Winter Birds

I miss lazy summer mornings, daydreaming, sipping coffee and watching the birds on my bird feeder.  Maybe these exotic birds clinging to my living room lamp are the next best thing?   If I don't change my mind...again...the decoration of birds will be the needle felted project that I demonstrate at my guild meeting next month.  The linen bird is sewn but the rest of the construction is done completely with a felting needle. 

Fallen Leaf

After the autumn winds blow,
And the trees are bare,
There will remain this token of the season
To take you through
To a much awaited spring.

When it comes to weather in Chicago there are just a few things we can count on.  The leaves will fall in autumn and return to us in the spring.  My favorites are the maple tree leaves which are bountiful in my yard.  Their colors are stunning!  This stitching was done directly on a leaf, following its color pattern until I had a replica of what nature had given me. 

Click HERE to see a fallen leaf at the Green Sheep Gallery

Princess Bunny Chair

My overstuffed chair is no longer stuffed and I replaced the coffee table that no longer had a finish on it.  I’ve come to accept a little destruction in exchange for having free roaming bunnies.  I really wouldn’t have it any other way, after all, house rabbits are exactly that, house rabbits.  But now I’ve made a move on the offense, a chewable chair.   Stormy is my perching bunny even though she’s twelve years old.   She’s also the chewer.  So, just for you, Stormy, your very own princess chair!

Thanks to everyone who saved corrugated boxes for me!

Bunny pumpkin

I think that Chuck, my head tilt bunny, looks more like a version of Munch's, The Scream, and Stormy is lacking her princess tiara but it's a pumpkin after-all.

Flying pigs

It seems that almost all my free time these days is spent in home repair.  This is not such a bad thing as I have enjoyed adding artistic elements to what otherwise might be mundane work.  (Notice my magic closet bunnies in a previous entry.)  For the last six months my home remodeling project has been my utility room.   As I worked I pondered about how I could add creative elements to this project.   It came to me after receiving a bird feeder as a birthday gift with a warning that I would be overrun by flying pigs.  I really don’t mind the flying pigs but I was pleasantly surprised when the first birds to come to my feeder were a pair of goldfinches.   Now I can watch them even on a winter day when the bird feeder has been emptied by the pigs, as I fold laundry, dreaming of the return of spring.

Still in the organizational stage but for all practical purposes, functional. 

Meet Teddy

Meet Teddy!  Teddy is a fuzzy lop that came to stay with me for a couple of weeks.  His fuzziness was irresistible, long black and white fur that was begging to be spun into yarn.  I spun the skein he's standing next to from only two combings, 35 yards, not quite a scarf but it wouldn't take long!  He looks proud and rightfully so!

Magic Closet Bunnies

These bunnies found their way into my book closet.  They are free spirits flourishing in days full of play, filling my art studio with their inspiration.  Hiding behind my books they will remain unseen, only peering through the empty space when a book is drawn.   They are my magic closet bunnies.