Time keeps on slipping...

slipping....into the future. Isn't that a 70's song? Not sure of the band...but I've been thinking constantly about time and how quickly it goes. It seems as if my life is in fast forward and I'm forever trying to catch up.



In terms of my business (see above for my latest biz card) I feel like I have so much I want to do to improve it and to make more sales. I don't think money is my main motive, it's more the need to make beautiful things and to have others appreciate them. I feel like I want to accomplish all the ideas that are constantly filling up my brain.




I'm spending more time in the backyard lately, contemplating all that I wish to do with my fleeting life. What projects do I want to work on or complete?How do I make this? Then questions of a more mundane matter......What should I make for dinner? What do I need to pick up at the grocery store. You know, all the things we do in our everyday routine takes time, from keeping the house clean, all the errands, cooking, taking care of pets or children. It just amazes me how much work it is to keep a house nice and clean, and keep your body clean and fed, not including exercise. Not to mention, how much time it eats up! I have to figure a way to cut out things that interfere with my creative time and allows me to fulfill my need to create things. I hope I can find a way.
Anyhoo.....I don't get to think for too long though with a rambunctious beagle demanding my attention.

She loves to play fetch, yet as soon as she catches the ball she will race back towards me and veer off and scoot around me, as if to say, "Catch me if you can"!!

Then fetch turns into tag as she runs in circles around me and eventually plops down to chew her ball. I love to chase her around the yard, since it's great exercise for me (trying to lose my Buddha belly from too many cookies and cupcakes). Lulu has already helped me lose most of it since I got her last fall.


Speaking of pretty things.....I made this felt tea set this winter from a cute book about crafting plush toys. I still need to make another cup in case I have someone come over for tea, like my niece Jordan in the photo. I toyed (pardon the pun) with the idea of making these for one of my shops, possibly in the future. My shop 'talkofthetown' is more about pretty things, and 'kookyhandbags' is more about fun and whimsical stuff. Lately, I'm having more success with 'talk' than with 'kooky' so it seems people are more interested in pretty than kooky I guess. Maybe it's just that my 'kooky' items are not kooky enough, they sort of fall in the category of almost kooky. Oh well, I'll figure it all out......in time!

spring projects

I've been very busy with lots of projects as of late. If you notice in the picture above, I have a half-finished project of this bird house. I painted it white and orange and gathered some twigs from the yard to hot glue on the sides. I'm also going to decoupage the front of it and glue on buttons and beads. It is a fun little project, but I have to admit that I started it last fall, and it's still on the table for the past week waiting to be finished!!!


I love this pretty geranium, such a great orange color. It goes nicely with the bird house project on the table behind it!


Project No. 2 - We are painting the kitchen finally! It's been on the to-do-list since last fall too. We got the house insulated then and we had all these holes, which we filled and primed. So since last fall we had the blue walls with clouds (the primed holes) and I told Steve THIS is the weekend we are painting the kitchen! It took forever to pre-prep, taking all the pictues and knick knacks off the walls and shelves, and cleaning off cobwebs and dust and grease...yucky!
We ended up doing a lot of spring cleaning in the kitchen, which is a good thing.
The green splotch on the wall is the color we chose, last fall! It has since become runny and so we need to take it back to Home Depot tomorrow to have them shake it up good. Hopefully it will be usable after it is shook up good and proper.


Right now the kitchen looks so boring and sterile. I need color!!

Project no. 3- I cleaned up the sunroom recently, it was quite messy and was full of junk and stuff, so it was more like a closet than an actual room. As you can see, Lulu is enjoying the sunroom since it's makeover.

I had to clear out the whole room to clean the floors and then added pillows and lots of knick knacks, books and magazines.

The glass table holds my collection of glassware, minus the light blue sand hourglass which Steve broke recently! I was rather upset when it happened since I just bought it and it wasn't cheap. But you know, it's just a thing, so I got over it.

The table behind the bench, has more cute country shabby chic stuff.

I love my sunroom now! I can sit here in the morning with my coffee and read and enjoy the warm sun. Someday I hope to get a wicker loveseat, since the bench's back is so upright that is not comfy to sit for too long. I like to read my latest design books from the library, like one of Kaffe Fassets' books. I'm really amazed at Fasset's designs, I'm reading his 'Glorious Interiors' book at the moment and one on patchwork. I've always loved anything patchwork and have made quite a few patchwork bags and pillows, including the two on the bench in the above photo.
I've got other projects on the drawing table, more lavender pillows and some decoupage items, plus I've got more bags to make. I just sold a few more pillows which I'm jazzed about! My sales were in a slump lately, so I was happy to get a few.
So, enjoy the rest of this weekend, and I hope you're having great weather. Here it is unseasonably warm, we reached a high of 22 C today, and this evening it is still a very warm 20 C!

April showers...

bring forth the most gorgeous crocuses.



Such pretty little flowers crocuses are! They are the most perfect little flower. These are blooming in the garden now, and our tulips are making their debut very soon.
I've seen quite a few crocuses in the area, while walking Lulu. The purple are my favorite, but the yellow and white ones are lovely too!

and......

our lilac bush has buds! Last year we got a very poor showing on our lilac bush. Only two blooms! I don't understand what happened. I'm hoping that it will bloom more successfully this year.

I sure am enjoying the weather lately, except for the rain of course.

Pillow Talk!

There must be a pillow....must be a pillow-talking boy for me. THERE MUST!

(play the song while you check out the next post about...what else? Pillows!)

More pillow talk!

I just made some more lavender mini pillows. I have featured my other pillows previously, the one with the owl motif, and I just created these other ones which are now up in my shop.

I've only sold one to date, but I'm hoping this new venture will be successful someday soon. They are easy to make and I love working with the lavender, my studio smells so wonderful! They are stuffed with polyfil and just enough lavender to lightly scent the pillow, about 1/4 cup of french lavender buds.

I love this fabric, which is a woodland animal scene..it's a nice linen/cotton fabric that I picked up at the Textile Museum sale, that happens every spring.
I hope to go again this year and pick up some more goodies, and take pictures to show you the madness! I posted about it here last year.




This pillow is larger, sans lavender, but I just love the folkloric bird pattern and the purpley blue, green and cream colors. Looks so pretty on my bed. Pillows are definetely my favorite thing to make at the moment.

Speaking of pillow talk, Doris Day, who made the movie by the same name, just recently celebrated her 84th birthday. Yes, I am a fan of Miss Doris, even read several of her biographies. She is quite the lady, so beautiful and I find her voice, not just her singing voice, to be quite lovely. I also love her chic sense of style in her movies. Her fashions figure prominently in her films, and she always sported a cute little blond dutch bob with bangs! After her films, she had two talk shows that were quite sucessful for her, and she was also a big animal lover, especially of dogs, and even has a 'dog-friendly' hotel in California. I also get such a kick out of watching her movies and have been a devoted fan for some time now.

These are some of my favorite Doris Day movies:

Please Don't Eat the Daisies - Doris teams up with David Niven, some rambuctious rug rats and a sheep dog to play a wife of a theatre critic. They move from crowded Manhattan apartment to the burbs and find a dusty old house to renovate and make their own.

The Glass Bottom Boat - Doris plays a NASA tour guide and single woman, who gets mixed up with espionage by accident. The results are a hilarious caper and the movie also stars Rod Taylor.

With Six You Get Eggroll - Doris and Brian Keith are a couple of widowers who meet and marry, joining their two broods. Fun stuff here with the kids' hostility to their new found home.

Send me no Flowers - Doris plays a housewife who suspects her husband, Rock Hudson of having an affair but actually he's a hypocondriac who believes he is dying and he is trying to find a new husband for his wife. Tony Randall co-stars. This movie is Doris and Rocks' third and final film together.

Lover Come Back - Day and Rock team up again to play duelling ad execs who vie for the same accounts. Hilarity results from their rivalry, while Rocks' boss, Tony Randall tries to figure out what the heck is going on!

and of course, my favorite.......Pillow Talk!
Footloose bachelor...beautiful career girl...and the world's most fascinating pastime!