More mumblings of the site-full kind, and beauty too

Last night we had friends over for supper and they brought us these...

Absolutely gorgeous!

From Cullen Hightower..... "The prime of life is that fleeting time between green and over-ripe"

Lucky me!

Just look at what has arrived at my

door!!

Thank you Winnie and Shawn!

LOVE YOU!

Today's quote is from Elizabeth Stone... "Making the decision to have a child - it's wondrous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body"

TUSAL for this month

I'm a couple of days late with this, but here is my pile of ORTS for the past month...

and my TUSAL jar to date for this year...

and, this is one of the pictures Jack has taken with his

'new' (to him) camera...

Try embiggening it to see the details!

TUSAL and more stitching done

First, I must show you the lovely flowers that arrived from our #2 son and d-i-l for Mother's Day...

 Thank you, Shawn and Winnie!!

I'm a couple of days late posting my entry for the TUSAL* challenge, but here it is....

Above is my pile of ORTS for the past month,

and below is my jar of ORTS dating from

the first of January.

One of the sections on my current crazy quilting project is nearly done.  Here you can see a button cluster (bottom of first picture)  and there's a real blingy button on the bottom picture, stitched down over top of a metal flower meant originally for scrapbooking.  The bling didn't show quite as bright as it is in real life.

* TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long);  ORTS (old recycled threads).  If you would like to know more about the TUSAL challenge, click on the link in my sidebar.

Christmas Beauty!

I have to show you the beautiful arrangement of flowers that just arrived at our door!  Aren't they lovely?  It's a great mystery as to who sent them though!  The card was simply signed 'the gang'. Ummm.   We don't know a 'gang'....or do we?  Never mind, they are exquisite and we will enjoy every moment of having them.  Thank you to 'the gang', whoever and wherever you may be!!

- - - - -  

Oh yes, and Cosmo wanted to say a Christmas hello

to all his online kitty friends too!

Not rust?

A number of you guessed correctly yesterday - the photo was of some wonderful lichen that was on a very old tombstone.  It looks so much like rust and has such a beautiful texture.  Meant to say yesterday that you're welcome to abscond with the image and use it in any way you see fit.  It's too nice not to share!

In other news, I've signed on to take Karen Ruane's latest online class 'An Embroiderers Ledger' and I'm SO excited about it.  Yesterday I made a trip to the art store and picked up my sketchbook and now I'm poised and ready to learn.  I know, from having taken her white class before that I'm in for a good time and will learn a great deal.

Look what I won!!

I entered a draw on the CRAFT blog/website and 

was lucky enough to be the winner of this book! 

I have made a few pairs of socks but have to admit they haven't been my favourite thing to do - mainly because it's so very difficult to actually finish the second sock of the pair.  This book solves that entire problem by showing you how to knit both of them at the SAME time on a circular needle!  Not only that, but because they are knitted from the toe up there is less danger of running out of yarn before you're done.  Win/win I would say!!

There are 15 sock designs in the book.  Another of the pluses to this process is that you are able to try on the socks as you knit to get a perfect fit.  The author, Melissa Morgan-Oakes, has another book too - "2-at-a-Time Socks'.    Specs are:  'Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks' published by Storey Publishing,  c2010,  ISBN 978-1-60342-533-9.

Thanks CRAFT and Storey Publishing!!

and finally, here's a photo of a butternut squash flower 

from our garden.

Well, well, well....

IT WORKED!!

The studio gremlin must have been listening!
He brought back my missing box

AND

my missing seam ripper!!!!!!!!!

Of course the fact that I was re-shoveling out my studio in preparation for a friend to come for coffee this afternoon didn't have a THING to do with the lost being returned.  I'm sticking with the gremlin story, so there!!

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I've been working on the black denim jacket, but nothing ready to show quite yet.  Hoping to finish it tomorrow and I'll post pictures then.  I'm more or less working on two at once but I think I'll finish this one up so I can see what it looks like.  I can't wait until I finish both of them because I so want to see what they look like done in black.

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So, because there's nothing else in the picture line, here's some more from the after-rain photos I took yesterday.  Enjoy!

 

There's a gremlin at loose!!!

Not only has the resident gremlin stolen my favourite seam ripper and made off with it, now I discover that there's a whole box filled with to-do projects that has managed to escape the premises.  For the life of me I can't find it and my studio isn't THAT big!***  That's what I get for thinking I should re-arrange it...it put my treasures in plain sight and the gremlin TOOK it!!!!!!!!!

HEAR THIS, STUDIO GREMLIN...

BRING IT ALL BACK

OR ELSE!!!!!

So, I shall thumb my nose at that miserable studio gremlin and post pictures of the garden after the rain (so there!!)

 

*** and just so you know, I'm well aware that I'm losing my mind. ***

 

Nodda.....

....is what I seem to have managed to accomplish today.  I made the mistake of mentioning to my husband last night that, other than for a few errands, I had the entire day today to work on the denim jackets.

welllll..........

the aforementioned errands morphed into a TON of them, all of which took time.  Then, my forgetful brain managed to forget several things which meant two return trips to places I'd already been.  Sigh.  We won't mention that things I remembered AFTER I got home!!  There's no stress in my life - no, not a bit!!

and then.........

I came home to do various and assorted 'stuff' - none of which involved the use of a sewing machine or needle.  I've felt like a whirling dervish all day but when it comes right down to it - I don't have a darned thing to show for it all!!  

So........

maybe this little flutterby is having a good day?

yeah, I know - do I want a little chocolate with my whine?

Rip it, rip it (oh, ouch!)

I begin this tale of woe with the sad fact that something
ate my favourite stitch ripper. 

It's been my faithful companion
lo these many years

and I miss it!!

Yeah, had to buy a new stitch ripper which is MUCH sharper than my old trusty one.  This afternoon I've had a marathon of reverse stitching all these denim pockets getting them ready for possible inclusion on the latest jacket.  Did I mention that my new stitch ripper is sharp?  I now have several owies and did I also mention that I want my old ripper back?  So...if whoever/whatever made off with it reads this I'd appreciate its speedy return. 

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I'm excited about something else - last night I signed up for my first on-line course (after plunging headlong into the mysteries of using PayPal, which was a feat in itself).  I've been watching with extreme interest a few postings around the 'net about Carole's Journal and finally asked her to keep me in mind if she decided to rerun the course.  She's not exactly rerunning it at the present time, but she is allowing a few people to join in the present class.  I'm SO excited, nervous (well, terrified actually, but don't tell Carole that!) and getting ready to tear into my stash to pull out all sorts of 'stuff' to use in my journal.  My 'plan' is to use  a lot of the garden photos I've taken this summer in my journal to create a memory book.  Of course, plans are apt to change because pretty much every project ends up having a mind of its own.  

So....here's a photo that I might be using in my journal.....

Progress being made

Second front piece of my jacket pieced today.....

and the usual garden picture.....

As you can probably tell from this picture, our garden is a real 'country' garden with everything a complete hodge-podge of stuff!

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Just hanging around....

Being somewhat housebound for the next while at least I should be able to manage to get something creative done (best laid plans/bound to run amuck notwithstanding).  With dad the way he is I think my days of going too far are pretty numbered for awhile.

SO.......

today I started on another black jacket.  This one will be mine (unless someone comes along and wants to give me $200 for it - in which case I'd be happy to let it go).  I can't go any further on the one I was working on yesterday until I am able to get the lining fabric so I figured I might as well carry on while I have denim 'bits' scattered about and keep sewing.  Here's what I did today.....

 And, just so you don't get too bored with denim, here's another flower from our garden!

Flowers

I went out with the camera this morning and took a few shots of the flowers that are currently on show in our garden.   There's no creativity going on at the moment and the flowers are more than happy to show off!

Whew!

It's been a busy few days and there was no time for the computer so hence no blog posts.  First, we went down to the city to pick up Stewie (cat that belongs to #2 son and his fiance) for two weeks while they take their holidays out west.  Lucky kids!!  Then, we went back to the city two days later to pick up #1 son, his fiance, and their cat for the weekend.  Sunday was a family reunion, held here (approx. 30 people were here).   Then it was back to the city yesterday to take RJ & Julia & Ella (cat) home.  Whew!

Today the car went in to be repaired and we have been given a really nice Nissan Altima to drive.  Nice car, but rather scary to drive because it's a bit bigger than our Toyota Matrix.  It's one of those fancy keyless cars, which completely feels so weird.  No keys - you just push a button to start it.  Very odd!!

Needless to say there has been nothing creative done over the past few days, so I will leave you with some more garden pictures.....

Another giveaway - so soon??!!

Yeah, well - I'm shoveling out my studio as you know and yesterday I went through my paper ephemera and there are two big envies of it up for grabs.

Let me see....

what do you suppose I should ask you to do?

hmmmmmmmm......

I KNOW!!!!

I would like you to leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite flower is and why.  That's not too hard, is it?  Two names will be drawn on Wednesday night and two winners will each receive an envelope of goodies in the mail.  Good luck!

and

I'm a dummy to forget to wish all my Canadian friends a happy Canada Day July 1st.
However,
I'm not going to forget to wish my American friends a happy Independence Day!

Welcome - and - slow makeover

 WELCOME!!!

First, I would like to welcome all the people who have signed up to follow my mumblings in the past few days.  Wow - who knew that many people might be interested in what I mumble about!!  I hope I can manage to keep you interested at least a little bit.

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The great studio Shovel and Turf is progressing, albeit VERY slowly.  The worktable still looks pretty much as it did yesterday, only it's now covered with whole different junk  stuff.  The little shelving unit has been pretty much filled.  Jack very nicely spray painted this plastic drawer unit (previously red) yesterday and this morning I've spent some time re-organizing it and adding more goodies to it.  Amazing how much I managed to get into it that was previously taking up precious real estate elsewhere.

My new sewing machine has found a home on the repainted little table, along with a resurrected basket that's holding scrap paper and now looks like this.....

And, the garden is now looking a little bit like this....

Those are mostly potatoes with some green onions and I think those are beets (forgot to take note when I took the picture).

on giveaways and votes

The above flower is pink in honour of Pam Kellogg's Pink Crazy Garden Quilt which she has entered into a Pink contest being held at the  Daisy Pink Cupcake blog.  

And this purple flower is for Pat Winter, who has a lovely giveaway on her blog right now. 

Watching glue dry

Quite literally that's what I'm doing.  Oh yeah, and mopping up a glass of water that I managed to spill over my entire worktable (how can one little glass of water spread so darned far?).

Anyway.  This photo is what I see every morning right now when I open the bedroom curtains.

And this is what I smell when I go to the backyard.  Mock orange has a scent like no other - so pretty.

This is just a random photo of flower-ness in our garden....

Yesterday Gail asked about my new camera, so here are the specs:  Canon Power Shot SD1200IS;  10.0 Mega Pixels (whatever THEY are!) and 3x optical zoom.  Hot pink and silver.  It's a sweet little piece of equipment!  I haven't even begun to explore the possibilities with it yet.  Thanks Shawn!