Jumping on the Bed

a couple of years ago i bought this antique dolly bed from ebay. it is wooden and was once painted green and is made in a spindle style. i think it must have been played with a lot as it's a bit wobbly and worn. it actually has a metal spring bottom that has a caved in appearance . . . as if the former owners cat made a regular bed out of it . . . or maybe their dollies did a lot of jumping on the bed too~!~

it came with the old quilt that has been cut to the size of a doll bed cover but i made the tiny ticking pillows as well as fashioning a lace bedskirt for it from a bit of crocheted antique lace. i also draped another old crocheted lace piece over the end of the bed.

the bed and it's playful occupants are arranged on top of an antique pie safe that i have loved for years. the pie safe is also in pretty rough shape and has a warped top. but i love it anyway. or maybe i love it because it's not perfect . . .

under the bed is a well loved book from my own childhood. when i take a moment to look at the pictures in this book i can actually remember enjoying it. the memories are vague and as ephemeral as the book but still recognizable to me.

due to the wobbly bed and the uneven surface of the pie safe i have had to prop the bed with a tiny book under one of it's legs in order for it to remain stable.
i just love that most of the paint has been worn off of this little bed . . . i imagine it to have been played with by more than one child losing her or himself in the lovely world of "let's pretend".

and in keeping with the saggy mattress springs i have posed my little brown bear as if he's been jumping on the bed . . . and i swear~!~his facial expression is just perfect for this . . .does he not look sheepish to you~!?!~

Spring has Sprung~!!~

i have a few of these this year. my mom always called them grape hyacinths. i've also seen them called muscari. the skinny striped leaf that you can see is from the neighboring crocus plants, which have finished blooming. the broad green leaves are from neighboring tulips that haven't quite bloomed yet but are just beginning to send up some tight little buds.

below is a close up shot of what i believe to be a japanese cherry tree . . . it's just starting to get some buds coming out from the center of it's brand new leaves.

and there is a little bug hiding out in there . . . hmmmmmm . . .

it's a blue sky kind of day today~! the sun is out and the breeze is chilly. i love it when the trees have this gorgeous green "veil" going on . . . not completely leafed out but not just bare sticks reaching for the sky either. so far the buds on the fruit trees remain undamaged by the frosts that we have had . . . fingers crossed, they will not get frozen before flowering out~!~

daffodills in black and white

a long day today with lots accomplished. the tomatoes and basil have been planted out in the cold frame and i got a baby quilt prepped for the machine quilter and dropped off AND i've finally gotten my Desert Bonsai quilt layered and ready to be basted tomorrow. then i will start work on the quilting of it. i didn't get a few of the more minor tasks on my to-do list done today but will just have to try doing those in with tomorrows daily tasks. just not enough hours in the day or energy in the body to accomplish everything that i would like to do but i didn't do too bad today.

this is a shot of "preemie" lilac blossoms . . . another one of those flowers that we sometimes lose before they reach "maximum blossom potential".

my muscari is almost ready to open up . . . the bottom half of this bloom is farther along than the top half but i love the variation in color as it becomes more and more "ripe".

Progress

these two fabrics are very representative of the fabrics being used to frame up my "crumb cakes". i just bought the darker fabric on friday and already wish that i had purchased more than the two yards that i did . . . just being greedy though as i certainly don't need it~!~

below you will see my "crumb cakes". i've been making them for a long time but am just now getting them back out to work further on them. the center square is three inches in size and crumb pieced using my smallest of scraps. you know, the "end of the food chain" really small stuff. if my scraps aren't utilized in these blocks they are actually thrown away~!~in the garbage~!~usually . . .

they are being framed up with med/dark blue fabrics (various) and prints on light grounds/shirtings (various). i'm not positive what i'll do for a setting but i'm leaning strongly in the direction of putting them together as you see here.

this weeks scrap management accomplishment.

you know, i actually think that the basket of scraps looks a tiny bit leaner than it used to . . . still not sure that it's not wishful imaginary thinking . . . but maybe, just maybe, i'm starting to actually see some progress.

tonight the temps are supposed to dip into the high 20's. this does not bode well for the fruit trees. i was hoping to be able to document them as they came into bloom but this may be the last of that series of shots . . .

"The sun shines not on us, but in us.

The rivers flow not past, but through us,

thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the subtance of our bodies,
making them glide and sing."

John Muir

"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things."
William Wordsworth

an early morning stroll through the garden

the dragonsblood that grows by the pond is looking perky and beginning to get it's greener color.

the hollyhocks have a long way to go but a good strong start~!~

the elfin thyme has begun to green up and grow.

all of this noticed while taking a morning stroll through the garden. sun shining and chai tea in hand ~ the best way to start any day~!!~

Bloom

this little guy was rescued from being the cats' breakfast . . .

a very very VERY tiny weed that i found growing among the pebbles by the side of the pond. seems almost mean to even classify it as a weed~!~

the sun is out again today~!~ and so i went out for a look at how the pond is coming along. i found this ladybug doing some rock climbing.

this is the newest finished fabric postcard. it will be mailed out in tomorrow's mail and is a birthday card for one of my favorite people in the whole world~!~
;-)

this weeks progress/photo of the scrap management project. seems kind-of puny to me although i did put in the designated one half hour every day . . . those nine-patches take forever to make when they are crumb pieced~!!~ the nine-patches will measure 9" square when finished and the coin pieced strips are between 12" and 15" long. they will be sewn together into longer strips later as i figure out individual projects to use them up in. these particular coin strips are 4" wide, so will sew up to 3.5". the individual "coins" vary in size according to what scraps are getting dug out to be used . . .

Bursting With Joy

one of the fruit trees is showing promising signs . . . not sure what kind of fruit tree this is as we don't ever have enough of a season for it to bear anything but sometimes in the Spring, if they don't get frozen, we have blossoms.

i've been out in the garden all day and am pooped~!~ but sun drunk so it's all good~!!~

we made apricot, chocolate chip scones for breakfast this a.m. and they turned out wonderfully~!!~used a Test Kitchen recipe and made a couple of modifications.

from this . . .

to this.
still needs to be sandwiched up and bound but i've almost got another birthday card done~!~

promises . . . promises . . .
my dining room serves as an improvised green house at this time of year and these tomaoto plants are already making promises.

dang it all anyway~!!~i bet you could hear me swearing (no matter where you might be in this world) this morning when i got up~!~and trust me i did not use the word "dang"~!!!~

so today i got up and decided enough was enough with the procrastination of this card~!~ i began by adding some Wisteria (like) stitches . . .

a close-up of the finished Wisteria

. . . a few more embellishments and stitches . . .

and ta-da~!~ the finished Wisteria postcard

it is now in the mail thanks to a very good friend who gave me a last minute ride to the post office. this one is for my mother-in-law. her birthday is actually today but i figured that it would be a nice touch to have the cancellations on it for her special day . . . yep, that's why it's going to arrive late . . .

;)

this morning i took a walk and just happened to notice a butterfly on the side of the road. it looked like it dropped straight out of the sky mid flight and died. it was in such great shape (other than being dead, i mean) that i carried it home for a photo shoot. i think i've made it look convincingly alive in this shot . . .

these butterflies seem to be migrating through the area and sadly all of them just don't make it to wherever it is they are going. i have no idea just what kind it is and would love it if someone could identify it for me.

today's late lunch consisted of a plate of homemade oven roasted sweet pototoe fries. they turned out perfectly and i thought that they looked so nice that i had to take a shot of them.

i failed to post my scrap management photo yesterday. i am still making decent progress through the basket of scraps; it's even starting to look a little bit less full than it did and those of you who scrap quilt know how long it can take to make even that much happen. the scraps must breed like bunnies once the lid is placed back on because they can be very difficult to see any end to.

i have a total of 50 tulips made and i'm still not tired of them~!~also there is a growing pile of coin quilt strips . . . and a small mountain of three and a half inch squares for the nine patches that i'm making.

my Easter wish for all of my readers is that your day has been as full of beauty, surprises and smiles as mine has~!!~ all of these images should enlarge when you click on them and on some it really is worth doing~!!~

it is a frequent occurance where i live for there to be very bad weather on Easter. jokes are commonly made about a traditional Easter blizzard. however this day has been absolutely glorious~!!~ other than a strong intermittant breeze it's an awesomely SPRING day~!~ and low and behold i have discovered our first bumblebee of the year. if you look closely, you will see her hiding there under the Crocus . . . see that bit of bokeh down there? that is her wings.

in this next photo you can see her a little bit better . . .

she wandered about a bit and took a few naps and did quite a lot of cleaning of herself. i watched her for quite a while. mostly she just seemed to want to doze in the sun and i discovered that if i shadowed her (when attempting to get a better photo) she would get busy and crawl back into the sun. it became a way for me to sort of control her movements somewhat. i think she has just woken up from a long Winter nap and isn't quite up to speed yet . . .

peek-a-boo.

isn't she beautiful~!?!~ eventually she did decide to buzz on to some other location . . . i felt honored that she allowed me to take as many portraits as she did and wished her well.