Hello 2016

Here's to a fiber-ful 2016!

Friday Favorites : Watercolor Sketching

1. VW Bomberos y Land Rover, 2. Cuisine., 3. Le Donjon (bar), 4. ébauche: Colmar - France - place Jeanne d'Arc, 5. Hat study, 6. watercolor sketch, 7. man-bagpack - streetsketch, 8. 1999090601, 9. garden visitor, 10. 2012 Pasadena Showcase House of Design by Joseph Stoddard, 11. Huntington rose garden, 12. The Polar Bear Winter Retreat, 13. puente-segovia

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I'll be taking a little break from the blog until January. Enjoy this wonderful time of year and I'll see you in 2015!

Signs of the Season

How is your Christmas shopping coming along?  Almost finished? About to start?

Wherever you're at in the planning and preparation, don't forget to stop and enjoy a few of the joys of this season!

1. christmas 2008 vanilla snaps 2, 2. christmas 2008 vanilla snaps packaging, 3. Christmas Morning 10, 4. Strobiles, 5. Garfield Christmas, 6. Trees., 7. Hot Chocolate and Cinnamon, 8. snow, 9. christmas cookies forest, 10. Spiced Vanilla and Honey Christmas Cookies, 11. Bokeh Christmas lights twinkled, 12. Yummy Christmas!, 13. ★☆★ christmas ★☆★


If you're shopping online (say, maybe some yarn or fiber?) remember shipping deadlines are coming up:

The way life should be

Maine!

Clockwise from the large picture:

The famous Maine rock at the entrance to Baxter State Park

Sand Beach in Acadia National Park

Bar Harbour's harbour :)

Jimmy hiking up Mount Katahdin

An erratic along the shore walk in Bar Harbour

Jimmy braving the 50 degree water at Sand Beach (We both did it!  It hurt!)

Shops along a street in Bar Harbour

Another view of Sand Beach from a hike we took

Colors of Spring

Spread the sunshine!

Inspiration : Spring

How 'bout you?  What inspiration do you get from spring's arrival?
I always feel like doing a thousand things.

In a totally unrelated note, I have cast on some new knitting...a baby sweater, for an upcoming arrival.
The color is "Wisteria"....so that's spring-related, eh!

Inspiration Collage : Greens

Who doesn't love spring greens!?

1. 7 warmups in 7 days - day7, 2. Smithsonian, 3. Spring green, 4. spring greens with white, 5. Green Chairs, 6. Green Wheat, 7. Green!, 8. Greens palette, 9. green, 10. green machine, 11. green, 12. Green Elephants Garden Sculptures, 13. Green curl

Inspiration : Cupcakes

Who doesn't love a cupcake?

1. Cuatro Leches Cupcake, 2. Salted Caramel Cupcake - close - Cupcake Central AUD4, 3. Lemon Meringue, 4. Cupcake w/Vanilla Frosting, 5. Peaches & Cream Cupcakes, 6. Pistacchio cupcakes, 7. Cupcake Chorus Line, 8. creamsicle cupcake, 9. Cupcakes on tier series, 10. cupcakes, 11. Cupcakes, 12. Cupcake Camp, 13. Cupcakes

Inspiration Collage : Cross Stitch

The great thing about cross stitch is you can do as much or as little as you like.

1. A Cross-Stitched Alphabet, 2. matryoshka cross-stitch, 3. Foxy fox in cross-stitch, 4. cross stitch iphone case 3, 5. Cross-stitched hedgehog, 6. cross stitch, 7. Russian cross-stitch sampler, WIP, 8. new cross stitched buttons, 9. typewriter cross stitch front, 10. Cross Stitch Kokeshi Pincushion, 11. Cross Stitch: Retro Reindeer, 12. cross stitch, 13. Cross Stitch: Fine Dining

Inspiration : Watercolors

Lots of lovely watercolor inspiration!

1. big seed savers tea, 2. tea time, 3. Associations Now Illustration: Cover - Pen, 4. Drawings/Illustration, 5. Illustration Friday: Plain, 6. Atelier Cezanne, 7. Bouligneux #1, 8. 20100702_alder_sketch, 9. watercolor of evening primrose, 10. Birds 0394 Watercolor-Sketch, 11. watercolor study, 12. tulips watercolor, 13. Church in Vila do Bospo Painting Portugal

Inspiration : Mindmapping

Have you ever done any mindmapping?  Well, I hadn't until I saw this post by Jenny Frith of Jenny's Sketchbook.  How inspiring! That sent me looking and I found these :

Art & Design Mindmap

From Impossible to I'm Possible

Looks like fun!  Then, I thought I'd try one of my own :

This blog talks about "What is Mind Mapping" and has some good tips, like:

• Try to be very visual
• Keep topics short
• Don't worry about doing it the "right" way, just have fun

Anything to get those creative juices flowing, right!?

It's looking like Thanksgiving

Flickr Mosaic : Thanksgiving Season

1. Table laid out for dinner, 2. Pumpkin pie, 3. More fall leaves..., 4. Squirrel, 5. Thanksgiving Turkey, 6. Red apples in a basket, 7. Acorns on tree, 8. The Overlook Hotel MOD Wool Throw, 9. fall leaves, 10. Maisy Day Handspun Shimmy, 11. Pumpkins, 12. Ready to be gifted., 13. Candle


I'm a big fan of Thanksgiving.  You get great food and colder weather, without all the stress and commercialism of our modern-day Christmas season.  (Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas.  But it's definitely not as restful as Thanksgiving).  There's not a lot of expectation associated with Thanksgiving, and I think that's great.

And what's not to love about fall leaves, acorns, turkeys, pumpkins, apples, candles and wool?

Do you have a favorite holiday?

Friday Favorites : Fire

Flickr Collage : Fire

1. Fireplace, 2. firepit, 3. Backyard Firepit - 4 October 2008, 4. The Fireplace, 5. Fireplace, 6. Firewood, 7. In the fireplace, 8. Firewood 2, 9. Firewood, 10. Making a fire in the outside fireplace, 11. __firewood__, 12. fireplace, 13. Firewood

Before we moved into our current house, I never really gave much thought to a fireplace or having a fire.  But since the house came with a big fireplace, we used it.  Now I can't imagine having a house without at least one fireplace.  We love to have a fire in the evenings, especially.  Our fireplace has an insert that has a blower on it, so we can use it warm the front half of the house.

Most people I talk to seem to think dealing with the wood is a chore, but we enjoy it.  You really can't beat the sound of a crackling wood fire.

And, what's better than a campfire on a cool evening?  We'll be doing some car camping in New England next spring, and we're looking forward to the campfires and roasting marshmallows!

Do you enjoy a wood fire?

Inspiration Collage : Sheep

1. 3, 2. COTSWOLD, 3. Ovelhas, 4. Wensleydale sheep, 5. Finn sheep - Mum plus 4, 6. Teeswater Lamb?, 7. Bah bah, 8. Larry and Lars, 9. Corriedale sheep in show ring, 10. Corriedale, 11. Dahlia - Brown-White FinnSheep Lamb Sleeping, 12. DSC_0204, 13. P1040250

In case you haven't guessed by now, I sort of love sheep.  Not that unusual for a knitter & handspinner.  But my husband is a true animal lover, so he encourages pictures of sheep all around.  Well, okay.

Do you doodle?

Flickr collage - Doodles

1. doodle heart, 2. Doodle ICAD, 3. doodle, 4. doodles, 5. Doodle Design 2 start sheet, 6. doodle, 7. January Doodling 2, 8. doodle drawing 8, 9. Doodling up a storm, 10. Doodle color detail, 11. doodled flipflop, 12. Small meeting doodle, 13. Doodle drawing for L14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

I do!  And I love seeing other people's doodles.  It's always a springboard to new ideas.  Below are a couple of pages from my small sketchpad after making the collage above. (I like drawing flowers:)

Do you doodle?

Yellows

Flickr collage - Yellows

1. Mika8, 2. Mellow Yellow, 3. Yellow Thread, 4. Teeny Tiny Dresden !!, 5. Enjoy7, 6. carteira em crazy, 7. WIP especial, 8. Freshcut Tote 1sm, 9. embroidery and quilling, 10. Liz * Poppy, 11. yellow ~ 14 embroidery detail, 12. Sol de primavera, 13. Dupla14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

I have always loved yellow.  I remember when I was 7 or 8, my room was decorated in yellow and orange.  Very cheerful!  I guess I never really outgrew my fondness for those colors.  I like cheerful!

I'm really gravitating towards yellows, corals, peaches, pinks these days.  I think it's the summer air...it makes me think of sandy, summery, sunset colors.

Mason Jars

Flickr Collage - Mason Jars

1. Mason jars, 2. Ball Perfect Mason Jars, 3. Mason Jar Votives to hang..., 4. day 27 candy jar, 5. brush jar, 6. Auntie's Mason Jars, 7. mason jar cookie cutter, 8. Ball Perfect Mason Jars, 9. flowers + mason jars, 10. Mason Jars, 11. Mason Jar Flowers, 12. Pink Straws and Mason Jars, 13. The Humble Mason Jar14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available


I love 'em.  A lot.  I use mason jars for the obvious things:  preserving, pickling, canning.  But I also use them for a bunch of other things:  pen/pencil/brush holders, buttons, handmade cosmetic containers, decoration, vase, candle holders, etc.

When I make up a batch of soup, I always pour it into a 1/2 gallon mason jar to keep in the refrigerator.  Easy to pour out portions, and glass keeps the food fresh longer!

Calendulas

It seemed appropriate.  They are such a pretty, perky, happy little flower.  And quite helpful, too.

Flickr Collage - Calendulas

1. Untitled, 2. Calendula, 3. Calendula, 4. Calendula, 5. Calendula, 6. Glowing, 7. Calendula, 8. Jewel Drops, 9. It was a soft, reposeful summer landscape, as lovely as a dream, and as lonesome as Sunday. ~Mark Twain, 10. Calendula, 11. The Admired One, 12. drippy., 13. Glowing14. Not available 15. Not available 16. Not available