Well – just because I “can” finish an embroidered block in a weekend, doesn’t mean I always will.

After Dave and I got the ginormous dresser up the stairs and I spent the rest of the day cleaning the room, I had zero energy to do much that night. We popped out for some Chinese between snow squalls, and then came home where I vegged in my chair until bedtime, while Dave watched fail videos on Youtube on the TV.

Sunday I had a bit more energy so after a finishing the room, and cooking a light dinner (chicken fajitas!), Burton and I got comfy and I started the next block.

I managed to get the stems and leaves of the centre flowers done before it was time to call it a night.

Those side flowers will go pretty quick… and then it’s onto the French Knots. This kit REALLY loves the French Knots!

Like it was for many of you, this past weekend was a good one to stay inside. The snow started Saturday morning and continued on and off into Sunday night.

You may recall that I had plans to get that giant dresser into my studio and get things organized. I was hoping Freya’s dad would be able to help Dave get it up the stairs. Dave and I can move furniture together, but given our disparity in height (I’m 5’7″, he’s 6’1″), and vast difference in strength, it’s a struggle for us. Especially when stairs are involved. Sadly, Freya’s Dad wasn’t available… so if I wanted to get into my studio any time in the near future, we had to suck it up.

It was a bit of a two-ring circus act, but we managed it with only minimal damage to walls (which are walls we have to re-do anyway).

Once it was in there, it was all on me to get the room cleaned up and everything put away and organized. Well.. me and the Ginger Mister…

Because you know he was in there, making sure I didn’t take his scratcher/observation seat out of the room.

In the end, it was a two-day job to get (almost) everything where it belonged.

There are still a couple piles of things on the cutting table I need to find homes for, some scraps that need to be cut up and filed into their appropriate boxes, and a basket of clothes that need repair/modifications… but I can get in and move around again. There are no more baskets and bins piled up in front of the closet (so I can get to the yarn stash when needed), and there’s room to set up the big ironing board when needed (I have been setting that up in the bedroom across the hall.)

I wasn’t able to get rid of all the bins, but I was able to tuck them back out of the way. And just look at this organization in those drawers.

From the other pics, you might be able to get a sense of just how big this dresser is… but I think this one really drives it home!

I can just see the top of it. It’s huge! And I’m so happy with it.

But now that everything is in there and tucked away nicely… there is one small problem?

What do Burton and I do with our basket collection now???

I’m not even close to finishing my current embroidery project. For a quick refresher, it was a kit from Missouri Star Quilt called Ingrid’s Wildflowers.

Well the other week the jerks over there came up with another kit that’s even more up my alley!

Bird, bugs AND flowers???? How could I not get it????

Like the first kit, this one comes with everything you need but the fabric.(They sell that too, but it’s a seperate cost) I especially like the needle minder. I’m adding to my collection!

My only complaint with the kits is that the colours they use a bit bold and bright. I’d prefer something more subtle.

So… I bought a bunch of different colours to give me lots of options

Of course, I can’t even think about starting this one any time soon.

Oh… and while I was ordering, this cute thing came along for the ride…

And adorable mini-quilt holder. You know… so I can make mini-quilts in my copious spare time!

Time for another thrifting adventure story. There’s a Goodwill in Strathroy, but we don’t go there as often as we do the other stores. It’s fairly small and is often very busy. But we stopped in there the other week and I immediately spied something magnificent.

If you follow any thrifting pages, you may be familiar with these Persian cats. Like my mushroom canisters, they were part of the paint your own ceramics craze of the 70s and 80s. There are several sizes and styles. You most often see them in white, but I’ve seen them done in a Blue Mountain Pottery glaze. And on the internet, I’ve seen them in all colours and coats. I, of course, have been looking for a black one… for obvious reasons…

I’ve seen pictures of black ones online, but never come across one in the flesh…er fur. When I spotted this one, I told Dave all of the above, and that I wanted one in black. His comment was, “well you can repaint it”

I said no, it wouldn’t look the same.. and I took a picture, came home and posted it in one of my Facebook groups where people share cool thrifting finds whether they actually bought the item or left it behind for someone else.

I also included the story of how I was on the hunt for a black one. SEVERAL people commented that there were no black ones – that all the ones you see online have been repainted. Several people shared ones they had repainted themselves. And of course, that got me second guessing myself.

Well, the next day, Dave was headed into Strathroy and before he left, he asked me if I needed anything. I asked him to stop by Goodwill and see if that darn cat was still there. He just laughed said “Of course”

I honestly didn’t think it would still be there. It was only$5, and if you know anything about those darn cats, like the mushroom canisters, they can sometimes go for silly prices.

But… he came home about an hour and a half later, prize in hand! So this spring, his Lordship and I have a a little art project.

Hopefully we can make it just as majestic as he is, in all his ebony glory!

Oh, my darlings, how you swoon,

Beneath my gaze, like the silver moon.

Fluffy, regal, bold, and grand,

You adore me—how well I understand!

Your hearts race when I appear,

My purrs, like music, draw you near.

With every strut, each perfect pose,

Your love for me eternally grows.

So on this day of hearts so true,

I bask in all your love for you—

Or wait, was it for me instead?

(Quite right, adore me more, I said!)

Now send your tributes, warm and sweet,

For I am purrfection—love on four feet.

Happy Valentines day from LBB

I was wallowing in misery the other day, because one of the gardening pages I follow on Facebook, which is based in Britain, was showing off all the beautiful flower emerging there.

But my garden STILL looks like this:

Now, the snow has been exceptionally beautiful this year. Every time it starts to melt and get gross and dirty looking, we get a fresh snow making it all clean and sparkly again. In fact, we’re getting another good storm today.

But I miss my flowers!!!!

That said, when I was out filling my feeders the other day, I did notice come catkins on my pussywillows!

And I am absolutely thrilled! Except for one thing. Those are my PINK pussywillows. And they don’t exactly look pink do they???

For reference, this is what they’ve looked like in previous year.

Now, you can see this year’s catkins are only just getting started, so maybe they will turn more pink? I hope so. I can’t find anything on the internet about pink pussywillows losing their colour.

I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on these and keep you posted!

As promised, I got to the heel of the pink sock!

In fact, I perservered and got through the heel and set-up the gusset. But…. I have to put it away for a short time.

The kitty-cat hat reached my friend’s daughter…

And while it was a big hit, and absolutely adorable, it’s clearly too big! So I’m going to whip up a smaller one and send it off. Hopefully I can get it in the mail by the weekend. It’s a knit that goes pretty fast, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

As suspected, I can complete a whole embroidery block in a weekend if I put my mind to it!

Block number #6 was done over Saturday and Sunday night – French Knots and all! I can’t show you this one with the pattern dissolved, and all ironed out because – as you saw yesterday, the studio is in total disarray. So you get to see it still in the hoop and that will have to do for now.

There’s 14 more blocks, and if I can keep this pace up, I could have them all done and ready to sew into a quilt, by mid-May!

I don’t have any sewing to show you this week, as my weekend got all discombobulated. It actually all started the weekend before. My sewing machine was being fussy, so I texted Mom and asked if she’d be able to pop out at some point and take a look at her. At the very least, the machine was due for a tune up, and Mom’s a pro at that. (Though I am good at keeping it oiled and cleaned).

Mom said she’s probably be able to come out the following weekend (meaning this past weekend). I decided, since she was coming, I should probably get the studio into some sort of semblance of tidy. I’ve been tripping over baskets filled with fabric for months, and it was driving me crazy.

So last week, on our travels, I got some smaller totes to pack everything into. I didn’t get to actually cleaning before Mom arrived. But while she was fiddling with the machine, I worked around her, and tried to organize the yardage into bins.

As expected, Mom got the machine purring like a kitten and went on her way. After she left, I planned to finish cleaning the room, but Dave kept bugging me to go out and pick up one of his prescriptions. Really – he just wanted to go thrifting.

So I left my poor room looking like this…

And off we went.

In Strathroy, we stopped in at our favourite Used store (it’s like a privately run, smaller version of the ReStore) and something caught my eye…

The pictures don’t really show it’s size… it’s HUGE. I can just see the top of it, and I’m 5’7″. At first, while intrigued, I wasn’t really thinking about buying it. For some reason, I just wanted to open the drawers and see if they opened smoothly. (They did)

As soon as I did, Dave came over and said “What are you thinking?”

And though it wasn’t really my intention when I first looked at it, I replied… “That could fit A LOT of fabric.”

He looked it over and concluded it was very well made – in fact, we’re pretty sure it’s homemade. I did some quick calculations, and decided I could probably fit it in the far corner where my shelves currently are. And being that it’s deeper and taller than the shelves, it should be able to hold all those content and maybe even most of the stuff I have in bins.

For $250 (which includes the cost of delivery) it seemed like a no brainer. It will be delivered on Wednesday and I’m soooo excited.

For now, all the stuff on the shelves is packed away in these bins

So it’s got to hold all of that… and hopefully.

All the stuff in these bins too.

I think it’s up to the job! And will look so nice doing it too!

There hasn’t been much bird-watching this winter… it’s been too cold for me to sit out there with the camera very long.

But, I’ve been keeping the feeders full for my feathered friends. From my office, I can get an idea of who’s stopping by, as they frequently take a break in the tree outside my window on the way to and from the feeders.

It’s mostly the usual suspects, the Jays, the cardinals, the juncos and the house sparrows. But the other day, when taking a break from my day job, I was looking out the back window that over looks the catio yard and the feeders just beyond. And there I spied a couple newcomers.

I got the camera an zoomed in

At first, I thought it was a Chipping Sparrow. We had lots of Chipping Sparrows at the townhouse, and while I’ve heard them around here (they have a fairly distinct call), I’ve never seen one. But this guy seemed a little bigger than I remember the Chipping Sparrows being. So, when I downloaded the pics, I ran them through Google Lens and discovered…

It’s an American Tree Sparrow! There are several small differences between it and the Chipping Sparrow (one being the size), but the easiest is the colour of the line from the eye. On the Tree Sparrow, it matches his cap, while the Chipping Sparrow’s is a dark brown/black.

And I wasn’t the only one happy to have a new customer at the restaurant….

No patron goes unnoticed here!