Gramps is up

The elderly gentleman who lives in our back yard is awake and active on this lovely Spring day.

Here he is, fresh from a bath. He's off to explore our back yard.

I spied him later in the side yard, on the way to the air conditioner. That's one of his favorite places to hang out, for some reason.

projects and parrots!

I received a surprise order recently for one of my hand-dyed felt business card holders. Thanks, Teresa!

So that inspired me to dye some more felt and start some more business card holders. These are in progress - I will be adding special buttons, beads, and/or charms to each. I will have selling opportunities coming up, so...

I finished this sweater with Noro yarn a few weeks ago, but only found THE best button for it yesterday.  The sweater seems huge. Not sure when it will fit my granddaughter - it's a toddler size 1.

I made a hat with the yarn left over. Not the most practical yarn.

Side view.

Recently we spied FOUR wild parrots on the tree in the front yard. We've seen them flying around Irvine for years, but ths was the first time I'd seen them in our trees.

Here's a closeup of two of them. No, they're not native to Southern California! The legend goes that they are descendants of escaped pet parrots. They squawk and make all sorts of noises, but nothing intelligible. No "Polly want a cracker."

the dada video

When she says dada, does she know what it means? Her dad is behind the camera. You be the judge:

hoffman tour



Yesterday I went on a tour of Hoffman California Fabrics in Mission Viejo. It was a SAQA tour organized by Jamie Fingal. How fun to see everybody! Here I am in the lobby with Julie.

Another shot of me in the lobby. Wow, is my hair really that color?! It looks so different depending upon the light. You can see I'm clutching a red "diploma." More on that later.

My favorite part of the tour was the artist/designer's studio, and here are two of them. Julie took these photos, thank you, Julie. I have been on this tour a couple of other times, but it has been at least 10 years.

For going on the tour, everyone received a "diploma," which was really a sweet bundle of fabrics. I snapped up a red bundle which was full of these batiks. Yum, I will use these! Thank you, Hoffman!

There are more photos of the tour, plus lunch afterwards, at the SAQA SoCal blog.

Artful Sightings



Hurray, my Summertime Cat has returned from her far-flung travels! She has been everywhere from Road to California to PIQF and points in between. I have put her back up on my wall immediately.

I love my calendar from Paper Source. The graphic designs are divine. I bought it in February so it was half off.

When the month is over, you can turn the pages into stuff. There are lines on the back of the page for cutting and folding. This is a nifty gift box, card, and tag from January. I haven't cut up February yet. Pretty nifty, huh?

I was going to take a photo last weekend of some graffiti in Laguna that I suspected was by Banksy, but sadly it was torn down by then. :-(  It was a really cool Einstein dressed up like a tourist, with a camera hanging from his neck. So I took this photo from the Balboa Island Ferry instead.

quilt and socks finished

I finished a quilt with my desert tortoise, Gramps (aka Grandpa T). Since I'm entering it in a special exhibit, I think I'll wait before I show the whole thing. But here's a sneak peek.  I've been wanting to make a quilt with my tortoise for a long time, so I feel good about having finally finished it.

I'm also entering a quilt exhibit called The Art Quilt Experience that will show in Cazenovia, New York. Wouldn't it be fun to have quilts there?! If they get accepted, it will be another excuse to go to NY to visit Samantha et al. And that's where the Notleymere B&B is. I have numerous posts about it, check my links on the right if you're curious. It's the B&B with the life-sized cow.

One of my new year's resolutions was to learn how to knit socks. So I'm pretty happy with myself that I finished my first pair in early March. Here it is in progress.

This is what they look like on. I have small feet, so it was fun to make them just my size. These are old school, very basic, with cheap yarn, following the instructions in Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I figured it was a good place to start. I've seen those books that teach you how to make them toe up, two at a time, on circular needles, and that sounds sooooo hard! Maybe someday. I'm just a sock newby.
I'm almost finished with another sweater for my granddaughter, but I left a necessary ball of yarn at my friend Carol's house. So I started another pair of socks. ;-)