Wednesday, March 26, 2014

A Peek of Progress, A Peak of Spring Color

 
Spring is here and the last time PEACH was my favorite color for Spring was about.............1970 something. Seriously. I'm a PINK girl. I still love pink but the color peach is pretty trendy this Spring and it's caught my eye in a lot of dress and accessorizing.
 
This peach pin is perfect for inspiration for the lacy, light and breezy scarf I'm making.
 
 
The feather and fan stitch is the basic pattern of this scarf.
Of course, I just remembered I like feathers and birds and such...........
 
 
Like a flower blooming, this scarf in coming along well and I'll show you at the end how this lace piece would look really pretty with a light blue, white, cream, mint green top or dress.
 
 
It's a little different but it's going to involve this pin.
 
I've been still working on the color and contrast with my camera. I can't seem to get the rich color like my other one had. It might help if I got out the DVD that came with it.
 
 
The detail is pretty good on it without much effort.
 
 The color is sometimes ok, sometimes not quite as true such as the shawl I tried to show a couple of posts ago.
 
 
Overall, it's a good one though. Spring flowers blooming will give me a chance to practice with it.
 
 
Yup
 
 
I never said "yup" at everything until I met Mr. Darcy.
 
I still say "ya'll" though.
 
So ya'll have a good evening and a beautiful night's rest tonight.
 
Miss Abbie sends her kisses. She enjoyed some dinner with us tonight. We had salmon patties (fried the country way), green beans, sweet potato casserole, and Spiral pasta and egg salad.
 
Time for bed now.
 
Follow your heart,
 
Jennifer

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Freebie Sampler: Comforts of Home Series no 1

I absolutely love, love, love a quilt in my home. It just resonates with comfort even on a Summer day! I saw a quote somewhere once and thought this would be a great sampler verse. I have not stitched it up yet but will. I hope you enjoy it! I hope to design some of my favorite comforts of home. Just for starters..............quilts.

If you do stitch it up email me a picture to put on the blog at jenniferann_fox@yahoo.com

Thank you to all who commented such sweet, sweet words! I so appreciate it. If I can make just one person happier in the day or lifted, my purpose is served.

 
 
 
 
Comforts of Home Series
No. 1
The Quilt
 
designer Feathers in the Nest
copyright 2014
 
I designed the border for half stitches to mimic the appearance of  some quilt edgings.
I love the primitive colors used here in dark gold and black but you can sub any colors you like to match your room décor.
 
There are areas for French knots that add texture to the sampler.
 
This sampler would look really awesome near your quilt collection, or sewing room.
 
I hope you enjoy! Please remember that this is for free for a limited time on the blog and not to be sold or kitted. I thank you so much. If you stitch it up and put on your blog, please reference Feathers in the Nest!
 
I hope this prints out ok for you. If not, please comment and let me know.
 
Well, today is certainly a typical March day with wind gusts and sunny cool skies. A great day to fly a kite............not as a joke........but seriously if you have kids, they would love this wind.
The trees are still bare and I just found out Easter is really late this year, like towards the end of April!
So more cool weather I'm sure until Easter. That's what my mama always said and it has always been true.
 
I hope you enjoy your Tuesday and remember that home is where the heart is. Make your home a place of comfort. Of course, for everyone that is different and suitable to your individual needs.
I have found that a good balance in my life of work, homesteading, faith, and physical care is the perfect equation for me at my age and stage of life. A little of all blends perfectly for the balance I need to ensure I'm healthy, a good wife, a good medical provider, and a good child of God.
 
Expressing our creative spirit is a great way to nurture the soul AND the soul of others. I am so thankful for all the creative spirits out there sharing patterns and ideas, and networking.
 
 It's definitely the balm for my spirit.
 
Again, I hope you have a great day!
Till later,
Jennifer

Sunday, March 23, 2014

And the First Day of Spring......................

Spring. 2014.

Yup, it's arrived officially but weather-wise, we still are a cool, quite cool during the days. No complaint by me though as I know the promise of a new beginning with Spring.
Actually, I just thought to myself I probably say that every season and maybe that's why my favorite quote is To everything there is a season and a time a place under the Heavens. I think that one will stay with me all my life.

I haven't written in a while. I think I needed a little break, kind of like Spring break I guess for those over 50. :P  And the time change.......................oh my, I have a love-hate relationship with this time change. I love the longer sunshine in the day. I hate the lost hour of sleep. We will get used to it though, right in time for it to change again.

I'm reading a book called Minimalism. It's pretty good. Got it free on Pixel of Ink a while back and it really helps me in my yearly goal to simplify my life in all areas for less stress and more peace. I load up my Kindle with free books almost every day from Pixel of Ink. Some of them are just not my kind of book but I do love the romantic, historical romantic, trilogys, anything about women's health, skin health, anti-aging, yoga, and autobiographies. Those are my favorites.

At the homestead, my knitting mojo diminished quite a bit for a couple of weeks. I had to get some Spring things done, like taxes, Spring cleaning (still haven't finished), and all kinds of things done.
I picked up this Caron Simply Soft yarn in a colorway, Tapestry. I thought that the pastel colors were pretty with a peach Spring sweater or Tshirt. I'm really channeling the color Peach right now. A more pinky-peach.You have to admit the other colors are like muted Easter egg colors. :0
The pattern is  the feather and fan stitch. I am using a #11 needle with this DK weight yarn. 

here's the start..................

 
 
 
The color is washed out but couldn't correct it on my finished shawl. The color is deeper than this camera could capture here and very vintage, cranberry. I really loved making this wrap/shawl. It's the perfect staple for just a little pop of color and texture on cooler evenings.
 
 
I found the vintage pin this week.
 
 
 
The pin actually has a slight peachy tone to the pearls with some light garnet stones.
 
 
I think the two married each other well!
 
I will soon be listing this in the Etsy shop! I sold out of many things and need to restock.
I want to thank you for your patronage and encouraging words. They mean so much to me.
 
On the home front, Miss Abbie got her bath yesterday and she was not so sure about this chair.
She had some requests on Facebook for pictures so I took a couple but she was kind of shy.
 
You can see she probably is looking down and wondering how far down she would have to jump!!!
She has never been in this chair. I don't know why. She has been in all the others but this one she hasn't.
 
So here is Abbie on picture day. :-)
 
 
She's like....."OMG. How high is THIS chair?"
 
Watch out and stay tuned tomorrow for a freebie sampler mini for you. I hope you like it.
 
I hope your Sunday evening is quiet and peaceful and you are surrounded by those you love.
 
Be happy and most of all be thankful for having more than what we need,
 
Jennifer