National Watercolor Month, July

On this last day of July, wondering what I would share here on the blog today, I went to one of my go to places for inspiration. I checked out NationalDayCalendar.com. While looking at things there I discovered that July is World Watercolor Month. This made me very happy because I love the look of watercolor art.

When in Hawaii we discovered the artist Sherri Reeve. She has a shop on Maui and it is always a very busy place. Besides the shop in Hawaii she has a web site you can shop, SReeve.com. We have 7 prints of her work and I love every one of them but I have a favorite. This one brightens my kitchen and makes me smile every day. It is called A Chorus Line.

So charming, right?

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

The links above are for you to find out more information and see the sites I like to check out. Those below are affiliate links.

A Room for All of My Things

When we first moved together to this house in Arizona after Jim's retirement, Jim and I shared a room we called the office. For the most part it worked but when working in there he likes his Pandora playlists playing loud and I like to listen to podcasts and I had to use earbuds or headphones. Without complaining to each other about the invasion of space when we wanted to concentrate on things, we both knew that it would be nicer to each have our own dedicated space.

With the goal of separate offices in mind, we decided to change our guest rooms setup, we have one room with a king-sized bed in it and that room stayed the same. We had a room with 2 queen sized beds in it as well. That room is now mine. We took one of the beds out of it and moved it to Jim's office. We took my tables and all my crafting supplies and moved those things into the former 2 queen bed guest room. Some closet storage was also changed. Holiday decorations and luggage are now stored in Jim's office. My supplies are now in my office and the king guest room. Yes I need room in 2 closets, don't judge me please.

This move also gave me a chance to do some sorting and organizing. I rounded up all the yarn in various bag and boxes. They are now sorted by weight and in clear bins so I can see what I have and be reminded of what projects I have planned to do next. I have 4 goals for knitting or crocheting right now. They are to finish all planned patterns for the Shawl in a Ball yarn, finish planned patterns for the Summer Nights yarn I have, make for markets bags with the crochet thread I have on hand and to finish making the tasseled scarves collection I started with all the ladder yarn I have. I also have a quilting goal. The quilt I want to finish is a panel quilt. The hand quilting of each block is done. I need to get all the blocks joined and a binding put on. 

Of course, all this organizing feels good. I know myself enough to know that I will get an idea in my head and mess it all up looking for something, probably very soon if I stay true to form. 

I just realized on reading through this looking for silly errors (and I am sure that I still missed something because I always do) that I forgot to mention the socks I intend to make with the sock yarn I bought with my niece in Longmont. So, add that to the list of to do's and I will be one busy, never bored girl. 

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken

I finished reading The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken. The story was written about 3 women, a grandmother, mother and a daughter. 

Grandmother, who kept journals but never talked about what she lived through as a survivor of The Holodomor which happened during Stalin's reign. This was a man-made famine in the early 1930's that killed millions of people.

The mother, raised by this survivor, never knew anything about this part of her mother's life. She was raised to live in the moment and to look forward and not back.

The granddaughter in this story is a young widow with a daughter. Her grandmother gives her the task of translating the journals which she kept from Ukranian to English and in this way the story is told. Not able to do the translation herself, the love interest comes into play as a neighbor who has those skills and helps with the translation.

There is a lot of tragedy in this book but a lot of joy too. Told in two timelines, the 1930's and the early 2000's, this book kept me captivated from beginning to end.

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy!

This post contains affiliate links to the book.

Denise Hawkins

 On our recent road trip, we spent a couple days in Boulder and Denver Colorado. During one of the days an art festival was held on Pearl Street in Boulder. Pearl Street by the way is a wonderful pedestrian mall. One this day we didn't go into any shops there but stayed outside at the festival marveling at the variety of work by the artisans. Photography, glass, metal work, pottery, painting and more were well represented. 

I thought that whoever did the selection of artists did an amazing job. In each category of art, the style of each artist was different. Not a chance to feel like you were seeing the same thing over and over again. Every booth was worth the time to stop and look and take in the beauty of the work being presented. I was so tempted to buy a piece of glass work but limited myself to the photography I chose and still feel like I got one of the best items in the show.

One of the first booths we stopped at was that of the photographer Denise Hawkins. The image I purchased was so beautiful and I knew exactly where it would hang in my home. It is in the living room to the left of the TV so I can see it and smile every day.

I have put pictures of her business card here. The front gives her information, and, on the back, she wrote for me the location information telling where she took this photo. From the front of the card, you see that she has a website, denisehawkinsphoto.com, where this picture was taken and on the back that she has an Instagram account, @denisewyo.

The two things you don't learn from the business card are that this image won a first prize at a photography competition in Saint George, Utah and her husband is an expert framer. In his own words the frame is over engineered. Together they make a great team. I am so happy with this souvenir from my road trip.

 

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

Shopping and Buying Local

While in Longmont Colorado visiting my niece's family, I got to visit a lovely yarn shop. If you are ever there take advantage of the friendly and helpful staff at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe. They were proud to show of the yarns of local dyers and they had tons, well not tons, of yarn but a lot. Both yarns I bought were dyed by local Colorado artisans.

I have a sock pattern I want to try so I was on the hunt for something to treat my feet to when the days get chilly. Believe it or not, Phoenix while setting heat records right now, can be chilly in January and February.

The light-colored yarn is from Roadtrip Sock Yarn and the colorway is Raton. This dyer has and etsy shop. Just search for the company name and you will find it. The shop is full of all kinds of yarny goodness.

The blue is the Oracle colorway from The Hummingbird Moon, and they also have an Etsy shop. When I checked it yesterday there was only one item in the shop. You can find out more about this seller by using the social links in the Etsy shop if you wish.

Take a look at the yarn I treated myself to in the picture below.

I have some other projects to finish before I start my socks, but I will certainly let you know right here on the blog when I start them and share my progress.

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

Home Sweet Home

15 days, 7 states driven through, 6 cities visited, more than 3000 miles driven, lots of sights, sounds, memories and now we are home.

It is wonderful to have the ability to travel and wonderful to be home. We plan to work on organizing our closets. We use them for luggage, holiday and hobby supply storage and they definitely need some attention.

Played a bit with Bing's Image Creator for today's picture. Love the porch and big tree! I could live there.

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Take care and stay cozy! 

Merry Go Round Day

 

I use NationalDayCalendar.com to let me know all the celebrated days that I like to share with readers here and those that follow me on twitter. I found out today is Merry Go Round Day. How delightful. Who doesn't love to ride or at least watch a merry go round or carousel. I think you can use the names interchangeably. 

I know that all kinds of animals can be the characters on a carousel but I love the fancifully decorated horses best. I will be looking for art or antiques or vintage horses from Amazon and eBay after writing this to share on twitter. 

My tweets willl have affiliate links in them. If someone clicks the link a cookie is placed and if they make a purchase in the next 30 days I can get a small commission for bringing the customer to the site. It doesn't cost the customer a dime and the big guys get some low cost advertising from me.

I also have some affiliate links below you can click them to shop on Amazon, eBay or Zazzle. 

Speaking of Zazzle, I found this doormat (affiliate). What do you think of this design?

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

Happy Merry Go Round Day!