have a peek at the tiny flock of birdies that migrated to my house recently.
aren't they oh-so-adorable~!!!?!!!~ after they arrived they immediately began flitting about the house finding their own special nesty spots . . .

some have claimed the grapevine wreath that i have hanging on my front door . . .

they are just the tiniest, cutest cleverest handmade little peeps i have ever seen~!!~!

sometimes when you find something really great like this it's hard to share where you got it from but it would be a crime not to let you in on the secret wouldn't it~!?!~

i was browsing around on flickr the other day and came across a photo of one of these handmade wrens. i found it totally irresistible and before you know it i had tracked down where i could get a flock of my own.

Jennifer Hall of www.bubbletime.etsy.com and www.SeaPinks.etsy.com has these as well as many more of the most amazingly fantastically sweet whimsical items that you can imagine. some seriously CUTE STUFF here~!!!~

if you link over to her sites you will be delighted and smiling all day at what you find there, whether or not you choose to actually purchase you will be rewarded with a day long smile and if by chance you find something that you can't live without, i guarantee you will be very pleased with the quality of workmanship within this gal's shops. trust me on this one: it's some REALLY GOOD stuff.

btw: let's just say "a little bird" told you~!~

i've gotten a confirmation on the receipt of this mixed media postcard that i made for a very special someone.

it's always good to hear when a card i've sent has gotten to it's intended destination and has found a good home.

happy birthday Harry and you are so very welcome~!~

i've been recently frustrated by an intermittent internet connection. all of last week it was on again ~ off again and by the time friday came i was just grateful that i was able to continue on with my give-away without interruption. then over the weekend it was completely off and i became even more frustrated. i had intended on connecting with everyone personally and getting addresses (for those of you whom i don't already have them) and putting some special surprises in the mail. i believe i've now made all of those contacts and once i've received the necessary information, will have some sweet goodies coming your way within the next few days. if it turns out that i've overlooked you in all of the confusion please let me know~!~



other than the internet irritations i thought that the giveaway was lots of fun and i am very grateful for all of those who dropped by and congratulated and/or participated.



anyway, despite the lack of internet service i did manage to find something fun to do with my computer during the two days of "black out". i got onto my photoshop elements program and created this digital postcard.





what do you think? i used a photo of one of my own mixed media postcards and a photo of the dragonfly that i shot last year (in my garden) and combined the two with a pinch of pixie dust (or whatever that photoshop magic is called) and voila~!~ it actually wasn't quite that easy and there may have even been a few swear words during the process but for the most part it was really FUN~!!~
i even purchased some postcard card stock to print them out onto. the printing process has been a bit frustrating as the card stock doesn't always seem to want to feed through just right . . . but i think both the printer and i are beginning to get the hang of it . . .

i'm currently working on a doll quilt quiltalong that is being sponsored by Lori at www.humblequilts.blogspot.com and so far i'm having a blast putting my little quilt blocks together by hand. Lori is pretty fabulous at giving excellent instructions and i've found no frustrations at all despite the blocks measuring only five inches square (they'll finish up at four and a half). each block consists of thirty individual pieces sewn up together. my finished quilt may take a little bit longer as hand sewing is slower but it's making a great end of the day (carrot quilt) project.

i already have two blocks completely sewn and one nearly finished.

there will be a total of eleven whole blocks and two half blocks within the finished little quilt.

and last but not least i have progress on the Dress Up challenge to report. this is my (romantic) dress for the month of february being modeled by my sweet and oh so charming sage dolly. this dress is made up of cheesecloth and bits of tattered lace.

i joined the challenge quite late and so still have dresses for the months of january and march to catch up with. i'll just fit them in as i have a bit of extra time . . . it's now time to start thinking about a dress for the month of may and my creative brain is already churning with some thoughts on that one . . .

feel free to take a look at what some of the other participants are doing by going to http://www.aliceandcamilla.blogspot.com/ . the variety of artwork in this challenge may surprise (and delight) you.

i have something very cool to show you in my next post . . . think "peeps" . . .

today is the big day and i have all of my players listed on their own ticket within this teacup. it's at this very moment that i'm wishing that i didn't have to choose just one main winner . . .

. . . but i must . . . and the winner is . . . Diane from http://www.persnicketyquilts.blogspot.com/ ~!~

congratulations Diane. i will be getting your package out to you within a few days.

as for everyone else who stopped by with happy congratulations i have special surprises for you too. e-mail me your mailing address and i will be popping a small morsel of happiness into an envelope for you as well.

~!!!~thank you for making my first year of blogging so much fun~!!!~

~LET'S CELEBRATE~

i would like you to help me celebrate the completion of my first year of blogging as well as over 200 posts.

it's been a learning experience for me as well as a creative experience and most of all it's been FUN ~!~

i've met some fabulously talented and creative artists who inspire me in my own creativity

people who are kind beyond measure

so many offerings of encouragement have been given and i really do THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all of the various joys that you have shared during this past year~!!~

so imagine yourself a winner (because each and every one of you are) and leave a comment on this post telling me which one of these six postcards you like the best and i will enter you in a drawing.

the prize will be all six cards plus some other small goodies. i am also going to do some secondary awarding of yet even more surprises . . . after all, what's a party without LOTS of surprises~!?!~

i plan on drawing a name on the morning of friday, april 23rd and announcing the winner(s) later that day. i wish everyone who participates loads of luck.

this morning the sun is shining and the snow is continuing to melt. i decided to make some bread and while i was in the midst of that i noticed these reflections and shadows on the table. i couldn't resist getting a shot of the wonders of sunshine within the bread making process. i have been interested in participating in the "Dress Up 2010" project/challenge hosted by Margaret at her blog Alice and Camilla for months now. if you're ready to see lots of arty cuteness you should go right over and check it out: http://www.aliceandcamilla.blogspot.com/ and so yesterday i ignored everything else that needed doing and concentrated on making a dolly. i found a couple of soft doll patterns that i liked various components of and had some ideas of my own, so i sort of Frankensteined together my own pattern. her head is stuffed with sawdust from dh's workshop and her body and legs are stuffed with, well, stuffing. she is approximately nine inches tall. her (once lovely) locks are made of a linen thread and her mismatched brown eyes are buttons. her mouth has been stitched on in a perpetual chuckle. she underwent a bath of warm spices and tea in order to obtain that lovely (and aromatic) "patina". she's not fancy which is exactly what i was going for and i am pleased with the much loved and played with look of her. her name is sage, which i thought very regionally appropriate to her "birthplace".

she is wearing her first "Dress Up" dress for the month of April. it's a simple chambray frock with a bit of antique lace used for the collar and a few humble embroidery stitches added to the skirt for the special occasion of Easter. this morning was just nice enough to take her outside to get her portraits. see how happy she is that the sun shines on her~!?!~

AND she discovered the very first spring crocus growing in the garden. i think she was even more excited than i was~!~

i have also completed another carrot quilt (#7)~!!!!!!!~

this cute little pink confection was put together using left overs from a guild round robin that i participated in. it is all my own work. this piece measures approximately 15 inches x 17 inches.

this second one was one of two small quilts that i had in the round robin. i stitched the bee skep in the center and one of my guild sisters added the tiny zig zag pieced border. the next talented lady added a simple double border and then appliqued/embroidered the cute bees onto the top. when i got the top back i added the muslin border and the embroidered words. i've actually had this one finished for quite some time and may have even included photos of it previously in my blog (or maybe that was flickr) but i thought that all three quilts should be pictured together since they are somewhat "related". this piece measures approximately 18 inches square.

this is the second round robin top that was created within that same guild challenge. it also happens to be my sixth carrot quilt. i appliqued the little bean tree/berry branch block and the next person added a panel with the words "Love Life" embroidered on it as well as a sun with rays. the last lady within the exchange appliqued the cute primitive house onto a funky pieced checkerboard background. when it came back to me i added some more funky pieced checkerboard background and some appliqued pumpkins as well as a few more rays of sunshine. this piece measures approximately twenty three and a half inches x twenty five inches.

i have also shown it within the blog very recently.

i think that they all turned out totally full of cuteness and am looking forward to displaying them, each in it's own appropriate season, on my walls.

My Easter weekend was full of bitter winds, cloudy skys and snowflakes so when i wasn't in blogland absorbing as much sunshine, green grass and lovely pastel eggs from your blogs as i possibly could through my computer screen, i was curled up on the couch stitching postcards. which means that i now have two more cards done that i will be adding to my giveaway bundle.

i promise: they will get finished within a couple of weeks and i'm going to be out of town in a few days picking up a few extra goodies to go in the package. my goal is to have it ready to mail by the third week in April . . . so there really is going to be a give-away and i'm not just being a tease. well, at least not on purpose.

i mentioned in my last post that i was reading "The Road" and have since finished it.

i don't know whether this book has shattered me or healed me . . . maybe both.

Cormac McCarthy is a magician with words and this book reads like (very dark) poetry. i couldn't put it down despite feeling that it was relentlessly hopeless and terrifying.

after lots of thought and a re-read of some parts of it, i have decided that this is a book that took me so far into a pit of darkness that once there, the only light i could clearly perceive, was that children are indeed our only real "carriers of the fire". this is true within his pages and it is true in our own realities.

thank god our own reality is not (yet) so dim.

i would be interested in seeing/hearing anyone elses take on this book and am wondering if i dare read any more of Cormac McCarthy . . . somehow i feel dared NOT to.

i've been totally unmotivated today. not sure if it's this crazy on again, off again spring weather or the ms but all i could muster up the energy to do was look through these two books and sort through some fabrics that i've been pulling together for a quiltalong sponsored by Lori at http://www.humblequilts.blogspot.com/ . if you are interested in antique and vintage quilts this is a wonderfully inspiring blog to visit.

she has done at least one quiltalong before this one (a doll quilt called Cheddar Cheese and Crackers in an antique style) and i happened to discover it after it had already begun. i was extremely tempted to get all charged up and join in but decided instead to finish a few other projects that i had previously started and wait until there was another one. and in her last few posts she's been mysteriously talking about the next one. not telling us yet just what we'll be doing but giving us some clues in the form of dates, blocks and colors . . . it was enough to get me running for the studio fabric pantry earlier this week and before i knew it it looked like a fabric store had exploded in there~!~ so this morning as i read these books i also sifted through some of that mess and culled out some that i would like to work with for this upcoming project.

she suggested blacks with a 1900's look to them.

black prints, sometimes referred to as mourning prints.

the tiny red check that you see on the very bottom is being set aside for possible sashing needs . . .

cinnamon pinks

some browns

the indispensable shirting prints

blues. i pulled both indigo and cadet as well as a wide ticking type stripe that i may or may not use . . .

and just for fun i also pulled a couple of fabrics that could be termed conversationals. not sure if i'll use them but many quilts made during this time period did include these cute fabrics.

i have a couple more that i haven't shown that are maybe's . . . not sure if they're just right or not until i see a pattern . . .

so, Lori, if you're out there, i'm ready to see what's next~!!!!~

i may decide to hand piece this one as well as hand quilt it after i've seen a bit more information . . .

i think i'll go and have a nap now. maybe read a little bit in my newest book: The Road by Cormac McCarthy . . . this book is so sad and depressing but i cannot seem to stop reading it. i think that i'm hoping it must have some sort of happiness at some point . . . i hope . . .

i believe there was a movie out a few months ago but i didn't get a chance to see it so may have to put it on the Netflix que.