Misty Workday

Newly organized Workroom!

Mr Bear prototype

Baby Bear with Bed and Blanket

Meet the Bears
I am working on a bear family this week. Papa Bear is very serious (like a lot of my forest critters) Lots to worry about in the forest.
 Berries to source out. Finding the perfect cave to sleep in. His work is never done.
 He will have a vest, of course.
 Maybe a wool felt embroidered in folkloric Black Forest designs. Sigh. Love that idea.

Always a balance between much enjoyed but time consuming embellishing (and higher end price) and keeping it simple to be able to offer a better price to my loyal customers.
Usually I just follow my creative instincts...making what my fingers and overactive creative brain seem to want to stitch.
It all works out.

Mrs Bear is coming.
She will definitely need a knitted shawl.
It is chilly deep in the magic woods. Alpaca most likely. Because I love the way the yarn feels slipping through the wooden needles.
Happy little family.
Resisting the urge to make tiny baskets to fill with acorns.
A backpack for Papa Bear to tote sticks for an evening fire. To roast fish.
Oh no...I just paused to write "tiny linen fishes for bear family" on a post-it.

Chard and Kale

Sawyer and Babette Blanket

So check out the matching colors  above.
Veggie patch and baby Sawyer Blue asleep under my version of the Babette Blanket.
Soft greens, plum, fuchsia, blueish mauves.
Such a sweet little nugget that baby is. 

A random bit of pretty from the corner of the field down the road.

Old metal culvert

Fenced meadow where  3 beautiful horses live

Wild verbena

Tree

Grass

Shadows.

This makes me deeply happy.

I do not know why we are having this misty drizzly cool day in late April. 

Global warming? Serendipity?

Usually by now I am bracing for the shift to Texas summer.

And I do mean bracing. 

Truly appreciated Mother Nature.

Irises!

 Finally, after years of waiting, I have iris flowers. Not just the lovely thick blue green leaves but actual deep purple flowers.
Do not know why I cannot grow these ....I am afraid to breathe on them for fear of destroying them...although they are supposedly hearty? Not under my care , apparently.

I love the old fashioned garden plants and shrubs.
viburnum 
Rose of Sharon
yarrow 
Queen Anne's lace
cow parsley
mouse ear chickweed ( I did not make this up!)

Just the names alone...like a roll call in fairy school.

 Seeing  old abandoned houses along the road with vestiges of these old plantings still blooming and growing is a treasure to me.
I imagine a grandma in  a work apron tending them lovingly.
She looks like me.
 Her irises bloomed!
She is smiling.

This World

Such a sad day yesterday in Boston.
Terror brought into a perfectly normal day.
Is this what life is like for the many people all over the world who live in places where war and violence make events like these a constant threat?
I really cannot imagine it.
There are violent people in every country, of course.
But there are many, many more truly good and compassionate people.
Most folks are just trying to live their lives the best they can.
Everyone deserves to be able to do that...the whole world over.

Milestones and Snippets

There was a family gathering.
A lovely sit down party for Ginger's 17th birthday.
At House of Taurus, the home of Chia, Javier and the just turned one Desiderio .
With 3 point sized waiters serving our every need.
 One of them blew a lot of bubbles, one frequently broke into dance, and one very small one took the job very, very seriously.
Oh I love a baby in a button shirt with collar....and naked.
I just noticed that Jessie doglet seems very interested in that chocolate ganache cake!
Check out those smiles.
Check out that beautiful table.
Five daughters with partners and children.
A beautiful setting and a beautiful family.

Back in the country we had a bunny grooming day. This is Cocoa being very sad about his turn getting his bunny nails clipped.
Slightly harrowing, even for this former nurse.
Clip too close and they screech and claw, fly, scramble, panic, out of your arms and catapult themselves into the next county!
I have never experienced this drama.
Fingers crossed.
He is a Dwarf Rex....softest bun ever.

Rainlilys! 
Dozens and dozens of creamy white beauties. They close up at night and show off their mauve and pink undersides.
Which means that we had rain!
Drop by drop keeping the drought at bay.
The aquifers and wells not completely dry.
Beautiful.

I finished my summer lap blanket! 
Stealing time from Buddha Hill sewing to finally, happily complete it.
Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino ( wool, cashmere, micro fiber)
Cashmere, people!
Unbelievable soft. Creamy white with circle in a square design.
I love it.
Lastly, the 99 cent thrifted crocheted table cover.
Peeking out my front door.
Had to rescue it.
The work is beautiful...someone spent a lot of hours of her life creating it.....wish I could tell her that it found a grateful new home.