It's coming!!!

SPRING!! I know it is! There are signs! Really!

Okay, so here's the current view from my sewing room window (which is in the basement, for any of you newcomers who might not know that). Yeah, still a lot of snow out there. But it's melting! At least I can see the trees now... major improvement from the snow being right up against the entire window!

And if I put my head up close to the glass and peek to the right, here's what I see:

YES!! My tulips are coming up! WOOHOO! Here's a closer look:

A peek to the left shows more tulips coming - hurray!

The green is from my dianthus plants that got covered with snow so early that they never did die off completely.

Look not much farther out, though, and you see our miniature lilac bush (which is now quite huge... not very "miniature" anymore) branches which are still weighted down by snow. I wonder if they'll be able to stand upright again when it's all gone.

Back in the house, not related to spring, but still pretty, is a rerun of the pink and white amaryllis. Yep, it had a second flower stalk. It also has a baby... an offshoot bulb. I've never had one of those before, so I'll have to do some checking to find out how and when to separate them.

You may have noticed that the pot is in rather bad shape. Not only does it have a lot of dirty scratches from being out in the ground during past summers, but it's also gotten very brittle and whenever I pick it up getting ahold of part of the brim, it breaks off. Time to repot... probably when I remove the "baby". I think I'll go for a clay pot this time.

Ponies!

Yep, from Cooties to Ponies... y'never know what Grandma's gonna have at her house. Ahh... but aren't they pretty?!

The day I took the picture, I could remember the names of them all. But I don't think I can now. The little pink one I think is Pinkie Pie. The purplish one is Cheerilee maybe. I'd have to have Courtney refresh my memory on the other two. Oooohhh... I think the blue one is Rainbow Dash.

I just now noticed how their heads are facing this way, but their bodies are facing the other way. The blue one had me wondering there for a bit, looking like its tail was coming out of its chest! LOL

And here's their little groomer, keeping notes on each one, I'm sure.

Snow update

I know you're just all waiting to see snow pics again! Aren't you? Okay, maybe Mark is. Here are some that I took the day Courtney went sliding down the hill. Most of them were taken from the treetops. Previous to this winter, I'd never thought I'd be up high enough to see over the tops of those evergreens! But I was, and I had to take some photos, just for a different perspective. So that was March 2nd.

(Click to enlarge.)

Yep, that actually was an airplane flying overhead as I was taking pics.

Believe it or not, we haven't gotten any more snow since then! Unless you count the few big fat flakes we got yesterday morning in the midst of rain showers. I'm not holding my breath, of course, because after all, it is still March. But the forecast looks hopeful (for not getting snow) for the next week, at least.

The snow we did have has been melting, slowly but surely. We have tons of it left (literally), but it sure is nice to see that it's leaving. Below are some pics I took on Sunday morning, March 7th. It's nice to see bare ground again, even if it is muddy. Lots of snow has melted since then (though you'd never know it by looking toward the evergreen trees), and we have lots more mud and puddles. We've also been having fog for several days. Blech. But spring IS coming!!!

(Click to enlarge.)

Speaking of Etsy sellers

I just have to show you one of my favorite Etsy sellers... Lightning Bugz. I stumbled across her shop sometime before Christmas last year, and I found her stuffed animals to be irresistible! I ended up buying the bunny below for Courtney for Christmas. Its name, "Candy", just seemed to call out to me! Lightning Bugz (whose real name also happens to be Candy) also makes little play packs for the animals, containing blankets, pillows, some clothing items and a little bag to carry them in. I bought one of those for Courtney for her birthday in February, custom made to match "Candy". Soooo CUTE!

Checking back at the Lightning Bugz shop later, I noticed she had many of her stuffed animals on sale at half price, so I quickly snatched up "Cupcake" (green and pink kitty below) that Courtney had admired via the computer, and I got a blanket/pillow set for it, too... all to keep and play with at Grandma's house.

Now Lightning Bugz is making and selling Waldorf inspired dolls (bottom right pic below). They are so adorable, and I'm sure take many, many hours to make! No, I haven't bought one of those... yet. ;-)

Here's some good news: Because Lightning Bugz is so excited about making the Waldorf inspired dolls, she has all of her stuffed animals on SALE to make room for the dolls! Check 'em out and maybe grab one (or more) while they last. Make a child happy like my favorite one below. :-)

One final note on Etsy sellers: Jess's shop is permanently closed. It was fun while it lasted, but she has gotten so busy with her freelance design work that she just doesn't have time to "play" with it anymore. I considered taking it over or opening one of my own, but at this point, I don't think I will. Thanks to all of you who purchased our products! We're both very happy with our 417 sales!!

Mystery project revealed!

Here it is... what you've all been holding your breath waiting for! (Well, okay... maybe a couple of you have been waiting for it, anyway.) This is my latest sewing project, FINALLY completed!

It has a carrying handle, plus a large pocket in the back for storing books. The cover has zippers in the bottom to remove it for washing... but I hope I never have to take it off, because it was a wrestling match to get it stuffed. ;-)

It's for Courtney, of course. To stay at Grandma's house, though.

Jess was offered a free pattern from an Etsy seller, Abbiesolutely, to try out and possibly blog about. Since I've been Jess's official 'sewer' for her Etsy items, she asked me if I wanted to give it a try. I said "sure".

I'll have to admit that it was a challenge. Not quite a pull-my-hair-out experience, but it did make me have to think a lot. ;-) It was not a project for the novice seamstress. I learned some things, the most surprising of which was how expensive high density foam is!

I'm glad I made it. I'm glad it's finished. ;-) And I'm happy with how it turned out. I believe Courtney likes it, too. She seemed to enjoy giving it a toughness test, so it was kind of hard getting a good pic of her on it, but here are a few.

She seemed to think it made a great launching pad. :-)

I was really glad I spent some extra time reinforcing seams! It is a tough little chair, and I hope it'll last many years.

Update: She discovered the chair was also good for reading. She didn't even know I took this picture. She also thought it was great to be able to store some books in the back pocket of the chair. All in all, it's a winner. :-)

(For anybody wondering, the fabric was designed by my daughter, Jessica Jones.)