Fabric Flowers and Searching for Spring

It finally feels like spring here! Hurray!!!

  The kids went coat-less outside after school today and now, hubby and I are enjoying the Toronto Blue Jays game on the TV with the windows open.  

Spring has sprung!!

Not to be outdone with nature's blossoms, my daughter Afton and I worked together on making a few fabric flowers to wear pinned to our outfits in the next few weeks.  

We followed THIS TUTORIAL and mixed together a variety of pink and yellow prints. We also modified the instructions for a couple of flowers to see how they would turn out.  

We LOVE them and have worn them out on several occasions with many a compliment ensuing!!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My husband, Kevin, is currently working on getting his Masters in Education.  He spends countless hours reading, researching and writing, on top of time spent teaching school and caring for our family.

  In order to give him some quiet "work" time, I try to take all three kids out on the weekends --- and everyone wins! Kevin gets his work done, and the rest of the family gets an adventure out and about!!

This past weekend we headed for a local nursery in search of spring --- flowers, ponds and wildlife!

Afton REALLY liked these planters, complete with their own birds!

She is a big fan of pink (as if you couldn't tell) and wanted one of these for our front door.  

Camden disagreed.  He prefers the yellow!

In the pond section of the nursery, Camden was gleeful to find a floating crocodile amongst the Koi.  

Bryn and Camden were both disappointed that there were no fish outside in the ponds yet.  Sorry boys - still too cold!!

Now let's be honest- the boys' FAVOURITE part of the nursery visit was this guy - a Frilled Lizard who seemed to be quite interested in the boys, too!

These are called English Daisies.  They come in 3 shades of pink.  I think I  NEED some!!

And who doesn't love an orchid??

Pansies by the table-full!

And PINK....

in every...

shape and shade!!

I'm looking forward to a weekend away.  I am taking the train to visit my sister in Ottawa for a few days.  Kid-free and obligation-free.  I couldn't ask for more!

Thanks for visiting!

Hourglass Table Topper

Happy beginning of the week!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

I had the most relaxing weekend I have had in weeks.  

I had not parties to plan,  no big dinners to prepare for and no parties to attend.  

It was low-key and relaxing.  

On several occasions I said to my husband, "I feel like I am wasting my time." All this free-time and nothing to show for it.  

He reminded me that is what "relaxing" is all about.  Rest, relaxation, no deadlines and no cares in the world.  

Wow.  I hadn't relaxed in so long that I had forgotten how to do it!!

I did sew for pleasure though.  My favourite colours, a new pattern and no time frame.

This is what I came up with:

I had pinned THIS TUTORIAL ages ago and really wanted to give it a try.  I am relatively new to patchwork and I really wanted to learn how it to do it RIGHT.  Allison Harris' step by step instructions are clear and easy to  follow.  Lots of tutorial pictures really help, too!

I used a charm pack of  "Coquette" by Moda Fabrics and paired it up with some crisp white.

I had hoped to use an aqua binding on the edge and  I bought a package of it at the fabric store in a nearby town. However, somewhere between paying for my purchase and arriving home, I LOST this binding and had to settle for the white I had in my craft stash.  Bummer. Oh well. The white looks good, too,  I guess.  

It's fairly small, but is the perfect size to settle in the centre of my dining room table.

Some lovely little birds came to visit.  

After they left, my latest bunch of tulips took over.  

Don't they look pretty with all those pretty pastel shades in the background? 

And speaking of flowers, I grabbed one little pot of runuculas at a local greenhouse today.

It amazes me that one plant can grow flowers in several different shades at the same time.  This plant had flowers in 2 shades of red and one in pink.

 Who know what the other 2 buds hold in store....

Thanks for popping by.  

Please make sure you are following me on Bloglovin'.  There is a link at the top of my blog.

Hugs to all!

A Springtime Mantel

Happy mid-week everyone! 

Thanks for stopping by my little part of blogland. 

 I am so happy to see so many new followers in the last few weeks. 

 And the comments - I read and cherish each and everyone, so thank-you for leaving them!!

Today I want to show you my.....

I took down my bunnies and Easter eggs yesterday and switched to more "seasonal" decor instead of holiday-oriented. 

I stuck with the pastel theme because, quite frankly, it makes me pretty darn happy!!   Who doesn't like a shot of pink on these early spring days??

Oh yes -- and flowers!  Lots of them!!

My youngest, who is 4, said I had a  "garden" on my mantel.  

Sounds good to me!!

I stole the birdhouse out of my daughter's bedroom.  It had been there for ages and I thought maybe it needed to be in the limelight for a few weeks.  

( In fact, the faux lavender is hers, too.  I wonder if she misses it? )

Are daisies a spring flower?  Probably not, but I like the different texture they add.  

The tulip votive holders are from Michaels.  A buck and a half each, I think.  

Hello pink hydrangeas!!  How I've missed you this winter.  

They are calling for a snowstorm tomorrow here in the Toronto area.

God help us, NO!!

I am SO ready for the tulips, daffodils and green buds of spring.

I guess I want the world to look like my mantel.

Is that too much to ask?? 

Olivia's Patchwork Pencil Case

Hello.  Welcome to a wonderful, new week!  

Sunshine is surrounding me- spring is here! The tulips and daffodils jumped out of the ground over the weekend, we dug out the bikes and I began some much-needed outdoor spring cleaning.

Yesterday was one of "those days" in our house.  Each of the kids needed to be somewhere (birthday parties) and I had to co-host a baby shower for my dearest and oldest friend.  Needless to say, I was busy with party prep.

Luckily my daughter had given me her specific request for her little girl-friend's birthday present a few weeks in advance.

Back in September I had whipped up this patchwork pencil case for my own daughter as she entered grade 1.

Apparently, this pretty pink bag garnered A LOT of attention from all the little girls in the class - especially a little lady named Olivia. 

So, for her 7th birthday, Olivia received her own patchwork case in her favourite shade of  sunshiney yellow!!  

I didn't own a lot of yellow fabric, so we journeyed to a nearby town and picked out a few pretty prints that were mostly yellow with hints of teal and pink.

The patchwork and machine quilting came together easily in one evening.  

According to my daughter, the pom-pom trim is the STAR of the pencil case so we added a row to Olivia's case.  

Ummm...and how about some ric-rac, too?  

Sure!!

Of course, you can't give an EMPTY pencil case, so we grabbed this yellow notebook .....

...and sparkly pencil crayons while on a recent trip to Michaels.  

Was my daughter pleased with how it turned out?  Oh I think so.  

And Olivia?  Apparently she squealed with joy when she opened it!!

Excellent - that is the exact reaction I was going for!!

(Sorry no pics of that!)

Here's a little pic of another little project I put together in the last few days.  Looking forward to showing you the rest of it in the coming days.  

And in other news....

Our youngest son, Camden (who is four) began riding his big boy bike this weekend.  Of course, he still needs training wheels, but he was up and down the sidewalk many times supported and encouraged by Daddy.  

He was SO proud!!

And we are, too!!

Thanks for visiting,

Inspiration for Afton's Room

 This is Afton.  She is my only daughter, born  in between her 2 brothers.

She is truly a girly-girl with a love of pink, ruffles, flowers, crafts and clothes.  

In other words -- she is JUST like her Mommy!

Four and half years ago, when we moved into our current home, Afton was barely 2 and had a great deal of difficulty understanding why we would move from our previous home when she loved it so much.  Weren't her pink bedroom walls lovely?  Hadn't Mommy made the most beautiful purple and white curtains?  And weren't  all of her favourite things nestled cozily onto her bed?? Why do we need to move?

The truth was, I was about to deliver her little brother and our 1500 square foot, 3 bedroom home was no longer big enough for our family.  

We were moving into a bigger, brighter home in a nearby town - the perfect place to raise our three little ones. 

But no 2 year old understands that.  She figured in  moving  she'd have to leave her pink walls, her lovely curtains and all of her toys behind.  She couldn't quite grasp that all of those things (well-except the  walls!) could come with us to our new home. 

And we had tears.

Lots of tears.

So when we took possession of the house one cold day in November 2008, the first thing I did was paint and decorate Afton's little purple bedroom.  I put up her curtains and placed her favourite bedding and toys on her bed.  And then - she was fine.  Moving wasn't so bad after all.   :)

This is how her room has looked for the last few years.  Of course, I have done some tweaking along the way, but generally  it's been pink and purple with a real vintage flair.  I have pieced it together for next to no $$$, buying all second hand furniture and sewing/knitting/painting everything myself.  

But now it's time for change.  The walls are scuffed and marked, the furniture need repainting and the curtain fabric is faded and stretched.  

I have "pinned" for months many images of the look we will try to achieve in Afton's new bedroom decor.   

(HERE is my Pintereset board if you are interested)

We've settled on pink and blue (so fresh and dreamy!), with the vintage vibe that both Afton and I love.  

Blue walls and pink curtains

A mix of hand-crafted art (made by she and I)

A big white desk for lots of craftin' action!

White bedding and a group of tissue flowers hanging from the ceiling.

Perhaps a stripe of colour around the top of the room,too.

And wall paper- one wall only - behind the bed.  

And ideally, we would love to have a bed still in its natural  wood-tone. 

I've done some shopping already and purchased this wallpaper.

Gorgeous, isn't it??

And I found this desk on Kijiji.  It's got plenty of space for homework and crafts.  I HATE the yellow pine colour but I hope to remedy that this weekend.  

(This is a "keep it real" picture. Afton has been craftin' up a storm here and there 's the mess to prove it!!)

And for above the desk, I purchased this wall-hanging shelf  to store all of her arts and crafts supplies.  

I am hoping to get started on some furniture painting this weekend. I also have a baby shower to prepare for, so painting will be mixed in with cupcake baking and tissue flower making.  

Hopefully I'll have a desk "after" to share early next week.

Til then, may the spring bring sunshine to your part of the world!