Happy Valentine's Day!

Mary Engelbreit, artist

Happy Valentine's Day! It is snowing and blowing outside our windows on this Valentine's Day. It is a perfect time to curl up on the sofa with good books, a few dogs, and a cat cuddled with us.  Actually, we now have two cats! Last week, Lucy joined the family.

She has been an outdoor cat for her entire six months and today is her first snowstorm experienced in a warm home! AllieCat is starting to get used to the idea that she isn't an only cat. The growls and hissings have been replaced by more friendly meowing by both of the felines. This afternoon, we will continue the supervised introductions in anticipation of having one big happy family by the end of the month.

Valentine's Day especially appeals to me since I love hearts and can display them all at once for one day even though I collect them all year.

They don't have to be red hearts to please me.  The tiny delicate china heart above  is pure white. 

Paulie and I each own collections of magazines and enjoy browsing through past issues in the appropriate month of their publication. Ads and articles from the 1980s and 1990s are still fun to look at and read, giving us new ideas or reminding us of favorites as if they were only read yesterday!

Last week, I took advantage of several quiet afternoons and made a few hearts for the holiday.  These have been small enough to complete in a few hours. Expanding our horizons, Paulette and I  set up  her Featherweight on her dining room table and we sewed our first hearts.

We have started to meld our favorite crafts of knitting, sewing, embroidery, cross stitch, needlepoint, and collecting! An afternoon of tea, chatting, and crafting is fast becoming a daily tradition. I say afternoon because we both feel the need to justify such a luxury by first running errands, balancing checkbooks, cleaning kitchens and so forth! When we each feel we've done enough, or can't seem to face another task, we reward ourselves with time spent crafting together. We've not strayed from our houses, however, due to certain recent constraints:

                                                                                       

Yes, Paulette made a few too many trips up and down to the attic putting away Christmas decorations and ended up with a stress fracture  and must spend six to eight weeks in a cast!  I bet you wouldn't think that our recent activities would pose any risk of a fall for her. In fact, I've been spending more time at Paulette's in order to save her from slipping on snowy and icy sidewalks. Yet, yesterday afternoon, as we packed up sewing accessories, she slipped and skidded across the wooden dining room floor, just barely managing to keep herself upright! Neither of us could imagine what caused the sudden slip. I looked at her cast and discovered a large shiny button stuck to the bottom! Yes, most accidents occur at home, but, felled by a button????????? This could be a first.

Ron's Valentine's Day gift to me is a Trollbead heart fashioned from two silver porpoises and filled with two aquamarine glass beads. Paulette received a beautiful Trollbead heart and bead from Bob, too.

One of my favorite artist/authors is Susan Branch. Many of her drawings include hearts. Equally charming is artist/author, Mary Engelbreit. Both authors feature charming lifestyles of crafts, comfy homes, and loving friends and family. Susan Branch Blog - 9 hours ago

Check out Susan's Valentine's Day blog, above,  to see what I'm talking about! And if you have time, here is the website for Mary Engelbreit.  http://www.maryengelbreit.com.  Both have distinctive handwriting which I admire. My sweet friend, June, who passed away earlier this year, had handwriting that I loved, too. I thought I hadn't saved anything of hers and so I was so happy to discover a Valentine from her in my box of decorations!

Some of you who know me well will be very shocked to hear this, but, I am planning to make some cut out heart cookies this afternoon, complete with pink sugar icing. My favorite cookie recipe is my Mom's. From what I can determine, the special ingredient is nutmeg. I'm sure she won't mind if I pass this along so that you, too, can try these.

Bev's Cutout Cookies

Preheat oven to 375

2 cups sugar

5 cups flour

2 eggs   til stiff (I think she is referring to the eggs, 

I hope, or maybe this is referring to the entire mixture?)

1 cup butter

1 cup sour cream

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

Bake for 8-10 minutes

I confess I don't actually have an icing recipe, so, if you have one you can recommend, I'd be happy to have it! I hope you have a super romantic Valentine's Day 2015. Love, Lulubell

Spinning with Kate

 Kate enjoys her first outdoor spinning day with anticipation of some new yarn to tangle. I don't think she understands that it takes awhile for the fiber to turn into yarn! BFF, Paulette, joined me in the outdoor  adventure in my backyard. While it is only mid March, we are enjoying weather in the 80's this week! The white fiber is being spun to use as needlework yarn for the sheep painting visible on the patio table. I'm not sure I can spin fine enough yet to ply and still fit the yarn through the canvas, but, I'm pressing ahead as if it will work out perfectly.

 Featured below is my growing wheel collection. The MajaCraft Susie Pro is on the left. Ashford Traveler (my first wheel) is in the center and the wheel on the right is the Ashford Joy.Soon the Pocket Wheel will be added. Most people name their wheels, but, I have never been really comfortable with naming objects such as cars, houses, etc. Another collection that you can see part of is sewing tables, flanking the wheels on each side. This is only two of many.Now, mind you, I don't sew, but, I can't resist purchasing old sewing boxes, especially if they still have sewing notions inside.

 Back to the spinning. Featured below is part of my yarn stash. Oh, and another sewing table! I can say that I do not need to generate any yarn via spinning as I have enough yarn for ever. S.A.B.L.E. which, as many of you know, stands for (Yarn)stash acquired beyond life expectancy. Sometimes I'm not sure if I collect the yarn in order to justify buying a lovely cabinet, or if I buy the cabinet because of the lovely yarn. In any case, I like to think of it as ART.

I'm not showing you the drawers of my dressers and my closet that is stuffed with yarn. It would just be too much for you. You can see the partial collection of sheep paintings and stuffed sheep in the photo above. I have lots more. I'm not sure if I could be classified as a hoarder. I wouldn't even say this is clutter, would you? I will say I am uncomfortable owning just one of anything, tho. What is that all about? I'm married to a collector of WWII air memorabilia. Books, pins, art, movies, watches, medals, models, and so on. It's a really good thing that we live in big house in order to contain our collections. Together, we collect any and all dog related items, art, books, figurines, trophies, collars, etc. Would you say 3 dogs is a collection or a pack?  What do you collect and do you need to justify your collections to yourself or someone else or what?