Weekend Edition: Homebody

Ugh, the weather is terrible here! Its cold and sleeting on and off. Yesterday was a little better, at least the grey skies broke for a little while and provided this gorgeous sunset. With the monochrome skies of today, I have no hope for it happening again. Brr.

This weekend I did nothing exciting. Just some errands on Saturday, Trader Joes and Target, and then home where I took advantage of the gloomy weather to sit inside and read and watch movies-- Anna Karenina and Coco Before Chanel respectively. Then Sunday was entirely about laundry and working on my portfolio, a task I find so odious that I update it as rarely as possible and therefore had to completely start from scratch. Ugh. I don't know why its so awful, because it's all about job hunts?

Garden Update: Signs of Spring

Inspired this morning by these lovely photos over at Quaint Living, of an English garden in winter, I set out to see what signs of spring I could find in my own garden.

Daffodils.

Buds on an apple tree.

Flowering quince.

Lots of buds on the apricot trees planted last Fall.

Dried garlic chive seed heads in the back vegetable garden.

That horse on the right is my favorite of the neighbors' horses. He's small and has the look of a donkey about him. I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that, but I think its his coat, both the color and the texture. He's a sweet horse too, while that red horse on the left is pushy and likes to nip the others. They come to the fence whenever they see humans in our yard because my mom is in the habit of feeding them a piece of winter apple, or early weeds that are popping their heads up. They love it since there isn't a speck of plant life growing in their paddock.

Also, if you have a love for Italy, and want some inspiration go check out Alice's post from her recent weekend in Rome over on her blog. It will make you want to sell everything you own and travel there immediately.

Don't Mess With a Good Thing

Since I had so much fun making the baby shower gifts, I thought I'd continue with the theme and make a few Valentine cards this year. I really liked how they turned out, but I only had the patience to make five of them. Hand lettering and coloring them took forever!

This morning I was feeling a little down-- the sun was disappearing behind grey clouds already, my on-again-off-again car problem was on-again yesterday which has me worried, and I have tedious computer work on my plate for the afternoon. In an attempt to focus on the positive, I took this picture of my favorite color combo, as currently played out on my mom's sideboard. Grey and pink (and red), I love you!

Crafty Rabbit

Here is a picture of the finished rabbit. It turned out very cute. I spent so much time carrying it around, sewing one little piece or the other last week, that I felt a little guilty stuffing it into the box below. It was a tight fit but he survived just fine and was well received.

The guests were also asked to make a page for a memory book, and this was my contribution. My printer is old and out of ink, so I had to hand draw it. I added color to the border after taking this pic, which made it look better. And I must have Valentine's Day on the brain, because there were hearts all over the place.

It was a very fun shower, no dumb games, just a bunch of people hanging out,catching up and eating delicious food. It started snowing about halfway through, so our drive back down to Albuquerque was through a storm. It was beautiful and rather dramatic. All in all a good day.

More Time Than Money

I got invited, rather last-minute, to a baby shower this weekend. With only one week to come up with a gift, and absolutely no desire to hit the stores for a mass-marketed gift, I decided to make one from scratch. Luckily the weather has been overcast and rainy/snowy the last couple of days, so sitting inside sewing while catching up on my Hulu queue was not unpleasant.

Snow early this morning.

The shower is for a good friend of mine, who I don't get to see too often, so I wanted the gift to be unique. I decided to make a toy rabbit. Its not finished, but I think it's going to be cute. I'm planning on putting a little lavender sachet in the body so that it smells nice and helps the baby sleep. (I haven't heard if its a boy or girl, so I'm trying to make a neutral rabbit). I also wanted it to be soft, and safe for chewing (I'm giving it to a newborn), and for it to be entirely made of things I already had in my sewing box. I'm using fabric from an old pair of pants and some felt left over from another project. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to stuff it with.

Stuffed toy in progress.

I'll post the finished product when I complete it. Probably this weekend.