Little Baby Bunny Buttons

These are some buttons I have been collecting for baby garments.  I bought the bunny buttons about 7 years ago, when I was knitting this precious little jacket.

I know, right?

I borrowed this pic from the Yarnspiration website which offers the free pattern here.  Well, the baby I was knitting for was really not someone I knew very well, and so, when I didn't finish before baby was born, it got forgotten, and I think I just sent a card.  And so it languished.....

Recently, I pulled out my stash of baby yarn and I rediscovered the jacket pieces, waiting to be seamed, edged, buttoned and pomponed.  (What?  That's not a word?)

After the picture was taken, I found the missing sleeve.  Whew!  But I didn't find it before nearly finishing a new one I was whipping out with the leftover yarn. 

Now, here's where you come in....What? you say, What have I got to do with it? No way am I seaming that thing!

No, no, no. I've finished the seaming, I'm working on the edging and I need to make a decision and I need your help.  It's all about the buttons!

Now, look again at the pic above;  I had originally chosen the bunny buttons for this sweet little jacket.  But another set I really like is the little green flower buttons.  I must really like them because on Tuesday, I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics in Auburn on my way home from Stratton, to take a look at, among other things, little baby buttons.  See what I found?

 See anything familiar?  Yup.  I'm consistent.  I bought the same buttons twice.

 Here they are in a lousy picture made lousier by my amateur editing, but the point is that I have such cute ribbons that could be laced through matching bootees to wear with the jacket, either the gingham or the dots.

And here are the bunny buttons:

And now a quick peek of other little goodies I'm sending to sweet little Marie Rose.



Awaiting blocking and ribbons..

And if you read this post, you'll understand why I had to get this little outfit.

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment about which buttons look best....Thanks!!

Latest Projects, Part Two (and a teeny tiny announcement)

This is just a little beginning.  Poor Marie Rose has a Peek-a-Boo Sacque and Bootees, but no Bonnet to match!  And being a discriminating newborn, she no doubt wants her headwear to match her outfit.  I still haven't met her, but I hope to soon.  After all, it will be difficult to be Favorite Auntie if we don't get some bonding time in.

I am adapting another bonnet pattern to have the same stitch pattern as the Sacque and Bootees, and while this is relatively simple, it has its little challenges as well.

The real news is:

The Chiloquin Mani-Mitts are done!  I finished the right mani-mitt and decided that I had not only done it a little differently than the left one, but I had done it better.  So I had to take apart the left one, unravel almost half of it, and do it over!  I think it fits better now.  I was about to wrap them and send them on their way to Chiloquin, but guess what?  A.C. from Chiloquin is on her way here.  So much the better!  I look forward to a hug and a visit. 

 How cute is that little pincushion in the upper right hand corner?  It is vintage, and a homemade  craft.  Inside is a tin can of some sort, like tuna fish, maybe.  The lace edging is soft, like cotton, not stiff and scratchy, like the yucky nylon stuff you find now.  The bottom is covered with a round piece whip-stitched on by hand with neat, little stitches.

Well, now my teeny, tiny little announcement.  I am going to post the patterns I adapt on their own page. (See the tab above.)  In case anyone wants to give something they see here a try.  They will, of course be free, since I am entirely amateur, have no test-knitters or test-crocheters, and have no experience writing a pattern.  That being said, I will do my best, and welcome questions and critiques, deal?

Latest Projects, Part One

I have already missed 3 birthdays in early March.  Fortunately, everyone who knows and (presumably) loves me expects that.  I think I am going to sit down and make a simple little pair of handwarmers (wristwarmers/fingerless mitts/fingerless gloves?).

Aside:   Does anyone volunteer a neologism to make talking about this category of handwear easier?  We should have a contest....I'm entering "Mani-Mitts".  I just have to sell the idea on Ravelry to make pattern searches easier.)

So, one evening with a couple of hours of classic movie-watching ahead of me, I assess patterns on Ravelry, pick one that has the look I want, the weight of yarn I want to use, and beginning swatching the stitch pattern.  Before I know it, the movie is over, I have ripped out a few swatches, perhaps chosen another pattern, perhaps changed my yarn, googled some technical question on crochet, watched a YouTube video on "how to.....", sketched out some kind of stitch diagram, convinced myself that the pattern-writer's math is right/wrong.  Like Thomas Edison, I now know 200 materials that will not function as a light bulb filament, and I am sitting (figuratively) in the dark.  For the next few days I obsess, refine what I want, and make and rip out what is slowly becoming a prototype of an item which no longer resembles any of the patterns I consulted (except vaguely), and I have done enough groundwork to re-invent the wheel.  Side-tracked much?

This is what I ended up with.  One (so far) Chiloquin Mani-Mitt.  The giftee will know why I'm calling them Chiloquin. (Because that's where she's from and I like the name.)

As it stands now, I am about halfway done making the right mitt. That should only take me about 2 more hours, since I can just do it; all the thinking through is (mostly) done.  Whew!

But in all fairness, I want to acknowledge that my inspiration that got me started was Wendy Cozby's Pattern, which I found on Ravelry called Crochet Hand/Wrist Warmer.

The yarn is a little more green.  It is Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Seaspray.

And now, there are two more birthdays to catch up with.  And the April birthdays to get started with.

(That yarn is also Lion Brand Wool-Ease.)

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On another note, this is the view out my kitchen window.  Reminders of warmer weather.  Swings in the back, lacrosse net for shooting practice (on the right), fire pit in the foreground.

The picket fence on the left encloses the neighbor's back yard around the corner from our house.  The Y-shaped craggy tree at the end of the fence is an apple tree, one of the few left from when the neighbor's house was the only one around, and my yard was part of a saltwater farm apple orchard. (See pics of the farmhouse and barn and backyard in pics 11-13 of this post.)

This view shows a closer look of the apple tree and behind it, those golden shrub-sticks looking all barren will be forsythia!  I am reminded of this because I saw some forsythia blooming in the house of another blogger (in a warmer climate, obviously).  A few days ago, I saw and heard the most brilliant cardinal perched in the branches of the forsythia.  He's been singing his heart out the last few days, no doubt trying to find a lady love.  If Spring eeever gets here, I will get a good pic of that forsythia stand and share it here, (about the time the rest of you have moved on to the bloom of your roses, hydrangea, peonies, etc.).

More UFOs...or are they WIPs?

Here's a little embroidery project that is stalled out in the planning stages. I could never be a designer, because none of it comes naturally to me. It takes me a great deal of time and thinking to conceive a project, survey my available materials, assemble them in different combinations and make decisions! This was supposed to be so simple! All I wanted to do was stitch a little motif of lavender for a lavender-scented sachet. Remember this post, where I took such lovely lavender pictures as a little teaser?Since then, I tried finding embroidery motifs for stitching lavender plants or blossoms. I had no luck! I even found by looking at pictures of lavender blossoms and reading about the plant, that different species have different flowering patterns. By that I mean that the little purple flowering parts will be arranged in different ways on the stems. There really isn't a readily recognizable way to depict lavender, except with color, of course. The shape of the flowering parts is a little non-distinct and variable, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of lavender embroidery with a stitch associated with stitching lavender. I am not an experienced embroiderer, so I still don't know exactly how I'll stitch the little floral parts. I thought I was doing well to decide to stitch the stems with stem stitch. Too bad there isn't a lavender stitch. I had selected some colors to use from what I already had, and then on my Columbus Day gad-about, I made things more complicated by buying more violet shades!

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This cross-stitch project is something I started a few years ago, I can't remember why, and so I don't know why I put it away, either. I took it out again a few weeks ago, and have been working on it. When I took it out, all it had stitched on it was the beginning of the prayer, up through the word "hallowed". And so, I've been trying to stitch 15-30' each night. That is, up until one sunny day, I discovered that in the too-dim light I was using, I had stitched quite a lot in the wrong shade of green. I haven't made the decision yet whether to leave it, as it won't be too noticeable or pick it out (what a mess!) and re-do it, even though I don't love doing cross-stitch so much. It has gotten a bit more difficult as my eyes have gotten older. I've joined the ranks of forgetful older ladies who keep several pairs of readers all over, so I don't have to keep track of a single pair. It's kind of like discovering a subtle, but noticeable mistake in your knitting and not wanting to rip out several rows to correct it. So you keep working, trying to ignore it, and eventually you do rip it out and correct it, now having to rip out even more than if you'd just done it when you first discovered it. So, it's taking a little rest...until I have the patience to (and lighting....and glasses) to scrutinize my work against the pattern, and work out a rehab plan. Once I get through that phase, I'll be about 3/4 of the way to being finished, and then I can frame and hang it!But I don't think it'll be anytime soon, considering how exhausted and frustrated it makes me just to think about it! Obviously, I need to restore myself with a hot cuppa tea and some good eye candy!I just loooove the combination of light blue and bright red together with some dark shade of brown or taupe to ground it. And accented with the evergreen color, beeeaauutiful! See the Victorian Trading Co. catalog? It only encourages my desire to get a red or cranberry-colored winter coat.....Have you seen Jodie's red coat over at Can-Do Mom? A red coat also looks so crisp with a white or even ivory scarf, or hat (a beret!) and mittens.

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Maybe you remember this dresser scarf? I started it way back in January. At least this UFO was started in 2010. I was such a smarty-pants, I wanted to have it done by Valentine's Day, of 2010 that is. I committed my usual error in judgment, confidently assuming that I had enough cotton thread to finish my project. Never mind what the instructions say, since of course I'm not using the thread they recommend nor the same size crochet hook, and I certainly didn't check guage, since it's just a runner -- an inch or two or even more hardly matters at all. And besides the thread I need is easily obtained, right? Wrong! It was Southern Maid brand and no longer carried by the usual nearby stores. I have been to another store twice since then, which does still carry it - in at least three colors, and both times the bin for this ivory color has been empty! I could have ordered it online and paid twice what it cost just for the shipping. So on that Columbus Day shopping trip I bought two other brands hoping one would match. I can honestly tell you that I can't tell! The two balls of thread seem actually be made by the same company, and sold under two different brand labels. I just need to pick one and try it and see if the difference is really that noticeable.... It really is close to being done, I just need to do it.But what I'm really working on now is the sage green filet lace. I hadn't lost the hook after all. It was in the bottom of my purse, concealed by a fold in the lining. Oh my......

WIP? UFO? A decision each must face alone.....

I have a question for you. When is a project a WIP, and when is it a UFO? Just to be clear, generally crafters/needlewomen in the blog world refer to their projects as "Works in Progress" or WIPs when it is something they are picking up and working on regularly, moving forward and overcoming obstacles, anticipating completion within a foreseeable future. And the UFO (UnFinished Object) is a pathetic abandoned project, the victim of, what, apathy? An insurmountable obstacle? A missed gifting deadline? Often the symbol of dashed hopes, they languish in baskets, boxes, bags, typically out of sight and thankfully, out of mind.
I put it to you however that the no-man's-land between WIP and UFO is a highly personal territory. The defining borders between the two are individual not only to owner of the project, but also to the project itself. By definition a work-in-progress is unfinished, but to be relegated to the lower-class status of a UFO is a distinction each artist can make only for herself. Will she resist labelling a beloved project a UFO despite no discernable progress in days? weeks? months? Years? How long is too long an interval for a project to be "resting"?
Well, I'm going to explore this topic with my next few posts, while at the same time bringing forth my UFO/WIPs to the light of day. In some of my cases, I will re-commit myself to their completion. In others, I will admit defeat, and determine a more suitable fate than the purgatory of UFO.

Today I am spotlighting a project I introduced with this post, in which I proposed to select and create an edging to apply to a new set of sheets. It took me a little while, but I finally selected this edging: I found this Lily Filet Edging on a website, and the graph is a free download. The two photographs are copyrighted 1999 by Sandy Marshall. I hope I'm covered in using them by crediting her.
The link is here. I am enjoying doing this very much. I can't say that I am making rapid progress. Each repeat is about 4-3/4" or more. A queen size sheet is 90" wide. Since I am making my own sheet, I can make the sheet more or less than 90" as needed to fit an even number of repeats. I think I will need about 18-19 repeats.
As you can see here , I have almost 3 repeats. I'm also not sure how many more balls of crochet thread I'll need. Probably 2 or 3 more. I bet I've used half the ball on these 3 repeats.

I think I had better pick up the pace. It has taken me about a month to get 1/6th done....

At this pace, it will take 6 months! I mostly crochet while I'm riding in the car. The DH and I work at the same office, and I am usually the passenger. It takes about a half hour, and most mornings, I spend about 10-15' trying to put on make-up in a moving car. The rest of the time I crochet. Before DST ended, there was usually still light to crochet by on the way home, but not any more. I really need to get a little clip on light, for just this problem!

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On a completely separate topic: Tonight 2 of my favorite movies are airing on TCM. I have mentioned before my love of Hollywood musicals (did anyone catch Oklahoma! late last night?), but I love even more the old b&w WWII dramas. Tonight, don't miss the introductory comments (tune in at 8 pm sharp!) of Robert Osbourne and Alec Baldwin, about "The Best Years of Our Lives", and if you haven't gotten enough, after that, enjoy "Mrs. Miniver". I love Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon so much, I have this one on DVD. And the wonderful Theresa Wright is in both. I'll be cozied in with my popcorn and a stitching project (probably the Lily Filet Edging) for both of these gems.

Edginess

We need new sheets. I am so inspired by these from Victorian Trading Company.

These are the Thistledown Cottage Flannel Bedclothes.
I can't bring myself to buy new sheets when I have several unfinished sheets that I bought dirt cheap at the Pepperell Mill factory store (which closed in fall of 2008, a victim of the economy). These are the Sweetmilk Manor Cotton Bedclothes.
So maybe I'm stalling, as it is boring and cumbersome to measure out and hem long expanses of fabric. But I have been so inspired to edge my household linens. I have several old instruction booklets for all manner of edgings. Knitted, tatted and crocheted. Household, handkerchiefs, collars and cuffs. Soooooo many, and I want to make them all!

But of course, having all these lovely patterns in hand hasn't stopped me from exhaustively searching the web for any and all free crochet edging patterns.
And then I have the difficult task of narrowing it down and choosing just one.
Last night I eliminated one because I couldn't quite follow the instructions (I'm sure it was I and not the instructions that were addled). That and I decided I wasn't sure I loved the pattern so much anyway. Hard to tell, because the photo didn't show me enough detail, and obviously working up a sample didn't happen.
So, now I 'm trying to decide which looks best with my sheeting, which is a print, after Jacobean crewel embroidery in fact. Doesn't really need any trimming to look pretty, but I want to trim it anyway. Kind of a way of putting my own stamp on it.
And I'm not really sure what style goes with Jacobean.
What do you think?
Need to see the fabric? I know what you mean. Working on it. Meaning I'm charging the battery on my camera and hoping the afternoon sun holds out.

ETA: Here are the pics I promised. I love the colors, soft and pleasing.

And the thread I will use.

Any votes for edging?

Progress, in all its forms

Cooking? Yes, cooking. When have you ever seen me post about cooking? Take it easy...I told you I was trying to increase my efforts in the kitchen. In this picture, my DS Evan is dipping his Triscuit into Chicken and Rice soup.
But don't be too impressed...I just made a broth of "Better than Bouillon" chicken flavor and cut up some carrots. (didn't have any celery on hand) Then I cut up the leftover skinless boneless chicken breasts which Jeff made for supper on Friday, and threw those in and then finally the leftover brown rice we had served with them. I threw in some ground thyme (liberally), a little fresh-ground black pepper, and a mild-to-moderate sprinkle of nutmeg. Now, if I were really devoted to impressing my family, I would have made biscuits or dumplings or something. Sounds messy. Oh well, this will do for a post-church Sunday lunch.

Here's the first half of the Filet Heart Runner. Oh well, there's always next Valentine's Day... (And Sweetest Day in October, a Hallmark invention, I think.)

And here's the Dapper Chap Vest. Last time I posted it, I hadn't yet added the blue. The colorwork came out just okay, not great. I just couldn't get the tension right between the knitting yarns and the carried colors. I hold out hope that when I block it, I can work it all out..

I have started the armhole shaping on the left front (see that little backwards "J" about midway at the top?). In the meantime, the back and right front wait patiently having been left at the chest level. Once the left front, back, and right front are finished separately, I will weave the shoulder seams with the much-maligned Kitchener stitch, and add the separating zipper that I have yet to purchase. I am dreading going to the craft store and seeing that none of the available colors match or complement my colors. Which will mean an online purchase.

I still haven't gotten to the CS for the iron-on transfer pen, so now I really need to find the time for the trip. (That explains why this post has no Embroidery Project update.)

I'm baaaaaaaack!

Did you miss me?

I have had a cold and so in the evenings on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, I went straight to bed without posting, miserable and sneezing and sniffling. Last night, however, I started a post, only to have lost my internet connection for some reason that only the techies in the house understood. It takes a long time to upload my photos on Blogger ( a complaint that I've heard from others), and so I only do them 2 at a time, and it takes near on a half hour to load them this way!

So now I'm posting on my lunch hour without access to the pictures I wanted to post.....

But anyway, here goes!

I got the above 2 images from The Graphics Fairy. I chose them because I love ice skating, even though I am barely able to stay up on my skates, and because I love Scottish tartans, kilts, tams, and the national flower, the Thistle.

Now, I had wanted to post next about my crochet projects. Hmmmm....well, I have been working on my Filet Heart Runner, even though I need to sign up for a class in Remedial Counting. As I can't show you a picture of my progress, I will simply report to you that the whole runner is 88 rows, and I have completed 17 rows. (Well really I've done about 25 rows, but all the ripping out I've had to do for mis-counting has held me back a bit!) For the advanced mathematicians among you, you will notice that there are 9 more days til Valentine's day and ideally one displays one's Valentine's pretties at least a week before the actual holiday. If we split the difference and give me a generous 5 days to finish, that means, let's see 71 rows in 5 days....a little over 14 rows a day. Sounds like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome to me. I am reminding myself however that very shortly, I'll be approaching rows that are much shorter and therefore quicker to complete. (If I don't have to rip out and re-do, as my counting skills should improve with practice.) And as for the DMC website heart runner, I am clearly going to have to break down and buy a new crochet hook, which means a trip to Michael's or JoAnn's or somewheres....not nearby. Walmart re-modeled the store in my town last year and decimated the fabric and crafts section. Waaaah. I can't believe they didn't check with me first.

Speaking of a trip to a store for additional goods. This post was originally going to ignore crochet and delve into the minutiae of my trying to do a simple task on my embroidery project. As you may recall, my first obstacle was that I hid the kit from myself. Well, as it turns out I did a great job of hiding it by putting it in plain sight exactly where I thought I had put it. Apparently, Friday night-weary is not the right frame-of-mind to get a new craft project underway. So, last Saturday, I got started, and was fairly quickly stymied by another obstacle. But that will be my next post, when I can illustrate with pictures!

Now, speaking of embroidery and Valentine's Day, (we were, weren't we?), get on over to Mary Corbet's website and see the lovely "Heart O'Flowers" design she is offering free of charge, and let me know if you are going to do something with it.

Finally, re: knitting: I am just about to decrease at the toe of the second sock of Sovann's Winter Warmers, and I have added the blue and then finally the brown on Ian's Dapper Chap Vest. I'm looking forward to getting the zig-zaggy stripe done and back to chugging along with the main color. Pictures of all this stitchy productivity coming soon.

Have a good w/e everyone. Super Bowl? Or "Emma" on PBS?

I "Heart" Crochet

Do you remember my last post about trying to come up with a crochet project? I still want to make the heart garland...that was little crocheted hearts attached to a garland or twine or something with little clothespins, which I have. Still love that idea, still might do it. Yesterday, I was perusing the DMC website, you know, the cotton embroidery floss people. As it turns out, they make crochet threads too. Makes sense, but can't say I knew that. Well, they have the cutest heart garland here, with a free instruction sheet. I sure hope that link works; I wanted to lift the picture, but I don't really know how, since the link is a PDF, not a jpg. I could only get this teensy one from the webpage.They show the garland used as shelf edging, and I'm dying to make some.

But here's what I'm working on now. It's called Heart Runner, a filet crochet pattern in the book I showed you last time.I'm using South Maid size 10 crochet cotton and a size 8 steel crochet hook. It calls for a size 9, but I couldn't find mine. It's no doubt stashed with an abandoned project somewhere, or destined to be lost forever down in the couch cushions. My gauge came out too big with the bigger hook, but who cares, it's a runner! I guess my runner will just run big. Here are the first 4 rows of the first half. You work from the middle out and then return to the middle and do it again. This is really quite easy to do, if you can count. As it turns out, I can't count.

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Along a different vein, let's talk cooking/baking......... Have I yet whined that I don't much like to cook/bake? I am mainly drawn to crafting/home dec blogs, and I find that most of them feature recipe posts now and then. Sometimes, I skip the post altogether, because, well, it just doesn't much interest me.

But something has happened. I watched "Julie and Julia" last Thurs with my Mum. I got it PPV and then discovered I could watch it as much as I wanted for 48 hours! So we watched and watched, and laughed and delighted. And now, besides wanting to go to Paris (but that's not new), I want to read the book "Julie and Julia", and get "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and try harder to enjoy cooking. The pictures below? No, I didn't make the cake. Mum did, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. This is just me getting started, by at least putting food pictures on my blog.

And besides I love this plate, and my red kitchen counter.............................

And don't strawberries give January a little color?

By the way, it snowed again today. It's a fullish moon and so bright out...it reminds me of that line in "A Christmas Carol": "And the moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow gave the luster of mid-day to objects below."

Stitching next, as in embroidery, and I'll really try to post tomorrow.............

OTH: Crochet Projects

Fresh snow is so pretty, n'est-ce pas? I took this picture on Wednesday morning before I got in the car to go to work.

I made this the other day, in a not-very-inspired attempt to have a crochet project. I think it's cute and all and will make a functional dishcloth. But it was done in no time and there I was again with nothing OTH....

So the next thing I tried were these facial pads....And they're cute and all, too, but not much fun to make, really. I must have weak crocheting muscles in my hands, because I always feel like I'm wrestling when I work with worsted weight cotton. I don't mind cotton thread at all, which is good because I think I need to make a finer fabric to use for facial pads. I tried one of these, and found it a bit too rough. I'm going to try washing them in a net bag and see if they soften up a little.

I thought about making some crocheted snowflakes, starching them and using them in my sunny dining room and dangling them in sunny windows to decorate for our post-Christmas pre-Valentine wintry January. But it's already Jan. 23 and all I've done is favorited a bunch of free patterns in Ravelry. And since I'm always slow to be prepared for the next holiday, I figure I should probably be thinking about Valentine's Day. Maybe I'll try a Sweet Heart Garland like Cassi Griffin's on Craft Stylish? And look at these, here. (Warning: time vortex!) That may be another fairly quick project, though and I really want something that challenges me and even kind of takes my breath away, when I look at it and watch it come along.

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I once took this book out of my local library. Then again a year or so later. I haven't made anything yet, but I finally bought the book on ebay, and I think it's time to commit and dig in!
It's Better Homes and Gardens Romantic Crochet. Interestingly, when I googled it today I found that BH&G have (has?) another book called "Romantic Looks Crochet", with fashions in it. Ooooh, very intriguing. I'll be scoping ravelry and google to find pictures of the garments and maybe reviews by others who have the book. Maybe it needs to be in my library? I have a good impression of BH&G publications so far, so I tend to think it's worth checking out.
Peruse it with me:
This bedscape is a stitcher's dream. The bedspread is made from panels (linen, I think?), embroidered with Jacobean-crewel-inspired ornated floral motifs, then joined with hand-crocheted lace insertion and encircled with lace edging. The pillows are crazy-quilt inspired with patchwork, applique, cutwork and embroidery techniques.
Note the red transferware, couldn't resist including this photo. Or maybe it was the cake.
Those dishes deserve this gorgeous filet crochet runner.
Don't you want to be on this picnic? In a simple but pretty sundress; peasant-style bodice with a drapey, flowy, fullish skirt. Barefoot.(Ignore the snow outside....) That motif is a thistle! I love that motif - I think I have a little Scottish, several generations back, in my family, and the thistle is Scotland's national flower. Did you notice the teacup and saucer in the pic with the book? It's English bone china, Thistle by Colclough. Mumsie gave it to me. Isn't she sweet?
So. Any of these or the many other projects in the book would be suitably meaty for a long-term challenging accomplishment. I'm leaning toward the filet crochet runner. I loooooove the bedspread. It would give me an embroidery project and crochet to work on. However, I think as long as I have dogs, who sleep on beds, that is really not a good idea...... And since I need them to keep my feet warm :), I don't really entertain the notion of not allowing them up on beds.

And there are the crisp and fresh-looking crochet-lace-edged cotton hemstitched curtains. Oh, I guess I didn't post a picture. What do you think I should work on? Post a comment and we'll see if anyone's reading this :).

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Here's why I take in my geranium urns for the winter...........