PhotoaWeek--Late Again

The theme this week was "Favorite Color" and I can never choose just one. So here are some of my favorites! This is a new box of pastels that, as you can see, I've hardly used yet. I'm tempted to just keep them in this pristine condition just to look at!
I'm sorry to be so late with the photo this week, I got busy on Monday, and then came down with a serious migraine yesterday and stayed in bed almost all day. Thank goodness mine don't last more than one day as a rule, so today I'm fit again. I hope you are all having a glorious spring day as we are having in Maryland! There is one fluffy cloud floating by that looks just like a huge version of the cotton balls I keep on my vanity.

Are you ready?

Our bluebird season is officially underway it seems. Some have been coming intermittently all winter, but this pair seems to have laid claim to the house and has been showing up to establish ownership everyday lately. No signs of building a nest yet, however. The chickadees, who got first dibs at it last year, were here at one point, but haven't been back again. I just shooed a nasty house sparrow off the roof who thought he'd take advantage of the bluebird's brief absence to check out the house. They're a terrible threat to the blues all summer and I do what I can to ward them off. We're hoping for at least a couple of bluebird nestings this spring and summer if all goes well.

"Feet" Theme - Phoro of the Week

Awww, he was posed so nicely for his photo when he won Best of Breed at the dog show! These are Ollie's feet and he's my daughter's youngest Bedlington Terrier.

And these are the feet of "Papa", the male bluebird who is laying a claim to the birdhouse in our backyard....if he keeps a careful lookout, he and his mate might just get moved in before the chickadees come and take it over this year!

Changing Seasons Photo of the Week

This should give you a picture of what the seasons are like in Maryland. Sometimes it's beautiful here, and sometimes....well, you can see what our winter gave us this year! But the autumns are usually gorgeous and this red maple is one of my favorites. I have only two tiny patches of crocus coming up so far to give me some hope for spring. This striped one is lovely I think, but so far there's only this one tiny blossom. Now I hope the coming summer will be lots milder than our winter was!!

What Am I? revealed.......

Jennifer, you are SO clever! Yes, it is a letter opener and perhaps the best one I've ever owned. It's made of wood and has the sharpest edge of my small collection. The second best one I have is actually my bone folder!
This was a fun theme, Sue, thanks!

Quilt Square

First, I feel like shouting this out....THERE'S NO SNOW IN MY BACKYARD! We had back to back blizzards last month with 24-30 inches of snow in all, and I just this morning noticed that after a light rain during the night, the last of it has melted out back. There's still a strip in the side yard, but it's so nice to look out my window here by the computer and NOT see snow. Roy has spent several days cutting down damaged trees and fallen limbs that succumbed to the weight of the snow and hauling all the debris to the dump. We are fervently hoping we won't get any more snow this year!

Now, I here is the quilt square I mentioned working on for Hoppa and Bruce. I was so happy to be asked to participate (well actually I think I volunteered) even though I haven't worked with fabric in a long time. It was fun to do, even though my eyesight isn't really up to doing close up work these days and I haven't invested in a magnifying lamp yet, thinking I probably wouldn't need it much now. But I wanted to do some beading on it. So I used some organza ribbons to weave the background, beaded a tiny border around the perimeter, as well as around the little heart and appliqued the heart to the square, and it was done! Nice to have accomplished something in my studio for a change!!!

First sign of spring

This is one of my favorite signs of spring...the bluebird's return. This is one of the pair that has been checking the bluebird house in the backyard periodically through the winter. But in the past few days they have been coming regularly every day to monitor the house and make sure the chickadees don't get to start nesting in it before they do...as did happen last year. Today they were here off and on all morning keeping an eye on the other birds who were visiting the feeders out there, so I feel sure they'll begin to build a nest in the house soon. Doesn't Papa look beautiful in his new summer feathers?

Photo of the Week: What Am I?

This should have been posted on Monday, but here it is Wednesday, and I'm just getting it done! There's no hope for me! I got sidetracked finishing a quilt square for a friend's wedding canopy, which I will try to remember to post later.
Anyway, here's my take on the What Am I theme for this week.


Now I'm going to be mean and wait to post the full photo of this item til tomorrow to see if you can tell what it is from these photos. I'll bet some of you will figure it out right away!

Monday Photo of the Week - Buttons

Sue's theme for this week is buttons and most of us who sew and/or do art work of various kinds have a varied collection of buttons so this should have been an easy one, right? I immediately thought of a pair of beautiful handmade ceramic buttons my daughter gave me at Christmas time some years ago and planned to use those as this weeks photo. Well, of course I couldn't find them. I see them regularly, going through my belongings looking for this or that, but when I really wanted to use them they've stayed hidden! So from my very generous and eclectic collection I've chosen a variety that I've collected while involved in one creative activity or another.
The first is a selection of buttons I bought thinking to use them as ornaments for cloth dolls I was making. The beaded one would have made a cute little doll hat!

This is a broach someone made for my mother-in-law which she eventually passed on to me. I thought it was pretty and cleverly done, but I never wore it.

I had ideas for using this last group during a period of collage and book altering I was into for awhile. Funny and sad, too, how so many of our ideas fall by the wayside and we're left with a lot of "flotsam" to dispose of at some later time.....sigh.