Les Fleurs

I am cross-pollinating. Usually I try to keep my two blogs really separate, using unique images for each. Rarely double dipping - though occasionally it will occur. I'm only human. But today, these Spring goodies just had to be shared twice over. Sometimes I really do love my camera. Point and Shoot model - and it still can capture these petaly wonders.

The rhodies are really starting to bloom. Funny - some colors, like the deep pink are so ahead of the rest. These pale pink are just getting their heads up and heading towards the sun (however non present it was today). Can't complain - we have had some lovely globular bits of golden sun. Today was emphasis on the stuff that is good for the soil and making the flowers not become wilty bits of brown.

Vermilion, orange, corals - these are my favorite colors. How lovely to find a flower blooming today that I would wear in a heartbeat.

My headband has a tasty treat attached

I am stuck on a theme at the moment - it could be cupcakes have taken over my sweet tooth and my sensibilities. If you aren't keen on bakery items yourself, this posting may be difficult for you to stomach. After all, you really have to like the sweet life of carbs to wanna wear a headband with a bit of fake frosting and jimmies on it.

Luckily my friend loves to indulge in my bit of creative baking - even if this one means she will be calorie free for the day, since she's wearing the cupcake instead of eating it. (Don't worry - I actually made a quadruple batch of blond brownies today, with coconut, chocolate chips and walnuts - extra thick and downright gooey. She wasn't really deprived. I reimburse my models for their assistance very well. Well, at least that's what I think...)

This wasn't my original idea. I saw a similar cupcake headband and wanted to make a couple myself. Can't take all the credit. But if imitation is the highest form of flattery, then I have been doing a lot of praising these last two days. I have made four headbands. Wow, I'm cupcake crazy.

My little niece who is not even 2 yet will be wearing the first one. She already loves to pretend she is making things in her little kitchen and her hair is growing longer by the minute. She has begun to have more patience letting the "pretties" stay in her hair. Can hardly wait. That will be a great photo in the making.

Sweet! I am back online again!

Oh my, oh golly - how wonderful to have my little fingers caressing the keyboard of my laptop once again! I have grown quite accustomed to this particular strain of creativity (that wondrous thing called blogging) , and relish the fact that not only do I have it back, but I have some fun new tools (Photoshop CS4!!) to begin to learn and play with! Watch out, world - Mama's gotta brand new toy - and she ain't gonna be afraid to use it none, either!

So, in honor of my sweet return - I wanted to share some photos that are tickling my sweet tooth at the moment. Cupcakes, of course, are always on the top of my indulgence list... I made these for my friends and they were lemony lemon, through and through.

Next would have to be my dear friend wrapped up in this boa of pinkness. A gift from a departing friend (we miss you Pinky!) How lovely can it be to have a friend that brings you gifts at her own going away gathering? Yep, we are blessed.

Last but not least - these amazingly colorful crayons from Wacky Crayons. I am in special love with Dragonflies, so this particular shape had great resonance with me. I wanted to just sit down and color all day, but I was with my Mom and she still won't let me do those things - even though I am old enough to disagree with her and have my own way. Damn - I gotta grow out of that sometime soon. In the meantime, I'll just get on the Internet (hehe! so nice to have my computer back - I can't even tell you!) and order some to play with on my own. I'll tell you all about it later - maybe encourage you to start coloring too.

In My Neighbor's Garden

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Computer Blues!!

I have been slowed down, struck by a virus, my registry bitten by a nasty bug - and I am offline. Sigh. Thank the Goddess for my Blackberry phone and it's online abilities as well as my local library (which I love without reservation anyways) where I have limited access to a computer terminal and all of you. I have learned how to take a photo with my phone, email it to my Blogger account and then quickly, library computer at the ready, edit and post to my blog. It is a lesson in tenacity, planning and patience (library computers are popular places). So, bear with me as I struggle to get back online and doing my more creative posts - but in the meantime - thanks - thanks for stopping by - and thanks to my newest follower Umama (like Oh Mama) for coming on board!

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What to do, what to do ... I have lost the Pinky too!

Celeste, a.k.a. Pinky - I have known her ever since I moved to this lovely little town of ours 3 years ago. We befriended one another. She is still a young woman, with stories to discover, adventures to be wrought, and yet, an old and loving soul resides within. She moves away tomorrow...
She is the best model you could pray for - needs no direction, and looks marvelous in anything. What shall I do without her?
These are a collection of hats that I fashioned for myself after all of the holiday knitting had been done (easy pattern - just made it myself), and the snow just kept on coming. And coming...we really had a lot of the white stuff. This is from a skein of the ever fabulous Noro yarn I love. Yummy colors, don't you think?
This is maybe my favorite. I love orange and I used a precious skein of hand dyed yarn that had little yardage, but lots of attitude.
I love this shot. The unplanned moments of life reveal so much.
This picture is one in a million - she is beautiful, as the sun sets in the background on her last day with all of us. We all came out to hang with the Pinkster and say our good byes.
I made this one first- and it has the most spacious headroom. Your hair could be tied up in a knot and you could still get this baby on and stay warm. Some of the yarn used in this was from a society that helps to protect the Snow Leopards and it is hand spun, hand dyed camel yarn from cottage industries overseas, paired with other scraps to make the yarn last for the project and as you might see on the ear flaps, add some dimensionality to the coloring.
All of the hats I fully lined, including ear flaps, with a complimentary color of fleece. Toasty for the head - ready for any more freakishly cold weather that may come our way. Totally overindulgent of me - three more hats!? Oh my...maybe it's time to grow some extra heads...

Sweet Delights

I had to share the luscious, yummy, waistband extending side of the Easter holiday with you, since I shared all the birthing pains of the notorious chickies. This above is my brother's addition to the weekend brunch held at my sister's - Stuffed French Toast ala Paula Dean ( of Georgia and the Food Network). Peanut butter, thick slabs of banana, succulent bacon, good wheat bread, dipped in egg batter and the pan fried with crunchy bits of pecan and cereal on top and then laced with jam. Heavenly.

No surprises that I made the cupcakes. I love to make my cupcakes. These were chocolate "made from scratch" cake with a coconut buttercream frosting and dressed up to look like little Easter nests. My sister and all loved them.

My Mom a couple of years ago began dying her eggs along the ways of Martha Stewart. These are wrapped in colorful slips of silk, with a layer of plain cotton and then cooked in a bath of water and vinegar. They are marbleized works of art each and every year. Too pretty to eat, perhaps...naw!!

These are the "loopy" chickies - the last of a long line of little yarn McDoddles to come from my hands. By far the most time intensive. Three models, 32 chickies in all - now, flown the coop - except for about six that I kept for myself, and one to be sent full of chocolate to a friend in SF tomorrow. Whew and a sigh of relief. I actually kinda don't know what to do with myself.....

Rainbows

I have much to tell, and have a "delicious" posting in mind, but in the meantime, I wanted to share with you this lovely rainbow that I beheld on the eve of Easter.

Easter in our town is full of wet, dewy grass and soggy undertakings for the ambitious egg hunter. Best to play in doors in your Sunday best, if you get my drift. But our collective Easter gift yesterday was this phenomenal Rainbow that I spied out my kitchen window yesterday. I was winding down from all of my Easter antics and just happened to take in this breath of beauty. I took the photo right through my open window. And felt momentarily blessed. And thought I would share it with you.

Happy Easter from me and the "chickies"!

I am still putting the final touches on the last of the "loopy" designed chickies, but here are some of my other little creations for you to see...

They are lining up and heading out to baskets and Easter celebrating homes near you!

They are pretty adorable, if I do say so myself...

These little variety of chickies later received some sequin and seed bead eyes - but I had to show you...

Happy Easter Everyone!!

More work than I can say...

My work has spilt over permanently onto the couch, it's covers, the surrounding floor. I am awash in efforts to finish the chickies by this weekend ( I feel absolutely duped! I thought Easter was next weekend!!) and I am preparing to install a host of goodies at my friend, Mary's, store. Whew! I feel undone - and undone, and undone - as I view all the yet to be finished goodies littering the floor.
I am silly - I am making Cupcake Hats (for adults) in an assortment of sorbet colors. The work that goes into these seemingly simple, but lovely confections will never correlate to the minimum wage - and yet, I toil on. May they find happy heads one day.
The apartment is awash with spring colors = I hasten to my deadlines. It shined with sun here yesterday, and I created freshly mown and weeded green patches in the backyard for me Mum. Today, I am squirreled away in the apartment, watching the pure creative genius of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean on the film MirrorMask and pondering my personal navel a wee little bit. Silly,silly thing - I am making chickies and cupcake hats, and aprons - again. My friend, Lodema the Potter calls this "soft art". May I soon find my way into realms of surer footing and happier dreams, but for now, I am just happy to be finding the end of these projects somewhere in sight. Amen!

For your personal viewing pleasure:

Ode to the mysteriously appearing sun

The sun came out today - and it was like someone threw the light on in the city. Everyone woke up and headed outside. Things were clear and bright. This flower is the color of all of our joy today.
This Mister needs a cool down every now and again, and he has a definite fondness for puddles. He laps them up, he treads through them happily and today, he just laid down in one.
It was just hailing here a mere handful of days ago. Cars from neighboring areas will come bearing mantles of snow on their brows. Today is like summer - we are amazed - we have too many clothes on - we wonder around dazed and happily confused.

Hats, Hearts and Scraps of fiber

This is my friend, Butch He complains of cold ears. He looks pointedly at me when he states this, as I sit watching the senior bowling league with my knitting needles always in hand, ever occupied. He complains of this a lot. My heart goes out to him, and soon, so do my knitting needles.
Butch waited patiently for a year for his headgear. It covers his ears so he can take those morning walks that keep him neat and trim and bowling fit. His hat is made of scraps. His hat is made with love. Great love of yarn, in any size or portion and a great love of the man who took our old friend "Doc" Townley's place when he passed on. Doc had been a great bowler in his day - threw a few of those 300 games, was written up in the papers, when local bowling had an avid following. Doc bowled until his last few days on this earth, less than a week to be exact. He loved the game, even though he in the end struggled to break a 100. But when he rolled a good one, he danced. We called it "the Doc Dance". He made you feel special just being in his sight.
Then, Butch came along. Hadn't really ever bowled, always announced at the end of each game that he was dragging the team's average down, that he should just fire himself, and go home. Thank goodness he stayed, improved his game (as practice always will) and brought a smile in with him every week. Butch is a happy fellow, about anything outside a bad bowling game!
When a door closes, another opens somewhere. The team was blessed with Butch. My Dad was the next to leave the league - not to long after Doc. Bladder Cancer. He bowled right up until the end as well. Can't take the bowler out of certain men - they are meant for the lanes, no matter what they are bowling.

Give me a little of that cupcake luv

I have been remiss in my cupcakery - I had fallen from the baking path, strewn with real butter, cream cheese frosting and coconut to last a year. My techniques became sloppy - frosting in the hair, cups filled to Double D proportions and tears in the paper liners. In a word - sugar high meets total wreck. Thankfully, I was amongst friends as I set the globs of gooeyness down. Soon, every one's fingers were a sticky mess and I was at peace, once again.

Spring Showers and it's flowers