Fall Goodies

It's coming. I know it doesn't feel like it but the best season of the year is on the way. I went on a little craft crawl to a couple of my favorite local shops and picked up some Cosmo floss and a few fat quarters for fall finishing projects. 

It's been a long time since I got a new piece of pottery. We don't have as many local potters here as we did where we used to live, so our pottery collecting has slowed significantly. However! While looking for something else (isn't that always the way?) I stumbled across this gorgeous little bread baker from an Ohio potter. It makes a very small loaf, just right for two people. Since I'm always on the look-out for small bakeware to feed my tiny baking obsession, I snapped it up. I am absolutely delighted with it and can't wait to try it out when fall baking season rolls around. Happily, it comes with a dozen recipes! (If you're a pottery nut, click on the "pottery" label at the end of this post to see some of my collection.)

Tiger Lily did not miss out on goodies. She has a passion for tissue paper and whenever something arrives in the mail wrapped in it, the tissue paper goes to her.

Bonus mid-summer sunrise!

Happy Stitching, y'all!

End of Summer Update

I'm back! Yay!

And *summer is over! More yay! Tiger Lily started blowing her summer coat in July. I suppose it's sort of "old-wives'-tale-ish" on my part, but I have noticed that when she loses her summer coat mid-way through, we get an early start on winter (which around here, is early December). Fine with me. I'm ready for a blizzard.

*Meteorological summer started 1 September. Yes, I'm a weather nerd.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I've been spending this summer doing some redecorating and cleaning out for a possible spring move. As is often the case, messing with any household project of any size can be like accidentally knocking over the first domino in the line, and then watching helplessly as the cascade of falling dominoes runs madly throughout the entire house. That's where I am right now. I was only re-doing the living room, but had to move some cabinets out, which required finding a place for them elsewhere, which ended up being my sewing room, which then required a major re-arrangement to accommodate them... you get the idea. I think I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and none too soon. My stitching and blogging about stitching has been sadly neglected.

Mr. Wonderful's birthday was last month, and we did manage to get out for a little day trip to celebrate. I got this adorable 4.5" pitcher. In one of my earlier pottery posts, I was fussing about being nuts about pitchers but not really having much use for them. It was hard to justify buying them. Then I decided that loving them was all the justification that I needed, so here we are. Life's too short to deny yourself charming little pitchers. (If you want to see some of my other pieces, click on the "pottery" label at the end of this post or in the right sidebar.)

While we were out trekking the countryside, Mr. Wonderful survived a ferocious chicken attack!

In the surest sign of fall, college football is back! Saturday we went to the Texas game (we are both Texas grads). Of course they lost. We still had a good time (except for the hour and a half rain delay), and we're both just killing time until hockey season starts anyway.

In my last Clover and Lace update I optimistically (and delusional-y) announced that I only had two more lines of verse and the border left and that I could probably finish it by the end of the summer. I knew--even as I was typing it--that I was kidding myself. With everything else going on in this house, I have managed to stitch exactly one, o-n-e, line of the verse. It's not even worth an update. However!

This! This is worth noting! Brooke Nolan has started a new six-part series: Woodland Santa & Friends, available in her Etsy shop. It is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E. Parts 1-3 are out, and they are available separately or in a bundle. Part 1 is Santa, part 2 is Freddie Fox, and part 3 is Rebecca Rabbit, and y'all they have little outfits! So, so, SO cute! The morning they were released, my cousin texted me a picture and I immediately went out and got my supplies together (I was about to leave to run errands anyway, but you know, that went to the top of the to-do list.)

Did I have time to start them? No. Did I have a zillion other things to get done in the house before I could give myself permission to start them? Yes. Did I have another WIP I need to finish first? Yes. Did I buy them and all the supplies anyway?

YES.

So that's where things stand at my house. 

Big living room redeco: almost done

Big sewing room rearrange (caused by big living room redeco): uh... let's skip that one

Clover and Lace WIP: one line of verse and border left 

Christmas stitching: should've started two months ago

Oh, and Mr. Wonderful and I have another trip to Seagrove, NC planned for this month (see this post). 

But I did get my blog updated! 

Big Ol' Mid-Summer Update

Grab your iced tea and settle in... it's time to catch up!

First, here's an update on Clover and Lace by Misty Hill Studio. Y'all, this is a sad amount of progress, but I have reasons, which I'll get to in a minute. Anyway, here she is. So pretty.

So as I've mentioned, this is my Saturday-Sunday project, and I haven't had much time to work on it because our last few weekends have been so busy. The last weekend in June Mr. Wonderful and I got to meet the Stanley Cup... touch it... have our picture taken with it. Now, if you're not a hockey fan, this is not a big deal. If you're a hockey fan, it's the biggest deal ever in the whole wide world oh my stars I can't believe it!!! Our picture turned out awesome! but since we have a strict policy of not posting pictures of ourselves, you'll have to settle for this one and trust me that we did get our mitts on it. *swoon* (I circled the Cup for you in red; it's right below the first 'a' in "Capitals.")

We got up super early, and stood in line for several hours in 90+ degree heat, but it was so worth it. A once in a lifetime experience.

Then the next weekend we went roaming, which always means a little shopping. I found a wool shop that had a few stitchy things, and a quilt shop with some nice fat quarters. I don't quilt, but I have a pretty good-sized collection of fat quarters for my needlework finishing. The thread is Valdani.

I'm not big on prim designs, but every now and then one catches my eye. This one made me smile: "The Gobbler Rides Again!" So cute for Thanksgiving stitching.

At the quilt shop, I picked up this little fox sewing kit. I have a pink one but I needed a red one too, you know.

When I buy a cute sewing kit like this, I take out the sewing supplies and fill it with my small stitchy tools to turn it into a tiny stitching kit.

Of course we managed to find pottery. Look at this gorgeous mug.

Beautiful blue inside.

And this vase. The picture makes it look big, but it's only 8" high and was a whole $10! So much pretty for ten bucks.

On top of all this running around, I'm also redoing the living room and getting the house ready for a possible move next spring. I want everything done by the fall so I can focus on the really important things: stitching and baking. 

Finally, saving the best for last... goodies from sweet Robin in Virginia! Gorgeous notecards, summery sprinkles for delicious cookies, and needle minders!

Y'all, look at this perfect summer needle minder! It reminds me of this finish that I did last year and is one of my favorites. Thank you so much, Robin!

And that's what I've been up to so far this summer. Busy, busy, busy! The stitching has been suffering a bit, but I like to use the summer to get lots of stuff done so the fall and winter can be slow and quiet. I am not a fan of the crazed holiday season and I have a lot of habits that I keep to pretty strictly in order to avoid the madness. Maybe I'll do a blog post on that in the near future. 

However you choose to spend your summer, hope you're having an enjoyable one!

Chickens, Mo' Pottery, and a WIP Update

Another spring Saturday, another day of wandering the countryside looking at (and sometimes buying) stuff. Have I ever mentioned my life goal of someday owning a few chickens? Well, now I have. I want some chickens. We were plundering another pottery studio on Saturday, and the potter had the prettiest (?) chickens I've ever seen. Even Mr. Wonderful was charmed.

I mean, look at this gal:

And of course, the pottery hoard continues to grow (unlike my cabinet space).

I love this squatty little pitcher. I have a thing for pitchers. Never use them. Just love them. I think I'll start putting flowers in them and get rid of most of my glass vases. (See how cleverly I just came up with a "reason" to buy more pottery pitchers?)

Last year one of our favorite local potters was experimenting with teapots, and I got this little beauty. Saturday we discovered he'd made a few teacups. Had to have one.

I've been working away on Beasts and Birds. Here's a sneak peek at a few of the critters.

I'll post a complete list of all my color choices when I post the finish.

Off, and Back On Again

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

"Did you try turning it off and back on again?"

This question may be a bit of a joke, aimed by the tech savvy at those of us for whom turning it off and back on again exhausts our technical knowledge, but it's surprising how often it works. A quick off/on forces a system reset; it allows an always-on, always-processing machine to have a moment to itself, to collect its thoughts, and to get back on track. In our gadget-dominated digital age, our devices aren't the only things that need periodic resets.

I've been switched off for a while, for various reasons. Some have expressed concern about my absence, and I do so appreciate that. It's nice to be missed. I'm okay, Mr. Wonderful is okay, and Tiger Lily is okay. In fact, week before last, Mr. Wonderful and I wandered off to the mountains for a few days. The photo above is a view of the sunset from our room up in the mountains. One day, as we were driving along winding roads (and I was trying not to look down), enjoying the peace and quiet (we had the whole place to ourselves), the phrase, "we'll have to get back to the real world" popped into my head. And then it struck me: this is the real world. These mountains and trees and streams and deer and bear... all of these things God created... this is the real world. The world we go back to--beltways and traffic and  cell phones and computers--is valuable, important, necessary. But those are all things we made, and they do not comfort and soothe and revitalize like the things God made. 

So I've switched back on again, and my systems are slowly coming online. I'm slowly getting back to the things I love, that have been neglected for a while. If you've been reading me for a while, you know what those things are. If you're new, here are some of my favorite things that I've been getting back in touch with.

National Parks. I would rather be hiking in a National Park than sight-seeing in a city any day. I got some awesome goodies at Shenandoah.

Pottery. On our trip, we found a beautiful little pottery--Blue Ridge Pottery--just outside the park. The potters were busy, so the shop was on the honor system for the day: choose your pieces, add up your total and tax, put your money in the little box. We ran into this in North Carolina, too (see this post) and I must say, it charms me and refreshes my spirit to know that the honor system still exists in this world.

My pretty new fruit bowl.

A beautiful little vase. I'm partial to pink and rose in pottery because it's so hard to find. This is for my sewing room.

The green piece on the left is a little egg separator. See the hole? Isn't that cute? And another wee milk mug for my collection. This one is about 3 1/2" high. Even at 46, I'm still a milk drinker, and I love my tiny mugs.

Baking. Lemon Ricotta Cookies (recipe can be found here). Not low-carb, not small-batch. But in my defense, these were for a dear friend who has just come back from deployment. They're her favorite.

Lemon Cream Scones. My low(er) carb adaptation of a Bisquick recipe using Carbquick (see the "low carb" baking label in the right sidebar). When I get them exactly to my liking, I'll share the recipe. I'm also planning to experiment with a Vanilla Bean version.

Stitching. Today was the first day I picked up a needle since... I don't know when. I abandoned this gal a while back, but picked her back up today. This is my purple conversion of Here a Peep, There a Peep! by Brenda Gervais.

Making stuff. Supplies for a mystery project...

Books. Russians. Books about Russians. If that seems weird, see here and here. This book is one of my souvenirs from Hillwood, a museum in Washington D.C. that houses the largest collection of Russian Imperial art outside of Russia. Our second visit to the museum was back in February. Maybe I'll post more on this some time.

Precious, sweet Tiger Lily. She turned 12 at the beginning of April.

Again, thanks for the concern. Thanks for visiting and for commenting. I hope to keep making this a pleasant, cozy place for all of us. Have a wonderful week!

I got a new teapot!

Always cause for celebration: a new teapot! We stopped by our favorite local potters' shop on Saturday and I got this little beauty. For more on our pottery obsession, see this post.

I also recently got a new tea wallet. I love these things, and never travel without one. I purchased this one from this shop.

I got this one at an area garden show a couple of years ago. See the little Chow? So cute.

We also took in an art show on Saturday, and I got this beautiful fox print by a local artist. I think she captured such a sweet expression. Her Etsy shop is here (lots of lovely birds).

Haven't had much time for stitching since I finished my last project, but I am getting supplies together for my fall stitching. This luscious silk thread is Autumn Bouquet. Isn't it gorgeous?

I can't believe summer is all but over. I'm spending these last few days of August doing a bit of reorganizing in my sewing room. Mr. Wonderful bought me a new craft table (it's actually supposed to be a dining table, but I'm repurposing it) so I needed to do some shuffling in there. I want it all just so, because I've got a busy fall ahead and I need room to work: finishing, framing, Christmas Open House project, and who knows what else. There's just something about the approach of fall that makes me want to be busy. Probably that "squirrel brain" I've mentioned before...