Category Archives: Spring

Busy!

Oh, my goodness, what a packed full weekend! When there is too much to write about, I don’t, sorry. I should have been posting all weekend . . . so very sorry to neglect you all.

I hope all of you moms that celebrate Mother’s Day had a wonderful day filled with happy times and maybe a little pampering. I started a load of laundry yesterday morning and the clothes magically got put away. My husband and daughter gifted me with a new Kindle and a bunch of red orange tulips. I’ve been wanting a Kindle for reading library books; I think I’ll really like it and use it all the time (that is when I’m not sewing, knitting, embroidering, or crocheting, etc.) LOL!

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I always get asked what I want to do on Mother’s Day. Every year my answer is something leisurely. Do you know what I said this year? Yard work! Yep, that’s how we spent a good portion of the day. Our messy garden beds were starting to weigh me down and now most of them are nice and clean. And, it was really nice spending time working hard with my daughter at my side. While my daughter and I worked around the front of the house, my husband was busy at the back and spent the entire day outside. I don’t know how he does that!

Afterwards, my daughter made me a late lunch complete with a big bowl of strawberry ice cream! That ice cream was well deserved, don’t you think?

This morning my hamstrings are quite sore and I have a bright red sunburned stripe where my back waistband didn’t quite meet the bottom of my t-shirt. Oops! Thank goodness for aloe gel.

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Here’s one of my three rose bushes. We had to scrape away millions of tiny seedlings growing around the rosebushes. (I don’t think I got them all either.) One of the rosebushes had so many tiny forget-me-nots growing around it; it looks like it has died. I saw a few green branches, so hopefully it will catch up to the other two.

back yard bed 426 Even though I tried, I couldn’t get all of the grass pulled out that is growing through the phlox. If anyone has a helpful tip for this, please, please, let me know.

I have more outdoor photos to show you tomorrow.

Today I need to remake Patience’s dress. 😦 The bodice is too long for the sweater and just looks odd. I hate redoing things, but it has to be done. Better get to work . . .

I hope everyone’s week is starting off nicely. Bye for now!

“My ‘Blue’-ming Garden” and Away with the Blues

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I am happy to say that my mood is no longer “blue” and the sun is shining for the second morning in a row. Thank you for all of the uplifting and helpful comments the last couple of days. It’s been fun hearing from you.

I picked a bouquet yesterday with creeping Charlie (yes, it’s a weed and my husband didn’t think it was funny), phlox, and forget-me-nots.

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The title of Lucy’s ensemble was quite easy to come up with. Outside of the obvious, it’s blue, and everywhere I look outside I see shades of blue/blue violet blossoms.

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Here is Lucy! She is all ready to stroll around the SUNNY garden paths and collect some flowers to make mom a bouquet for Mother’s Day.

This ensemble ended up having more hand made pieces than what I normally make for an outfit; it was quite labor intensive. As I was working on this outfit for the Little Darlings, I felt it needed a hat, and then I felt the sweet little crocheted slippers would be perfect… so I went with it, and just kept on creating. Do you like it?

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The hand knit and embroidered mohair/silk lace weight sweater really is “light as a feather” and so soft. The motifs that I embroidered on the sweater coordinate with the dress print.

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Lucy’s crocheted hat is made with three colors of cotton and two different weights. I wanted it to have the feel of a straw hat, so included a camel color. It is delicately embellished with cotton lace, silk ribbon, blue blossoms, and seed beads. I fussed with the bow to get it to lay “just right”. Everything is carefully hand sewn to this hat with Fray Check added to the ribbon edges. I love how this photo shows off Lucy’s cute profile.

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Lucy’s flower cutting basket is crocheted with hemp. Her flowers can lay in the basket or she can hold them. They are secured with a clear band and silk ribbon.

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I love these girls in ballet styled slippers. Their legs are so graceful. I made these soles out of a matching tan to pick up the natural colors in the hat and basket.

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Gina’s drop waist styled dress is simple and perfect for a garden stroll.

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Lucy had to have matching panties… a hand dyed and tied silk ribbon to match her dress!

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Lucy’s “My ‘Blue’-ming Garden” will be available tonight (May 3, 2016) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com , link is on the “Shop What’s New” page (at 7pm).

It’s May!

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It’s May, but it doesn’t feel like it around here. We are on day 6 of dreary, dark, usually rainy weather. Ugh, ugh, ugh! Really, I am so very tired of it. When it is so dreary day upon day, it takes a real mental workout just to get out of bed in the morning.

One thing that I’ve started doing in the last few days is to count my blessings (and I have many) before I get up, so I can get up on the right side versus the wrong side of the bed. It makes all the difference to get out of bed with a grateful heart rather than a “woe is me” feeling inside.

Once I get up, this is how I start my mornings on these dark days–30 minutes of blue light (and a cup of coffee or tea 🙂 ). The blue light really make all the difference in how I sleep at night (as long as I remember to stay off of the computer a couple of hours before bedtime).

Just to show you how dreary it’s been… I think this was taken on Thursday or Friday.

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In addition to the clouds, we’ve been getting lots of rain too. A mallard couple thought that our pool cover was a pond and flew right in yesterday. The feral cat was on the deck, the dog was barking at them, and they didn’t care; they stayed awhile and swam around.

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One of the blessings that I took note of on Saturday morning was the sunshine we got at 5:00 pm on Friday. I know, not much, but I’ll take what I can get. I made sure my BJD resin dolls were out of the sunlight and opened the curtains in my sewing room. It was so nice and warm!

Unfortunately, my last doll outfits (the one I just finished for Sugar) and the one I’ve been working on all week are in blue. Couldn’t I pick something in yellow? It is really hard to work with blue when it is dreary. I think I will look at the weather forecast the next time I want to make something in blue. lol

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Here are some photos from the last time I took a sunshine-y walk (last Monday). The violets were blooming; I love violets!

Even dandelions are pretty (I think so anyway).

These teeny tiny purple flowers bloom in large patches in the grass this time of year. They look like a carpet of purple. Does anyone know what they are? They are super duper tiny; you can see that they make the dandelion appear huge.

We are supposed to have a very nice week, so that is what I am counting on, but I am aware that you cannot count on the weather, so I had better prepare myself… just in case.