Ring In The New Year

I'm more than a bit obsessed with knitting these adorable little rings...........

My sweet friend Pixie has them over at her place The Crafte Nook.  She found the pattern, and I got the pattern for this wristie at Tiny Owl Knits .

You knit them, then felt them in your hand.  I needle felted the hearts instead of knitting them in.

I set a few on the mantle to look at because they're just so darn cute!

You can also see another treasure, one of my mother's fabulous Ukrainian eggs.

Today I went for a long overdue coffee with my dear, dear friend Katie

 Doesn't her little felted heart ring look smashing with her pretty dark lilac nail polish?  I'm going to knit up gobs more as gifties for my friends.  If you knit (or not) check out this free pattern and tutorial.  Easy to make, cheap (using only scraps of yarn), and a perfect little gift for yourself and gal pals.
xo
dulcy

Happys

So many, as my dear friend Katie would say, "happys" right now in my life.  Simple things just make me want to get started with my day and see what transpires.  Right now color has got me in it's grips.  My current rug hooking project has not gotten to be the least bit tiresome... and I'm almost done with the hooking part.  Usually at this point I'm screaming to finish and move on to something new.  It's working with these colors that keeps me inspired.........

 

Other joys are, of course, my friendships.  My friend, Ann, is now a happily retired art teacher.  She and her friend Linda are creating the most awesome Hope Vases that they take to hospitals and other places where people are ill.  They also sell their vases to make more $$ for supplies to make more vases.  Please visit their blog.  The other day Ann and I went to lunch and she gave me this delicious ginger tea.  I adore simple and consumable gifts.... and I love this box!

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 Another lunch date with my fabulous friend Jessy

She's growing her hair out silver, and rocking this soft blonde look at the moment.  Sweet Jessy gave me this most thoughtful little basket full of happys.....

Fun goodies to play with.  Jessy made me this wonderful date book.  It's put together in her luvvly jubbly fashion.... and it's my most fav thing!  I carry it everywhere!

See the little sewing kit she added?  Isn't it just the sweetest thing?!

And while I'm blogging about simple wonderful happys, I must include our most incredible Botanical Center where I walk almost daily.

There's a gorgeous lake full of water fowl, and trails that follow a beautiful wooded creek.  We are so lucky to have a better than average parks department here.  There's trails that go all over our city, and are connecting with other nearby towns around the state. 

Well friends...... thanks for reading about my little happys in this corner of the world.  I know you have your most wonderful happys wherever you are........ and I love visiting and seeing your world.

xo
dulcy

Slowing Down......

Christmas was Christmas.... always nice, but it's done and put away.  Jim and Violet in a moment of "cuteness".

We spent the holiday afternoon at what I consider our church..... our local Nature Center.  It has the most lovely wooded hiking trails.........

 

As for inside activites...........

The hedge apple rug slowly is progressing.............. and............

socks are coming together.  One down, and one to go.  I love this slowing down of time that post holiday winter brings......... sigh...........

xo

dulcy

Anniversary..............

Wednesday was our nine year anniversary! Jim and I have actually been together in one form or another for over 22 years.  I first met him when he came over to photograph myself and the ex for some family Christmas portraits almost 30 years ago (my mom still has one).  I was fairly happily married at the time, but remember thinking "Wow... if I wasn't taken, I'd be after that guy for sure!!"  Well.... the marriage went south eventually, but our paths did not cross for a couple more years after that.  We ran into each other one evening while I was out with a girlfriend, and over the next few days, a couple of mutual friends called to see if I was available.  Apparently Jim had checked around first before giving me a call.  One of the best parts of our relationship is my absorption into an instant family with two children.  They are lovely adults now, and we now have two grandchildren from Jim's son Erin.  We spent part of our anniversary hiking with our MOST AWESOME grandson Graham.

Later in the day, Graham's sister Ava came by.  She's an adorable bit of a tomboy (which I love).

 

We spent the evening, alone, at our favorite restaurant.  It was a very nice anniversary indeed..........

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

xo

dulcy

HOBO Project #2

I dug out 2 sweaters that I've had for years and never wear.  The white cable is one I bought during my, now in the distant past, teacher life.  I felt I needed it to wear on Monday's when we had to wear the most horrid vest for our Character Ed. program.  I hated Mondays because I hated having to think about wearing that vest!  That may sound silly, but you know how Monday's can be, and having to wear something you don't like on top of the Monday crazies was not fun for me.  The other flowered number is a glass of wine, credit card, late night visit to the Anthropologie website.  I love Anthropologie, but this sweater and I never made friends..........

I did a bit of combining, patching, and finally soaking in left-over coffee and vanilla caramel teabags.

 

I also stretched the heck out of it before I let it dry on the drying rack.  The sash was from the Anthropologie sweater which I sewed along the bottom.  Then used various pieces of left-over wool for patches.

xo

dulcy

Jessy Gets Her Grey On!

My "can't get enough of her" gal pal, Jessy,  has embarked on a fabulous new hair adventure!  She has decided to cut the dye, and invite her beautiful grey locks to grow in and shine.  This growing in of natural color can be quite a challenge.  Jessy decided to strip her current color, and go soft to let her silver and grey come in as naturally as possible.

We spent three hours of friendship and champagne while anxiously waiting the result of Jessy's superb hair colorist, Pam's, magic to do it's thing.

It's hard to tell in this shot, but the results is a super soft light color with bits of silver coming through.  There is grey coming in at the top, which will blend nicely over time.  I told Jessy, "Get used to people staring at your grey roots and streaks."  I don't know why, but letting silver shine tends to be a bit disconcerting for some.  Jessy has gorgeous blue eyes, and a wonderful pale complexion with tiny pretty freckles.  She is, and will be even more gorgeous when all her fabulous silver shines!

xo
dulcy

My "At The Moment" Fav Rug!

I'm so loving hooking my Hedge Apple rug!  I love the colors, the wonky shape, and the simplicity of the design.  Not my usual small stuff with tons of details, which makes for a relaxing meditative sort of project.

xo
dulcy

Check Out Luvvly Jubbly!!

I'm just so excited these days!  I guess it's because I'm so loving this time of life.  I've been hooking, knitting, and working with my pastels.... all so rewarding (sigh...).  But I'm way excited to introduce you to a smashing new blog created by my gorgeous and talented girlfriend Jessy .  Her blog is called Luvvly Jubbly and it's my first stop everyday.  Jessy is one of these fascinating people that's been in my radar for years.  Both our hubby's are photographers, we both attend indie movies, we are both the same age, we both art and craft, we both are retired, and...... well you get the picture.  So I would like you to meet Jessy!

Jessy has the most wonderful talent for recreating just about anything from thrifted items, and things found around the house.  She shares all these wonderful ideas on her blog with very detailed instructions, so we can all be more creative, thrifty, and have fun!  One of my favs are her HOBO tights.

I mean really...... how sweet and hoboie are these?!  We met for coffee the other day and she had on these....

Jessy made these cuties from men's pj's.  I LOVE them!

She also hobos up her sweaters.  This one is adorable.

Jessy was so sweet to share some of her scrappy hobo fabric remnants with me, so...... I worked a bit on an old blazer that's been hanging in the closet for way too many years without being worn.  It was part of my old life as a teacher.  I bought it because it's wool and nice and warm for recess duty, but it was always a bit too stern for me.  I softened it up a bit.

I used some nice brown velvet (Jesse has at least two new creations from this velvet... it started out as a shower curtain) and old antique paisley.  I ripped and added the blue cotton scarf because I love the blue against the brown.

I finished it off by removing the three tiny boring brown buttons from the sleeves and adding some fun vintage ones from my button collection.

And... there's a very cute patch on one elbow that I forgot to get in the shot, but it's the same fabric as my little handkerchief sticking out of the pocket.  The best part is having something brand new, fun, and spending zero $$!!

Well, I'm off to dig out my old cotton tights, some wool scraps, the sewing kit, and make myself some snuggly hobo tights!

Stay warm, create, and have fun!

xo
dulcy

Bits of This n' That

Golly.... sorry to have taken so long between posts.  I guess seasonal activities and an annoying fluy kind of cold set me back a bit.  Hubby and I had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday in Chicago.  Nothing says the holidays like being in downtown Chicago on the day after Thanksgiving.  Below is a shot of us in front of the Robie House, a Franky Lloyd Wright home that we toured.

Next is a photo of the reason we were up there, my lovely and talented step-daughter, Lily 
and our fabulous son-in-law, Jesse.

 

 Oh, and poochies, Joanie and Louie.

 A few glimpses of downtown Chicago...

Yes, it's wall to wall humanity, but when you're just there to soak up the people, art, culture, and.... when there's no car parks to deal with (we rode the train), it's simply fabulous!!

I don't know about you, but whenever I travel, I can't wait to get home and start creating and crafting!!  The stimulation of travel always gets my juices flowing and gives me an extra jolt of adrenaline, not unlike a trip to Starbucks.

I've been hooking quite a bit, and hedge apple rug traveled with me to the big city.  I love working with these colors, and am anxious to start the border.  I'm not completely sure how the border design is going to play out, but I'm envisioning it as a completely different design than the rug, using colors that compliment and pop.

If you read my previous post, you may remember my pitiful whine about knitting sock toes.  I mean, for someone who has knitted a dozen pairs of socks, you'd think I'd have it down cold.  Well.... bloggy friend Dag from Sheep On A Spring came to my rescue.  She emailed directions for a brand new way to do my sock toes.  No more pointy ends, or confusing kitchner stitches for me.  Since I was sick and slightly dopey at the time, this did take more than one email to get me straightened out.  But Dag was so patient with my drug induced confusion, and once the first toe was done I had it down to a socky toe art.  Now, I'm knitting yet another pair, because I got this wonderful self-striping yarn on sale and needed some socks in black and white.

Cute, cute, cute!

I found this nice variegated Noro wool from Japan.  I'm knitting this twirly scarf for a Christmas gift exchange that my book club is having.  Such pretty colors......

  Lastly..... thanks for staying with me...... I've been working on a seasonal pastel.  I copied a photo in an old British Country Living..... the absolute best magazine I know of for lovely photos and articles that make me happy.  It's American sister mag doesn't even begin to compete. The pastel's not quite finished, and has been a bit of a challenge, but I'm almost there.

I'm sorry if I haven't been by and left a comment at your blog.  Hopefully, this week I'll pop by at some point and check in.

OH....... one more picture of our new little sweetie, Violet.

 

xo

dulcy

Color and Kittys

I've been madly hooking away for the past month.  The colors I'm currently using really excite me and I love laying contrasting hooked strips down next to each other always wowed by the effect of color.  The following is my little "Water Garden" rug named by my sweet friend and neighbor Emma (who is 10 years old).

 

I really enjoyed creating this little abstract piece.  There's plenty of color, but I only used about six or seven pieces of wool in this composition.  In other words, I color planned it, even though it may appear a little willy nilly with color.  This rug is about 3'x18".

This next project is the one that really has me jazzed.  Every fall I so look forward to the color of the fall hedge apples.  I love bringing them in, but they last such a short time... so I decided to hook a rug with the hedge apple being the focal point.  It's another somewhat abstract piece, and is quite large.

 

As you can see, there is no rigid geometric shape to this one.  Just sort of wavy with a curly cue border ..... I'm saving the border for last, but will most likely be a hit n' miss using colors from the design.

And on to doorstep news....I'm so happy to announce that we have a new member to our family.  A sweet little girl that's been hanging about for the last week or so.  Meet Violet!

Isn't she beautiful?!  Right now she is living in the downstairs bedroom as she is quarantined from the other girls (that would be kitty's Iris and Willow).  Still concerns about a little respiratory infection she has.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but she is quite tiny.  The vet thinks she may be about 2 years old.  I love her markings... her coat has sort of a tarnished Bengal cat look.  Violet is the most affectionate sweetie ever!! 

I'm working on a new pastel, which hopefully, I'll have enough done to share in my next post.  And, of course, the never ending knitting of socks.  My new pair is waiting for the toes to get done.  I HATE, HATE, HATE doing the toes.  It never comes out right.  So, I'm experimenting some with this pair.  We'll see........

Hope you're enjoying a beautiful fall (although I know some of you are already experiencing quite the winter!).
xo
dulcy