Maple Leaf Brooches

A quick little update everyone.  Mom is doing well.  Not sure yet if she'll be home today or tomorrow.  As soon as I know, I'll post another update.  I'd like to thank everyone who left comments wishing mom well.  I will read all of your messages to mom when she gets home and settled.

As for me, I'm starting to think that 37 1/2 milligrams of Zoloft is a little too low. But I'm stubborn as a mule and will try to ride it out.  I certainly won't ask my Dr. to decrease it again, at least until after the holidays.  Geez, it's been almost 2 years now.  I'm really disappointed that the depression from the breakdown isn't gone yet but at least I know where I'm at with it.  So, still taking one day at a time.  I do think my eyes have stopped jumping as I can comfortably read now.  I can really tell though, that this is still here.  Maybe it'll be gone by Spring.

In other news, Kathi has made some beautiful needle felted leaf brooches:

These are in the shop now.  She also made some Oak Leaf Brooches.  I'll add them to the shop later today.

Finally for today, Angel Brooches with Roses:

These were for a custom order.  I may do a few of these for the shop for Valentine's Day.  I just love those little angels!

Update On Mom

The surgery went well and mom is doing fine. She was all excited about your messages and can't wait for me to read them to her when she gets home.  I'll keep you posted.  Due to mom's Bi-Polar, they want to keep her an extra day so she'll be home on Thursday.

I've not been feeling good the past few days.  Withdrawals I think.  This is getting old.  Anyway, I want to write a Crazy Quilting For Newbies post.  If I feel better later today, I'll get that up for you.

Fiber In The Park - Earlville, Illinois

Kathi and I drove about 1 1/2 hours south yesterday to the Fiber In The Park fiber show in Earlville, Illinois.  It was a gray, rainy and very dreary day but perfect for us little chipmunks who are diligently stocking up for Winter!  LOL!!!

So what's a fiber show you ask?  It's a gathering of vendors who produce a variety of supplies for spinners, weavers, needle-felters, knitters and mixed media artists.

Wool, alpaca, mohair, angora and other natural fibers are featured at these shows.  Here are my goody's from yesterday:

I'm rather fond of hand-dyed sheep curls also known as "Noils".    I bought quite a few last week at the Jefferson, WI show but of course, I had to have a few more!

I also picked up some Angelina Fibers which I'll talk about in future posts.  Oh, I have so many things that I can share with you!

Anyway, I picked up some mohair and as you can see, some specialty fibers which I like to use on just about everything I make!

So what do I do with all these things?  Well, if you look closely at this cuff bracelet that I made, you can see how I use some these things:

I'll explain further in a future post but for now, I just wanted to share my goody's!

Here are the links to a few of the vendors that I purchased items from. 

First, Esther's Place is where I bought some Angelina Fibers and the large cards of misc. yarns.  Esther's Place is located in Big Rock, Illinois and offers all sorts of wonderful supplies & classes!

Kitty Grrlz Knits & Spins offers gorgeous Hand Spun yarns & hand knits.  I bought the little bag of specialty fibers from Bobbi-Jean.  Beautiful yarns in that little bag!

KnitSpin Fibers and Yarns offers Handpainted Home Spun Yarns & rovings.  Kathi picked up some beautiful roving from this vendor.

It was a small show compared to the Jefferson, WI show last weekend but as you can see, it didn't stop me from finding some nice supplies for my projects!

Kathi packed a healthy lunch for us which I we ate in the car and then we headed back.  We stopped in DeKalb on the way back for "ladies room" break.  Little did we know we'd find some wonderful little shops there to look in!  After a Hot Chocolate at a nice little Coffee House, we roamed the antique shop and specialty shops on Lincoln Hwy in downtown DeKalb.  I picked up these little sweeties:

The little painted pictures are vintage and from the antique shop there.  I paid $6 for them and plan to use them in my Guest Room when I repaint it.  It'll be pink.  Are you surprised?  LOL!!!

I bought the little cat doll in another shop there.  It's made of vintage fabric from Japan!  I just fell in love with this little guy!

When we arrived back at my house, we sat and looked through our new stash and had an iced tea.  The perfect end to a lovely day.

Autumn Fiber Art Cuff Bracelets

The newest additions to my little corner of Etsy:

Lots of different fabrics, beads and embellishments.  I have got to make some more of these!  I can see them for all the different holidays and with a huge variety of themes.

I used elastic inside so there's no fiddling with fasteners.  They stay put!

In other news, I've been asked by several of my readers to do some articles on Crazy Quilting For Newbies.  Gladly!  I'll start on that series in the next week or so.  I've been working diligently at mom's on a variety of projects and haven't had time for much stitching lately.  But I'm itching to get back to it and I can most definitely feel the need for some down time.  Quiet, sit on my butt and stitch time!  Just me, my cats & my TV.

I'll be taking my laptop over to mom's today so she can write her Creatively Coping With Bi-Polar article.  I'll upload that as soon as we have it ready.

Tomorrow, Kathi and I are going to another fiber show.  I haven't used anything that I bought at the fiber show last week!  But Kathi and I look at this way, we're like chipmunks stocking up for Winter!  LOL!!!

Autumn Decor

First, I would like to take a moment to say thank you to my sweet friend, Allison Aller for being my guest blogger yesterday.  I hope everyone enjoyed meeting Allie and seeing her gorgeous Place Quilts.  Allie is the queen of landscape crazy quilting and I so much appreciate her willingness to be my guest.

I've been quite busy with my projects lately.  I tend to start a bunch of different things in a bunch of different mediums, both here at my house as well as at Mom's!  So for today, I'll share my latest in Autumn Decor!

This is my Crow On A Pumpkin centerpiece:

And my Harvest Cornucopia centerpiece for Thanksgiving:

I've been experimenting with soft, muted and understated colors.  I love the bright colors of Autumn but am finding that soft colors are more soothing to me.  Definitely cottage in style and tone!

Kathi has been playing with her collection of roving and other needle-felting supplies.  We've been to 2 fiber shows this Summer and are going to another on Saturday.  Here are her latest Autumn Home Decor projects:

Check out her hand-felted leaves!  Those are gorgeous!!!!  And I love how she added a tiny black spider to them.  I have a 3rd one here but haven't done the photos yet.

My Autumn Cuff Bracelets are done so I'll try to have photos of those for you tomorrow.  I'm so pleased with how they came out!  I used elastic in them so not buttons or other fasteners to mess with!  Stop back to see them.

I'll leave you with a photo of a tiny visitor to my home last night.  I went out on the front porch for a few minutes before I went to bed and found this precious little creature sitting on my window frame:

If you've never seen one before, this is a Praying Mantis.  They're totally harmless and usually rather elusive.  I was so thrilled to see one that I had to grab my camera and capture his visit!