The Week in Review...

This has been a really busy week...I can't believe it was just last Sunday at this time I was sitting in a chalet in Burdette Park, anxiously awaiting a delicious breakfast prepared by...and here's the important part...someone else!  The Burdette weekend went by way too fast.  Half of us were up until 1AM Saturday morning...now granted, I'm usually awake at 1AM most mornings, but that's because I fall asleep in my chair around 9 or 9:30, drag myself to bed, and then wake up around 1AM.  I'm just never continually awake all day and evening.  Here's the Burdette rundown...

• Arrive at 2PM Friday, following a delicious lunch at Gerst Haus and a trip to the Quilters' Nest
• Since my friend and I arrived first, we scouted out our areas for the weekend...you know, which room we wanted to sleep in, which area we wanted to craft in.  After putting away groceries and dragging in our supplies, we sat and knitted and had a cup of tea.
• Two hours later, 2 more "happy campers" arrived, followed shortly by one more.  By then, we were thinking about happy hour.  I mixed up a pitcher of "Eddie Ross Sangria"...a recipe found on Pinterest...a bottle of wine, fruit, and 2 cans of Fresca.  Delicious, and not too "buzzy".
• The last three guests arrived at nearly 7.  After a late dinner of Taco Soup and a Mexican Pasta Bake, we settled in to crafting again.  I finished a shawl and started on another one--my friend Peggy wanted one, and really...how many times have you been working on something and have had someone say "I want that" and you actually decide to make it for them?  It is now finished except for fringing.  Michelle worked on a wool applique Easter table-topper, Carol knitted...finishing her pom poms for long finished slippers, and her "continual" project of knitting prayer shawls for a local service project.  Debbie hand-quilted a baby quilt for a soon-to-be-born granddaughter, Roseanne and Mary knitted handwarmers, Peggy worked on hand-piecing quilt blocks, and Celestia just enjoyed herself talking to everyone.  She hadn't planned on staying for the whole weekend, so she didn't bring a project.




• The rest of the weekend was spent knitting, jewelry-making, sewing, talking, and eating...big fun!

I watched as Michelle hand quilted her green and pink small quilt...it's next on my "to make" list...I bought some really pretty fabrics on the way to the retreat...turquoises and reds...I cut the pieces out yesterday, and hope to work on the top (it's small 20 x 20) during the Academy Awards this evening.

The rest of the week was filled with work, the field trip to Amazonia and the orchid show, meetings, programs, and the usual grocery shopping.  I'm glad I had the mid-winter getaway...we can't wait until the next one!

Next post...a recipe for the delicious waffles we had last Sunday...luscious lemon waffles.  So good.

Orchids at Amazonia

The Tuesday afternoon sketching class at my library branch took a field trip today to Amazonia at the Mesker Park Zoo.  The building is filled with a beautiful display of orchids.

I can't think of a better place to be on a gloomy winter afternoon.  The colors inside were so vibrant...and we were serenaded by the sound of the howler monkeys.

I want to visit again before the display ends...maybe the next cold and gloomy day.  It sure brightened my spirits!

 I'm glad the photos turned out...they're so much better than my sketching!

The weekend at Burdette was wonderful!  We're planning another retreat, possibly in the fall.  A good time was had by all...

Foggy Friday

Day three of my mini mid-winter vacation...my bags are packed and I'm ready to spend the weekend with crafty friends in a chalet located in a county park. We've been planning this for months...

Another Sunday Morning...

Winter temperatures have arrived, much to my dismay. This is a li'l practice post using the iPad Blogger app. We'll see how it goes. I saw the coffee bean/candle idea on Pinterest and decided to do it myself after finding a ziplock of coffee beans of unknown origin/age in a basket in my pantry.

Knitting for toasty toes...

Here's a project from yesterday.  The bodies of the slippers have been finished for a while, but I finally got around to sewing them together and making pom poms for them.  Super-quick slippers...if you ever get around to the finishing touches!

Gloomy Sunday

I love Sundays...especially when I have no big plans.  Today is going to be filled with puttering, movie watching... Ides of March, knitting, necklace crafting, and of course, laundry and getting ready for the upcoming week.  There's a roast in the crockpot, plenty of loose tea to be brewed, and maybe the promise of a small cake to be baked from a recipe from Miette.  Tea and cake while watching Downton Abbey...sounds delightful!

And here's the cake!

Yellow cake filled with Tangerine Ginger Curd, frosted with 7 Minute Frosting, topped with coconut.  Yum!

71 Days...the countdown begins

Woke up again this morning thinking "Spring"...the weather has been so nice for the past several days...so un-January like.  I know that there are 71 days until Spring...but looking out the window at that gorgeous sunshine makes me crave what I think Spring should be. 

 Photo:  via Miss Bee's Haven/Facebook

I saw this picture this morning on Facebook and absolutely fell in love with this boxcar/gypsy wagon.  Wouldn't it be great to step out into your backyard and have this?  What a nice little getaway!  Since the boxcar is wider than my backyard, I don't think it would work...and where would I find a boxcar to re-do?  It is charming though.

Photo:  Unknown source

Another bit of my Spring-thinking is garden related crafts for library programs.  Hypertufa, anyone?  I think we're going to be elbow-deep in Portland Cement, peat moss, and vermiculite. 

It's a whole new year...

It's a clean slate...a new year to accomplish our goals, fulfill our dreams, and just enjoy life! 



Have a very merry...

Christmas!

A "room" of her own...

via junkaholic

How fabulous is this little crafting shed?  Usually when I think of a "studio", I think of a much larger space...there are lots of spacious craft/art rooms to be viewed on Pinterest, or just while blog-hopping, but I'm always attracted to tiny, well-thought out spaces.  This is one of my favorites, and more importantly, it seems quite do-able in my home.  Looks to be about the same size as my enclosed back porch.  Even in the dead of winter, if the sun shines the temperature is quite moderate in the little room.  Maybe this could turn into my new project for one of my favorite weeks of the year...the week between Christmas and New Years...but only if it's sunny!


I've had lots of ideas for projects lately...that's what happens when my brain overloads with other things to think about and do.  I can be sitting at a stoplight and have a gigantic flash of inspiration, yet when I have time to do creative things, I always seem to be disinclined...why?  Choices...clean the house/sit and knit? iron/read a book? mop the floor/take a nap?  I always seem to go for the less active choice...after all, an unmopped floor will be there until I do something about it, but that urge for an afternoon nap is fleeting.  Problem is, I now have lots of chores stacked up to do and it's interfering with my playtime. After all...wouldn't it be nice to be clean and organized all the time so that making those "hard" choices wouldn't so significant.  Something more to think about today...

Holiday Week Monday

via Channel House Tours

This is the beginning of a busy week...not busy at work, but busy at home.  Last Friday was the start of a vacation week.  I played around on Friday, got a haircut (and boy, did I get my money's worth on this one...a little too short!), and had lunch with a friend on Saturday, then went to the movies with Megan yesterday to see Breaking Dawn.  I'm not a fan of the vampire/werewolf genre...unless we trip back in time to Dark Shadows on tv...but since she wanted me to go, I did.  I guess what I don't like about the Twilight series is that everyone seems to be so tortured...way too much angst.

I'm looking forward to seeing the top of my dining room table by day's end...and maybe a little floor space surrounding the table.  It's a good day to clean...gloomy and rainy outside...time to make a pot of tea and get started.