turtle spring ~

Texas seasons are so different from the winters I hear about up north. Most of the winter fluctuates from 80 degrees to freezing and back up to 80. I love the cold, so this warm winter is hard on me, but even more confusing for the poor turtles!
My goodness they are happy it is finally real spring! Very warm days with weekly rain storms and lots of food equal a turtle heaven. Even the babies have gotten to visit the outside world to enjoy the sun and wind.

I love having a sweet family of turtles rustling around beside me while I am gardening. Sometimes I will take a couple out of their pen and let them walk around the herb garden while I piddle around. This doesn't always work out because they have a tendency to be curious about whatever I am doing, which usually means being right in the middle of whatever hole I am digging to look for worms. 

The garden is so alive, the turtles are so happy, the cat is bird watching through the window, and I am back to planting some flowers and sewing some tiny stitches.

On a late night just last week I finally learned how to crochet. 
I have the tendency to begin to wake up just as the sun is setting.
We have had such beautiful sunsets lately, I suppose it is no surprise that evening is when I get inspired to make!
I adore wrapping up in a warm shawl, lighting an oil lamp, putting on some music, and sitting down in a darkened room with my needles and yarn to figure out something new.

For so long crocheting has been the mystery I can not solve. I am a bit of a knitting fanatic, but the entire concept of Crochet was beyond me! My grandmother tried to teach me once when I was little, but it ended with me almost in tears and my poor Grammy completely flabbergasted!

Thank goodness for Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting book and YouTube videos.
I am loving this crocheting thing, and I promise to pictures of my ongoing crocheting adventure! Even since taking these pictures I have learned more stitches and have been learning how to do bits of lace doilies. Now to figure out what to do with all these doilies...

dark days

The past week has been dark and gray. The type of day when you are lucky if you see the sun or it rains ~ because it breaks the gray monotony.
We have left what I called The Year of Mortality far behind, but it never seems to have truly ended. Perhaps I just came to understand it more. But already, though my family seems to be continually faced with the fact that we are mortal.
I am sorry to have gotten so melancholy! I am not so sad as this may make me out to be! I am simply thinking melancholic thoughts lately. The last week I have been sitting vigil beside our dear old cat. He had two or more strokes last week, he started having trouble walking and suddenly went blind. There is nothing that can really be done, and so, as long as he is not in pain, we are simply waiting. And yet, with all of this, he still switches his tail in annoyance when you wake him up, and begins to purr when you talk to him.
It has actually been a sad but lovely week, spending the time caring for our Old Man, giving him broth and his favorite foods, making sure he knows he is safe and loved. Knowing that if he dies during the night, we will have done all we could, and he was happy until the end. And so, I am enjoying my quite week. It is nice not having a car, not even being able to go anywhere if I felt I should ~ because I really wanted to be home with our sweet Dominic.
Love,
Lucia Marcella

A new venture ~

Ever since I was little I have dreamed of having a little business making toys. When I was twelve I actually payed for my pet rabbits' food by selling little felt toy bunnies at the local farmers market. I brought a spinning wheel and my two sweet pet rabbits - Toby and Samwise Gamgee - and was able to sell every toy I had made, and had a wonderful time!
I think that was actually the first time someone told me about Etsy.
"You should sell these online," a really nice lady said. "There's a new website that hosts small business."
Of course, then I got distracted by (homeschool) high school, getting sick, and worrying about college... and, well, I have a bad case of Procrastination.
But now (drum roll please!) I am finally making the leap and opening my Etsy shop!
It's called The White Bird Studio, and I am planing on opening it on November 1st, All Saints Day ~ I need all the help I can get, and how great is it to have all the saints as patrons of my shop?
There will be an Autumn girl or two, a few little Christmas Elves, and some sweet Winter maidens. If I am able to get everything done in time, they might be joined by some other little surprises, but we'll have to wait and see!
I am so excited about finally starting my little shop, and I hope you enjoy seeing my little people in progress!

Remember September

I am, apparently, very bad at this blogging thing.

Every time I sit down at the computer I cant think of a single thing to write! 

It's like writing an essay for school all over again...

We did finally get our first bit of cooler weather this past week, which is amazingly exciting after a summer of 100+ degrees! I opened all the windows in the house the moment it got into the 70's. The cats decided that this must be winter, and began to sleep the day away curled up in the warmest bright spot on the rug. 

It's warmed back up to feel like summer again now, and I'm drinking many cups of tea, knitting woolen socks, and wishing for fall. 

Anyway, this is me, trying to begin this blog in earnest. Hopefully I can get some good pictures of what I am sewing the next time the sun comes out, and post an actual blog post sometime in the next few days.

Until then, thank you for stopping by my little corner of the internet! 

It was so lovely to meet you ~

By the sea

Nearly every summer we spend a few days by the ocean just taking a rest from the the world and breathing in the salty air. We pack up a bunch of black and white movies, at least five books per person,  a couple of knitting projects, and a bag of watercolor paints. We look forward to those beautiful calm days all year, and never want to leave once we are there. We always get home wondering what we can do to make Life more like our seaside days, and this year we are trying even harder to figure it out.  I think we have started getting the beginnings of a plan...

1. Make time for art every day, even if it's just a couple of minutes, and what ever come out of it doesn't look anything like how you wanted it to.
2. Read more actual, paper and ink, hold in you hand, page turning books. Kindles only sometimes count.
3. Watch TV and movies together, even if it's not something you particularly like. It might still make you laugh :)
4. Go outside deliberately,  not just in order to get somewhere, but simply to be outside. To look at the flowers, watch the sunrise,  and find bird tracks in the sand.
5. That tea can help every situation!

Given,  that last one isn't exactly news, but it's good to be reminded of the important things!
I hope everyone's summers are going beautifully,  and I'll see if I can learn how to write more then one blog post per season!

Little Amity

This is Miss Amity, my first real attempt at making a doll from the pattern on up. She is mostly inspired by pictures of handmade cloth dolls from the mid 1800's, but once I reached her face, I couldn't help put embroider it!  I have only found a very few pictures of cloth dolls from the 1800's who's faces are not simply painted (or very beautifully painted, but I did not want to attempt that just yet!). Most of the embroidered faces I have seen are on very sweet little African American dolls, so I may have to try making a copy of one of those next. When I realized Amity was not going to be a perfect reproduction doll, I decided to just have fun experimenting, giving her hand-spun hair with a braided bun, and hands inspired by Izannah Walker dolls.
I hadn't realized that I never got a good head-to-toe picture of her, but I'll post more pictures as soon as I have her underpinnings completed ~ for now I am having a very fun time imagining tiny petticoats and miniature leather shoes!

Back to sewing for me ~ what do you all think of my little girl?