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 !