simple pleasures

It's been nice to have some things lighten up in our schedule lately and I've found myself with some time to:

*enjoy my neighbor's hellebores.  The common name for these beauties is Lenten Rose.(today is Ash Wednesday....how appropriate!)

*put away packaging from Christmas...this has been sitting by our bedroom door just waiting to go downstairs.  I've walked by it every day for weeks  months and for whatever reason, I finally got it put away!  go figure!?  (does anyone else saving packaging from electronics, just in case?)

*pick up a long lost (started years ago) cross stitch sampler.  This is Harbison Chapel from my Alma Mater - Grove City College.  After all these years, I still really like it and would love to finish it.  Maybe this is the year!

*put away the snowmen....we've barely had a trace of snow here all winter.  I'm done with the snowmen taunting me.  (now it will snow, right?!)

*use my coffee beans in a new way.  With all my snowmen put away I was needing something to fill in a spot, but it's way too early for bunnies and daffodils, so coffee seemed like a good move!

*start on a hat.  You've got to wonder why I'd start a winter hat with a forecast that includes temps in the high 60's but I had the yarn and the pattern...and I got an itch to start a new knitting project.  The perfect storm...yarn, pattern, desire, time!

So, that's what's going on around here... a bit of this and a bit of that.  Hope you're finding time for some simple pleasures as well!  

cozy

I interrupt this basketball season for a bit of cozy.  We've been playing ball, coaching ball games, taking pictures of ball game, keeping score during ball games and driving to and from ball games.  It's been non-stop basketball and we've still got about a month left!  

Enough.  I found myself hankering to take some pictures of still objects and pretty things. (not that my kids in their basketball uniforms aren't pretty...but they definitely aren't still and there is a lot of sweat involved....)  So today with my little guy down with a fever I found a bit of time to take pictures of my newly made candle cozy. 

 I got this idea from Pinterest.  Instead of covering a can, I covered a candle with a seasonal decal on it.  I wanted to burn the candle, but my kids kept commenting on the fact that it wasn't Christmas anymore.  So I fixed that. 

 It was fun to make, used up some scraps and silenced my picky picky kids all at the same time.  Yeah! I made it to fit around a Yankee Jar Candle and found that it actually fits around several different brands (Target, Walmart and Bath and Body Works)  that I had on hand.  That elastic and button make it pretty adjustable.  I used insul-brite as my batting and so far...no fires!   

  Anyways, I hope you find some time to break away from the every day stuff to do something that makes you smile. Even if all that means is taking pictures of candles on a rainy afternoon!  

sew lovely

I recently entered a Valentine Swap over at my friend,  Tracy's blog.  Everyone who signed up was paired with a partner and I was paired with Jodi from Jolly Bee!  I cracked up when I got the email with her name because Jodi and I are already swapping buddies.  She blessed me over the holidays with a beautiful table runner and she's always so encouraging and friendly.

She's been a gift to me as a blog friend and I was thrilled to get another excuse to bless her.  But, she beat me to the punch.  She sent me this wonderful heart pincushion.  I've already put it to good use and loaded it up with pins.

After sorting through the ideas I'd collected I settled on making her a mug mat for some of her Valentine snacking....I saw a similar idea over on Andrea's blog and worked from that for my own version.

I used Rae's cheater binding to do the edging and I'm sure that I won't ever go back to binding small quilt projects the old way with cutting and binding and pinning and pressing.  This cheater binding was so fun that after I finished Jodi's, I made a couple more.  

I think it's an illness....I can never make just one of something.  I used my sewing machine to do all the stitching.  I had to go pretty slowly to do the hearts. I think these would also be pretty with hand embroidered stitches in place of the machine stitching.

Thanks to Tracy for hosting the Valentine swap and to Jodi, my partner, for my beautiful heart pincushion! Spreading love is so much fun....I hope you find some ways to spread love in your corner of the world!