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.

Photo Walk for Kathryn

I have a friend that is enjoying some sunny early Fall weather in New Zealand. Even though it's been cloudy and rainy for weeks here, Kathryn encouraged me to get out for a walk today before the downpours started again.

She challenged me to go for a walk and send her photos of what I see along the way.

Well! Challenge accepted! These are some of the pictures I took before my camera's battery was drained. They're are only lightly edited.

Daffodils poppin' up all over town

Hyacinths have barely broken ground

Neighbors are starting to make their yards look spiffy

A cascade of white

Trees in full bloom

Only as big as my thumbnail

What's his story? He lives on the edge of the wetlands.

Skies to the west get rather dramatic

We live along a flight path. Love to watch the planes!

Color on color on color

Wetlands reflections

It's pretty muddy out there!

Another Thrift Haul

It's been a couple months since I browsed a thrift store, so I gave myself a treat yesterday and headed out to one I haven't been to since last year. I did have a couple specific things in mind to purchase, and I got lucky with one of them.

I wanted to find a 12" x 12" binder so that as I learn my advanced sewing techniques, I can put samples all together for reference. I found this binder right away. It's actually one of those "magnetic page" photo albums that are quite bad for photographs because it discolors them. But it's just right for my purpose because I only need the binder, not the pages.

I found this pack of unopened sewing machine needles for woven fabrics. They're always good to have on hand.

Then I found an unopened bag of cotton balls. Good. I was going to need some more by the end of the month.

The red fabric is very unusual. It's pliable, but metallic, it's vinyl-ish on one side, and cloth-ish on the other. It's very, very shiny and catches the light beautifully. I'm not sure what I'll use it for, but it feels like Christmas. It's very intriguing and gets my imagination going.

Then I found some fabric for counted cross-stitch. There are two pieces of folded aida yardage by Craftways. It retails for $25.00. I got this plus some floss for just over $7.00.

There is a tube of 15" x 18" aida that retails for $10.34 that I picked up for $3.

There's a roll of 15" x 18" raw linen and another of antique white linen that retails for $18.39 each. I bought them for about $2.50 each.

Here's the bag of 36 skeins of Craftways floss and a couple project floss organizers. They were in the package with the aida yardage. The floss retails for $.40 each. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the floss since I rarely use off-brands. I'm sort of a DMC/Anchor/Gentle Arts snob when it comes to embroidery fibers.

You'd think that the cross-stitch fabrics would be the find of the day, but I found something even more amazing. 

It's another Pashmina! If you recall, I found my first Pashmina in January for just under $10.

This scarf/wrap is 70% Pashmina (cashmere) and 30% silk! The tag said it was an astounding $5.99.

BUT because it was a yellow tag it was on sale. Between the sale price and my senior discount, I bought a Pashmina - worth between $150 and $200 - for $3.00!!!!!

Altogether I spent a bit over $25 for everything. What a haul!