hard days

Our family has recently received some bad news..my husband's sister (and one of my closest friends) was in a serious car accident on the weekend. She will be okay, but will be in the hospital for a while and will have to have a few surgeries to repair some shattered bones. We spent the day at the hospital today. I wanted to bring her something special. My obvious first thought was..some needles and yarn! This, however is a highly inappropriate gift for someone who cannot move their right arm. After looking about, I figured out the perfect gift..one of my recently made hand-potted mugs. It is far from perfect, as it is only my first attempt, but, she loves handmade pottery, and has a special thing for mugs, so I hope it will brighten her days just a little bit.
I love you Tina.

Yesterday I posted some new items in my etsy shop and this morning I awoke to good news in my inbox... I was accepted to the Ladyfest Ottawa spring craft sale, cutely titled 'Tarts 'n Crafts'. I am very excited about this, especially in light of how well I did at their Christmas show. Now I just have to get myself very busy spinning and building stock, as I am also selling at the Mulberry School May Fair.
Here is a photo of part of my workspace right now. Not exactly a studio, as our house renovations have turned our extra room (my "studio") into a temporary storage space for displaced furniture and tools.
Visible here are my spinning wheel, as-yet-unused loom, recently spun yarn, dyed rovings and kids art! In the upcoming days and weeks I will have many new yarns and dyed rovings to show here...

wool and sun

I spent the better part of yesterday out in the yard dyeing wool while basil played and explored. That little boy sure loves to be outdoors! And his mama sure loves her wool! Here are some of the results of yesterday's dye session:



It is dry now, and I will post the spun photos as soon as I can! I think this wool will meet my wheel tonight...

Also, last night I finished the diaper cover I have been making dor Basil, based on the wonderful curly purly soaker pattern. I haven't taken any finished, or "action" shots of it yet, but here is an image of it almost done, just waiting for me to add the second leg cuff.

I purchased the wool for it at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival last year. It was something ridiculous like, $3 for a 400 yard skein from a discount seller...score! I have enough left over for another project, too!


In other news, our seasonal table is coming together quite nicely. The seaonal table has been something that I've struggled with a bit. It just always seemed to be the thing that got cut off the to-do list. We had a nice space for one when we lived in Halifax, and kept it up well, but in out home in Perth, we never could seem to find the right spot. Recently, though, I gave up on the idea of trying to make it 'perfect', (how good it feels to let go of that one..) and we have focused on a "seasons tree" as a focus, with small items placed around it. I am also working on making a nice mother earth doll who will live there.

The little blossom fairies appeared the day we saw the first snowdrops and crocus blooms. They are based on a pattern in Feltcraft.



These daffodils sure add some spring sunshine!

I am making a serious go of this blog thing. I have been a blog reader for years, and sadly my attempts at blog writing have been beyond meager...but I feel I am now ready!!! My kids are growing and I can usually find a few minutes in the day to write and post photos of the crafty things going on in our lives.

So, I will get things started here by posting some pictures of recent handmade wares...

sweet waldorf style dolly, for sale on my etsy site!


This is Azzurra, back in February, doing some wet felting at MERA


Recently spun bulky single ply yarn (also for sale on my etsy site) with sweet new tags designed by the awesome Heather and James!!