Hop over to April Food Day to read more: click here

Pigtown Design and Easy and Elegant Life have teamed up

to focus the blogging community 

on the needs of so many people who are suffering 

from lack of jobs, money and food.

The time is now.

Help replenish Food Banks.

More and more people are having difficulty making ends meet.

The Foods Banks are serving record numbers of people.

Please consider a donation to Feeding America, formerly Second Harvest.

200 Food Banks belong to Feeding America.

$1.00 will buy 10 lbs of food or seven meals for a family in need.

$25 will provide 75 meals.

click here to donate

Please put April Food Day in the comments section

if you make a donation.

The time to help is now.

Today is my father's 80th birthday

Happy Birthday Dad!

xoxo 

 Dad and Grandchildren at his 70th celebration

He loves books.

Dad is an historian and retired professor.

When he moved from his house to an apartment last year

there were 5,000 books!

He kept 1,000 and we donated the rest to Got Books?

a fun photo of Grampa with his Grandchildren

on Christmas a few years back

and Dad with almost the whole family 

and don't forget

The last Friday of the month is

Pursuit of Happiness Day

jump over to the NYT 

to enjoy Maira Kalman's blog

here is a teaser...

Light on posting this week

College visits

I can hardly believe Miss Is

is all grown up

Happy Birthday Miss Is

Delish chocolate fudge sundae 

from Serendipity

One of my favorite pictures

and another favorite

sampling of new spring 2009 line 

Check out one of the new spring 2009 fabrics.

 I just love these mermaids by Heather Ross.

In fact, I love all of Heather's fabrics.  

Whimsical, happy and fresh.

She has a great blog too.

This will be her last fabric collection for awhile 

because of a non-compete clause in a contract with a clothing manufacturer.

Read about Heather Ross here 

Here is another fun fabric

We actually brought a goldfish home in a plastic bag from a fair

and IT SURVIVED for almost a year.

Goldie was it's name, of course.

Remember last week when I posted about the Squam Art Camps

and I told you that we used to go there each summer for a glorious week.

Photo in the frame is from RDC

all the kiddies are going out to Loon Island for a picnic

in Mabel, the boat.

such wonderful memories

 NYC - Bryant Park

Stopped here yesterday for a sandwich and a little knitting

before meeting up with the other Knit Wits.

Knit Wits road trip

 Martha's knitting show in NYC.

Coffee clutch and animated hands.

The bears were knitted by Kris for the

 Mother Bear Project.

To date 37,000 bears have been knit by hand and given

to children afflicted by HIV/AIDs in emerging nations.

The Knit Wits are going to knit a few more bears. 

Studio shots

 sorry for bad photos,

flash not working properly with all the bright lights

Everyone was encouraged to knit throughout the show.

Another set shot.

dh worked in a tv network control room for years.

I loved seeing the production team in action behind the scenes. 

The studio audience view is another unique perspective.

So much more fun to watch than the edited production.

View from our perch,

good seats in the middle, 3/4 of the way up.

Good size audience.

One of knitters and her beautiful felted bag 

more gorgeous felted bags

and check out this coat.

 

I will post some more pictures from the Martha blog 

after the show airs on March 23, 2008.

We all came away wishing that there had been more talk about 

knitting, fibers, designers, resources.

It was still a good road trip.

We are getting together for lunch and viewing on Monday

and it was a gorgeous almost spring NYC day.

Snowdrops

a sure sign that winter is almost over...

Stepping outside last Saturday I was greeted by the wonderful fresh smell of spring.

It was a bright morning with just the right nip in the air.

And look what I noticed in the garden.

These snowdrops came from Bavaria by way of 

Cincinnatti, then Wellesley, and now they are in my garden in Wilton.

My sister's in-laws emigrated to the USA from Germany in the 50's.

They tucked a few snowdrops deep in their luggage

to have some of their homeland in their new country.

The snowdrops thrived in Cincinnati and multiplied and multiplied.

Any Gardeners out there?  Check out the picture above - 

do the small white oval bulbs with short stems look right to you?  

Should they be above ground like that?

Opa brings more bulbs for the east coast garden whenever he visits.

One day I admired them and by the time I was ready to leave

Polly had dug up a stash for me to take back to Wilton.

I planted them about three years ago.

This is the first spring that I have seen them.

I thought they died.

A metaphor for life right now; 

don't give up, give everything a chance, 

a little bit of nurturing, maybe a slow start, 

and just when you think its done and gone,

it awakens.

Patience.

In honor of St Patrick's day

image from A Shaded View of Fashion

9 Feb 2009

When my daughter was little

 a leprechaun would leave a book under her pillow

on St Patrick's day -

a little bit of magic that started randomly one year 

when I wanted an excuse to buy my sweetie more books!

Miss Is loves to read.

We outgrew all the bookshelves in her room 

and in every other part of the house.

You know if you read this blog, that I am a careful spender and consumer:

use it up, make it do, do without,

my mantra even before this economic mess.

So the local library has always been a wonderful resource

for our family.

Before we moved to town, one of the first places I checked out was the library.

The NYT's just did a piece on the importance of libraries: click here

KNIT WITS

Catchy name, right?

So catchy that the Martha Stewart show gave us tickets to their 

knitting-themed show to be aired on March 23.

Nine like-minded knitting fanatic friends 

started knitting as a group about three years ago.

We knit for ourselves and charity.

Last fall we decided to all make a blanket using the same pattern.

Everyone chose their own colors

I created the mosaic picture above to figure out what colors I wanted to use.

I am one of the slow knitters.

Knitting is my relaxation

and there are only so many free hours in my day.

I have six squares done out of 12, 

it is slow going...

 I should be done, but I have pulled back a lot to fix 

mistakes, mistakes, mistakes 

I will be happy when I am finished

 goal is to be finished by Easter,

no

on second thought, July 4th

(one square per week repeats on my 28 day list over and over)

my range of colors below:

Susan's combo

and Kathy's

and Kris's

Liz's blanket in early December

Liz was the first to finish

She had three done by Christmas!

Pam's finished product

a mini in production by Liz, aka speed knitter

check this out

another amazing piece of knitting by Pam

intarsia 

you can't even imagine how hard this looked

but stunning now 

just a little bit left to do

maybe it will be finished for the Martha show

more details and pics after the KNIT WITS experience the Martha show.

Last summer Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom fame gave me this quilt

to use for the creation of a large board

40" x 45"

Voila

the finished product in one of sis boom's photo shoots

a head board 

Got another order yesterday 

a patchwork board with all of Jennifer's new fabrics

Flower Power

as seen on J Caroline's website

I am using a lot of Jennifer's fabrics in my 2009 spring line too!

Here is a selection.

Loads of pictures of frames coming soon!

I know, I keep saying that, but remember I already admitted to being a procrastinator

and the weather is still cold here

the space heater is very small

and it can be very cold in the studio, aka garage.

Find creativity, inspiration,friendship, and beauty 

in the woods of New Hampshire

Imagine art all day long

in a beautiful camp-like setting

on the cleanest lake in New Hampshire

surrounded by mountains

here is one of the cabins

called Studio

RDC is a family camp established 100 years ago.

Families go back summer after summer

We stayed in this cabin for one week many years ago

and also the lodge in the top photo.

In the off season RDC hosts different groups

like the Squam Art Camps or a corporate retreat

Posie Gets Cozy wrote about this art camp here

The camps are run in June and September.

I wish I could go,

maybe another year.