Rustic Recycled Wrapping Paper

I'm back to recycling Amazon's packing paper. Last time, it was all hearts in different patterns. 

This time I added flowers

stars

butteflies 

and happy faces

They're pretty cute when all piled together as wrapped gifts.

I added stickers to each package for an extra dash of fun for our granddaughter.

On the Pond

The geese were majestic as they glided across the pond.

I don't play with black & white photos often, but I appreciate the ripples on the water here.

Among the Magnolias

... this delicate cedar frond.

The light was so pretty that morning at the magnolia arboretum.

Daffodils!

We planted late ... they decided to grow anyway!

The first two bloomed by the front porch this morning. Several more are about to bust.

Lookin' bright on a rainy day.

Green / Orange Crochet Purse

The second crochet purse that I finished on Saturday reminds me of Easter ... or maybe ice cream or sherbet. It's primarily a soft green with a melon-colored stripe and flower. I'll donate it to Bags of Love along with the purse I shared yesterday. I hope to make and donate a dozen by the end of the year.

I used color-on-color for this flower: an orange flower with orange button center. I added an orange stripe to the edge of the handle as well.

For the lining I used a scrap of solid orange fabric that is heavily textured. 

For my next crochet project, I plan to make a purse that looks like an owl. It's for one of my grandkids. I hope to get it finished for her birthday. Wish me luck. I don't enjoy working to deadlines anymore, but I'll give it a go anyway.

Whoooo do you guess that it's for?

Blue / Purple Crochet Purse

I finished two more purses for Bags of Love yesterday. These are made with a "sport" or "baby weight" yarn. To make the stitches look proportional to the weight of the yarn, I used a smaller crochet hook. So these two purses are smaller than previous versions of my crochet purses. The finished size is 5.75" wide x 4.5" high. This size might be better for a 3-5 year old than for a 6-8 year old.

I found a blue button in my stash that was just the right shade of blue, and just the right size for the center of the flower. I incorporated some of the purple into the handle as a finishing touch.

I made the yarn closure loop a bit too long to wrap around the flower correctly, so I made a design decision to knot it close to the edge of the purse. I really like that detail! Mistakes become design choices. 

The inside is lined with some Frozen fabric, bringing the blue and purple together on the inside and the outside. Sweet.

The second purse reminds me of Easter due to the pastel colors. I'll share that tomorrow.

To learn more about Bags of Love, follow the link above.

Cherry Blossoms

Trees are flowering all over town. These cherry blossoms popped at Golden Gardens park.

Ruff Park Magnolias - 3

 Delicate details.

Morning Stretch

The turtles of Golden Gardens ponds are basking in the morning sun.

On our walk yesterday, Dale and I did, too.

Ruff Park Magnolias - 2

 Morning meditation reminder:

Look for the Small Wonders

Amen

Ruff Park Magnolias - 1

 

Sunday Secret

I still read PostSecret every week. I haven't re-posted one of Frank's postcards here on my blog in a long time ... but this secret from today speaks to me. (Those faces though!)

Part of being happy is choosing to be happy.

Another part is protecting my boundaries.

Friends and Flowers - 1

I started my next counted cross-stitch project last week. It's a kit from 1997 from the Suzy's Zoo collection. It seems like a pleasant Spring project. The finished size is 5" x 7". 

Instead of using the bright green picture frame that came in the kit, I plan to make the completed stitching into another pillow cover.

Bonus: there are even hearts on the watering can! 

Junction City Pond

Beautiful day on the pond.

Photo straight out of camera, unedited.

Red-on-Red

The rhododendrons are coming into season.

This single bloom, rescued from the pavement on my morning walk, came home with me.

Abby's Cache I

Jodie and I have begun to place a series of geocaches called Abby's Cache. We got the idea from a man in Post Falls who placed hundreds of caches in the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene area in the name of his granddaughter, Caitlyn. We've placed three caches for Abby so far, but two of them already were "muggled." They disappeared.

So a couple weeks ago Jodie and Abby and I returned to Eastgate Woodlands to replace Abby's Cache I.

The cache is hiding in a tree (not this stump) in the woodlands that border the Willamette River.

It was a cloudy day, and the river was running swift and high. It felt good to walk in a park between rain showers.

Nearby, the wildflowers were just starting to bloom, as well as some daffodils.

This flower grew alone from a single bulb at the base of a huge pine. Unusual!

Now that Abby's Cache I has a new home that's more secure than the original placement, we hope many geocachers will seek it out and exchange treasure.

Sailing

 ♫  If the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility ...  ♫

I found this painted rock under a magnolia tree at Ruff Park yesterday. 

... many magnolia photos to come.

p.s. This makes me itch to paint rocks again!

Signs of Spring: Magnolia

The magnolia tree in our neighbor's front yard is in full bloom. Magnolias are such odd ducks - all limbs with flowers hanging out at the end of each branch. No leaves at this time of year.

With all the rain we've been having, the flowers don't quite know what to do. Some are in bud.

Some are in curly full bloom.

Some are strewn on the ground like a white carpet. 

All are finding a way to survive in the rain.

When I see this tree in bloom, I know it's time to drive to the magnolia arboretum in Springfield. That sounds like a delightful outing for our upcoming Tuesday Travels.

Bustling Flower Market

I needed a puzzle break, so chose this colorful 500 piece jigsaw. It was pretty fun to put together, so I didn't rush it. I took my time with it over 2 or 3 days.

I purchased it on a recent trip to Dollar Tree. 

The least pleasant feature of these little puzzles is that the full image is quite small on the back of the box. So I usually take a picture of it on my phone, and magnify it to identify the details.

I like how multicultural this scene is along with the way the perspective is as if I'm in a flower stall looking through bundles fresh blooms onto the scene of lots of people mingling and buying flowers.

Blossom Ornaments

Last week while putting my thrifted craft supplies away, I got inspired to start some new projects. That often happens when I "pet my stash." In a spurt of activity on Wednesday, I prepared a papercraft, two letters, a jigsaw puzzle, and a counted cross-stitch piece. I've finished/mailed the letters, completed the jigsaw puzzle, and created this papercraft. So I guess it's time to blog about them.

Now that I've tucked away the St. Patrick's Day decorations for the year, I'll decorate for Spring for a couple weeks before I add in the Easter decor. Each year I like to add one more handcrafted item to the decorations. I chose to make some new ornaments for our lighted tree in the entryway. Here's what I pulled together:

The base is created with a 1-1/2 inch scalloped hole punch

and this pink parchment cardstock. Fun fact, this cardstock in my stash is left over from the wedding invitations Dale and I made nearly 34 years ago! I keep the good-sized scraps left over from making greeting cards.

It's easiest to place the paper in the punch correctly if I hold the punch upside down.

I decided to make 20 little double-sided ornaments.

I used a 1/8" hole punch for the hanging ribbon.

These paper flowers from Dollar Tree were in my sticker stash. I used four colors in two designs. 

When I went to stick the flowers to the pink bases, I learned that these flowers are not stickers. So I grabbed some pop-dot 2-sided foam adhesives to adhere the pieces together. I put a white flower on one side of the ornaments, and a pink flower on the other.

Those pop-dots give the ornaments an extra 3-D effect.

I pulled these two shades of pink ribbon from my stash. I didn't have enough of the dusty pink narrow ribbon, so I used the brighter pink ribbon on the last four ornaments. I'll admit that tying the knot with these short strands took a bit of patience. But the shorter loops look best on the tree.

A-n-d ... Here they are in place. So sweet.

It's pure joy to craft when the idea in my head comes together simply and easily. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.