MyLuckyChicken

Some Totes

Just a quick picture of some finished totes with my mother's day flowers repackaged.

Busy Bee

This is a crazy time of year around here so the posting may get a little thin for a while. School ending is always INSANE.

Then there's birthday season,how is it possible that all the kids friends were born in the spring?

And of course, my up coming debut at the farmers market. I need to get better at mass producing.

This is a HUGE bee that was walking around on the porch.

I wish I could have put something else in the picture so you could get a good idea of size. Let's just say I ran back inside to get my camera, he's that big. It makes me happy to see so many bees in my heather with all the reports of hives being lost. I love the shadow of the wings. Magical little things bees.

Adding into all the craziness here is my garden project. My parents sent me some lovely baskets filled with live plants for mother's day and they will all go perfectly in the space. Here are some pictures of the progress, close ups but I'll post the real 'afters' when the whole thing is done.

bird feeder...

pincushion flower...

I'm planting it pretty tight...

In other parts of the yard, the phlox I transplanted last year during the fire, is doing very well!

yellow and purple, love that.

stitch, stitch, stitch...

I have been busy stitching up my little Market Totes for their June debut.

Vintage sheets and pillow cases waiting to become totes...

see Barbar in there, love him.

This vintage table cloth has already found a new life as totes. It kinda killed me to cut into it, but there were too many thread-bear spots to keep it for the table.

finished pictures coming soon!

This is... and some news

First, my This is for the week...

This is my favorite book.

It's a tiny image of When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant. It's my favorite children's book. The writing and imagery are beautiful and simple.

For my grown-up book selection, I had a harder time deciding. I go between

Emma by Jane Austen

and

In Search of Lost Time by Proust

Each very different from the other, but I am drawn to the way that both these authors have mastered the study of character.

and some news...

I've been invited to sell my little market bags at the Milton Farmers Market. So I've been busy sewing away. I'll be there 3 festival dates, the first one being June 26th. I have to say it's exciting and a little scary at the same time. I've got lots of little details to figure out and it is a little overwhelming right now, but I just try to do a bit every night and I'm sure things will fall into place.

It's been vacation week  here and the weather has kindly cooperated and acted like spring. Really beautiful, dry and sunny and perfect. I got a lot of gardening in, and my little patio garden is coming along nicely. Unfortunately it just looks like little green clumps right now. So until I have lovely blooms to show, here are some of the flowers that are coming up in other parts of the yard...

The yard sale season has begun and with it my first find.

A little bench for the basement/playroom. We've been looking for a small couch for the playroom and this will work out nicely I think. This is the before picture. I've since cleaned it up and it  is awaiting proper placement downstairs.

The Garden

Even though the spring is being stubborn about arriving, or maybe because it is, I have picked my focus for the garden improvements this year.

We have a little patio area off the side door, between the house and the garage. It is just big enough to hold a little cafe set and being between the house and garage it is quite cozy. Or at least it has the potential to be.

There is a small patch of what could become a cute little garden and a fence at the back. In the grand scheme of things, the fence will be removed but it will stay there for this year.

The patio is brick and there is a large Rose of Sharon at the back right corner. I'll take an awful before picture tomorrow. That way the remodel will look even better. It gets afternoon sun and it can get really hot there.

So here are some things I am thinking about...

water feature (solar powered, of course)

Coreopsis along the house, to match those along the front walk.

A cafe set?

or maybe just some comfy chairs?

There is a chiminea there now and it's really just awful. The idea is that we can have a little fire and a glass of wine out there at night, so how about a small fire house?

accent lights

I haven't decided what to plant in the way of flowers. I prefer perennials, except that there should be some Zinnias to carry over the Zinnia garden theme that is close by.

So that's it so far. I'd love to hear what you think and if you've got any suggestions!

This is... and more

Apologies for posting this late again. I just got a new mac book (that also runs windows, how cool is that?) and I am getting used to it.

The This is meme theme this week (thanks to Three Buttons for hosting this super fun game!)

This is my Knick Knack / Jewelry Box

I didn't pull things out for the photo. This is what it usually looks like on the bathroom counter. Mostly because there is too much stuff in it for me to see anything and I can hardly close the top anymore.

It's about 5"x3", made from  some sort of acrylic. It's got little fish  on it. My dad bought it as a present for my first apartment.

Saturday we had our kid free weekend, so of course I went to a thrift store ,which just happens to be across the street from our favorite Indian food place. We got the lunch buffet, had an actual grownup uninterrupted conversation, and then headed over.

This is a giant thrift store in Boston and it got pretty good reviews on yelp. I did find some good things, some sheets and Pyrex, but over all wasn't too impressed. I would go again if we were out for Indian food, but I wouldn't make a special trip.

I've gotten in some sewing time this weekend too. I started with this old bar towel and a piece of my quilt top.

I ended up with a cute market bag and another little bag to keep it in. I'll have to get some pictures tomorrow. Spring is coming and with it the good light!!!

Tagged!

I was tagged forever ago by Julie at Red Hen Studios and I am only now getting to answering. Lately I feel like I am running about 2 days behind the rest of the world. I think there must be sun spots or something playing with the universe. And where did March go anyway? geeze.

Ok, back to the tag.

It's the 6 things about me tag.

Here we go...

The rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you. (above)                                                                                                            2. Post the rules on your blog. (check)
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. (below)
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (see below)                                                                                                                                                                                            5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Ok, Here are the 6 things about me:

1. I am really shy and sometimes people think I am snobby instead. This can be a bit of a problem.

2. In undergrad I worked as a clothes tester where I did experiments on clothes and then wrote the care labels. 'Machine wash warm, with like colors.' - that's me. This began my deep knowledge about and love of doing laundry which has only recently began to wane.

3. I have a ridiculously expensive coffee maker that I was talked into buying with a gift card we got as a house warming present and now I drink environment destroying single serve coffee every day. It's my one vice and I am keeping it.

4. My parents are taking both boys this weekend for an overnight and it will be our first time with out kids overnight in over 5 years.

5. My spelling in English is atrocious! Sometimes the spell check can't even figure out what I am trying to write. Oddly, it is much better in French.

6. In real life I am a math teacher/coach (which means I work with teachers on math stuff). I've never written about that before because I want this blog to be about who I am outside of work.

My 6 taggees:

Ok I am bad at tagging, let's do this. If you would like to play consider yourself tagged, let me know and I'll post a link here.

And because I can't have a post without a picutre, another Buddy photo...

I was tagged forever ago by Julie at Red Hen Studios and I am only now getting to answering. Lately I feel like I am running about 2 days behind the rest of the world. I think there must be sun spots or something playing with the universe. And where did March go anyway? geeze.

Ok, back to the tag.

It's the 6 things about me tag.

Here we go...

The rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you. (above)                                                                                                            2. Post the rules on your blog. (check)
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. (below)
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (see below)                                                                                                                                                                                            5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Ok, Here are the 6 things about me:

1. I am really shy and sometimes people think I am snobby instead. This can be a bit of a problem.

2. In undergrad I worked as a clothes tester where I did experiments on clothes and then wrote the care labels. 'Machine wash warm, with like colors.' - that's me. This began my deep knowledge about and love of doing laundry which has only recently began to wane.

3. I have a ridiculously expensive coffee maker that I was talked into buying with a gift card we got as a house warming present and now I drink environment destroying single serve coffee every day. It's my one vice and I am keeping it.

4. My parents are taking both boys this weekend for an overnight and it will be our first time with out kids overnight in over 5 years.

5. My spelling in English is atrocious! Sometimes the spell check can't even figure out what I am trying to write. Oddly, it is much better in French.

6. In real life I am a math teacher/coach (which means I work with teachers on math stuff). I've never written about that before because I want this blog to be about who I am outside of work.

My 6 taggees:

Ok I am bad at tagging, let's do this. If you would like to play consider yourself tagged, let me know and I'll post a link here.

And because I can't have a post without a picutre, another Buddy photo...

This is..., and some updates

This is...

I've got 2 This is posts to catch up on today.

This is my demon. So it's not as serious as some of the posts I've read for this theme but it is the thing that is always hanging over my head.

My laundry.

It's always in a huge pile in the hall. There is a basket under there but it's quite buried. I try to catch up, but it never seems to happen. Whenever I sit down to read, sew, or just relax, there is a little nagging voice saying; "You should be doing laundry". I used to really enjoy it, and now that the weather is getting nicer and I can hang it out on the line, maybe  I will again. but right now, it just ugh.

So that's kind of a downer. On to lighter fare...

This is the contents of my purse...

First the purse before being dumped,

and all dumped out.

What's in there??

a kids hat

my gloves

some trucks and an alien for emergency use

water

my cell phone

a sketch book

emergency oyster crackers

a diaper bag I made

my money/card holder from Sewing Stars , it says, "I'm Lucky"

summer camp info

and my new rotary cutter from Martha :) , I got it today with a 1/2 off coupon, love that.

and a pencil and sketch book holder I made a a birthday present for one of Bubba's friends. I was carrying it around trying to find the perfect book to fit it and I think I did.

Some close up pictures.

This was pretty fun to make and guess what? I used interfacing! A first for me, so I am all kinds of proud of myself.

I was looking through my pictures and I found this one.

It's my Dotee Doll I made a while ago. She has been at her new home for sometime, but I realized I never posted a picture. I still think they are oddly cute, but I've got some major bag sewing to do.

I asked about possibly selling my market totes at a local farmers market this summer. This is huge for me because I am super shy and  the idea of talking to people about my work is difficult to say the least. So I just got an email and they would like to see a few samples before they ok my little stand. Exciting and scary at the same time. I've got s few bags here, but if they say yes, I've got to get busy!

Some fairly random photos...

my crocus are up

the first, but not so pretty, laundry on the line this Spring

and Buddy says hi!

Not So Much

There's not so much going on here. Visitors over the holiday and now 2 sick boys are preventing much creating or blogging. So here are some things I am thinking about while tending my feverish little ones...

1. all matchy, 2. Pencil Roll - Inside, 3. Vintage Aprons & Vintage Chairs, 4. Strange colours!

This is...

This is, first of all my 100th post! I can't believe I have written that much, but it must be true. Thanks to every one who has been reading, commenting, and supporting my efforts at crafting, gardening, and tiding up my life. It's been super fun and I think it's going to get even better!

This week's meme theme, suggested by Betty the Geek is...

This is My Creation

Since I tend to blog about every thing I make, here is a view of my most important creations. They are playing windmills.

I am so blessed.