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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Little sheep

I am no great sewer but I have always loved to sew whether hand sewing or on a machine.
My mom taught me how and the only machines I have ever sewn
on were hers. I feel her watching over me when I sit
at the sewing table.
My friend Evi is a wonderful seamstress and she uses her talents
to make incredible dolls.

Evi's_16Valent Lunch2010

This sweet little girl was one my friend Kathleen scooped up for herself.
You can see more of Evi’s work

sheep 2


So why for heavens sake did I try to make this sheep for this very talented friend as a gift??
I have no real answer for that.
....maybe I liked the challenge of trying something that
I'd never done before. 
I did feel the pressure to make it good
but I tried not to keep that from stopping me.

I had gotten an email that Cathy Pendleton from Cheswick Company was having a
online sale soon so I thought I’d check it out when the time came.
Well by the time I remembered... 2 hours late....90% was already sold.
Uggh my fault.
So I started looking around her site and came across 
her esty shop and ebay store.


sheep

I thought….. that's awfully cute.
Maybe I’ll order the kit and not just the pattern.
I have a week  but I don’t want to run around trying to find this and that.
( though I’m a fabric hoarder)

It arrived right away and it was much easier then I thought.
I just read the instructions at first. 
Not sure why I didn’t jump right in because once I started it went pretty well.
Now it was totally my fault but I messed up twice. Ok 3 times.
I sewed the belly in the exact place you were not suppose to sew.
I thought, ok now I have to pay attention.
But then I sewed the wrong sides together….twice!

The seam ripper and I are good friends.
 I have many! yet how many do you really need?

Could have helped if I didn’t start doing this at 11 at night also.

hearts

I think making the hearts and the little pin cushions was my favorite
parts and so satisfying when completed.

Now if I could make this anyone can.

It wasn’t perfect but I think Evi appreciated the effort. 
Cathy has a lot of great kits and patterns to pick from.

cat

A couple of years ago Cathy had a Christmas Open House
where Evi, Paula, Laura and Kathleen all attended.
I was working and couldn’t make it but met them back at
Paula’s.

elephant



owls


This owl family were what Evi took home with her.
I believe these are made of vintage mohair.



sheep

too cute.

cathy doll


This is a doll Paula bought years ago from Cathy who resides in one of the bedrooms.

DSC_0149


I believe there is a pattern to make her too.

So do you sew???
Do you make dolls or little fabric animals?
I found it a lot of fun and when I’m not in the midst of spring planting and all things
“Greenhouse” like I am right now I will tackle another project.

……this quote keeps running thru my head.

                                                                              "Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly."
                                                                                                                   Robert H Schuller

Friday, February 24, 2012

Ralph Loves D.A. too.

I was working on showing you a post of Cathy Pendletons sheep that I made but it seems her 
website is down 
so until then I thought I'd show you the Fall Collection from Ralph Lauren.

Guess what his theme was???

Yup you guessed it.

Hubby thinks I'm obsessed. 
Well who isn't?

Could you see yourself in any of these clothes?
I love it all 
...now I just need to grow another 8 inches so I can 
look as tall and leggy as the models..
and while I'm wishing age backwards
 and win the lottery so I could afford the clothes.















written by Verena von Pfetten 

When the first model at Ralph Lauren‘s fall show walked on to the runway to the dulcet sounds of the Downton Abbey theme song, our first thought was: how come no one thought of doing this earlier?
Most fashion weeks see no shortage of musical overlaps with songs, but the fact that the haunting piano notes of John Lunn‘s “Did I Make The Most Of Loving You?” managed to stay exclusive makes us wonder if Lauren didn’t send out some sort of all designer alert claiming the Downton theme for his own. If he did, he was smart. If he didn’t, he was lucky. Because it was a hit. Editors whooped; we grabbed the arm of our neigbor and stage whispered, “Ohmygod, it’s Downton!”
And it wasn’t just the music. The clothes took us to the fields of the Abbey for a hunt, into the drawing room for cigars and aperitifs, and on jaunty country drives courtesy of EdithLady Sybil would have been exceedingly proud of all the trousered suits while Mary could have singlehandedly saved the fate of the estate by wearing just one of Ralph’s molten gold metal gowns to meet a suitor.
And if you don’t watch Downton or know who any of these people are, that’s okay too. (Though you’re certainly missing out.) Because who better to offer a modern take on Edwardian garden styles than Ralph Lauren? And come fall, we have no doubt plenty of lucky ladies will agree.



Sunday, February 19, 2012

Newport, Downton Abbey and the Winner

Last October I visited Newport with my niece.
It had been 20 yrs since George and I were last there.
Things hadn't changed much.... that was a good thing
but the tour of The Breakers was much better then I remembered 
and it seemed like we were allowed to see more of the rooms 
then before.

gate

I can not watch Downton Abbey without thinking of this summer home of the Vanderbilts called the Breakers.
What an era that was.








side

close up

 

angel

front


                                                  elf  theater girl

                                                    mirror girlmusic boy


house

runners



runner

bike

view 2


rocks


cliffs


caution


house 2


view



side view



gate inside


rosa rugosa


The show is almost about to start and I don't want to 
miss a minute of it.....
the last episode of the season you know!

Oh, almost forgot to tell you the winner of the giveaway!

the winner is 


Congratulations 

and thank you to all who entered.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Love Day at Evi’s

One of my favorite days of the Winter Season is the day I come to Evi’s house
to celebrate Valentines Day with my favorite gal pals.
I always look forward to seeing how she's decorated the table.

dining t


table

Paula and I arrived a little late.
We got talking in the car and missed the turn.
Not a big deal but I didn’t have the time to take many photos of the house….

smelling roses

but we all took the time to smell the roses!
and there are still a lot of photos

roses
The perfect shade of blush pink.
C box
The table set with sweet gifts for all of us.

living room
The last time I was here the living room was decked out for Christmas and
now it was ready for Spring.
Evi changes out the pillow on the sofa’s often and are now a soft sage green floral.
Oh yeah, also the curtains are different.
Evi's_135Valent Lunch2010
(I just noticed that)
She switches them out with these red and white ones edged with pompoms.
She kept the birch planters on the mantel but
added the green pompom branches.

green pompoms

Aren't they cool?

bunny

Bunnies are one of Evi’s favorites.
bunnies

I have a soft spot for them too.
print

autographs

crown


It’s good to be Queen
and we are the queenettes.

ok maybe Ladies in Waiting.
You may ask what are we waiting for???

Soup of course.

soup


One of my most favorite soups….Cream Leek and Potato,
and Evi doesn’t wimp out on the cream…..she uses the good stuff.
I can diet later.
We then had a wonderful salad with heart of palm
which I dug right into and forgot to photograph.

shrimp

But I didn’t forget to take a picture of these shrimp kabobs with
papaya, pineapple and zucchini. It was complimented with Jasmine rice and roasted vegetables.
It made a beautifully colorful plate and most importantly

DELICIOUS.

cherry torte

Evi had wanted to try a torte from a
recipe book of famous German chefs given by her niece.

ch cake

Multi layered cake filled with cherries and edged
 in roasted almonds.
We all went nuts over it.
We all took some dessert home.
George ate it all the next day after he’d already
 eaten breakfast.
Left me a morsel!
said he was helping me diet!
thanks

chocolate cake

We were also treated with heart shaped chocolate cakes
with fresh raspberries.

Fantastic
mice

Little chocolate mice made with hersey kisses and fresh cherries.
So clever.

group

Then the presents came out!
Woo hoo

box

Evi decoupaged these cute boxes with script paper and filled them
with Toblerone candies.

package 2

and beautifully wrapped sweet little notepads.

bird
Laura gave us all a wonderful gift bag with a tin bird and covered

egg cup

egg cup holder from Pottery Barn.
Don’t you just love Pottery Barn?
Love soft boiled eggs!

self therapy

Debbie gave us a very needed self therapy notepad

merigues

and homemade pink meringues.
I ate them all by the next day : )
is that bad?
George never saw them.

bulb

Paula gave us an adorably decorated
tin pot of paperwhites

paper heart

and hand stitched paper heart tied with ribbon and filled with
homemade caramels from Gather in Ivoryton 
and antique crystals.
So clever!

sheep

I hadn’t taken any photos of what I had made for Evi
 until I was there.
It was a kit from Cathy Pendleton.
I’ll share more about it on another post.

hearts

Hope you all had as good a Valentines Day as all us girls did.
I feel so lucky to have such good friends in my life.

My only wish is that we could see each other more often.

Don’t worry we all went home to our
Sweeties that night !!!

Hugs

Carole