Fruit Salad

Last year for my birthday I bought a really FUN sewing book. Now, I WANT to sew, but I am seriously afraid of my sewing machine. Or anything that requires electricity and has an "on" switch, to tell the truth LOL (including this computer). But last weekend my desire to sew overcame my uneasiness, so I pulled out the really FUN book, Sew Pretty Homestyle, and made a couple of the projects in it.


First I made the pears. I know pears do not come in yellow polkadots or blue floral (my kids think I must have flunked kindergarten), but the fabrics match my kitchen, so that's the colors I made them :) They weren't actually that difficult, thank heavens. Now all my kids want me to make them their very own pears. What would a boy do with a stuffed pear? LOL



Next, flushed with the pear success, I turned to the strawberries. Being smaller, they were a little trickier. It didn't help that I kept forgetting that I needed to sew the RIGHT side of the fabric together LOL Then I decided that instead of stitching the seeds, I wanted to do beads. Every project needs a little sparkle, right? When I got the leaves I decided to take the easy way out. They were supposed to be sewn from fabric, but just sewing those single pear leaves was enough to convince me that I should use wool instead. I made them in pastels to go in my bedroom (once again, convincing the kids that I flunked kindergarten, because everyone KNOWS that strawberries are RED), specifically to go in this pink depression glass bowl. I think I may have made a couple too many; they're scrunched in there pretty tight. But that's where they're staying, at least until I change my mind.


You know, I still have a pattern for apples that I could try :)

odds and ends

I haven't posted for a while, so I thought I'd put some random thoughts up LOL

My house has been WAY too messy to do much crafting, but I did get a couple of pages scrapbooked tonight. My dh planned a "crop" for us. He's playing with his new photoshop program, and I am attempting to scrapbook for the first time in MONTHS. I did 2 boring layouts and gave up LOL I feel guilty, because I have SOOO many pictures that aren't in a book, and my kids really love looking at them, but I just haven't been in the mood to mess with them. Ahhh well...

The spring migrants are here in force, with lots of fun birdies this year. Friday I had a Red Crossbill in my backyard (weird because they normally hang out up the canyon, in coniferous forests). So nice to not have to track one down up the canyon LOL I'm currently up to 117 birds! Yippee! The pic at the top is a beautiful male Bullock's Oriole in our quince bush. I love that bush, it gets the prettiest blossoms every spring. Usually it's just full of bees, but this year the orioles have been in it every day for a week. It's been popular with the Black-chinned and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds too. When I took the pic last week, most of the blossoms weren't out yet. Now the bush looks like a bright pink puff ball LOL Isn't that bright orange bird amazing?

Dh and I went to Tai Pan Trading Company last Sat. What a fun store! I got some cute stuff; a hanging votive holder that I filled with moss and blue eggs, a green with white daisies watering can and matching tin basket, and a tin green "garden" sign. I got a small trellis with a bell on the top for my mom, and for dh we got a carved wooden pelican and a dish to set it in, along with rocks and fake greenery to go with it. I just have to do something with the dish LOL Trying to decide if it's going to get decoupaged with appropriate scrap paper or painted. Dh loves pelicans and is really excited to have this on his desk. We also got a small carved wooden duck for E. He loves ducks. But he's not getting it until his birthday LOL

I hope you are all enjoying your spring as much as I am!