Happy Day

Today has been fun for the following reasons:

- package in the mail

- surprised visit from a my friend, Ann

- finished another shawl

- hydrangeas!

- wearing my new pretty red glasses

I won't go into all of above, but here's a peek at my happy day........

I received a lovely package today from Peggy at Woman With Wings.  I've admired all her creative endeavors, and really love her stitched moon clothes.  We did a little trade, and today I received the June Cloth.... my birthday month!

Love the color, little house with eye, the calendar, the complete composition!  So charming.  Thanks Peggy!

I finished another shawl in my favorite Noro yarn.  A gorgeous grass green in a cotton/silk blend.

I already have one of these green lovelies, so added this one to my Etsy shop.

I hosted a class on hydrangeas for our local chapter of Master Gardeners Monday evening.  Our extremely knowledgable presenter shared her love of hydrangeas.  Mine are, for the most part, full and lovely this year.  I put one pretty white bloom in my little vintage heart vase I found while flea marketing with my buddy Tammy.

I have lots of blue and pink plants, but not wanting to cut blooms yet (tip:  leave blooms on plant until color is completely full.  the cut blooms tend to wilt sooner if the color is not all the way in).  The robin is a pastel I did a few year ago.

It's blazing hot here!  Hope you're staying cool.  I'm weaving in my air conditioned studio, drinking lemonade, and gardening in the very early morning.

xo
dulcy

Pink Is The New Orange

It's warm, quiet, and turning fallish at the doorstep.  I've been tweaking my garden a bit to give it some color.... yet I love the way flowers are turning, drying a bit, shades of golds, dirty greens, and browns are starting to appear.  I've looked so forward to fall lately, and decided to make a little pastel painting using some of my favorite colors.

Pink is my new fall color!  I just can't come up with a color that doesn't go well with pink.  I love the oranges, golds, greens and purples next to the scrumptious hot pink pastels.

I've been hooking away on a new bag to take to my art retreat in October.  Once again, completely inspired by these luscious colors!

 

And..... a lovely new shawl is now blocking made for a friend.  Exciting color here as well!

Waiting for the cool crisp temps to go with the gorgeous fall palette!

xo

dulcy

A Bit of Fall on a Very HOT Day

It's in the mid 90's today.... ugh ...... but I'm still all happy and feeling a bit of fall settling in.  I took a few shawls and bags to the library gift shop, Between Friends, and Shelly set up a lovely display of autumn color.

I think she did a great job!  Shelly is the gift shop manager and keeps our little store stocked with the most wonderful merchandise.

I was out getting my flea market fix the other day, and was looking for something to hang my herbs and flowers on for drying.  I found a nice vintage dish drainer and an old rusty metal basket.  I hung these in our mud room.  I think they're pretty cute all gussied up with greenery!

 I've been playing with a little "just for fun" fall hooked mat.  Love working with these gorgeous colors!

And...... I've enrolled in an artist retreat that comes in October.  I'm very excited..... so today I dug out my cob webby dusty pastels and did a little fall painting.

It was fun rubbing and blending these pretty oranges, browns, and creams.  I'm going to try and get a couple of practice pieces (or more) done each week before the retreat.

Wishes to you for a lovely and creative weekend!
xo
dulcy

Mini Projects!

I've been plodding along in the heat, hooking, some knitting, and a bit of pastel painting.  Last weekend we were invited to a little outdoor party.  I wanted a small over the shoulder bag just for lipstick and my sunglasses.... so I quickly dug through my wool and found a great combo of colors to make a posy pouch to wear with my dress for that evening.  Not modeling the dress here, but this little bag went perfectly and I was very pleased!

 Just a simple little prodded number.  The strap is from leather my bestie, Jessy, gave me rescued from an old belt.  Below is a shot of the back.

Again, very simple but funky and fun.  It can also hold my phone, keys and a twenty if needed....

I had started a pair of socks last fall, but didn't finish after the first one because I ended up not liking the yarn.  So.... A couple of weeks ago I picked the project back up and knitted the mate.  Then.... I crocheted this bit of slate blue to fem them up a bit.  I kind of love them now.... great with my clogs!

This week I decided I'd been away from my easel for too long.... I've been wanting to work a little more on painting glass, and here's my effort. 

Just a bit of fun practice using colors that I love.....

It's a wasteland here, and I don't mean just the heat.  Every SINGLE ONE of our yarn shops has closed!  It's just awful!  But...... there is the most wonderful shop called One City Market in a little town east of here.  It's in an old farmhouse that's stocked to the rafters with yarn and other goodies.  They also give mini classes, so I'm looking forward to taking one on intarsia.  I've sort of taught myself, but not with the greatest results.  While visiting this sweet shop today I picked up yarn for two new projects.

It's so nice to have a well stocked knitting basket again!

Stay cool!
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

Feeling Good, and Loving Hedge Apple Green!

So sorry for the long absence, and thank you friends for checking in with me.  I'm doing sooo much better since my foot surgery, although still painful and using one crutch.  This annoying pain comes on mostly in the evening and causes lack of a peaceful night's sleep, and good sleep is one of my life's priorities.  Which..... if not achieved..... leads to lethargy and crankiness.  But, today I feel rested, am blogging, and enough of these kinds of issues already!

Now, I will address my dear friend Tammy's latest post.

 

Maybe you can make the connection quicker than some people (Kenny?..........).  Of course, if you're not familiar with hedge apples, this is completely lost on you.  Sorry.  These are shots of my almost new car I bought just short of a year ago.  It's my baby Fiesta, and I love it!  After driving my entire life with a standard transmission (many small cute cars over the years), this automatic four door is a dream....... is this a sign of age?  Oh, and it's completely synched up with everything.  It's kind of like driving around inside my computer.

I'm starting to feel like I can get back to the studio and start pastel painting again.  I paint mostly standing up, so a bit of a strain at the moment.  I played around with the art app on my iPad during the course of this lengthy recovery, and here's a couple of paintings I did.  I just copied parts of magazine photos I found interesting since I wasn't able to set up a still life from my reclined position.  It's quite like using Photoshop with the layering techniques.  I paint with my finger, and after some practice, was able to mix color, shade, add lights and shadows, etc.

The above is a piece of a fall crafting photo I found in an older edition of British Country Living.  And beneath I found these bottles in another BCL where I just played around with trying to get the idea of old glass.   I did my own version of a couple of bottles from that particular photo.

I've gotten quite a bit of knitting done, and will post some of that later.  My brain simply has not been able to wrap itself around an idea for a new rug hooking project (too much anesthetic?).  So..... yesterday I called my buddy Tammy (hedgeapples from above), and threw out some color and shape ideas to her.  For some reason, when I talk art with Tammy, she can help me sort through my muddled ideas of colors and shapes that just weren't going anywhere.  Anyway, I'm very excited about my new project that evolved as we brainstormed.  I don't have anything down on paper, yet alone linen, but looking forward to moving ahead with a new hooking project for fall and winter!  Oh, one more fiber project I hope to be able to share soon, is a new wrap made on my tri loom.  But first, I have to finish building the loom.  Actually my man about the house built it for me, but it's still missing the nails..... and it requires A LOT of nails.  Maybe this week?  Well, overdoing things is what's been getting me in trouble for the past month.  So..... we'll just have to see how it goes. 

Thanks for reading my Monday ramblings, and wishing you a lovely week ahead.....
xo
dulcy