MyLuckyChicken

This is... and some news

First, my This is for the week...

This is my favorite book.

It's a tiny image of When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant. It's my favorite children's book. The writing and imagery are beautiful and simple.

For my grown-up book selection, I had a harder time deciding. I go between

Emma by Jane Austen

and

In Search of Lost Time by Proust

Each very different from the other, but I am drawn to the way that both these authors have mastered the study of character.

and some news...

I've been invited to sell my little market bags at the Milton Farmers Market. So I've been busy sewing away. I'll be there 3 festival dates, the first one being June 26th. I have to say it's exciting and a little scary at the same time. I've got lots of little details to figure out and it is a little overwhelming right now, but I just try to do a bit every night and I'm sure things will fall into place.

It's been vacation week  here and the weather has kindly cooperated and acted like spring. Really beautiful, dry and sunny and perfect. I got a lot of gardening in, and my little patio garden is coming along nicely. Unfortunately it just looks like little green clumps right now. So until I have lovely blooms to show, here are some of the flowers that are coming up in other parts of the yard...

The yard sale season has begun and with it my first find.

A little bench for the basement/playroom. We've been looking for a small couch for the playroom and this will work out nicely I think. This is the before picture. I've since cleaned it up and it  is awaiting proper placement downstairs.

This is..., and some updates

This is...

I've got 2 This is posts to catch up on today.

This is my demon. So it's not as serious as some of the posts I've read for this theme but it is the thing that is always hanging over my head.

My laundry.

It's always in a huge pile in the hall. There is a basket under there but it's quite buried. I try to catch up, but it never seems to happen. Whenever I sit down to read, sew, or just relax, there is a little nagging voice saying; "You should be doing laundry". I used to really enjoy it, and now that the weather is getting nicer and I can hang it out on the line, maybe  I will again. but right now, it just ugh.

So that's kind of a downer. On to lighter fare...

This is the contents of my purse...

First the purse before being dumped,

and all dumped out.

What's in there??

a kids hat

my gloves

some trucks and an alien for emergency use

water

my cell phone

a sketch book

emergency oyster crackers

a diaper bag I made

my money/card holder from Sewing Stars , it says, "I'm Lucky"

summer camp info

and my new rotary cutter from Martha :) , I got it today with a 1/2 off coupon, love that.

and a pencil and sketch book holder I made a a birthday present for one of Bubba's friends. I was carrying it around trying to find the perfect book to fit it and I think I did.

Some close up pictures.

This was pretty fun to make and guess what? I used interfacing! A first for me, so I am all kinds of proud of myself.

I was looking through my pictures and I found this one.

It's my Dotee Doll I made a while ago. She has been at her new home for sometime, but I realized I never posted a picture. I still think they are oddly cute, but I've got some major bag sewing to do.

I asked about possibly selling my market totes at a local farmers market this summer. This is huge for me because I am super shy and  the idea of talking to people about my work is difficult to say the least. So I just got an email and they would like to see a few samples before they ok my little stand. Exciting and scary at the same time. I've got s few bags here, but if they say yes, I've got to get busy!

Some fairly random photos...

my crocus are up

the first, but not so pretty, laundry on the line this Spring

and Buddy says hi!

This is...

This is, first of all my 100th post! I can't believe I have written that much, but it must be true. Thanks to every one who has been reading, commenting, and supporting my efforts at crafting, gardening, and tiding up my life. It's been super fun and I think it's going to get even better!

This week's meme theme, suggested by Betty the Geek is...

This is My Creation

Since I tend to blog about every thing I make, here is a view of my most important creations. They are playing windmills.

I am so blessed.

This is... , Spring forward, and some finds

The theme this week is...

Outside my Front Door

This shot is taken directly outside,

and this one a little to the left.

It's still pretty brown around here, I am waiting for the first buds to pop. Just on the other side of the path is a little brook. We see ducks there and we have a blue heron. So pretty those big birds. On summer nights you can now hear the frogs chirping away. They were gone for a while but they seem to have come back which makes me so happy! I have to say we do love our location here, especially considering how close to the city we are. It's the best of both worlds really.

Thanks to Brooke for this week's theme and to Angela for the meme, it's been super fun!

Also in line with the front door theme...

Spring Forward

We did a little spring cleaning this afternoon. Here is Bubba doing his part. If you look closely you can see the I heart U written one day when the glass steamed up a bit. I love the extra light we get at this time of year. It really energizes me and motivates me to do things like sort through clothes and clean windows, thing that wild horses couldn't drag me to do in the middle of February.

Also since Spring is coming, we went and did a little foraging at an antique's barn. I found this great poodle cookie jar on the half price shelf. I love it, although it could be a little creepy, being just the head and all, but I think it will look great in the kitchen when we get it all done. Plus more space for cookies is always a good thing!

I also found this little jar of buttons. See that round green one there. That's the one that clinched the sale. love it.

and see the clear leafy one on the left, love that one too. I can't wait to open my little treasure jar!

This is...

The theme for this week is inspiration boards. I don't have an inspiration board, I keep all my little tear sheets in a folder, so...

This is my inspiration pile...

There are garden layouts, color pallets, ideas for the french doors that will someday lead to my deck, bathroom and kitchen redos, all kinds of things. I keep them in a little folder that I can easily add to and toss from. Most all of our subscriptions are to home mags so it tends to be mostly that kind of stuff, Cottage Living and Dwell being two of my favorites. Although I did just start getting Organic Gardening so there will most likely be some garden ideas added in.

I thought I'd continue with the this is theme and add in some more catching up .

This is the baby blanket I made for a shower next week...

This is the collection of 4 needle books I managed to make from my quilt. I'll post these the Etsy later. There are plenty more to be made, but I have to get the right color felt first.

This is my messy and STILL half painted kitchen. Later today I am going to get the curtain rods. The idea is to have the kitchen done by Easter, but who knows how long it will really be.

This is some of my teacup collection. I need to find a new place for it if we sell the china cabinet with the dining room set, which it looks like we will. I've just taken these out of storage and I've really been enjoying having an evening cup of tea in them. So fancy!

And finally, this is my sweet garden, waiting for spring.

**sigh**

This is...

This is...

harder than I thought it would be. But here is my entry for this weeks theme:

Me in the mirror with my favorite accessory (plus some other favorites)

This is my new favorite accessory, it's a good luck bracelet. I got it on Etsy from a seller called TrinketTree. She was super nice and included a little note outlining what each stone is and how it makes you lucky. Love it.

So taking this picture turned out to be harder than I thought. I started with these things. I thought the light in this corner was good and I love my little print I got at a thrift store for $6. I've had the mirror for a long time, an antique store fin. It seemed weird to just take a picture of my hand so I thought my second favorite accessory is a cup of coffee so I added that in.

This is one attempt shot off my hip. Those are my PJs and the sweater I have been wearing constantly for about 10 winters.

It's been fun doing this each week. My favorite thing is to wake up on Sunday mornings and check what other people have already done, plus it's interesting reading what people in different parts of the world have already done with their Sunday while mine is just beginning.

This is...

Continuing with the This is meme...

This is what makes me laugh out loud...

Not very politically correct, but I love them anyway!

I didn't manage to post this week because I've been sick with that awful bug that is hitting us here in the North-East. I hope you all escape it!

This is...

I am playing along with the This is meme over at three buttons. This week's theme was picked by Allison at The Lark . So ...

This is Sunday Dinner.

Ok, it was supposed to be Sunday lunch but our Sunday lunches here tend to be kinda on the fly because we are waiting for Sunday dinner.

When I was little my grandparents came over for dinner every Sunday. We all sat down together at a big table and had a boiled dinner or turkey so something else that took a long time to cook. The potatoes were always the last thing to be prepared, and there were always potatoes. It took forever for them to boil and then my mom would use her hand mixer to blend them with milk and butter, yum!

So Sunday dinners have always meant family and delicious comfort food, especially in the winter. Here we are having ham and pasta topped with a delicious cauliflower gratin. I can take absolutely no credit for making the meal, but it was scrumptious!

Buddy knew just where to wait should anything drop from the lap of a 2-year-old.

This is....

my collection.

A collection I didn't realize I was collecting, but it seems that I am.

                          Vintage Silk Thread on Wooden Spools

I am drawn to the beautiful vivid colors against the natural wood. I mostly find these either at estate sales or yard sales in big bags of what other people call 'sewing  junk'.