Yesterday someone new arrived at my studio.  Her name is Claudette and she’s a giraffe—that is, a handmade mohair giraffe made by Carolyn at Warm Heart Bears.  I couldn’t resist her sweet face.  I tried, I really did, but couldn’t do it, so I adopted her.  Now she lives here with me… and my other girls and animal friends.

I think I fell for Claudette because she reminded me of a character from a game my daughter and I used to play when she was young, and so, she represented nostalgia for me.  This character was named Gracie and she lived in our Animal Crossing towns that we played on our Nintendo DS.  (Yes, I know I was a bit old for this game, but the graphics and game interactions were so different from anything I had ever seen before.)  Gracie was the fashionista in this game and she happened to be a long and lanky giraffe (like a fashion model).

Amelia Thimble, being the pushy extroverted one around here, often gets to introduce you to the new arrivals, so here she is to welcome Claudette.

Amelia Thimble has never seen a giraffe and is quite amazed at Claudette’s size.

Oh, but Claudette is so soft and so nice; Amelia adores her.

Carolyn sold out of all but one of her babies from her Winter Stars 2018 collection in the teddy bear show over the weekend.  Actually, most were gone within the first hour.  It’s a good thing otherwise, I would have maybe probably picked up another one… or two.  The last remaining cutie is a kitty named Rochelle.  You can see her here.  The little teddy bear to the left of Amelia Thimble is Ivy and she was a gift from Carolyn in September.  If you’d like to seem my post announcing Ivy’s arrival click here.  I’m a fan!  Her work is perfection!

Now that it’s February snow production has finally kicked in.  It snowed on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday night, and more is coming tomorrow.  (While writing this post it started snowing a little again!)

Monday we had a beautifully sunny morning and I wanted to capture a little of the beauty.  The snow glistened like glitter and was mesmerizing.

The snow on these tree branches remind me of snowflake patterns.

The birds have eaten almost all of the berries of of the burning bush shrubs but a few remained.

On Sunday, I dyed a skein of fingering weight merino for another cowl and started knitting it first thing on Monday morning.  It’s so much fun seeing how the color changes knit up that I usually can’t wait to get started.

The Bobble Cowl pattern is by Joji Locatelli and can be purchased on Ravelry.

I love the pattern but I’m not sure I’ll love the overall color tone of the cowl; the yarn is knitting up yellower than I’d like.  I thought I was using the grayish blue (don’t even see grayish blue!), peachy pink, and golden yellow dye equally while putting the yarn in the dye pot.  Hmm… so much to learn.

I hope you are having a great week!  Enjoy the rest of it.  Thanks for stopping by. ❤