Hopeful

Hello...just like Spring, I thought it was time for a new beginning.  Do you like the new orange colors?  It is my most favorite color and the sunflower, which is my most favorite flower, is actually a pen that my boy BFF found for me!! ( I'd like to be more computer savvy and resize photos and customize make this space my very own but I don't quite know how . . . yet.)
Right now, I am staring at this:

But my daffodils persevere.

I am very done with winter and snow and icy roads and hats and gloves and mittens and heavy coats and wooly socks and yes! Even hot chocolate.
I am ready for Spring. Summer. Swimming pools. Flip flops. Swishy Skirts.
In hopes of warmth, I sewed my favorite skirt from Anna Marie Horner. I have sewn 7 or 8 of these skirts, both for me and for the lovely young ladies in my home.  Even my Diva has sewn one for herself.  The skirts are swishy, flowy and best of all twirly!  The elastic is a bit tedious but I think it has a wonderfully slimming effect (and I need all the help I can get)! I have stayed with the voile for myself but for the little ones, I have used cotton.  Both fabrics are easy to work with and still look great after a day of playing outside (the little lovelies and me!!).

I have also sewn a table runner and napkins from fabric I found here.  I went on an enormously fun outing with my girl BFF and I found this fabric.  I opened up the fabric on the bolt and half of it was decorated and the other half was polka dot!  Wheeeeee!!  I bought 2 yards, cut it in half lengthwise, used the decorated half for the table runner and made 6 napkins with the polka dots!  Loverly.
(sidenote:  I'm not so great at paying attention to who manufactured fabric, what this line is called, etc. . . the fabric picked me and I took it home!)

(I love my butter lady!)

I am currently knitting these.  They are the flame thrower socks from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn.  I have to have them done by Friday night.  A birthday gift.  Yeah . . . . not gonna happen.  But I will have one sock finished!  And the birthday boy is my neighbor.  A 17 year old that I consider to be my own.  He understands the second sock will come . . . . . later ;-)
(sidenote:  see above sidenote.  Again with the yarn.  Not so good at providing information about what type of yarn I am using . . . . this particular sock was given to me for finishing (as in:  "I hate this.  Take them.  Finish them!") a few years ago with yarn already picked and wound and labels off! So sorry!)

. . . . . and that is my little life in a small nutshell.  What have you been up to?  How have you been surviving the cold and snow?
Right now, I have a male and a female cardinal resting on the widow ledge 3 feet from me.  They are eating out of the front window feeder.  It makes me happy to see them taking turns.  Eating.  Keeping each other warm.  Chatting with each other. Like the cardinals, we need to keep each other warm. We need to surround ourselves with loved ones.  And we must show care. Like the daffodils, we persevere through our winter storms, even when cold storms may seem endlesssssssss.
Happy-ness is one day closer to warmth and sunshine while we are doing things we love:  sewing, knitting, baking, snuggling, kissing our babies.
Enjoy your day!
XOXO

Oh! Hello!

Since my last post . . . .

Thanksgiving.

(crummy iPhone photosssss!)

It was the first time in my entire little life that I wasn't able to go "home" for Thanksgiving.  I worked at the Bux serving coffee and making the best of the day with my co-workers.  The weather was warm and sunshiney and most of the customers seemed truly thankful.  Later in the evening, we went to my most favorite friend (EVER.) and neighbor and enjoyed a farm fresh turkey, all the fixings and enough dessert to feed a King and all of the people in his castle!!  We played Monopoly (did you know the new-fangled Monopoly uses credit cards?!) and we played Apples to Apples and we watched movies until the wee hours of the morning, when we roused ourselves out of our tryptophan slumber and walked back home under a starry sky.

Four pairs of knitted socks.

They were knitted Christmas gifts and I am quite certain I did not take photos of all of them.  After 8 socks, I was dreaming of running barefoot on a beach in very hot weather.

The Christmas Season.

Indianapolis.

My BFF and I stomped around Indianapolis on a cold day in early January.  We started very early at Waffle House, stopped at a heavenly store called Handspun and arrived at a fabulous new little quilting and fabric store called Crimson Tate where we bought some loverly fabric and met David, the best door holder in the world!!!  (I maybe . . . . maybe . . . .  went a bit goofy on the sidewalk at just the mere sight of Crimson Tate so he came out to greet us and to tell us to hurry up already! and come inside!) We also ate cupcakes at The Flying Cupcake, pizza at Bazbeaux and finished our happy-ness at a very playful toy store.

And then:

Strep throat x 4.

7 boxes of tissues.

2 bottles of Nyquil.

Prescriptions for strep-blasting medicine.

9 swim meets, all attended in various stages of recovery.

851 spam e-mails.

127 friendly e-mails.

3 novels read ("Night Circus", "Gone Girl" and "The Paris Wife") while in various stages of fever or sleep.

I have also been knitting a scarf and I did sew a table runner and napkins, which I will share very soon. . . . .

How were YOUR holidays and your New Year?  I do so hope you are staying healthy.

I write this in the midst of another snow storm and I am happy.  I am finally healthy; my home is finally healthy.  My sweet loverly dog, Keeper, has never left my side.  In one lucid moment, I woke up to find her watching me.  With clear, sweet, loving concerned eyes she was checking on her mama.  I so wish our world and the people living in our world could have the same love for others that one small dog has for me.  Life and the things that compose life would be so much simpler.  Easier.  Nicer.  More kind.  More caring.

. . . I shall share more of my knitting and my sewing and my silly thoughts with you sooner. Happy snowy winter day!!!

Happy-ness is health!

XOXO