June Sunday

 Check out a little interview I gave over at My Bit Of Earth.
Really fun blog and I am happy to be advertising on it!
 Mel, the writer, is funny and warm and down to earth.

http://www.mybitofearth.net

Morning light upstairs bedroom

Slipping Into Summer

 

Oh, it has been so nice with temps barely reaching the 90's the whole merry month of May.

Lowish humidity.

Bright blue skies and strong, mostly, northerly winds.

All the while I was hugging that weather to myself.

True summer is always a shock to the system. A bit of a hump to get over each summer.

So here we are with palpable, heavy humidity and rising temps.Highs inching into the 90's and lows in the 70's.

But all is ok because that heavy warm air is perfect for wafting elusive scents.

Agarita in bloom, our field of wild verbena, something unidentified from the woods. Those apricot roses! Oh my, they are so aromatic.

The barnyard scent from the horse field on our dawnish walk. I have mentioned  my love of that smell before. So evocative of a few small farms from my childhood.

When I step out onto our big back porch and hear the cicada's loud crescendos I get my yearly urge to read Southern literature while sipping a cold drink.

The porch is ready.

Must put that on a summer list then make myself do it.

I am usually seen buzzing about doing things and do not easily sit still. Busy hands and list making brain. 

 I am a firm believer in flourishing where you are.

I am here in central Texas living within hugging distance of all of my children and grandchildren.

On a beautiful piece of land in the rolling hill country.

Our roots are here. Our history with each other and this place.

That feels good and true to me. 

Peaceful.

So I embrace it all. 

In between happy family times I have finished some new patterns and fashioned a few prototype critters.

Baby Bear has a sleepy time of it so he gets a bed, blanket and tiny pillow.

He will come with a Papa Bear with a vest sporting a large pocket to carry tiny fish for picnics and Momma Bear with a shawl.

Brand new Mr Mouse. Plain and simple. Serious mouse.

Large Floppy Rabbit with vintage fabric clothes and wool felt shoes.

Lovely Essex linen body and lop ears. 

Lastly a school of fish! Made on a whim from available fabrics and looking like colorful koi fish. Total accident.

Love that!

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.

Bringing Me Happiness Today

Super busy January this year. Births and flu and birthdays and orders to sew and then more flu. It flew by. So just a few very random and one very wondrous snippets:

*An entire January's worth of deeply tinted sunsets seen over the back field. Never fails to get me flying out of the house, scattering grazing deer families, setting the chickens aflutter and the dog barking.
 Because I slam the screen door. And possibly because I giddily exclaim the wonder of the sky out loud and frequently.

 Sam the dog is used to it. 

The children used to call this event (yelling about the sky and forcing them out back to enjoy it) momma's "hippie moment". Lots of eye rolling on their part and hopping up and down on mine.
Now they love sunsets. Apply same scenario to vegetables.

*Leaving the holiday fairy lights up on the mantle. To illuminate my ever changing forest animal tableau.I love that fir mantle. It is the first thing I see coming down the stairs.

*Seeing , in the morning light, my Grandmother Risolvato's little Mary planter, my favorite Buddha statue, a 1940's bitty gnome vase, and pleasing little collected and gifted bits of pottery. Nestled on a scrap of vintage barkcloth. Thrifted curtain. One of the first little bit of happiness I see each morning.

*Pom pom pom making. Next run of cashmere lambs and mice will need a pompom necklace. It has been decided.

*Biggest by far source of happiness...Sawyer Blue. Born at home 3 weeks early. Doing splendidly.
Truly and deeply loved by so many big folk.
 I held him against my chest for many hours one night so my daughter could sleep a bit.
 Quiet house. Softly breathing warm light as air bundle under a tangerine colored blanket.
I could feel his breath. Hear his newborn squeaks.
 Sitting in the darkness, gently patting. Looking into his face for hours in the predawn.
Lovely. Just deeply, joyously lovely.

Hmmm....When Last We Spoke

The deafening silence featured here has been brought to you, mostly, by an old pc that refused to obey the simplest of my commands.

I would issue the commands hopefully and kindly but was soundly ignored.

When my tap tapping on the controls became harder and harder (even though I KNEW it would not respond EVER!) and my thoughts became dark and murderous, I had to walk (stomp?) away. No blog posts possible.

 Sewing and stuffing and stitching a whole forest full of critters for fall and holiday shows has kept me very happily occupied.

Two months of art shows, multiple family gatherings, winter and holiday fun make September through December a whirlwind of fun and deadlines.

But I am anxious to keep sharing, so...

Enter my new MacBookPro!

I am now functional and ready to reconnect with the outside world and share random bits of what inspires me and how we live.

So lately :

There was a LOT of stitching

Random attempts at seasonal table making

Many spectacular sunsets over the back field

Holiday baking!

Much to follow. I am already thinking of new forest critters to sew.

Floppy rabbits with dresses and britches.

with mini pompom necklaces?

Felty animal families.

And embroidered felt bracelets and headbands.

Large embroidered butterfly and moth hair clips

Oh my goodness. 

My fingers are itching to get at it!