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.

This sweet little girl was one my friend Kathleen scooped up for herself.

You can see more of Evi’s work

HERE

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.

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.

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.

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.

This owl family were what Evi took home with her.

I believe these are made of vintage mohair.

too cute.

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

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

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.

Downton Abbey.

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.

via

via

Via 

via

via

via

written by Verena von Pfetten 

for  styleite

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 Edith. Lady 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.

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.

I can not watch Downton Abbey without thinking of this summer home of the Vanderbilts called the Breakers.

What an era that was.

via

via

 

                                                   

                                                   

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 

Theresa of 

The Old White House

Congratulations 

and thank you to all who entered.

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.

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….

but we all took the time to smell the roses!

and there are still a lot of photos

The perfect shade of blush pink.

The table set with sweet gifts for all of us.

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.

(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.

Aren't they cool?

Bunnies are one of Evi’s favorites.

I have a soft spot for them too.

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.

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.

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.

Evi had wanted to try a torte from a

recipe book of famous German chefs given by her niece.

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

We were also treated with heart shaped chocolate cakes

with fresh raspberries.

Fantastic

Little chocolate mice made with hersey kisses and fresh cherries.

So clever.

Then the presents came out!

Woo hoo

Evi decoupaged these cute boxes with script paper and filled them

with Toblerone candies.

and beautifully wrapped sweet little notepads.

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

egg cup holder from Pottery Barn.

Don’t you just love Pottery Barn?

Love soft boiled eggs!

Debbie gave us a very needed self therapy notepad

and homemade pink meringues.

I ate them all by the next day : )

is that bad?

George never saw them.

Paula gave us an adorably decorated

tin pot of paperwhites

and hand stitched paper heart tied with ribbon and filled with

homemade caramels from Gather in Ivoryton 

and antique crystals.

So clever!

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.

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