  Then they emerge for a few weeks to shed their skins, grow their wings and mate to create the next generation.  The one who love my Iris leaves have most likely been underground for seven years. Today they are slow, barely moving around.  They look like I feel- trying to take it all in and wondering exactly what's going on!

I found this shell, left by a cicada probably earlier today.  There were many on the sword-like leaves or the giant irises.  I thoughts this one was truly remarkable, so tenuously hanging on to the very tip of a tiny vine.  It made me wonder in the little guy climbed out there purposefully to lose his shell, or if he was just exploring and got stuck when the change started.  I think it just goes to show that any time, any place, can be a ripe time for change.

Well, as I'm writing this my daughter has just said, "Mommy Mrs. Sun just gave me the most wonderful present!!  She knew I wanted to use my 'slipping slide' today and so she's making it hot!! My body says 'get in the water right now!  Can we?"  Oh my.  Well at least one of us likes Spring!

Designing's Devine!

I have been in full design mode for the past couple of weeks.  The more life starts to swirl around me the more I want to join in.  I mean that in two ways- as spring pushes more and more things into breathing, scampering, twittering, growing, glowing life all around me I just want to create too.  I want to show my love for all of that energy and the beauty I see around me. 
As events are swirling around me, the whir of global events and personal decisions I want to feel more connected to something sure. I want to feel a little more control over something. Creating, and being in control of that process feels great.  I may not know what will be going on in my life, or in the world, next week or next month, but I know how to finish this row, or where to put that button.  That just feels lovely.

Here's one of my latest designs, a convertable shawl/ wrap in a soft combination of yarns.  The colors made me think of all things comforting and luxurious- green growth, soft white clouds, dark delicious chocolate.