Green and white

yogurt in a bowl

The Apples for Poppyanne blog has sent me on a green and white treasure hunt this week for her "It begins with a colour..." series. Green and white is about my favorite color combination. I didn't have trouble coming up with too many photos for this one! 

 hydrangea leaf

swinging over grass

loitering fern

hoodlum

green tomatoes

strawberry flower

The latest creative endeavors

turquoise ramikins with river stones

On the creative front, I have been busy. Sometimes my little projects take a backseat to chores, blogspotting, and other stuff but I have been making things. My little paper-cut collage card scenes have taken a backseat for awhile (the last one I posted was the Field of Poppies from April 4th) because I'm having so much fun with fabric and sewing. I got four cute little pieces from Sew Mama Sew that I wanted to use to make Tristan some nice summer pants. There is a nice little tutorial for making pants in the book The Creative Family that I purchased last month, and although it calls for repurposing an old shirt, it was easy enough to use the fabric, although I probably wasted more fabric than necessary. Of course I had to jump right in and try out my favorite fabric first, a cute little design by Alexander Henry 

 Toadstool but unfortunately cut too soon...I will need to increase that waistband! The next one I made was not to Tristan's liking. A dark green with froggies by Heather Ross. He didn't like the froggies on it, and wanted to know, "Where's the blue pants?" He had especially liked a blue that I had gotten, another one by Alexander Henry, called First Spring Light Blue. Ah, the blue pants. I'll make them for you little boy! These turned out very well. He wore them. He liked them. A successful story. 

I was also busy making this little buttercup bag (tutorial listed on my sidebar). I love Amy Butler fabric - so this was an obvious choice for me. I am almost finished with my belated spring top, also done with an Amy Butler fabric, but I've never used bias tape before so I'm waiting for mom or auntie to come over and give me a tutorial on that so I can finish my little smock top! It's so Easy by Simplicity turns out to be not so easy. At least not for me, but then, I'm a novice.

The photo at the top of this post of the two ramekins with river stones is through a favorite new blog of mine called Apples for Poppyanne. She's starting a new project called, "It begins with a color..." Her color this week is turquoise. I had these cute little ramekins being unused (can you imagine?) I love ramekins - in all different shapes, colors, sizes. I also had collected some river stones a few weeks ago. When I picked up the stones they were wet and I chose them because they were more brightly colored than the other stones around. After drying, they weren't quite as bright but still subtly colored. Anyway, my exploration of turquoise in my daily life! I like this project of hers. Join the fun if you get a chance!

I am also working on an exciting big project that will take a bit of time but I will let you know and see the outcome!

Confessions of a dilettante and the joys of sharing sleep

dining room table and chairs

I admit it, I'm a dilettante. A dabbler. A gal with lots of interests and no specialty. My aunt, whom I would say is a master hand-craftsperson, gave me some leeway today when I mentioned that to her. She said she went through that and that's just something people have to do to find out what they are really interested in - what strikes their fancies...well, she is so generous. I have an unfinished quilt (but 4 finished squares!), somewhere between 3 and 6 unfinished knitting and crocheting projects, one unfinished apron, several patterns unattended to, embroidery thread and materials that were generously given to me by my mom and aunt but never used (the interest rose...and then fell - not to say it won't return someday). Does this sound familiar to anyone? These have accumulated over the past 5 years and I truly hope to someday get to all of them. One thing I find myself finishing over and over again though are these little collage-card scenes. Glad I can start and finish something.

Speaking of completed projects, Ida Pearle (see her website on my sidebar) put out out a book recently called, A Child's Day: An Alphabet of Play. I am always so happy to see her charming artwork. She uses paper-cuts also, mostly of children in play mode. The children in her work have no features, but they have so much EXPRESSION!! Amazing what this paper medium is capable of...

And while I'm on the subject of children's expressions, very early this morning as I lay with my son while he slept soundly after having been nursed back to sleep, I heard him giggle. Oh the sound of a child giggling in his sleep must be close to heaven's music...it delights me and gives me hope that I am doing something right! I feel so lucky to share my sleeping hours with my son, as his sleep-giggles occur at least weekly, if not more often. When it's light enough in the room I also get to see the lovely smile that accompanies the sweet laugh. As tired as I was, it was a joyful way to start the day.