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!

When Dave and I go out thifting, we usually hit up a few other stores (like Home Depot, Walmart, Giant Tiger, etc.) And I ALWAYS look to see what house plants they have. Happily, I have soooo many houseplants that it’s rare that they have one I don’t.. so I don’t end up buying anything. But recently there were THREE exceptions.

First…

I found this lovely little Juniper Bonsai. We have another Bonsai (a Ficus) and we adore it. The nice one is, this one can stay outside in the winter… so eventually it won’t be house plant at all.

The next was a plant I’ve seen on my British Gardening shows, but never in real life

It’s a Primula. And it’s a little more purple than this one appears in the picture. The jury is out on whether I will be able to keep it alive, as I struggle with most blooming house plants (Orchids and African Violets being the exception – though there have been plenty of failures in those arenas along the way).

The last is an orchid. And I wasn’t really planning on buying any more orchids. I already have 12… two of those are in bloom and two are about to bloom. But then I saw this one at Walmart.

Not only was it covered in flowers… but look at that colour…

It’s the prettiest dusty yellow with just a touch of maroon on each petal. I’ve never seen anything quite like it! It just HAD to have it! (It helped that it was only $15, which is super reasonable for a two-stem orchid)

So…I guess now I have 13 orchids. Lucky 13!

Excuse me boys…. but where am I supposed to sit now????