Slowing Down......

Christmas was Christmas.... always nice, but it's done and put away.  Jim and Violet in a moment of "cuteness".

We spent the holiday afternoon at what I consider our church..... our local Nature Center.  It has the most lovely wooded hiking trails.........

 

As for inside activites...........

The hedge apple rug slowly is progressing.............. and............

socks are coming together.  One down, and one to go.  I love this slowing down of time that post holiday winter brings......... sigh...........

xo

dulcy

Anniversary..............

Wednesday was our nine year anniversary! Jim and I have actually been together in one form or another for over 22 years.  I first met him when he came over to photograph myself and the ex for some family Christmas portraits almost 30 years ago (my mom still has one).  I was fairly happily married at the time, but remember thinking "Wow... if I wasn't taken, I'd be after that guy for sure!!"  Well.... the marriage went south eventually, but our paths did not cross for a couple more years after that.  We ran into each other one evening while I was out with a girlfriend, and over the next few days, a couple of mutual friends called to see if I was available.  Apparently Jim had checked around first before giving me a call.  One of the best parts of our relationship is my absorption into an instant family with two children.  They are lovely adults now, and we now have two grandchildren from Jim's son Erin.  We spent part of our anniversary hiking with our MOST AWESOME grandson Graham.

Later in the day, Graham's sister Ava came by.  She's an adorable bit of a tomboy (which I love).

 

We spent the evening, alone, at our favorite restaurant.  It was a very nice anniversary indeed..........

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

xo

dulcy

HOBO Project #2

I dug out 2 sweaters that I've had for years and never wear.  The white cable is one I bought during my, now in the distant past, teacher life.  I felt I needed it to wear on Monday's when we had to wear the most horrid vest for our Character Ed. program.  I hated Mondays because I hated having to think about wearing that vest!  That may sound silly, but you know how Monday's can be, and having to wear something you don't like on top of the Monday crazies was not fun for me.  The other flowered number is a glass of wine, credit card, late night visit to the Anthropologie website.  I love Anthropologie, but this sweater and I never made friends..........

I did a bit of combining, patching, and finally soaking in left-over coffee and vanilla caramel teabags.

 

I also stretched the heck out of it before I let it dry on the drying rack.  The sash was from the Anthropologie sweater which I sewed along the bottom.  Then used various pieces of left-over wool for patches.

xo

dulcy

Jessy Gets Her Grey On!

My "can't get enough of her" gal pal, Jessy,  has embarked on a fabulous new hair adventure!  She has decided to cut the dye, and invite her beautiful grey locks to grow in and shine.  This growing in of natural color can be quite a challenge.  Jessy decided to strip her current color, and go soft to let her silver and grey come in as naturally as possible.

We spent three hours of friendship and champagne while anxiously waiting the result of Jessy's superb hair colorist, Pam's, magic to do it's thing.

It's hard to tell in this shot, but the results is a super soft light color with bits of silver coming through.  There is grey coming in at the top, which will blend nicely over time.  I told Jessy, "Get used to people staring at your grey roots and streaks."  I don't know why, but letting silver shine tends to be a bit disconcerting for some.  Jessy has gorgeous blue eyes, and a wonderful pale complexion with tiny pretty freckles.  She is, and will be even more gorgeous when all her fabulous silver shines!

xo
dulcy

My "At The Moment" Fav Rug!

I'm so loving hooking my Hedge Apple rug!  I love the colors, the wonky shape, and the simplicity of the design.  Not my usual small stuff with tons of details, which makes for a relaxing meditative sort of project.

xo
dulcy

Check Out Luvvly Jubbly!!

I'm just so excited these days!  I guess it's because I'm so loving this time of life.  I've been hooking, knitting, and working with my pastels.... all so rewarding (sigh...).  But I'm way excited to introduce you to a smashing new blog created by my gorgeous and talented girlfriend Jessy .  Her blog is called Luvvly Jubbly and it's my first stop everyday.  Jessy is one of these fascinating people that's been in my radar for years.  Both our hubby's are photographers, we both attend indie movies, we are both the same age, we both art and craft, we both are retired, and...... well you get the picture.  So I would like you to meet Jessy!

Jessy has the most wonderful talent for recreating just about anything from thrifted items, and things found around the house.  She shares all these wonderful ideas on her blog with very detailed instructions, so we can all be more creative, thrifty, and have fun!  One of my favs are her HOBO tights.

I mean really...... how sweet and hoboie are these?!  We met for coffee the other day and she had on these....

Jessy made these cuties from men's pj's.  I LOVE them!

She also hobos up her sweaters.  This one is adorable.

Jessy was so sweet to share some of her scrappy hobo fabric remnants with me, so...... I worked a bit on an old blazer that's been hanging in the closet for way too many years without being worn.  It was part of my old life as a teacher.  I bought it because it's wool and nice and warm for recess duty, but it was always a bit too stern for me.  I softened it up a bit.

I used some nice brown velvet (Jesse has at least two new creations from this velvet... it started out as a shower curtain) and old antique paisley.  I ripped and added the blue cotton scarf because I love the blue against the brown.

I finished it off by removing the three tiny boring brown buttons from the sleeves and adding some fun vintage ones from my button collection.

And... there's a very cute patch on one elbow that I forgot to get in the shot, but it's the same fabric as my little handkerchief sticking out of the pocket.  The best part is having something brand new, fun, and spending zero $$!!

Well, I'm off to dig out my old cotton tights, some wool scraps, the sewing kit, and make myself some snuggly hobo tights!

Stay warm, create, and have fun!

xo
dulcy

Bits of This n' That

Golly.... sorry to have taken so long between posts.  I guess seasonal activities and an annoying fluy kind of cold set me back a bit.  Hubby and I had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday in Chicago.  Nothing says the holidays like being in downtown Chicago on the day after Thanksgiving.  Below is a shot of us in front of the Robie House, a Franky Lloyd Wright home that we toured.

Next is a photo of the reason we were up there, my lovely and talented step-daughter, Lily 
and our fabulous son-in-law, Jesse.

 

 Oh, and poochies, Joanie and Louie.

 A few glimpses of downtown Chicago...

Yes, it's wall to wall humanity, but when you're just there to soak up the people, art, culture, and.... when there's no car parks to deal with (we rode the train), it's simply fabulous!!

I don't know about you, but whenever I travel, I can't wait to get home and start creating and crafting!!  The stimulation of travel always gets my juices flowing and gives me an extra jolt of adrenaline, not unlike a trip to Starbucks.

I've been hooking quite a bit, and hedge apple rug traveled with me to the big city.  I love working with these colors, and am anxious to start the border.  I'm not completely sure how the border design is going to play out, but I'm envisioning it as a completely different design than the rug, using colors that compliment and pop.

If you read my previous post, you may remember my pitiful whine about knitting sock toes.  I mean, for someone who has knitted a dozen pairs of socks, you'd think I'd have it down cold.  Well.... bloggy friend Dag from Sheep On A Spring came to my rescue.  She emailed directions for a brand new way to do my sock toes.  No more pointy ends, or confusing kitchner stitches for me.  Since I was sick and slightly dopey at the time, this did take more than one email to get me straightened out.  But Dag was so patient with my drug induced confusion, and once the first toe was done I had it down to a socky toe art.  Now, I'm knitting yet another pair, because I got this wonderful self-striping yarn on sale and needed some socks in black and white.

Cute, cute, cute!

I found this nice variegated Noro wool from Japan.  I'm knitting this twirly scarf for a Christmas gift exchange that my book club is having.  Such pretty colors......

  Lastly..... thanks for staying with me...... I've been working on a seasonal pastel.  I copied a photo in an old British Country Living..... the absolute best magazine I know of for lovely photos and articles that make me happy.  It's American sister mag doesn't even begin to compete. The pastel's not quite finished, and has been a bit of a challenge, but I'm almost there.

I'm sorry if I haven't been by and left a comment at your blog.  Hopefully, this week I'll pop by at some point and check in.

OH....... one more picture of our new little sweetie, Violet.

 

xo

dulcy