Rainy Day Flowers

 After a busy few weeks tending the gardens , poultry, & livestock during the very ( unseasonably )warm sunny days the rain I love has finally returned ! Now instead of endless watering and weeding outdoors I am cultivating indoor flowers . Fanciful flowers I needle-felt onto wool balls I've made using the wool fleece from my sheep.

 I added a few fanciful bees too. None of the flowers or bees are crafted to be realistic, but they are meant to be fun. Some of the balls have jingles inside. My cats love the jingle balls. So do my grandchildren.

I enjoyed spinning up quite a bit of yarn on the porch during the warm days. I can watch my sheep and the birds at our feeder from the porch. I watch my ducks waddle by on their way from the pond to scavenge any birdseed the wild birds scatter under the feeders. Two of my dogs are always at my feet as I spin wool into yarn. Contentment and thankfulness are my constant companions during these times.

Whether cultivating indoor flowers or working hard outdoors , I am always mindful of the blessing it is to be able to do this work in and around a home provided by God through the love and hard work of my husband and family. Thank-you Jim !

Where I Store My Teacups ~ Part II ( Cat-Napping Room ? )

Blizzard woke up from his cat-nap while I was taking photos of my crafting room. Since he realized it was only me he settled himself back down and got comfortable on my work surface.

This was once our daughter's bedroom. She has long since moved out and now lives with her own family, so my husband & I began setting things up to accommodate the crafting supplies and work area that I used to store under beds, in closets...anywhere I could find space. Now it is all in one room. The boxes and bins are labeled and I try to keep like items together. The shelves are from Home Depot and are in the closet storage system department. I had at first wanted beautifully made hard wood shelves  and know my husband could have made them, but we're busy and expediency and budget were taken into consideration. I am very happy with these shelves.

Even though this looks cluttered, everything is labeled and has a place.

The wall on the far right has shelves holding the clean & carded wool from my flock of Jacob sheep. I try to use almost all of my wool before the next wool harvest , but there are always a few wool batts left on the shelves before the new shearing is finished. Sometimes this wall holds many bags of clean and carded wool fiber piled up in front of the shelves of wool. So much wool you cannot see the shelves ! The little shelf to the right of the wool shelves holds weaving supplies and a sewing machine.

This is the wall opposite my work table. Fabric and sewing supplies dominate here while the lower cabinet holds crafting books, pattern books, and magazines I use for inspiration in my crafting. The sewing machine & sewing table I use is beneath the thread holders on the wall. I keep it covered when not in use because working with my wool fiber can sometimes be dusty work. Again, any closed boxes, baskets, or containers are labeled and stored near similarly used supplies.

I see Blizzard is sleeping again and I am going to have to reclaim my work surface. Thank-you for taking a moment to see my messy, but useful & much loved crafting room. Now I am going to work on a few more needle-felted balls. Blizzard will probably happily bat them around and hide them . He's just testing them out to make sure they work properly and having fun watching me find them later on. I suppose this makes it Blizzard's room too, his cat-napping room !

Tea & Crafts With the Cats

I poured myself some tea to sip from my Gracie Chintz china cup while adding some finishing touches to a flock of little sheep . I had some help with my crafting.

Yes, after finishing some of the sheep I took them into my sun-room to photograph in natural light so I could post them for sale in my Etsy shop and look, peek-a-boo ! Miss Marple was supervising the whole procedure making sure none of the little sheep strayed from position. She is very good at whacking them around if they do. Sometimes she even helps them get away , to their detriment. Good thing there is a shepherd there to guard them. ( And I don't mean the little porcelain one. )

On the very same day I finished up a few wool needle-felted balls. I had help there too.

Blizzard personally checks each and every wool ball out by batting and rolling it around. If the ball has jingles in it he double and triple checks it , enjoying my game of seeking it out after he is done. You can see Blizzard is sitting next to a blue bin where the wee little sheep are placed for their protection after they are completed. I have learned the hard way NOT to leave the little sheep unattended if the cats are prowling the house.

Just minding her own business ? Hardly, she is supervising the terrarium projects I have going on...

...with some help from Blizzard. I'm not sure if they think the resin mouse in the terrarium is real, but I do know they'd love to sink their paws into the mosses . If you look closely at the window behind Miss Marple you can see the cats have thoroughly decorated the window with little nose prints, the higher row of prints being those of Blizzard. I suspect the terrarium will be thusly dotted soon.

And then there are my weaving projects. I completed 3 rugs last week all with plenty of help from Blizzard. He holds the loom down for me. At 16 plus pounds, he's very good at this.

"Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause the most inconvenience." Pam Brown  ~ But that being quoted, you can tell I love having my cats in, out, and round-about me. As I write this Blizzard is holding my husband down in the recliner , stretched full out on my husband's lap. They are taking their evening nap together. "Dogs have their days but cats have 365." Lillian Jackson Braun

I enjoy this teacup, one of a set of 4 rose-chintz patterns from Gracie China. It is not only beautiful, with it's rose patterns, but when I hold it up to the light it is slightly transparent. Also, this is a sturdy teacup , a quality I need when working around my cats who love to check out my dishes but pay them no mind if they decide to have a spat about who gets to sit closest to me. I have had to remember to place my teacups firmly toward the middle of the work table to spare them such disasters. We don't have too many broken dishes from the cats, I am the klutz, but several close calls taught me well.

I would like to mention a blog I love, written by a cat lover who also enjoys her tea time. Deb at  'Just Cats'* writes not only about her cats, but also about the cats she encounters in her cat-sitting business. She also has some very good tips and info regarding cat care, and some common problems people face with their cats & kittens. "The smallest feline is a masterpiece." Leonardo da Vinci

I am linking up once again with these ladies for Tea-Time Tuesday :

• Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *
• Terri at Artful Affirmations *
• Martha at Martha's Favorites *
• Bernideen at Bernideen's Tea time Blog *

Almost Finished ~ To What End ?

Since last November our family has lost 2 beloved parents/grandparents.There has been a lot going on with family gatherings, and as most of you know, daily life still requires the dishes get done, the house is somewhat in order and clean, bills need to be paid.Since I do have a flock of sheep providing me wool with which I make items to sell to buy hay for the sheep, I am always finding myself going from project to project. I have quite a few Wee Little Sheep almost finished.

 

I have a lot of yarn being spun up, waiting to be dyed, and much more wool I am excited to begin spinning. The yarn is almost finished.

I have also set aside quite a few wool felted balls I made from the fleeces of my sheep to embellish with needle-felted designs, such as these ...

...and these. The bright flowers make me smile.The wool felted balls are almost finished. Two lockerhooked rugs are almost finished.

Of course, all my wool projects depend on wool from my flock of Jacob sheep, and several of my ewes are due to lamb anytime from now until mid-April. New lambs almost ready to be born.( this is a picture of a pair of my lambs born in 2011).

Tea time in Blog-Land is a delight for me too. I love Tea Time Tuesdays with all the tea blog parties,and love to participate in them.Lately I have been hit & miss with so many aspects of life I take delight in. That seems to happen when families come together during the extended illness or death of family members.All of a sudden, the routine and taken for granted aspects of our days are changed because more important things require our time and attention. Now though, there is a bit of respite. Time to again clean the house more thoroughly. Time to clean the animal pens and  plan this years' gardens.Time to work on projects needed to maintain order, earn money, or keep up a home . Time to sit with loved ones and simply enjoy being together, because we can. Time to take tea with maybe a cookie or two ( or three?).Time to reflect on life, it's joys, sorrows, blessings, and how fleeting it is.Each of us can truly say our lives are almost finished,even if we have another few decades.If I remember to live my life knowing I could die today, maybe I will be more careful knowing should I die today, any memories of myself I leave my family will reflect the values I exhibited in my day to day life. Will my almost finished projects and doings be all I leave behind, or memories of leaving the busy-ness of this life when it mattered to tend to more important things? Oh that I would be able to say "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God." Acts 20:24

Where Does The Time Go & How Can I Get More ?

I am not sure how I am unable to do all the things I think I need to do.Maybe all the things I think I NEED to do are not really needed, or needful...I love making the felted wool balls out of the fleece of my sheep, and I especially love needle-felting designs of whatever strikes my fancy on them.But is this needful ?

I have been making doll clothes for our 6 granddaughters' American Girl Dolls for their ( granddaughters) birthdays, but is this needful? ( It is fun )

Ice storm damage clean-up is an on-going task, and we have had a lot of help from family...(2 grandchildren helping above)

...granddaughter...

...grandson...

...and friends. Yes, this is needful.Cleaning up after the storm will take at least all of this year, and needs to be done so we can plant our gardens and tend our animals well.

Tending my sheep and watching over them as they lamb is needful, without doubt.(Valkyrie with her new-born ram lamb)

Of course there are all the regular , every day, mundane, but very needful things like preparing meals, cleaning up after meals, washing up, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms,changing the bedsheets,feeding the animals, cleaning up after the animals. Then I need to spin, & weave the wool my sheep produce, goodness... so many demands on my time.It seems there is so little time, yet there has always been only 24 hours in a day, every day, and I don't think there will ever be any more hours added, so that does not change. I have so many more things I love to add to my days, blogging,gardening, talking to family & friends, playing with my dogs, sitting on the porch with my husband as we watch the birds & new lambs and discuss our thoughts.I am always amazed anyone can be bored when I and so many others I know cannot find the time to invest in all that interests them. Guess it is all a matter of perspective, and my perspective better get a bit smaller so I can fit it all in. This big, wide, beautiful, amazing world has too much to take in, but I want to take in as much as I can, and hopefully give a little bit back too.Anyone have any ideas on ways to add hours to the day?

A Tisket , A Tasket...A Woolly Filled Basket

A tisket a tasket, a woolly filled basket of balls made of my felted Jacob Sheep wool. Miss Marple loves to catch and kill these little balls. Some of them have jingles inside which makes them all the more desirable prey.

And she catches a woolly ball!

And she kills the woolly ball!

Meow! Nap time with the woolly ball!