Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Teacups, teacups everywhere, but not a drop to drink.




I've been making teacup pincushions for my ETSY shop and they keep getting bigger and bigger. I made the pattern after the first teacup (from my profile picture) and even though I use the same pattern each time, they just keep growing. Maybe I should surrender to the trend and see how big they will end up.





Eventually I will be making teacup chairs and sofas with matching slipcovers!

Friday, April 24, 2009

She took me out to the ball game!

On Tuesday my 19 year old daughter had an extra ticket to a Giants/ Padres game because the friend she was planning to take couldn't go. She called and said," I can't find anyone to use my extra ticket, do you want to go? I'll be home in twenty minutes and we need to leave when I get there." I hate to admit it but that was pretty spontaneous for me. She drove the hour and a half trip to get to AT&T park in San Francisco and it was nice for me to see that she is a careful and responsible driver, and that she is becoming an adult that I am very proud of.

She told me the tickets were up high, but had a good view of the park. She was right. When we sat down I said, "Wow, I can see everything from here!




Then this happened:





Isn't that just how life is. Seems like there is always some obstacle right in our way! A reminder for me that I always need to be ready to deal with whatever may present itself. In this case it was a big man with a matching big head, but usually for me it is some form of discouragement since I tend to be easily discouraged.

I just had to lean to the right a little, and it was fortunate that the seat on that side of me was empty. In other matters, overcoming the obstacles takes more effort. I just have to keep telling myself, "Katie, you can make this work, just focus on the main event, not the distractions! "



Thursday, April 16, 2009

I love bugs....

Or maybe I should say PICTURES of bugs. I like how they look on paper or cloth, not so much how they look when they are wriggling and crawling.


These bugs are from an Entomology print that I bought from Colleen at Saffron and Genevieve.
(You could get one from her too if you like it):





This bee is on my new living room curtains, which were actually meant to be shower curtains, but I lined them and " WALA "
you would never know, except that I just told you:





These beautifully illustrated bugs are from a 1964 edition of The Gardener's Bug Book, first published in 1946. They seem much too pretty to be in a book about how to go about killing them. Shouldn't they be painted in ugly, ominous looking colors, instead of these lovely pastels?




I learned from this book that the caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly are known as "Celeryworms" or "Parsleyworms" because they eat celery and parsley, but lucky for them, they are not considered a major pest. I will plant lots of celery and parsley if they will come and hang out in my garden.


Monday, April 13, 2009

Nothing say SPRING like...



It's foggy outside my window today, but spring has definitely arrived!