Spring Fling Goodness

Yesterday, I received my Pink & Green Spring Fling Swap goodies from my swap partner, Heidi! As you can see, she made me one of her felted sweater bags and it is SWEET!

S: Stitched table runner (& a paper tablecloth)
P: Purse (handmade from thrifted/felted sweater)
R: Ribbon (with cute spring motif)
I: Interesting apron made from a towel
N: Nice storage containers
G: Gum ( in pink & green, no less)

Thank you for all my wonderful goodies, Heidi! I cannot wait to use my new purse...it is way too cute!

The Bird Cage

I really need to post more often...I've been meaning to share this creation from my last floral design class for almost 2 weeks. The class is over now :( It was an enormous amount of fun and more inspiring than I imagined it would be!

I have had this birdcage hanging about for over a year and figured if I was going to make an arrangement in it that I'd better do it while I still had an instructor to pester should it all go horribly wrong! And yes, it's a crazy mish-mash of many elements. Again, I wish my pictures were better.

In other news, I delivered 2 commissioned arrangements this week which was very exciting for me! Both customers seemed very pleased and one asked for business cards to give to her friends who she was sure would want new arrangements of their own!!!

I probably worry too much when making commissioned pieces...there's always the fear that the customer will hate the arrangement. It hasn't happened yet, thankfully, probably because I ask A LOT of questions up front to make sure I understand what they are looking for. Still, you never know....

I joined the Spring Fling Swap hosted by Rebecca & Lucy at Sweet Goodness Swaps and just found out that my swap friend is Heidi. If you haven't checked out her blog yet, you should!
I confess that I have lurked on her blog many times in the past and am delighted she is my swap buddy! Lucy has a sense of humor to pair a knitiot (that would be me) with the Spiritual Knitter herself...oh, the irony! Heidi, rest assured that I won't knit anything for you...at this juncture whatever I attempt to make turns out looking like mangled kitty toys :) But, I'm learning!

Pink & Brown Goodness

Oh stop, wait a minute Mr. Postman......

My pink & brown goodie box arrived Friday, full of swappy goodness! My buddy was Claire over at Little Lovelies and she took good care of me :) I love, Love, LOVE the thrifted pink vase! Ever so cute! On the right is a "Twelve Days of Christmas" quilling kit she thrifted and although it's not pink or brown, I had told Claire I wanted to try quilling. She must be clairvoyant (no pun intended LOL) to send me that kit now... it will take me all year to make the ornaments for next Christmas! She also sent a huge pink & brown coffee mug...perfect as I'm a java junkie...lots of ribbon, chocolate, hair clips, scrapbooking embellishments, crafty cupcakes, a Valentine's heart garland, notecards and 2 of her adorable heart button ornaments! And she snuck some blue stuff in too...fabric with a star print and lots of buttons and other embellishments. Claire, I love my stuff! Thank you!!!!!!!!

On the left is a snap of what I sent to Claire. Beads, embroidery floss, hot chocolate, dark chocolate, balsam fir scented mug mats & hot pads, rubber duckies for her 2 sweet munchkins, a bookmark, a notepad, and a thrifted ceramic watering can.

This was my very first swap and I have to admit that I was nervous about it...wondering if I found and made the right stuff. In the end, I really enjoyed participating in this swap and seeing all the great things that everyone sent over at the Pink & Brown Flickr site! We are all marvelously talented!!!!!!

Winter Reverie

I've been given a nudge to update my blog...and to snap out of my winter reverie! I haven't been completely idle...been plugging away at my Pink & Brown crafty items for Claire :) I have to confess that the materials I chose also include blue and a little orange. The pink is not as prevalent as I had hoped when I started the project but there's no turning back now!

Lucy tagged me to go blog-surfing and find 5 blogs of interest by starting with the 5th blog on my list, going to the 5th blog on her list and so on.....I had to bend the rules a teensy bit and start with the 4th blog on my list. Here are all the fun places I visited!!!

Bitter Betty
Mommy Mosh Pit
Punk Rawk Purl
A Fistful of Stitches
Fresh Peth

I've also been out & about gathering up a variety of silk flowers for the commissioned piece I am making. Blues, mauves, creams, bamboo, orchids....I can't wait to get started on this one!

Time to get a Wiggle on!

It's high time I snapped out of my post-holiday daze....or as Mom used to tell me when I was a wee bairn, "Time's a-wastin', time to get a wiggle on!" (that still makes me giggle to myself when I think of it)

The Pink & Brown Swap is on! I've been out hunting goodies & visiting my swap partner's blog--Claire at Little Lovelies. What a cute blog! She describes herself as an equal opportunity crafter! Love it...sounds like me, I will try any craft if I think it looks interesting :)

This swap is exactly the kind of nudge I needed to get back to crafting. I have far too many WIPs and planned projects that I have yet to start! (and I know I'm not alone in that area...thanks to all of you confessed procrastinators for assuaging my guilt!) And it also looks like I have a floral arrangement customer as a result of the 2 Christmas floral raffles I did for my Mom's club! One of the ladies has asked that I come to her home to talk about a large Spring arrangement for her dining room! YAY! I've really been looking forward to creating Spring arrangements.

Okay, enough blogging...I must go get a wiggle on!