A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today we went to the Daffodil Festival at our local grange.  It's the kind of little event that would be the highlight of a trip if you went to it in Italy or France.  At home it's really a slice of Americana.  Quilts and cinnamon rolls inside and music, horse drawn wagon rides, craft booths and tons of daffodils outside.  I try to go every year.  It just reminds me how lucky I am to live where I do.  It started to snow as we left and we drove down a road lined with yellow flowers and white snowflakes.  Not quite Dr. Zhivago, but still lovely.  Then the sun came out, and we saw fields that were so bright green they hurt the eyes.  We saw a rainbow over our vineyard yesterday, and the winery seemed to be the pot of gold.  Appropriate for St. Patrick's Day.  We didn't catch a leprechaun though!

Daffodils to plant in your garden

The grange

The view while we ate our cinnamon rolls

Lots of fun activities

Lovely live music

Local kids' daffodil artwork

Intriguing art

A hore drawn wagon

It started to snow during the ride

A nice long ride

The road was lined with daffodils

They grow wild in the fields

We saw a flock of wild turkeys on the way home

Daffodils are so beautiful

I bought some to plant in pots

We'll enjoy them on the deck this Spring, and I'll plant them in the garden this Fall

Spring Flowers and Rooting Roses

After several days of snow last week, it finally feels like Spring is here.  The air is warm and the first flowers are starting to open.  I have snowdrops, violets and early daffodils blooming under my Forest Pansy tree, and the little twig of Forsythia I bought at a plant sale two years ago is blooming vigorously in a pot on the deck.  We planted primroses on the front porch, and they add a dash of color to the green landscape.

My mother has an incredible rose in her garden called Jude the Obscure.  It’s a creamy, peachy white, smells great and blooms all summer long.  We go to a wine festival every July and I always take a bouquet of Judes.  Every year, people love it.  They want to know what kind it is, where to get it, and if it’s even a rose at all- it looks a lot like a peony.  I always tell them to go to Heirloom Roses in St. Paul, Oregon to get one, but lately I’ve been dreaming of a whole hedge of Judes someday, and would love to have bushes that I rooted myself.  So yesterday, after my mom pruned her Jude bush, I trimming some of the cuttings and with the help of a rooting hormone, I potted them on the deck and hope they will grow.  I tried five cuttings last year, and one took root and actually bloomed, so this year I tried ten, hoping that two of them might grow. If I keep this up, I will have enough for my hedge someday.  I also tried some from another rose, Molineux- a beautiful ruffly yellow one.  Maybe this summer I’ll have blooms off my new roses- I’ve got my fingers crossed!

The pruned rose bush

The cast off prunings

My trimmed starts

The tools and supplies

Dipping the end in rooting hormone

My potted cuttings

Last year’s sole surviver

A Jude the Obscure rose in full bloom

Lavender Valentines

This year I decided to make lavender goat milk soaps and lavender lip balms for the valentine exchange at work.  I melted soap base and added lavender essential oil before pouring it in heart-shaped molds.  To make lip balm, I mixed sweet almond oil, beeswax, aloe vera and vitamin E with laveder essential oil and a little bit of stevia for sweetener.  I used a fun paper to make labels for the tubes of lip balm, and then wraped them up with the soaps in a piece of tulle tied with ribbons and a heart-shaped tag.  I hope everyone at work likes them!

Papers, tulle, and ribbons to decorate

Melting the beeswax and sweet almond oil for the lip balm

 Soap hardening in the mold

 Lip balms cooling in the tubes

Pretty heart-shaped soaps

Striped paper for lip balm labels

Labeled lip balms

The finished products



A Day At The Beach

Today was gorgeous on the Oregon coast.  It was sunny and warm, and you'd never guess it was January.  It was the kind of day we would be happy to have in June or July.  My dog Stella was delighted to have a long walk on the beach, chasing balls, barking at other dogs and sniffing giant piles of driftwood left over from a recent storm.

My Mom and I had afternoon tea at Lovejoy' in Florence.  It's a lovely little tearoom that feels authentically British and has delicious food.  The pineapple petit four was amazing! 

I feel so incredibly lucky to live so close to the ocean.  Only an hour's drive and I'm on the beach.  I can't think of a better way to relax, recharge, and get inspired to be creative.

Teacup Fascinators and a Mardi Gras Cat

Our weather hasn't been great around here lately.  First snow, then torrential rains, complete with flooding on major roads.  On my way to work last Wednesday I counted eleven places where water was visibly flowing across the road, six of them on the highway!  But if bad weather is good for one thing, it's for staying home and getting things done.  I have had a great time making my teacup fascinators, and I've been getting a very positive response to them on Etsy.  Now I just have to plan a Mad Hatter tea party!

My next project was the Etsy Dollmakers Team challenge for January- a purple and gold doll.  I made another of my big-eyed cat dolls, but to make this one special, and because of the challenge colors and the time of year, I made her a Mardi Gras cat, so she's wearing a little felt bandit mask with feathers.  I named her Martine, and I think she's pretty cute.

My New Year's resolution this year (and every year for the last five) is to go to the coast at least once every month.  I haven't made it yet, although I did get to October once.  But tomorrow I'm headed to the beach to get pictures of my new tricorns, and to plan my next project- tricorn fascinators.  The mini ostrich plumes arrived in the mail today.  I'm excited to get started on them, I think they will be great!

Coming Soon...

Just a teaser... I've been working on some new teacup fascinators based on the Mad Hatter's tea party in Alice in Wonderland.  They should be available in my Etsy shop in the next week or two, but for now, here is a picture of me wearing one in front of Alice's Shop in Oxford, England last month.

Pirate Hats for Spring (Even Though It's Snowing)

 I just made some new tricorns in bright colors with pretty flowered braids in pink and purple.  They seemed just right for Spring.  But yesterday I wanted to photograph them to put in my etsy shop, and it was snowing like crazy.  Today was the same.  This is the view from my deck where I usually take my pictures.

So I had to take pictures of the hats inside.  Hopefully I can get them over to the beach soon and photograph them there (although my friends just came from the coast yesterday and said there was snow on the beach).  So I may not have good pictures of my Spring tricorns until it really is Spring!  Here they are anyway.

New Bonnet Kits for the New Year

My Regency Bonnet Kits have been popular lately.  They've gone all over the US, to Canada, and I just got an order for 3 kits for people attending the Jane Austen Festival in Australia.  Quite exciting to think that my bonnets are so international!  I have made several new kits recently, and they are now available in my Etsy shop.

 

 

 

Inspired By London

I just got back from vacation in England, and after visiting Buckingham Palace and seeing the beefeaters, I made these two dolls for my friend's little boys.  She's an anglophile too, so I think she'll appreciate them.  I'm thinking of making similar ones for my Etsy shop that are little pirates, or maybe matroyshka nesting dolls for girls.  Oh, the possibilities...

Mouse Dolls!

Here are my little holiday mouse girls.  They are now available in my Etsy shop.

I also have kits to make your own mouse doll.  They are very easy to sew and make great gifts!