Yeah Spring!

 I played with my babe today in the yard.  Daylights savings has made it wonderful for playtime with the babe in the yard after work.  She enjoys rolling in the yard after a good session of tug-of-war. Look at how green my our grass is!

The Daffodils in yard are up everywhere, not budding quite yet. I am feeling a bit nostalgic for home because I am traveling for my job tomorrow and will be gone for a few days. I am going to miss my babe, hubby and home for the next few days.  It is awesome waking up every day to these wonderful parts of my life!

The Duke Gardens

I promised to post some of the picture that I took on our day trip to Duke University. We went to The Duke gardens last weekend with my mom. I was in a early spring bloom. It was a overcast day, I was not expecting to see every part of the gardens being used. I was not really prepared that people would use it like a park; to play soccer, hold child's birthday parties, allow children to play in the water and fountains. I was expecting it to be more like an arboretum, where people tour around and look at the plants. I didn't take many pictures because there were people everywhere. It was also not  that impressed with the cleanliness of the gardens either, grass was brown, dead lawn debris was all over the paths and trash was around. I know that we had a hard winter but, all of the grass was brown, I have a bright green yard 20 minutes away. Also, I am a huge fan of bulbs, especially daffodils. There were only tiny sparse patches of them. The front part of the gardens was under construction which also lead to my feeling of lack luster. The visitor's center was small and under used. The man inside never said "hello" or looked up the entire 20 min it took me to find a map on the wall and decide where to go.
I am not sure that I will take a trip to Duke anytime soon again. Maybe we'll have more fun at Chapel Hill!

Camellias and Stamps

The Camellias are still going strong. I have picked many bouquets for the house. I wish I had a florist frog. Camellia stems are very twiggy and the heavy blossoms tend to want to turn the vase over. My Nana uses low flat vases with the frog to display hers. Out of all the vases that I have this is  the lowest, not flat at all. The frog is heavy and spiky and holds the stems just in the right spot.

We have had even more beautiful days for me to take pictures. My mom came this past weekend and I showed off my Camellias. She referred to them as a "double camellia", obviously not their technical name. She said she had not seen many like them either. I am thinking about making a stamp of a Camellia based off of one the photos. That is a daunting task.

After my birthday, I was in a strip mall that has a Trader Joe's and an awesome art store. I still had birthday money burning a hole in my pocket. I was all laden with bags prepared for the zoo at Trader Joe's but, found myself walking across the parking lot into Jerry's Art-a-rama. I started off humbly picking out new colors of Prisma's out of the bin. Then it hit me! I have always wanted to make stamps. I read Geninne's Art Blog and she makes amazing stamps out of Mastercarve, check her out. I am a hoarder of many things, including stamps. I never use them because I want original patterns and designs. Not sooo perfect. I have been looking for a block of Mastercarve for awhile. Ta-Da there it was. It was pricey, but I figure I'll use both sides.

After rushing through Trader Joe's, I came home and sat down and immediately made these two stamps. The "M" on one side and the Enso on the other. I love them! I cant wait to start on the Camellia.

Day Trip to Duke

 

I live very close to Duke University. I had never had the opportunity to visit the campus. I knew that it was beautiful, this was not what I expected. We went to Durham mostly to visit a BBQ joint with my mom. It was fabulous BBQ, sorry no pics of that. We also went to Duke Gardens which were only in spring time budding. I will post pictures of the gardens later. Most of these pictures are of the Chapel in the main part of the campus. There was a wedding taking place so we were unable to go inside.  

I love the native stacked stone; the yellows against the gray blue was inspiring. It looked like a quilt with tan sashing. All of the buildings in the main part of the campus were made from this stacked native stone.

 

The detail in the granite surrounds was amazing. I am sure that the stain glass was way more impressive inside. We were able to walk all the way around the chapel. It sits at the top of the campus. I was very shocked at how dirty the surrounding grounds were. There was only one small quad that had pansies and dogwoods in it. The grass was non-existent else where on campus. There was trash in all of the shrubbery and a lack of pruned or maintained shrubs everywhere. We all commented on it at different occasions.  We were shocked because Duke is an old established Ivy league school, it is very expensive as well.

 

Duke's campus makes up for its lack of maintained lawns and overall lushness is made up with by these beautifully impressive and inspiring buildings. I am still a Tar-Heel or NC State fan, but it was neat to visit the enemy!

                                                  Awesome patterns and stone detail!

The Dog is Too Happy

 This is my beautiful baby girl Kuma. She is a 7 year old American Akita. She is an extremely happy dog, as you can tell. She has a very large grassy green yard that is fenced in to run around in all day. She is all white and some how manages to keep herself very clean. She licks her self the way cats do. Its crazy. I personally have never given her a bath. My Hubby has probably 5 times. The spring weather has made her the happiest dog alive. She makes me the happiest Mama! She loves for me to take pictures of her. It generally takes Hubby standing behind me doing stupid things in order to get her to smile like this. She loves when everyone is together. She has been enjoying the recent family visits. She knew that my sister was at the door before I did. Kuma your Mama loves ya!

Sunny Days

We have had some beautiful days in NC lately. This is is a shot of Hubby and I sitting in the new part of the backyard. It was a sunny warm day, but the wind was a little crazy. I sat in the grass for awhile. he joined me. I love this shot because as we sat there talking I was taking incognito shots. We both look so happy to be sitting in the sun.  Grey sweatshirts and black sunglasses. The trees behind us are so bare and windblown. The sky so blue with whispy white clouds.

My house only gets sun on the front door for about hour. I never seem to be home for this  occasion. Today I was there! Such a cute color scheme with detail on the porch.

When the new fence in the yard went up, I just about had a serious heart failure. I looked out the laundry room window and thought this beautiful treasure had been cut down. Just one limb was lopped off, to my relief. Another tree is growing in it as well. I am unsure of the other type of tree. I know what this one tree is for many reasons. It is a Camellia.  This is a particular variety that I am not familiar with. My Grandmother, Nana, has many variety in her yard. However, they are not like mine. A more typically variety was planted at my Mom's family plot. Unfortunately, someone was allowed to cut that tree down. Possibly, the angst behind seeing chopped one in my yard.  My mom has one in her yard now. So does my Dad. I have to say the ones at my Nana's house are huge 15 ft bushes and there must be 4 varieties  that have impressively different blooms. They bloom at different times during the chilly weather with multiple shades. I am in heaven, I have never seen a Camellia tree that blooms like this! It is an amazing display!

Camellias are dripping off of this tiny tree. I love how it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.

While sitting in the yard I asked Hubby to pull this out of the ground. It is says that it is a Seltzer Drug Bottle. I think that there must be 6 more buried in the base of the pecan tree. The bottles are small, no bigger than my hand. My yard is even more like Alice in Wonderland. Bottles in the bottom of trees.

Vintage Buttons and Turtles

I have a nice collection of vintage buttons and earrings all were my great-aunts. I have always wanted to glue some to posts for earrings. I pulled out a few choice sets of buttons. I used E-6000 that is the best clear glue ever. I am letting them sit for a day. I stuck sewing pins through the button holes on the back so that I might add a dangle bead or something.  I am thinking this is a good thing to sell on etsy. I have to figure out what to do with the collection of turtles. My mom is a turtle lover, but I am not so sure that she would go for that many of them.  I'll see what happens. I will show off the button earrings soon too!

First Project from B-day fabric

This was the first project that I have created from the fabric that I bought. The flowers match every single hand bag that I own. Obviously, I love the colors in this fabric. The brick looking fabric is part of the new Amy Butler, Central Park group.  I was starting to ruin my glasses by dropping my keys down on them. Hopefully this will protect them. I made it slightly too small, but it still works. Next time I'll know better.

My Birthday Gifts

My Birthday was last week. I got some great gifts. Mainly because I bought most of them for myself. My hubby did give me a Kaffe quilt book that is Amazing! Many bonus points to him for remembering that hint!

I also went to the fabric store and bought myself a heck of a lot of fabric that I have been wanting. This is only part of it. I think that I went a little nuts. I found a new shop to go to. So I took my day off and treated myself to a Whole Foods breakfast bar on the way. I found the fabric store in the middle of a construction nightmare, but it was totally worth walking through the super crazy scaffolding around the building. I almost teared up when I was greeted with a southern hello, I felt like I was home. The lady in this store was awesome! Much much better than the other stores and my experiences with folks that work in fabric stores. She knew what she was doing, helping me pair the fabrics. Oh the racks of Moda were all so beautiful, which I never get see in person before I buy. I spent over two hours in the small store, soo much to take in. I am so pleased that I have found this spot. I have a few projects in mind. I will share soon.

Sewing room

This is my office/ sewing room. I am sitting on a futon on the other side of the room. I made the desk out of a solid wood door and PVC legs. Believe me it is one heavy/ sturdy sewing table. I have a large self healing mat at the left end. The self is sitting on recycled milk crates. I recently bought the letter press tray at the NC state flea market for $5. I love it for showing off all the antique sewing notions I have. I have many painted glass jars holding crafting goodies. I also have put to use my blue jean boxes and pin cushion. The shiny black filing cabinet is super duper heavy and sturdy. My dad saved it for me from the neighbors and repainted it for me. I love it. It holds a ton. All of the pencil artwork was done by a friend/ old roommate. I have lots more of his artwork. I have enjoyed having this space to sprawl out and create in. I have huge bins of fabric under the table. I generally have a ironing board set up where the chair is. I just got awesome lighting to help me out on these dark dripping winter days!

New Recycled Bag

I am lucky to have three days off this week. I have been trying to make a few of these recycled bags. I use blue jeans mostly to make the bags.  In this case I used a pair of super heavy duty Abercrombie and Fitch khaki. They were mine in high school, they have super deep pockets, which is perfect for this project. The had one small stain on the knee, but other wise in perfect condition. I think that was the only part of the pants that I didn't use. I generally reserve the long leg panels to make recycled bowls.  I love this Amy Butler lotus fabric, it was the perfect complement to the light khaki. Here are a few shots of the progression of making the pants into the bag. In this case the leg pieces were used as panels around the Amy Butler fabric. I will show you the finished product soon!

Valentines

I have always enjoyed Valentines Day. Mostly because it is right around my birthday. I have many Valentines themed birthday celebrations. I started hand making my valentines for family a couple of years ago. I love these mostly because I am using up thing I have at home. When I got married we made our own  wedding invitations. We ordered too many beautifully lined envelopes. I purposely made the cards to fit in these envelopes because they seem romantic to me. All of the scrap-booking, construction, card-stock paper I have had stored away for awhile. Most I simply folded in half and cut hearts in the middle. I use the cut out heart on the next valentine. I wrote my message on the back in a washable marker. The prisma colors bleed through too much.