Birthdays

Even if we sometimes forget our own birthdays, thank God for friends and family who let us know that they are thinking about us on our special day..
I have a dear friend who writes me a poem every year for my birthday..For the past 7 years..
As a tribute and thank you, I decided to pair these poems to photos that I shot over the years...Someday I may have a book printed :-)

A short poem/quote that I wrote

Merry Christmas! May your New Year be adventurous and bright!

My wish for Christmas is simple...

I want the person reading this to be healthy happy and loved.

Wishing everybody who sees  this, snowflakes friendship and winter cheer!



Here is a precious Christmas poem I found on Facebook several years ago... Somebody had digitized and shared it...Poem was written by the author in 1953 to be given to his wife on Christmas day..

The Snowflake

*************

Hers had been a humble life.

Never at any time had she been or pretended to be anything but a little SNOWFLAKE.


But as she looked back she saw that she had been useful,


That always when she had been needed, she had been there to fulfill her purpose.


To have helped a little girl with red cap and red mittens to be in time for school was not to have been born in vain.


Even to have been a part of the nose of a snowman that made people laugh and forget their troubles was useful.


She saw that all her life she had been called upon to serve.


She had watered a wild flower,


sheltered a frog,


speeded a fish,


turned the miller's wheel,


put out a fire,


and held up the bows of the largest liner.


How thoughtful and tender,


how exquisitely beautiful,


careful and loving was the plan behind all that had happened to her from the very day she was born.


And she knew now that never,


not for one single,


solitary instant,


had she been forgotten or overlooked.....


MERRY CHRISTMAS...DARLING !!!!


Gallico, P. Snowflake. Garden City, NY. Doubleday and company, 1953.

Goodbye December

Goodbye lovely December 2015....
This year you have been rainy, foggy, sunny, hot, cold, sometimes all within the space of a day!

Crochet Fever

Yesterday I was consumed with crochet fever..I was so dizzy with the fever that I was spinning ..

Ornaments for the Christmas tree..3-4 inches in diameter..Yarn used in the off white centers and red border were hand spun by me :-)

A fun way to enjoy a gray day and make gifts for the Holiday Season :-)

****Click on link below to view the details about a scarf that I crocheted last evening  :-)****

Scarf that I crocheted last evening

Trellis Scarf 

Snowflake hand spun by me, made of camel top

Processing, spinning and making a project out of fiber

Something I just learned and I think is essential to know with knit or crochet :-)

Happy First Day of Winter

Winter is my spring..I feel more energetic and alive..I take frequent photowalks because it is less humid..I do crocheting, spinning and needle felting on the gray days of winter when I don't feel like venturing out of the house..

Not to mention, winter sunrises and sunsets are among the prettiest  :-))))

Better Late than Never

Finally, hints of fall..

Last week and this week have been fabulous for trail walking..

A few more days of sunshine, then  I'll be forced into weekend hibernation (El Nino Storm)...

Here is what early December looks like in my neck of the woods :-)

Spinning Yarn

This past week has sent me spinning...
Spinning yarn....
For the first time in my life...
Many fibers are suitable for spinning..Cotton, silk and wool are the first three fibers that come to my mind...
Being that I  already have wool roving on hand from my other projects, I thought that I would use it for my first attempts at spinning....As it turns out wool roving is excellent for beginners to spin with..

As you can see upper left,  this is what wool roving looks like before it is spun...This particular wool roving is a medium Coopworth, this color is the natural color

The white colored fiber (roving) is wool that comes from  Blue Faced Leicester sheep..The different colors are scraps of Merino wool that I added as I spun.

 I plan to weave my first yarns, in combination with other fibers to make a wall hanging  :-)

After the yarn is spun, I let it sit in very hot water(boiling - almost boiling) with wool soak for five minutes..
This sets the twist..
Then the yarn gets hung to dry :-)

Linking up with Currently Monday

A spindle that I made :-)

For a test project, I wanted to crochet something that was very quick to work up..Something that required very little yarn....I decided to crochet a snowflake / star Christmas ornament..This ornament is about 4 inches in diameter and FUZZY :-) The white yarn is bulky weight, the colored yarn is normal weight..This  snowflake will decorate a package full of my handmade goodies that I am gifting a loved one for Christmas..I plan to crochet several more of these snowflakes to give to friends and family members to hang on their Christmas trees..

Yarn hand spun by me

A bulky yarn hand spun by me

This snowflake/star crocheted from commercial acrylic yarn

crocheted from commercial acrylic yarn

Hand spun and crocheted by me