One-derland....

Last month, precious little Mia turned 1.  

For those of you new here, Mia is my (first and only) granddaughter who was born prematurely, weighing in just over 3 lbs.

At the request of one person (you know who you are), this is a glimpse of her first birthday celebration.

Her birthday theme was a take on Alice in Wonderland (i.e. "Mia in One-derland") and her mum had the house decorated like a virtual wonderland.

Mia's mum works at an extraordinary floral shop and has an amazing gift for details.

Obviously, I was enamored by the floral arrangements and didn't get photos of much else, but she had little arrow signs all over, giant-sized cards hanging from the ceiling and "Wonderland" clocks all over.

Teacups and teapots of every sort were filled with gorgeous blooms.

And, of course, there was cake...

...which the birthday girl enjoyed a little more than she should...

...but she cleans up more than beautifully.

 

As you see, she is well and thriving.  Unfortunately, we learned yesterday that she will need to wear leg braces.  Not permanently, hopefully, but this little fighter has had her share of challenges this past year.  

Thank all of you who have kept her and her parents in your thoughts and prayers.

He Is Risen...

 

{"He Is Risen" - design by Jenny Hoffman of Country Rustic Primitives}

Wishing you a joy-filled Easter.

Three Snows on the Robin's Tail

{Apologies for the amorphous nature of the photos...the blurs are made by falling snow.} 

 The old saying is that it will snow on the robin's tail three times before spring is sprung.  My mum, however, upped the number to 7 being that we live in Nod.

I can't tell you when the robins returned this spring (I wasn't paying attention) but, despite our mild winter, their little tails have been dumped on twice already that I know of.

Early this past Friday morning, we got about 5" of snow and this weekend we received another 11" or a bit more. 

I am grateful, though, that it wasn't the 21" Cathy from Acorn Hollow received.

Little blessings - I'll take 'em.

Regardless, it is a strange sensation to wake to the muffled stillness created by a heavy snowfall and have it pierced by the cacophony of a bobbin of robins descending on the berried trees.

I believe the robins from every corner of Nod visited our crabapple trees and bittersweet vines.

I am glad they have the berries and seeds to tide them over until Spring is brave enough to show her face again and melts this stuff.  

But I do wish I had a barn for them to sit in, poor things.

Slainte

Slainte!

As far as I know, I haven't a lick of Irish blood in me, but I believe I would love that beautiful island of green.

I do not celebrate St. Patrick's Day in any grand way, but I do enjoy cooking a hearty corned beef brisket complete with cabbage (I like mine creamed), parslied baby red potatoes and carrots.

And each year, I stitch some kind of small tuck or such to add to my collection.

This year I actually finished two.

This is "Luck Basket," a free design from Pinker n Punking Quilting & Stitching.

I stitched it on a scrap piece of mystery linen (although I am pretty certain it is 40 ct. "Raw" by Zweigart) and mounted it in this hanging clock case:

It's a bit difficult to see because of the curved outer case, but you get the idea.

I hope to stitch other little seasonal smalls and rotate them in this clock case. 

I haven't found a design yet for Easter, but I am looking.

The second design I finished is "ABC Shamrock Pin Holder" by Nan Lewis  (Threadwork Primitives).  (While Nan no longer blogs, she is on Instagram and has an Etsy shop.)

I stitched this over a year ago, but the finishing of the piece gave me fits and I set it aside more times than I can remember.  

I also struggled with photographing it (have you ever noticed greens are difficult to photograph?) and, despite numerous attempts, never did manage to capture the true colors (which are deeper and richer in person).

{Stitched on 40 ct "Wren" by Picture This Plus using Gentle Arts "Storm Clouds" floss.}

I'll end with one of my favorite poems by the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats.

When You Are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

 And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

*************

Slainte my friends.

 

Ducks, Pigeons and Squirrels

Actually, I don't have a row. 

I don't even have any ducks.

I have squirrels....and they're EVERYWHERE.

It's been almost a month since my last post and I have little to show for it.

I start something with good intentions and then get distracted by something else.

I've done a little bit of stitching, and even littler hooking....

but way too much reading.

After an embarrassing amount of time, I finally got my Simple Santa mat bound.

It looks a bit off kilter in the photos as it is propped against the curved back of a rocking chair but I was having difficulties getting the lighting anywhere near right. (And there are two other rugs behind it whose bindings are showing. The binding on Santa is just the lighter colored wool.)

Even still, it looks washed out.

Anyways, it is a pattern by Therese Shick. 

And it's done.

Done is good.

I've not made much progress at all on my stag rug.

{Pattern by Homespun Prims by Lori}

In my defense, I ran out of some of the wool and just haven't made it down the lane to get more.  So it was put aside and I picked up my needle instead.

While I didn't make it down the lane, I did manage to leave the house and actually "fun-shopped" a while back.  On somewhat of a whim, I bought this chair-and-a-half. (There's a footstool too....)

Rajah most usually insists on sitting right next to me, whether I am hooking, reading or stitching.  Unfortunately, one or the other of us has gotten larger (it's him...really), and the fit has been tight in our old chair.  So, this solves the issue and he thinks it's the cat's pajamas.

I also finally found (part of) an old metal heart floor mat.  I've wanted one for a long time, but never found one.  So, I splurged.  

I haven't settled on exactly where it will be permanently displayed, but this works for now.

In other news, I have a new granddog.

This is Scout.  She is a 5-month old Siberian Husky/German Shepherd mix rescue.

Yes, she has one blue eye and one brown and one very wonky ear.

And, yes, that is Mia's Doc-a-Tot that she has claimed as her dogbed.

Sometimes I do a great deal of headshaking.

I am also continuing to work on remodeling the lake house.  Hopefully at least the main level will be habitable by the time the weather warms.

These days, decisions are either made on whim (i.e., chair-and-a-half) or (most usually) are laborious and over-thought.  No happy medium it seems.

Well, how's that for a scurry of squirrels??

It's not easy being me.

The Recalcitrant Grace Bridges

 Long ago, but not so very far away, 11-year old Grace Bridges was newly arrived at Willow Winds House.  She preferred to spend her days roaming the sun-dappled meadows gathering wildflowers and following the creek that meandered through the forest behind the house.

Her au pair, Miss Crowe, however, preferred that Miss Grace spend a little more time with her lessons and a great deal more attention to her stitches.

Even on days when the fog and rain closed in on Willow Winds House so oppressively that Grace could not escape the rambling yellowstone house, Grace fidgeted in her chair and struggled to count her stitches properly.  Her mind wandered to the forgotten garden with its vines tumbling over the old shed she was told to stay away from.... It wandered to the neglected fountain that sat decaying at the end of the garden path.... It wandered to the little cove where the creek spilled into the sea....  It wandered to anywhere but the needlework in her lap.

So, it was only after months of tedious frustration on both Miss Crowe's and little Grace's parts that Grace finally finished her first sampler....

Ok...so absolutely none of that is true; but, like Grace's, my mind is wandering today too.

Anyway...  I finally finished stitching Grace Bridges by Stacy Nash.  It was a stitch-along I participated in.  I think I mentioned in a previous post that stitching this piece caused a powerful struggle between my penchant for primitive wonkiness and imperfection and my tendency for bouts of OCD.  On days that my OCD was in control, complex mathematical computations were done and adjustments to spacing and design made. 

{Pattern design blurred to protect copyright of the designer, but you can see my color-coded math revision notes.}

On other days, wonky won out.

Since this was not an actual reproduction of an antique sampler (at least not that I know of), I felt entitled to make adjustments that would somewhat soothe the OCD ogre.  (Personally, I don't think even little Grace would have been that careless.  😉)

Grace Bridges Sampler stitched on 40 count "Boardwalk" by Colour and Cotton using (mostly) called-for DMC flosses.

* * * * * * *

Now Grace and I are off to look for toads along the creek.

Hooking on the Lane

 

Yes, I'm here...whether I want to be or not.

Truth be told, most days I don't want to be.

That aside, and in an effort to distract myself from the endless picking up of pieces, a few weeks ago I imposed upon the resident hooker down the lane and attended one of the popular Red Barn Rugs workshops.

Unfortunately, I was neglectful in taking photos of the rugs most of the attendees were working on. In fact, I managed only to take photos of my table neighbor, Marilyn (a/k/a "Bad" Marilyn) Denning,'s rug:

While I didn't get a photo of what the other Marilyn (a/k/a "Good Marilyn") (Becker) was working on, I did get this photo of the masterpiece she recently completed of her great granddaughter:

So, the rest of the following photos are just random photos around Cathy's house and studio of a fraction of her rugs:

{This is one of Cathy's very newest designs called "Amelia."}

{I know I've shown "Ol' Jack" before, but since he was peeking through the doorway in the last photo, he deserves to be shown again...}

{Sorry for the blur!}

And my favorite:

Lastly, and only because I know Saundra (of Woodland Junction) would bug me if I didn't, here is the stag rug I was half-heartedly working on.  It is a design by Homespun Prims by Lori.

Yes, it is the same rug I started almost exactly a year ago in the last workshop I went to.  However, I decided I did not like the wool I chose for the stag and ripped it out and started over....only to rip that out and go back to the original wool...which I am still not sure I am happy with.

Such is my life these days.

Maybe I should stick with stitching.