Fall - time to get the hands dirty!

I've started a big project,

and I've been working on it since last Sunday.

To give you just a brief peek for a small taste...

... and a promise to show off when it's done!

Since a few months now
I had not been taking care of my gardens...
I think I was not even noticing the weeds taking over everything!

But a couple days ago I did start noticing it... and remembered

how proud J always felt about my gardens.

So... Since then I've been working outside a little bit everyday.

Even with all the neglect I still have some flowers.

I took some pics to share with you:

While I was trimming down my English ivy

something crawling trough the green
took my breath away for a moment!

Ah ah! Gotcha ya!

You thought it was a baby snake, didn't you?, so did I!

Well, look closer...

I had never seen one of those...

... just the regular tiny weeny brownish slugs...

... but it's kinda pretty, isn't it?

Another find on my lawn... I don't know why

but those little blue gnomes (Smurfs...?)

always come to my mind every time I find one of these:

After weeding & mulching
now the front garden looks nice.

A small taste of Fall on my garden.
After all, tough here we still have 90 degrees,
one my favourite times of the year starts tonight!

Some of My Favourite Things...

It came and it's gone, thank goodness!

Yesterday we had lots of warnings for severe weather,

tornado watch and so on...

I heard rumbling and lightning and thundering during the night,

but nothing really major here.

Outside today the sun shines on the trees with a new clean shine

and everything looks fantastic!

But not for some folks tough...

I've just watched the news...

at least 12 died in Mississippi after the tornadoes hit!

My heart just shrinks every time! Poor, poor people!

I hope they can get some help really soon!, to start over really... It's so sad!

Well, in a lighter note,

I've accomplished a few things this week.

I've been working outside, trying to clean up and mulch and get the gardens ready for the blooms... and I did quite a bit,

...with my friend's help...

but... still have a long way to go...

Also, I've worked on some Lolitas

and they're ready now for their individuality.

And...

yes!!,

I've finished my curtains!

Chocolate and pink,

checkers & dots & pastoral scenes!,

those are just a few of my favourite things!...

Spring cleaning!... also flower hair pins and some more fabric bowls

Yesterday was my official first 2010 gardening day!

Pretty serious thing,  uh?...

Oh well... we had lots of sunshine for the last couple of days....

and it  felt really good!

Tough I only cleaned a couple of my little flower gardens (pull out weeds and dead/dried plants)...,

it was more than enough to make me feel the leg muscles today!

Anyways...

I've been busy all week long, as usual.
It was a calm week, nothing major going on.
I made some  flower hair pins

inspired by Lettie's tut 
from polkadotpineaple blog.
I had told you before about her blog;
she has some pretty good tutorials.
Thanks for sharing Lettie!
Obviously a pretty talented lady!
I liked it so much I just couldn't help myself: I made a bunch of them!

For myself,
and to give as birthday or Xmas gifts.
They look so awesome, don't you think?
Also I had been playing a little bit with felt and fabric
and made some brooches with flat back pins:

I usually use those as embellishments for my bags.

And because I'm always needing

containers for this and that,

I made a couple more fabric bowls/baskets:

Specially now,

that I decided it was time to organize my sewing/craft/office room.

This is what it looks like now:

Tomorrow I'm expecting a shipping with my new shelves, so...

I'll show you
how it all will come out

as soon as I´m done with the redecorating.

I already have a few plastic baskets and boxes,

and my fabric bowls of course!

See you all soon!

Gardening and sewing and cats

I just realized it has been more then a week since my last post.

It has been busy around here that's for sure.

Have been working

on the yard and on the gardens

and the cats keep me company.

As you probably already guessed

there's a bunch of cats around here.

It's almost becoming a problem but

I really don't have the heart to stop feeding them.

Not when they came to me and rub against my legs

and look at me with them big eyes...

Anyway, as I was saying,
the mower has been broken
and my yard almost looked like a jungle!...

Of course I'm exaggerating,

but it sure has been messing with my nerves...

Well, not anymore!
Mower if fixed, yard is mow,

and my pocket book is so much skinnier...

Oh well, things do go bad and I do what I can,

but fixing that mower was definitely beyond my capability.

Meanwhile I also had the tiller fixed and

have already tilled a stripe for my fall bulbs!

Yay!!!....

Anyways ...

I did some sewing and this time it was another wall hanging

(I got the idea from a blog but can't find the URL,

and for that I really do apologize).

I had printed the project (as I always do when I like something,

and then I filed it on a folder that I named craft's ideas),

and made mine just by looking at it, I had no pattern.

Of course, Cats being the theme was the main reason it caught my eye and made me print it.

This one is just about felt applique
on a background that I pieced together

(sky, meadow and wall).

Mostly I got attracted by the unusual cat's shape and outline.

To hang it I used my usual hearts

(it is my favourite way to hang these wall hangings as you can see and tell).

And that's it!

Tough it doesn't look like much

I assure you these have been long days

and still

I'm so glad they are

because it means all is well and running!