Flowers Bloomin' All Over

I am SOOO happy to say that the Curli-Q Flower Scarf is DONE!!!!!

It took me much (very much) longer to complete than I thought it would, but once I convinced myself to get my hooky act together and get to making these little flowers, I finally pulled it off.

See all those daunting little ends there?  Oh, they are not fun at all!  Gripe, gripe, complain...  But it's such an important part of our work, isn't it?  To finish things properly makes ALL the difference.  And so I sat at the dining table on a couple of nights and did the Weaving of Ends, Snip, Snip... While children ran, husband chatted and cats scattered my OH SO Carefully laid out flowers all around!

Yes, that was a lovely surprise after I had arranged and rearranged the EXACT placement of each little flower.  To walk through the dining room in the morning and find buds scattered, pawed, and heaped in piles.  Those playful kitties...  They need no invitation, do they?

So my vow to complete this project became a bit more urgent!  I again arranged and rearranged until I felt good about it all and then finished it as quickly as possible!

And then in all my excited silliness, I had to go see what it looked like on!  This certainly is not a flattering picture, but it shows the lengths us crafty folk go to just to nab a picture of what we've done!  Never mind that Hubby came by to see what in the world I was doing.  He should be used to this kind of behavior by now, silly guy.

I must say, in the end, I do like my little cascade of flowers.  Yes, I wish I had more vibrant colors, but I think it's lovely in it's own way...  And very girlie and made with yummy, scrummy yarn.  So I have to say I'm pleased.

So, the pattern that started this whole thing is Belle Fleur Scarf from Stitch Nation.  It uses a more consistent flower pattern, just in different sizes, but as I mentioned before, I threw some different flowers together for this.  But guess what?!

I have found other uses for this little beauty!!

Can you believe it?  Of course you didn't think I'd just wear this scarf.... Ha!  It happened to look so perfectly comfortable wrapped around my tulip bulbs in the dining room.  Can you see that blur in the background?  Yep, that is yarn, stash and other projects sitting, waiting... 

Aahhh... Spring flowers galore!  It's just that sweet.  And after I had finished uploading these pictures another WonDerFul idea popped into my head of what to do with this flowery piece!  I cannot wait to go and try it out!  My fear is that if I love, LOVE my idea when I try it, I'll be needing to repeat this whole process.  I'll let you know! 

And after our snow and the 60 degree temps, look who woke up!  These sweet daffies are opening all around the house.  Sweet P. wants to walk all over them, but Young Man goes along and snips off the smushed ones to bring indoors to our Vase of Cheer here in the Hearthroom.  He's a good guy, that one.

I've been trying to write this post for a couple of days, but it's been a bit too hectic around here to sit still long enough to get it done until now.  And "now" is bedtime.  So as nice as it is to have a few quiet moments to reflect and write,(children all tucked in bed),  I really must be going.  I have so many other thoughts to share, but we'll get to that next time. 

xoxo



Flowery Progress

I am holding myself accountable for completing this Curli-Q Flowery Scarf!  I must admit I wasn't crazy about the particular flower instructions, so I have pooled some Flowery Inspiration and am putting different flowers together here. 

The smaller 'bud' type of flower is made by crocheting a chain and then putting 3 double crochets in each chain stitch.  You can change color a time or two along the way.  In the end, you just swirl up the little hooky chain and stitch it together.  You get a pretty little bud!

I think the variety of flowers does make this scarf MUCH more interesting!

Now I just need to move on to my other colors and we should have something really much more interesting to work with here.  Yes, I do believe it's coming along....

I know, I know...  Yes I have gotten into that Hipstamatic App thing and I am loving it!  I'll get over it soon.

In the mean time, my kitchen has been taken over by - Robots?  Legos?  Lots of fun things apparently.

Yep, that would be the Legos. Amidst the pet hair, I'm sure.  Time to go reclaim the house!

Another something very handsome I really wanted to share.  I so love these little friends.  Do you have any yarn in your nest yet?

So, as promised, it was 60 degrees today and our Gift of Snow is really gone.  I can only find teeny tiny specks of it hiding under the trees.  We enjoyed it soooo much.  We can finally feel like we had winter at least.  Even if only in a very quick and tiny episode.  Now if only I can get Sweet P. to understand, as she continues to rush to the door with hat and boots in hand crying, "Wheeeeeeee."  I have nothing to sled on now, Sweet P.

Let's go make some flowers.

xo



Our Wintry Gift

Loving our snowy, wintry gift.

See the little, feathered friend?

It's always good to come back inside to something warm. 

How PerFect to find a sunshiny yellow sprinkled donut to match my mug!

Lemon Surprise, from Blue Collar Joes, of course.

Lemony sweet and pretty to eat!

It's supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow, so I thought I'd better bond with this beautiful winter gift before my ideas change back to gardening prep!



A Hearthroom Anniversary Weekend

Yep, Saturday marked my first year of blogging.  I've enjoyed having this little space.  It may not be chock full of brilliance, but I've enjoyed writing about some of my days and making memories in a place we can look back and enjoy later.  I enjoy being here so friends, old and new,(you know how old you are!), can stop by and see what's happening here.  I so look forward to seeing how this little blog space will change and grow.  And I'm so excited about the new friends I'll meet, too!

This sweet little donut came from one of our FAVorite shops called Blue Collar Joes.  We love to pop over there and indulge our cravings whenever we find a little something to celebrate!  And we will celebrate almost anything here in the Hearthroom!   Check out their website and you'll see why! 

So, since Saturday was my Bloggy Anniversary you would think I would have written some elaborate post, but instead I was out enjoying a much needed 'girls day' with my dear Elite Runner Friend.  Did we run?  No, silly, of course NOT!  She had her lovely little bistro table set with cups AND SAUCERS...  She had the best quiche and muffins and rich coffee.  Aahhhh.  Have I mentioned that she also announced to me that she wants to LEARN TO CROCHET!!!!  That is me up there dancing on the tables, celebrating!  Wooo Hoooo!  Just kidding.   And what do you think inspired her?  Me, you say?  Nope...  It was Austentacious Crochet.  Have you seen this book?  It is absolutely beautiful and I can totally see why that got to her.  She wants to make everything in that book, I think.  Well, I do too, so it's going to work out perfectly.  Another Aaahhhh...  So it looks like we will be having some very wonderful Crochet Camp days here in the Hearthroom very soon.  Yay!  So after our brunch we had plans to drive up to a local mountain resort for a bit of a change of scenery and some relaxation - girl style.

Yes we did....  We had our toes done.  Now we are not extravagant people by any means and it does feel a bit selfish to enjoy such a thing as having one's feet pampered and painted, but it's kind of nice once in a while.  Actually, my favorite part is that each time I look down and see pretty colored toes I remember our day together.  Yes, those would be my chubby toes, lol. 

Speaking of crochet, I have vowed to finish the Curli-Q flowery scarf which has been sitting close by, feeling very neglected.  I do love it.  You know what happened?  I wasn't loving the colors.  Yep, that's how I am...  I know, it's a sad thing, but there you go. 

  But even worse is seeing that little basket of yarn sitting there feeling so neglected and unloved.   I can't have that, not at all! So I have been making flowers and will be finishing this very soon, I hope... Depending on my Little People, you see.

I think it's also a daunting task to imagine having to pin and block all those little leafy parts.  Isn't that the funniest thing about lots of us yarn lovers?  That we create and work along loving the process right up until the point when we have to actually finish the thing we have so loved creating.  Working in ends, blocking, snipping...  Time to put on my big girl panties and deal!  So hopefully I'll have a finished flowery scarf to post here and even better to WEAR!  Or gift... Hmmmm....

 

So just as we were embracing the thought of spring approaching and were beginning to plan on moving bulbs and tilling the garden, we finally received the gift of winter.  We LOVE winter and snow here in the Hearthroom.  We love to see the snow falling.  We love to be out in it and we love to sit snug and warm and watch it falling with great anticipation.  Ooooo... the excitement!

Little hyacinths with a frosty layer of new snow - probably not as excited.

Sweet, cold daffies getting a sugar coating, too.  It's ok...  It's supposed to 60 degrees in two days!

 

Even Woody Woodson likes a little snow action!  Yes, he does.  He jumps very high in the air to catch a snowball if you'll take the time to toss one to him.  He's such a good boy.  Have you met Woody before? What a special guy.  So much so that our dog-sitter kind of doesn't want to give him back after we travel.  We try to share the Woody love best we can.  Without losing a pet of course!

I know all too well that many folks do not love this wintry stuff as much as we do, so I hope you had a good weekend where you are, snowy or not. 

I've got to go get crackin' on those little flowers now before the motivation wears off!  Not to mention, I'm really trying to get to some other yarny goodness!  I can't have a little flowery scarf come in the way of that!

xoxo

Sweet Valentines

You know the routine....  Seasons change, holidays change, and the window changes.  I'm on the lookout for some new colors to put in the window this spring, but for yesterday it was all about...



Little hearts and fibers....

And guess what else?  Cupcake liners!  Of course!  Have you noticed the growing popularity of the cupcake liner?  What a fun idea!  I've noticed in the stores how very decorative these little paper liners have become, but it still didn't occur to me to use them for something other than a cupcake.  I have to admit, my thinking tends to stop at the thought of food.

When we were in the library last week, Young Man asked to look at the movie section....  So while I was patiently waiting for him and trying to keep Sweet P. off the tables I happened to notice a craft mag, (sorry I can't remember which one...I'll check back in at the library to see), but it showcased a few uses for these sweet, colorful, little papers.  One was this garland idea.  Across my big window, this garland seems a bit sparse, but it certainly fit the bill for a quick Valentine's Day decoration.

See how cute these papers are these days?  I could have bought about 8 kinds that I instantly fell in love with, but I'm not planning on repapering the walls or anything, so just stopped at one.  Another use the mag showed was to use them in papercrafting on cards.  I'm giving that one a go too.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll get a pic up of what I end up with.  Their garland idea showed the papers sewed together, but this way allowed me to play with my ribbon!

I have to say "Thank You..." to MemeRose for the lovely, sweet and absolutely perfect heart pattern!  This is one of my new favs and I enjoyed making these hearts with fat, chunky yarn and a big hook to make various sizes of hearts. 

So we gave in and had some sweets with the littles.  Ok, time to cut back now!  Oh yes, and that little postcard there...  It came from my lovely new penpal from New Hampshire!  Yay, that is exciting, too!  I am really enjoying the lettermo.com challenge and have actually done fairly well at getting my letters written daily. 

It's all for fun and memories.  Young Man loves the special feeling of the day even more than the candy.  Sweet P. just wants "canny", lol.

And this is what really happens in the window.  It's a hot spot and gets lots of visits.  It's contents are rearranged daily and gives me loads of opportunity to fix.  Hope you had a good Valentine's Day.  And I wish you the best, most creative day EVER today!  What are you working on?



xoxo, Chris





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