Spring is in the Air!

It seems Mr. Groundhog is confused.  We were supposed to have an additional six weeks of winter, but instead we have had our air conditioning running for a month now.  What's up with that?  This is what is in my front garden right now:

The morning began with a nice 5k run in Bellaire, TX with 600 other runners and walkers.  It was a great morning for a run albeit a little warm for March.

After the run I found myself in the sewing room, but my watercolors were taunting me and I couldn't help myself, I had to paint these girls:

Usually this is my sewing sidekick:

But today he did double duty as my painting assistant.  Too cute, right?!!  He likes it when I hang out in this room.  He doesn't really care what the activity is as long as I open the door and he can hang out and nap.  It's a dog's life!

And so tomorrow, if the stars align properly, I will be in the sewing room . . . sewing.  I promised the dog, so I better keep my promise!  Although tomorrow is April Fool's Day . . . hmm . . . I wonder if he'd understand??!!



Oops!

Okay, there are a couple of "oops".  Monday mornings usually start off with a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call to get to bootcamp by 5:15 a.m.  This morning was also my shoulder rehab at 7:30 a.m.  There was no way I could make it to bootcamp and then get ready and drive across town for a 7:30 a.m. appointment so I slept in until 5:30 a.m.  As I'm hurrying around this morning to get everything done before I leave for rehab, I decide to check my appointment schedule and I had the 7:30 a.m. time correct, but I have the wrong day!!! My appointment is on Wednesday!!!  Oops!!!  Now, I'm upset I missed bootcamp.  Aaarrggghh!!!

My coworker bought a new pair of jeans for her son and at the end of the day he had totally ripped them to shreds.  Oops!!  She was so mad she threw them in the trash, but I asked her if I could have them.  This is my work in progress:

First I added the zipper and then sewed up the rest of the pant leg.  I got out some embroidery thread and made some "x's" and "*'s" up the seam.  I did a running stitch along the bottom and then did some more running stitch lines and beading on the other pant leg.

I'm not through yet, but I think this little pair of boys jeans is turning into a nice girlie pair of jeans!  heehee!!  I may get brave and paint something on the untorn leg of the jeans.  We'll see.  I'll be adding a little applique to cover up the hole and then some crystals or beads on the backside.  At some point I'll call it done and send it back out into the world.  So, my coworker's "oops" turned into a creating opportunity for me! 

So, I went out and bought some watercolor paper this weekend.  Oh, my goodness.  I'm such an idiot!!  I thought that I could just send in my 4" x 6" watercolor on regular paper (even though wet paper wrinkles, etc).  I thought it looked good!!  Then I got ahold of paper that should have been used and what a difference!!  I still like my original drawing, but this is the piece I'll be sending in:

 Before watercolor added

 Painted on watercolor paper

watercolor paper on left; sketch paper on right - Hey, I'm learning!!

I loved my new watercolor paper so much, I bought different sizes and went to town on some drawings.  These still need to be painted:



And last, but not least, I found this very amusing.  While out walking the dog this weekend, we saw the city crew changing out stop signs.  Hmm . . . can you see the difference??!!

 Old stop sign

New stop sign (same hand)

Okay, maybe it's not clear in the pictures, but the new signs are ginormous!!! And they've lowered them so they're almost at eye level when you're sitting in a car.  CRAZY!!!  My hard earned taxes at work!!!  Gotta love it!  Oh, yeah, best part - these signs were put up in my neighborhood where there aren't any accidents!!  Not sure why we needed  them . . .

Hope everyone is having a great CREATING day!



Oh, Happy Day!!

Today's a BIG day . . . little baby boy is coming home from the hospital!  Yay!!

The feeding tube is gone and he's eating by himself and he's ready to see something other than the hospital scenery.  Welcome home, baby!!

So yesterday evening I spent making binding and I finished my first quilt for the little guy.  Now that he will be home soon, I will give it to him this weekend.

This was mailed to Posie's Patchwork for the Family of Five:

I committed to a 4" x 6" art swap so this is my contribution:

 Testing out the colors

After I trimmed up the picture

And this is my picture I drew this morning to get my day started:

I'm still learning, but in my head I'm FANTASTIC!!!

Dreaming is free, right?!!

And now it's time to get moving and get the day started.  I hope to get back to the creative stuff later, but this afternoon I will be at the Med Center spending a few hours studying the various colors of drab on the walls!  You're jealous, huh?!!



Food, Wine, Good Times

What happens when you put a bunch of people in a room with snacks, wine and a whole lotta paint??  Well, I found out Saturday night when I hooked up with some running friends and we stepped off the track and into the painting studio.  Can you say FUN??!!  Oh, my, I had the best time!  At the end of the evening I went home with this:

For a first try, I am very happy with my finished picture.  I have plans for another play date on April 13!!  Yay! 

Yesterday I got busy with making some pillowcases for the "Family of Five" who lost everything in a fire.  My friend, Jan-Maree blogged about it here.  These are the pieces I will be sending to Australia this week:

 3 pillowcases for the kids

 apron

apron & 2 potholders

I had hoped to make more things, but I had to go visit my little nephew in the hospital.  He hit the 4 lb milestone Saturday night!  Yay!  He probably has a couple more weeks in the hospital and then he'll get to come home.  He's adorable and lovable and oh, so teeny, tiny. 

I also have out of town guests for the week.  My niece and her husband are here for their Spring break.  They went with me to bootcamp this morning and I'm sure they'll be "loving" me tomorrow when the aches set in!!

Well, I guess I should think about getting my butt out of the chair and getting to work.  Hmm . . . not liking it so much, but here I go . . .

Word Verification

So, the new word verification is horrible and I took it off a couple days ago.  But, then I started getting crappy spam comments, so I have put it back on.  I know when I comment on someone's blog that requires the word verification, it usually takes 3 or 4 tries before I type the right combination of letters, but I'm pretty persistent.  I'm sorry if the verification causes anyone to not comment, but I really don't want my email trashed with nasty comments (in various languages).  It's too bad these people can't do something more productive with their time.  Sorry guys, but for now I'm going to stay with the crappy verification system.  What was wrong with the words we could actually read anyway??!!  Perhaps another person with too much time on his hands.  You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!

Rock-a-bye Baby

Last weekend my niece gave birth to my grand nephew and is he ever the most beautiful and precious little boy.  He came five weeks early and weighed a whopping 3 lbs, 11 oz.  He currently weighs 3 lbs, 12 oz.  Yesterday I spent the afternoon and early evening with him and his parents let me hold him the entire time.  It's amazing how wonderful life is when you're holding a baby and seeing the miracle of his birth.  I love this little guy.

After he surprised us all last weekend, I immediately went home from the hospital and started cutting out a quilt.  I thought I had another 5 weeks to get one made.  Uh, . . .  no.  I decided to use the sweet fabric I purchased from Creative Thursday and when all was said and done, I was two blocks short of making the design I wanted.  So around midnight I was on the computer ordering fabric!! 

These were my options:

 This was my original design, but I ran out of the blue fabric with words on it.

So, I mixed it up and came up with this option, but I thought the spinning stars got lost in the design; hence the trip to the cyber mall for more fabric.  I'm good to go now as the fabric came last week and I purchased enough for a few more quilts and the backing, etc.  Silly me!

After failing at my first attempt to get a quilt made, the next morning I was up and at it again.  This is the quilt I made.  It just needs some binding and burying of threads and it's good to go.  It's bright and colorful and I think the little guy will like it!

 front

back

Then there were some envelopes that were calling my name:

I also worked on a reconstruction project.  My coworker gave me a pair of her son's ripped jeans and I'm refashioning them.  I'm really liking the results and when it's complete I'll post some pictures.

Hope everyone ENJOYed their sewing weekend!