Mountain Snow

Mt. Celo

We got around 5 to 5.5 inches of fluffy snow last night.

It is pretty but personally I would rather see sun, flowers and green.

I know there are a lot of people wishing for the same thing

 and they have had it so much worse than we have.

Yesterday I saw a whole flock of Robins in Asheville.

Seeing them gave me hope that

Spring has to be coming soon!

Home Tweet Home

Spring has sprung for this little wren. 

She has built the nicest little cottage to build her nest in. 

With vines growing around her door and flowers at her windows 

I know her little ones will be all safe and cozy inside. 

Her mossy little cottage was built with a sense of humor. 

No tree stump or tree branch to hold up her house but bird feet instead!

 She is the envy of the neighborhood with such a whimsical home.

  

Oh what fun I have had creating and stitching my little wren house!

Trick or Treat?

Who says a hare can’t go trick or treating?

 

Especially if he gets carrots in his pumpkin bucket!

While I was working on Tweed I kept thinking of a memory I had of my daughter at 

Halloween when she was around 9 or 10. 

 I made a rabbit costume by using a white sheet to make her

 a sack like dress, and a mask for her face. 

It was a great face with pink and white felt stitched on the white

 with big ears and whiskers, but the ears were so floppy! 

I didn’t know then what to do to make them stand up

 so she spent the whole night holding up her ears 

while carrying a pumpkin bucket and treating for candy. 

Trickster doesn’t have to hold up his ears 

and he not only has carrots in his pumpkin bucket 

but a carrot necklace too! 

He is entirely made with my hand dyed wool fabric and a mohair tail. 

He was great fun to make while remembering my little girl who is all grown up now.

I know this won’t make up for your night of ear holding misery Jess, 

but maybe you will get a laugh out of Trickster!

Missing January

Oh my! Is it really February first?

Why did January go by so fast?

I think January and February is a nice time of the year.

Quiet after all the hubbub of the holidays; it’s a time to get the house back in order, 

a time to spend just being, and a time to get back into the studio. 

As usual for me the New Year brings a surge of good intentions to change everything, 

but I get over that within a couple of weeks after New Year’s Day!

 Life has a way of getting in the way of good intentions anyway. 

I did recover from the mashed finger; but then Pog had the flu, he shared it with me, 

and it seems repairs were needed on everything. 

We have had the furnace worked on, the washer and dryer fixed, a broken pipe fixed, 

new brakes on my car, the microwave died and a lot of other little things fixed. 

I thought trouble only came in threes but ours did not stop at three!

Still with all our troubles life is good, and I have been quietly getting back to work.

Through the feedback I get from the tours I had requests for smaller rabbits/hares,

 individual mice and smaller pumpkin heads.

 I like to work big and the larger critters show up well in exhibits 

but for individual sales the smaller ones do better, so that is what I have been working on. Reducing my larger patterns is not easy, working smaller is not easy 

and I wanted to make some changes so I have spent a lot of time reducing and redrawing.   

It took three sets of legs before I got exactly the right ones for this smaller hare. 

To make him stand balanced firmly on two legs, the center of gravity has to be just right 

and his paws needed to be flat. 

That is one of the reasons it took three sets of legs to come up with the solution. 

On the third set, I realized that I needed to make a sole for the bottom of the paw just as if I was making a sole for a shoe.

 I am now very pleased with how it looks, and he stands firmly with no wobble.

Tweed is the prototype, and I didn’t want to use my hand dyed wool fabric on a test, 

so he is rather plain but now that my pattern is worked out I have a few ideas 

I want to try on the next ones.

 Little Tweed Hare is ½ the size of the original Sir Seamus O’Hare.

 You can see the difference with this photo.

Seamus stands 30 inches tall and Tweed stands 16 inches.

When Pog saw the new hare his comment was “now lets see if he can multiply”.

You never know, but I have a feeling this little hare will!

I hope you are enjoying this quiet time of year 

but I know the weather has caused hardships for some of you.

 We have had very little snow here in the mountains, 

but it has been cold and very windy at times. 

Sadie and I have enjoyed our early morning coffee time next to the wood stove each morn.

 It’s the best time of day and especially when Pog is home from work to enjoy it with us.

I am not a sports fan but we do watch the Super Bowl.

Well I sort of watch, I usually get bored after half time and go do something else; 

but still we have pizza and snack foods for what we do watch. 

That and the commercials are the best part for me!

Happy February everyone – stay safe and warm!