Happy Socks

Sometimes there's just one article of clothing that makes me happy just to look at it. A few days ago it was a pair of absolutely awesome socks. I fell in love with these in the store and love just having them in my drawer! When I get to wear them, I feel happy all day. They are definitely happy socks. I hope to one day have a week's worth of them!

Heartbroken for Japan

I've been thinking so much about the devastation in Japan. We talked about it today in my local Etsy team meeting and are planning to do something to raise money as a team. Right now, I'm just sending thoughts and prayers to all affected. I always feel so helpless at times like this - I want to do more, but am often at a loss. Any suggestions? What are all you crafty people doing to support relief efforts? Any creative ideas?

My Continuing Carrot Collection

I love this time of year: carrots galore in every store as the Easter decorations come out!!

I, of course, am adding to my carrot collection whenever I can and Michele and friends are lovingly enabling me.

These carrot chocolates are from Michele - they are
actually hazelnut and chocolate and are carrot umbrellas, which really
adds to their coolness. I have to say that they will not last long enough to
be added to the collection, but I LOVE them!

In addition to the carrot chocolates, Michele has recently given me other consumables, like carrot hair conditioner, bath wash, body butter, and carrot lip balm. I'm carrots head to toe, inside and out.

My friend Carole, an art teacher, found a stack of carrot-themed creations
from a long gone student as they were cleaning out cabinets at her school.
She gifted me these beauties! I hope that Nate is somewhere and I hope he's famous!

This makes me think of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Attack of the Killer Carrots!!
I should be scared, but am not at all.

Could this be more perfect for me?

I would love to ride a carrot train . . .

. . . to this carrot hotel.

And to cap off this phase of my collection, a gift from the lovely and talented painter and sculpter Randy Duncan, husband of the awesome and talented crochet artist Karen Duncan:

An Original Randy Duncan work of art! How I love this! There are no words!

My collection is growing by leaps and bounds and I feel so loved when friends remember this quirky obsession of mine and gift me carrot-y lovelies like these. I'm truly living the dream! :)

Mug Rug Swap

I participated in a fun swap for mug rugs hosted by Michele Foster at the Quilting Gallery. I'd never heard of a mug rug, but the concept is pretty simple: it's like a coaster on steroids or, alternatively, like a miniature placemat. It's big enough for a large mug of coffee (tea) and a treat. Right up my alley! I LOVE LOVE LOVE these!! Whoever originally thought of the idea is brilliant!

I made a coffee-themed rug for my swappie. I fussy-cut sections from
Debbie Mum's Coffee Break and set those pieces into the coffee bean
on blue. I really like how it came out. It looks simple, but the piecing
required quite a bit of math. I like that difficult piecing looks simple in the end.



My swap partner really likes selvages, so I wanted to incorporate
them into one of the rugs. I really love this fabric line: Rainy Days
and Mondays by Riley Blake. It has really pretty selvages which
I never noticed until I started looking through my fabric to find one
to work with. I don't know if I will use selvages in the future, but it
was really fun to incorporate them in this and I like how it turned out!

I got this beauty in the mail from Eindhoven - in the Netherlands.
Oh, it's gorgeous isn't it!! Maya, from Maya's Scrap Basket did
an amazing job! I love the fabric - reminds me of apple picking. I
plan to keep this one on my sewing table for the cup of tea that
rarely leaves my side. My little tea pot fits right beside it! Nice!

This is rug #2 from Maya. So fun! I really love this one, too!
Watermelon is a real favorite of mine and I love that I have a fall
and a summer rug - though I'll use both all year round! This one
is heading to work with me to grace my desk and allow my
little work teapot to rest upon it. Now this is living! Thanks Maya!!

It's Been Forever!!

Kitty Leeloo - a collaboration with my
clay artist friend, Sabra. Just a little something
I worked on over the last few weeks.

I just realized that's it's been forever since my last post - over a month!! Things have been great but so busy after the holidays. I can't believe it's March already. Dirty secret: we still have our Christmas tree up!! It's driving Michele crazy, but I get a little happy every time I see it! There are boxes underneath - we opened the gifts and left the boxes under the tree and just haven't gotten rid of them yet. It really makes me feel like Christmas is on the way!

Well, I have certainly been keeping busy and out of trouble. I'm working hard on the shop and to that end have started another blog. I really need to use blogging to promote my shop, but wanted my friends to have a choice about whether to know more about my shop or to know more about my quirky life, or both! So, hop on over to A Blog's Eye View into the Studio of The Quilted House if you'd like to know what I'm doing in the studio and shop, and stay here if you'd like to know what I'm doing in my life - though the two will often overlap! I promise to do a better job of keeping this blog up-to-date!