Pink Purl

To auction we go!

So many of you wonderful friends have signed on to take part in the auction for Krystal Glass!  The show of support has been terrific.  And I just wanted to post a little update about what's happening with that, because I've been receiving some emails from many of you wondering what's next.  During this past weekend I spoke to my friend, Evelyn, who's really behind all this, and things will be in the serious planning stages this week.  The auction will be in connection with Ebay.  And a site will soon be created for the auction itself and information about it.  So check back here during the week for even more details, or with Evelyn too.  What I really wanted to let you know about, for those who will be creating items for donation to the auction, the auction is tentatively slated to happen the week of August 12th, and closing date potentially August the 18th.  This August 18th coincides with the benefit being held in Houston, Texas for Krystal, which would be fun to have both happening at the same time!  Evelyn herself is active behind the scenes of this benefit.  I will be helping out with auction details, and let you know more as the week progresses.  We're  hoping that donors will be willing to send their items to the buyers after the auction.  We hope to find an easy way to reimburse you all for your postage cost...How that will work exactly, I don't know yet, but that is the plan.  I know that August 12th is not too far off...I myself am scrambling a bit to get my own project completed for the auction.  But we're all in this together!  This may not seem like much information...but in steps we'll get there.  If you have any questions, or if you're reading this for the first time and would like to join in, please contact Evelyn or myself. 

And we will be back to our usual blog here as the week goes by...Wishing you all a great day! :o)

Pink Spots & Rhinestones

Well, as you can see it's not a pink animal after all...but a new handbag!  hehehe ;o)  All of you were maybe wondering if I'd taken to making stuffed toys too now along with much else, but no...Still crazy about handbags!  The Kimberly Handbag is now in my shop.  I've named it after my very dear sister, my Kimmie.  I love her free spirit!  The bright pink leopard-spot print fabric is so Kimmie, so are the flashy rhinestones.  My Kimmie is a glamour-girl at heart...Her real life would be like a 1930's-1940's musical...Herself as Ginger Rogers or Irene Dunne...This is what she'd carry her tap shoes in if she could.  This one's for you, Kimmie!  ;o)  She's probably not reading right now because she is busy getting ready to move next week!  I'm so thrilled for her...she & her boyfriend have gotten their first place together--it's soooo exciting!

Normally I do not go in much for animal print fabric.  The vegetarian in me protests at the suggestion of animal skin...But this bright pink leopard print had me relaxing a tiny bit, must have been the pink!  And it just so made me think of my sister, and how much I miss her all the time, living so far away from her as I do.  But this handbag was such fun to make, and I was happy with the pattern I made for it.

More pink today (I'm in the pink again! ;o)...Another orchid in bloom this morning...Ah, now this is the way to wake up everyday--with flowers in bloom!

Hope all of you are having a lovely weekend! :o)

Oh, My Goodness!!

Well, I had a terrific surprise yesterday afternoon... The lovely Susan of The T-Cozy has nominated me for The Thinking Blogger Award!  My first reaction was "Me?!  No, surely, not..."  And then I did a happy dance of joy and gratitude!  This is a terrific, humbling honor, and it came from a friend.  I guess I must be doing something right, if I am actually getting people to think!  And as I joked with Susan when I wrote to her in thanks, I think the last time I was actually awarded anything was back in kindergarden, when I won the Cutest Halloween Costume prize of a silver dollar!  (Bunny costume made by my dear Momma...it was pretty darn cute, fluffy tail and everything!)  But that was a loooong time ago!  This is a much more serious, grown up prize ;o)

But now with this honor, I'm blessed to be able to bestow this award to five other bloggers.  This is a difficult choice, for I read so many blogs, and so many blogs/bloggers make me think, give me pause to consider things...So hard to award only five, when I'd love to award all!  But five is the "rule", so my five nominees are:

Marie of Marie's Muses  Marie is a kindred spirit...I feel we are kindred spirits for many reasons, but among them is that we share a big, happy approach to life and living life as best we can and being thankful for the many gifts daily life brings us!  My day just would not be complete without stopping by to visit with her.  She often begins each post with a quote, a line of poetry, a verse from a song or spiritual text...She offers us something to think about as we begin our day, something to consider, something to ask ourselves--what do we think, what do we believe.  She helps remind me to pause and listen to my heart and give thanks for this day.

Britt-Arnhild of Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods  Faith is a very central element in Britt-Arnhild's life, and she shares a lot about her spiritual journey at her blog.  For though my own path is different from hers, I appreciate her approach, her dedication to leading a life of spirit, a life beyond self, a life rich in love for something higher.  And I just so enjoy her musings on life, the natural world, home & family, travel, reading--she is a renaissance woman!

Natalie of Natalie's Chicken Blog  Natalie is a new friend.  And though I've not been able to read yet all five years worth of her archives, to know everything she's written about, I feel as if I've known her a lot longer.  Her day-in-a-life blog is one of my daily stops, and I look forward to every visit.  A visit with her is like sitting on a shady porch with a cold glass of tea and wonderful conversation!  She shares so much about her life--her family, friends, animals, food, nature, crafts...It is all the little things added up that mean a lot.  And her photography is a window to her heart--a full, lovely heart she has.

Firefly of I Live on a Farm  I've been reading Firefly for a while now, and her thoughtful blog is another place I like to visit.  With a quiet, gentle way, Firefly shares her passions, pursuits and abundant life.  Whether she is talking/sharing about life, relationships, matters of faith, cooking, crafts, life in the country, I find myself lingering, reflecting on these areas in my own life, and how we are all connected by them.  A visit to Firefly is to make a beautiful connection!

Kim of Calamity Kim  Kim is an artist, and dedicated craftswoman who creates fabulous quilts, among many other glorious things.  She's a storyteller too.  And her quilts tell stories...if you look and listen you will hear them.  She has a "It's a Wonderful Life!" way about her, which is infectious!  She dreams big, crafts big, lives big and encourages us all to do the same--to just get stuck in and see what happens, to make a mess, don't worry about the clean up, just make, enjoy and love! 

Let's give these lovely ladies a HUGE round of applause in congratulations!  If you've not visited them yet, please do...They will get you thinking too!  And thank you my friends, for bringing extra beauty, life, thoughtfulness and sharing to us all!

Hope this finds you all having a terrific weekend...I'm off to go put this major award on a shelf here!  Oh, and come by tomorrow...The "pink animal" will be revealed...Happy Days! :o)

Scrap Happy

Last night I became reacquainted with my rotary cutter.  I use the cutter for squaring up fabric sometimes, but more often than not I use scissors for everything.  So we'd become estranged...The reason for this renewed friendship with my rotary cutter is twofold--Krystal's auction and new inspiration.  I was going to make a very special handbag for Krystal's auction.  No shortage of ideas, tons of sketches made...But I just wasn't coming up with the perfect project for this important auction.  Lately I've been in awe and admiration of all the fantastic doll quilts out there, so many clever creations being made on a small scale that I've been intrigued...And so I've decided to take the plunge and give it a try, and will be making a doll quilt for Krystal's auction!  While stoking the fires of the muse and giving it all a good think about what to make, I realized I have a lot of scrap fabric--off cuts from earlier projects and orders.  This became the starting point and decision to go for making a little quilt.  So last night I began cutting and piecing some nine patch blocks.  I'm very excited about this project!  It's been some time since I've done any quilting, and especially patchwork.   And since it's been so long, I'm going back to basics to start with and I'll see where the quilting muse takes me!

So I could get back to the work table a bit sooner last night, I made one of our easy standby dinners, what I call Busy Day Omelet.  This is really more of a frittata than an omelet, but I'm not a slave to such "correctness".  What I love about this, apart from the eggs and cheese, is playing around with the other ingredients and coming up with something different each time.  We like it with a tomato salsa on the side. Keep this in mind when you have an extra busy day and plan on this super simple meal you can make in 30 minutes or less.

No plans yet for the weekend here...But since some sun is forecast, I hope some fun in the sun will be had one way or another!  Quilting is forecast too here...And what kind of "animal" has pink spots and pink jewels?...Meet me back here later to find out!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend, wherever you are, wherever you go, whatever you do! :o)

Art & Architecture

Last weekend (I'm only now just getting round to "reporting" on what happened last weekend, now that the next weekend is just around the corner--LOL!) we took a little trip to nearby Tønsberg.  It is a pretty town, one of the oldest in Scandinavia, with an active harbor, and many of the streets have the names of old kings.  There is much to see in Tønsberg, lots of diversity of attractions and entertainments, and a lovely old market square, which happily had some bustling life when we were there last weekend.  We did some shopping, poking around here & there, admiring the charming little side streets with higgledy-piggledy turns and twisted old wooden buildings.  There was a music festival going on in Tønsberg last weekend, so we avoided those crowded areas, especially where the town's famous hilltop tower stands, and where much of the festival action was taking place.  We go to Tønsberg every so often, so I hope to show better pictures from there later. 

While in Tønsberg we went to the Haugar museum.  The building itself was once-upon-a-time a maritime school--a big brick structure with a fine, large courtyard.  We went to see the current exhibits by Norwegian painters Kai Fjell and Sverre Bjertnæs.  The Kai Fjell exhibit marked the 100th anniversary of the painter's birth, and focused on his works from the 1930's through the 1950's.  To me, his style seems a balance between expressionism, surrealism and cubism.  There is a naive quality to the works, a very folk art flavor, which no doubt stems from the artist's own rural upbringing in Skoger, near Drammen. The earlier works are spooky and full of symbolic meaning.  Th canvases are like dreamworlds.  I did not care to dwell in those worlds for long--figures eerily painted with an almost alien-like quality, dark themes & troubled people/lands.  Fjell's later works are lighter, less troubled, almost hopeful in feeling, brighter use of color and simpler themes.  But it was the Sverre Bjertnæs exhibit, entitled "Implosion", which really grabbed us!  Though educated in the more "old school" ways of painting, Bjertnæs later renounced old ideas & ideals in favor of more figurative and "modern"  approaches to painting.  His photo-realistic style is very entertaining.  "Implosion" focuses on many canvases with the saccharin & overindulgent city of Las Vegas--all it's flashy wrappings & trappings.  The paintings, again photo-realistic, are hypnotic, mesmerizing, almost hallucinatory.  They seem so real, as if you could step into them.  Old ideas are still present for all the modernity shown in the paintings.  You can fairly hear the slight buzz of neon signs and hear the crazy street traffic!

 

Outside the museum, on its property, was this adorable sculpture of a family of bears playing!  How cute is this?! 

Should you find yourself in Scandinavia, let us know!  We would love to show you around, and a trip to Tønsberg will surely be on the itinerary! 

Happy Days! :o)