Corduroy in Bloom

My recent experiment with jacket alteration left me wanting more. So when I found another victim -- I mean candidate -- for a few dollars at a local outlet store, I jumped on the opportunity. Besides, it's not often that you find a garment in this particular shade, which I can only call "peacock."

Once again, I edited the sleeves to 3/4 length, and this time used the scraps for a tiny ruffle on each sleeve. I had barely enough! Oh, and gathering double thickness of jacket-weight corduroy is no picnic.

Fortunately, the requisite flower requires only the tiniest scraps of fabric, so a little creative cutting made a fabric bloom possible. Once again, I used a "been-waiting-a-very-long-time-for-the-perfect-project" button from my stash. This one's been waiting approximately 13 years. Worth the wait? Oh, yes.

The tulle and beading somehow found their way into this project -- because that particular shade of peacock just begs for a little glamor, doesn't it?

I could attempt to deny that I'm becoming addicted to fabric flowers. But there's a little basket of them on my craft table that would make such an attempt totally pointless. So, addicted I am!

It Doesn't Get Better Than This

(Okay, Blogger -- it's totally not cool that your recent technical difficulties deleted my last post, as well as the kind comments that readers had left! I guess I can't complain, since you're a free service. But as I try to rewrite my post, I'm very tempted to...)


This past Sunday was actually my second Mother's Day as a mother -- my first was quite memorable, having found out we were expecting only days before. Perfect timing, since we were able to announce the happy news to our moms with "Happy Mother's Day Grandma" cards. It took them a few moments to catch on!

But this Mother's Day was even better, since Little Man has now arrived on the scene!

It's hard to believe this chubby little guy is the same tiny baby we welcomed into our family in December.

Motherhood is such a blessing, challenge, and God-given privilege. It's humbling and exhilarating, all at the same time.

Even just a few months of being a mother (plus a few "gestational" months) have made me so much more appreciative of all the mothers in our family's history. If it were not for their sacrifices, my husband and I would not even be here -- and neither would our sweet baby. Really, Mother's Day is a day for everyone to celebrate!

So Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

These Busy Times

Spring for us has involved beautiful weather and lots of projects! It's hard to believe we bought our house a year (and seven days) ago. Which is also scary, when I consider that I *just* cleaned out the clear "crystal" knobs on our outdated sink fixture. It was so easy, too -- so why did it take a year?

Anyway, we've also been able to enjoy the full beauties of Spring on our little property, which has been a delight!

Most of our projects have been in the great outdoors. Like transplanting the enormous Indian Hawthorne bush that was totally obscuring the prettiest window on the front of our house (and we only have three, so that's a big deal.) And of course, the three foot circle we marked out to transplant it to was filled with pine tree roots, so Pablo had to break out the axe. I tried it, but fifteen strokes later, I had made as much progress as he had with a single stroke!

Our transplant project led us to destroy a few feet of rotten tree trunk, which the previous owners had decorated with a rather disturbing set of facial features. By doing so, we accidentally evicted this vibrant little fellow:

He was absurdly shy (I have a feeling he doubted my motives, but I didn't find him in the least appetizing!), so I resorted to my long distance lens to record his likeness. Yes, I was snapping photos while Pablo was doing the hard work... *ahem*

But I did prune the roses and jasmine -- the latter had gone completely wild, wrapping itself into long, fragrant ropes. It's more subdued and much less attractive now, but next year we can train it into more acceptable routes.

Yes, these are busy times -- and we have a Little Man to provide mandatory breaks every few hours (I keep telling him there's plenty of food in the 'fridge if he's hungry...). And while such times may not be good for the blog, they are certainly good for hearth and health!