Living on the edge
It is going to be a great day at the pond. At least 3 pink waterlilies will be blooming as soon as the sun gets a little stronger. Spitty is spitting straight towards the camera as the pond wakes up on a beautiful August morning
It is said that you always remember fondly your first love. Well, my first crafting love was Needlepoint. It all started on my very first computer programmer job. My cubicle mate was a great gal — Pam — and she loved to needlepoint. Me, just fresh out of college and unused to having any spare time, did not have any handcrafting hobbies. And this is actually a bit strange since my Mom was an avid crocheter and also did hand embroidery. Anyway, ladies in our department always took the same lunch hour and on one of these, Pam and I ate quickly then walked across the neighboring mall property to the far side where existed a needlepoint shop. And, my love of handcrafting got its start.
I believe my first completed piece was a turtle — and I still have it. I also still have the memories of working with the scratchy wool yarn. Fast forward to today — and, my oh my, it is not your grandmother’s needlepoint anymore. I took needlepoint sampler class in 2007 and learned that stitches were now different and thread choices were out of this world. My sampler was done in a set of merino wool fibers. And my current project contains shiny metallics, silk, and all sorts of other wonderful stitching goodies!
I’m becoming reacquainted with my first love — and we’re having a good time together.
Mr, Cardinal, my current project:
And here’s my reunion piece, the sampler, almost done:
Windows were open today and some spring cleaning has begun. Things are really waking up around here and today’s (or this week’s discoveries) include:
– at least 21 of my BFFs are alive and well and swimming around (Best Fish Friends)
– at least 5 frogs have survived the winter including the original pair who have created the family we have — Yes Phinneas and Phillis are back!
– several daffodils opened today
– lots of day-lilies are showing thru the ground
– and hubby has found the first deer tick on his body! oh boy, here we go again
And I did some “airing of the quilts”. These are destined for the Hospital Avenue Housatonic Habitat homeowners. A friend of mine has a friend who wants to do charity quilting for Habitat so she gave me 5 of her quilts. They have been in this friend’s house since completion and the house has a big hairy dog. So, I’m tumbling them in the dryer to remove dog hair and airing them out. They now look and smell great!
Some inspiration for art journaling-
With the outdoor scaffolding gone a week now, I’ve really come to appreciate the view from what Hubby calls my princess chair but I’ve renamed my Happy Chair.
Some of the reasons I am happy today:
1) had a nice nap in that chair today
2) the view of the east yard contains almost pristine snow since the deer have been fenced out since December
3) the scaffolding has been gone from outside for a whole week and from the inside since Feb 1 (after being up in both places since October of last year)
4) the last time that contractor will be in this house – ever again – was Monday night and the last bill was just received and will be paid tomorrow
5) the remote controls for the gate have finally been installed and they work
6) we’re finally getting some warmer weather and spring may be here soon – at least we can see the end of winter
7) I’m knitting my first sweater and it looks like it is going to fit !!!
8) I am going away on a quilt retreat soon
9) there have been bluebirds at our sunflower feeder and on the nesting box in the north yard
Taking advantage of the cold weather (there’s lots of it and snow) and a plentiful supply of firewood (thanks to two hurricanes and a freak October snowstorm in the last 2 years), I’m enjoying some relaxing crafting time by the fireplace.
In line with my word of 2014, possibilities, I realize that you cannot just keep starting things but have to finish a few too. So, here’s my first needlepoint sampler from a class at A Stitch in Time a few years ago. The light blue, partly finished in this picture is the last round. Then I will dig out the DVDs with the instructions on finishing projects and give this one a whirl. I think it will be a small pillow for the bedroom, which is decorated in yellows and blues!
Possibilities
I have been enamored for years with the idea of “possibilities” ever since I encountered the quilt book publishing company by that name. Besides the wonderful quilt patterns and ideas presented in their books, the concept of anticipating the possibilities of crafting and dreaming of handling crafting materials really appeals to me.
Every time a magazine comes in the mail (today it was Interweave Knits Spring 2014) or I go down to my quilting studio and pull a book off my shelves for perusal, my mind is thoroughly engaged with the possibility of creating what I see on the pages.
And I’ve been dreaming and crafting other things too. I treated myself to a 6 week knitting class and am making my first sweater – hoping to learn enough from my teacher so that the sweater actually fits. And I’m working on a kumihimo braided, beaded “something”. Whether it’s a bracelet or necklace is yet to be determined. And a beading loom might just have arrived from amazon.com last week. And then there’s the rigid heddle weaving loom upstairs with two placemats partially woven on it. And I’ve been dreaming of getting this all relocated back in the quilting studio if the carpenters EVER finish down there. And …………well, there are lots of POSSIBILITIES.
So that’s my word for 2014 and my plan for 2014 is to become much better at turning all these things into REALITIES.
And into 2014 we go.
A picture of our Christmas tree and decorated living room scaffolding will be inserted soon!
In the mean time : —————-
Outdoor scaffolding arrives! In “contractor time” this is July. The windows that were to take 6 weeks to arrive were received by the lumberyard last Thursday. In “real people time” this is the end of October – 4 months later that was planned. Watching all the good weather go by with no work on the house . . . . . . . whatever. It’s finally about to begin, along with the serious praying for good weather and for not too much rotten wood in that east wall.
So – let the photo blogging begin.
In the mean time, work has been progressing on the landscaping. Our landscaping crew cleared the lower yard. This is the view from the deck, but the view from the chair where I spend most of my time knitting is similar. It is fantastic! I didn’t take a “before” picture, but this new view is not to be missed. Upon closer inspection, the area is a long way from being ready for grass planting, but that’s for next spring.
The area I’m calling the island is where a huge decorative fir stood that Superstorm Sandy got rid of last year. Hubby did all the work cutting and taking the tree away – many trips to the dump with the pickup truck. The tipped root ball is still there and the area had been totally overcome with blueberry and other vines. Alonso, one of our landscapers, is in this photo somewhere — only part way through the clearing. In our version of “Where’s Waldo?”, this is Where’s Alonso?
While on vacation in Vermont in July, I found an expensive a great jacket which turned out to be fantastic for bicycling on cool September days in Cape Cod. It is a rather vibrant orange with red accents and I decided that it looked quite like traffic cone orange. So, while on the bike path, I couldn’t resist having Hubby take my picture.
I call this “will work part-time as a traffic cone”
