I found myself often taken by surprise when I stop to think what day of the week it is or what date in the month it is. (Meaning I do this a lot "It's Wednesday already? How did that happen?" or "Where has February gone to?") I am always genuinely surprised. Today is no exception, I can't believe it is Wednesday and I can't believe it is almost March.

The other thing that is pretty true about me is that by this time of the year I am totally ready for spring, new beginnings, warm weather, trees in bloom, everything getting a new breath of life. But, for some really strange reason, for the first time since . . . I actually don't remember, I am very happy with this wintery, snowy, cold nonsense that we have. I don't know why. I guess because winter gives me all these excuses to stay in, snuggle, drink lots of tea, sew with wool and knit, it is all so comforting. But don't get me wrong, Spring will be a much anticipated event too I am sure.

So here is something that I am working on (last week I tried to teach myself how to knit and crochet, two things that my Grandma was a total master at.) I am nowhere near that, but I find it very relaxing and comforting. This is a scarf for my sister, to match her bright red wool jacket.

As far as Pea Soup goes, not much has been created in wool felt lately, well except for these guys.

That's all for now, here's to the comforts of winter and the promise of spring!

The Birds and the Bees

It's Friday! How did that happen so quickly!? Anyway, it certainly is and I don't know about you but we had a snowy/icy/rainy/slushy/gray day here. That's okay though because it sent me into productive mode and that was a very needed thing!

For example, I spent the morning packing up orders to send out (thank you for your order everyone!) Then on my way home from the post office, I stopped at the states store to reward myself with a nice little bottle of wine for later! (We call it a states store here in PA – not so in most places for sure!) Then it was a day filled with cleaning, knitting, cookie making and soon, dinner making as well. Lots was accomplished and that is such a good feeling!

Okay, I have been saying for a couple of days about how excited I am about my latest Etsy purchase. Here it is! It is really really beautiful. I have been really loving these types of necklaces lately, I have this one from chainchainchain that I love and now this one. This beauty is from a lovely seller pickypicky I love that it is "the birds and the bees" (giggle.)

While I very much wanted to make that my last shopping purchase for myself for awhile, I stumbled upon this shop and well, I don't think that there will be any resisting one of these.

May you have a most wonderful Friday evening!!!

More Alphabet Flowers

I know that I said I was going to show and tell my new Etsy purchase, but I just finished this little gal and wanted to do a little entry on it and let you know that it is in the shop! I have "H" almost finished too! More on that, this and the other after a little afternoon siesta!

Panda, Fortune Cookies, and Fuchsia

Hi Everyone!

I spent the day in the studio and feel a little more caught up as far as Pea Soup production goes! I wanted to do a little show and tell of some new little guys that I am really excited about. I made three little Panda dolls in cute little vests, as always, they are all hand sewn.

You may be asking yourself, what are those little things underneath the panda dolls? Ah, that is an excellent question and one I am very excited to answer . . .

They are these . . .

Tiny little fortune cookies made out of felt and each little panda doll comes with one. They best part? There is a little fortune inside!

I am thinking about just making a batch of these for the site, just tiny little fortune cookies for giving to friends and family, we shall see!

You can see more of this little guy here.

Also, I am very excited about the next entry in the Flowers A to Z project. I think that it might be my favorite so far

– it is “F is for Fuchsia.” My, I think it is gorgeous! I love how the layering of petals turned out. My parents have one of those big wrap around porches and in the summer, they put out hanging baskets between each banister, there are a ton of them! One year, they put out fuchsia and it was really beautiful! (By the way, this design will be available in the shop in the next couple of days.)

That's all of the show and tell for now. Tomorrow, a show and tell of my latest and gorgeous Etsy purchase!

A pair of Luckies and the Shamrock

Okay, now turning my needle and thread to the next holiday - out with the pink and red and in with a little GREEN.

I have started to slowly add some shamrocks and leprecauns to the shop. Do check them out!

E is for Evening Primrose

It seems like it has been quite a long time since my last post!

It is now Monday, I hope that everyone had a wonderful candy- hearts-and-paper-doily valentines day! I certainly did. Ed and I had a really nice evening together. There was a chocolate cake and his favorite meal from me and I received the most beautiful, funny, touching, amazing card, a dozen peach roses and a bottle of my favorite wine. AHH! I am a very lucky gal indeed!

Then I got to spend the weekend at my parents', with all of my siblings and nieces and nephews. It was a wonderful weekend of good food, laughter, hide and seek and just beautiful moments in the big old farmhouse. And so, now I am trying to get back into the swing of things – a little slowly for sure. I have not been very crafty lately, but I do have this to show you –

Here is "E" of my flower series! I enjoyed making it very much and am excited to get back to working on the series. The "Evening Primrose" is available here.

I am also really excited about this. Thank You! I get really over the moon about this kind of stuff, and so it made my day indeed!

Love-ly

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

With Lots of Love,

-Nicole

Earring Elves

These were yesterday’s project.

I can’t believe them myself. What is so hard for me to believe? Just the entire idea of earring elves really. Could you imagine if they were real and you could have a couple of two inch tall elves hanging out with you all day long? What would they talk about? What might they observe? Just some thoughts. By the way, the pair wearing the pink tunics are available here!

Today’s projects include some little panda dolls and letter G in my flowers from A to Z project. I have so far finished up to “F is for Fuchsia.” I am going to save my pics for a later post, I really love how the fuchsia flower turned out. Perhaps tomorrows show and tell?

Wiener Dog in a Blanket

Well, we actually DID get all that snow that they were saying we were going to get! It is so much fun to have lots of snow, especially when there's no where to go and all of my obligations did get cancelled today, so it has been a day in the studio for me!

First of all, my very sweet boyfriend gave me an early Valentines Day present yesterday – this really fantastic book from Gloria Page. I absolutely LOVE her stuff. It's very different from my own style and I think that is part of the reason why I love her so. Also, she writes like a real person and makes everything seem so accessible. So I immediately made a cup of tea and curled up on the couch with this one yesterday. Thanks Ed!!! (By the way, if you want, you should check out her website.)

I also had a little photo shoot this morning while the light was just right and here are some of the results:

more tiny pins that will soon be in the shop

a trio of bug babies that I posted about yesterday

And here are my flower pins from A to D, I took one last photo of them before they were mailed off to their new owner!

and this

. . . yes, it is my wiener dog in her new corduroy coat. Normally I do not dress my pets, they aren't that into it and that's good enough reason for me. However, this little dog of mine is constantly shivering in the winter time! It is actually almost necessary for her to be in a blanket covered up sometimes and so this is like a portable blanket and she looooves it. (And man does it make me giggle when I see her trotting around in it!)

Okay everyone, stay warm and well bundled!!!

Butterfly Baby

It is so very cold here today and we are supposed to get lots of snow . . . So I thought what a perfect day to put one of my new designs up for sale in the shop. I am absolutely in love with this little pin. Oh my goodness!!! It was one of those ideas that I had rolling around in my head and had no idea would turn out as it did! Well, needless to say I am quite happy with it.

“Butterfly Baby” is the first of three little bug babies. They were soooo much fun to make! I made them into pins and slightly larger doll versions. I also made “Honey Bee Baby” and “Ladybug Baby.” Of course I now realized that I need a photo shoot with the other two. Whoops! “Butterfly” is in the shop now.

Also, I have been working on my “Flowers from A to Z” project. I finished "E is for Evening Primrose" last night and have started drawing up the pattern for “F is for Fuchsia.” As soon as I am done here, I am off to take pictures of them, the light is just right!!! So more on that tomorrow!

Scattered Progress

It is so windy in the woods today that our afternoon walk literally took my breath away! It has been a secret dream of mine since I was little to be slightly "swept up" in a big gust of wind. Not to go very far or very high, just off of my feet for a minute. I thought that today was going to be the day!

I wish that I had more projects that were finished or in the works to show you. But it has been a couple of days of lots of little experiments and very little finished product. I have had my hand in many cookie jars if feels like lately, a little hand sewing, a little machine sewing, a little playing with clay. Lots of playing and experimenting and that is a very good thing too!!!

One of my experiments yesterday was to make a little felt purse/wallet. I started with a piece of dark green felt and lined it with a little fabric. It never got completely finished because I got distracted while looking for the hammer to fasten the snaps on to it!

Right now, while listening to the wind swirl around the house and the distant sound of my boyfriend's band recording in the studio, I am sipping tea and sewing lots of tiny little flower pins. These are like my big blooms only on a much smaller scale. Here's the hand full I have finished and they will be in the shop this week too.

Hope one and all had a fun and restful weekend!

My Latest Project: Flowers from A to Z

Okay, so I have to admit, I am really good at starting projects, get really excited about them, mentioning them here on the blog (as in "more on that later!") and then either never getting around to posting about it or not doing it until months later. This is one of those projects, I probably vaguely mentioned it a month ago. But here it is!!! It's my "Flowers from A to Z" project!

It’s pretty straightforward; I am designing a flower brooch for each letter of the alphabet. So far, I have A to D completed:

A is for Aster

B is for Blue Bells

C is for Chrysanthemum

D is for Daisy

I looove them!!!

Basically the process is just a drawing of the flower and creating a brooch from the drawing, I am trying to make it as realistically styled as I can. Though I am not used to that! So it is a little sewing out of my comfort zone I guess! I plan on keeping tabs on my progress here and also posting the pins here. Aster is going to be the first and it will be up tomorrow in the shop. I have only made one of each, I don’t know if I am going to stick to that or not. We shall see!!!

Now, it is back to the sewing table for me. Today is a VERY special birthday, my nephew George turns the BIG FOUR YEARS OLD today!!! He just so happens to be a dinosaur expert, so I am stitching him a baby stegosaurus – I will be sure to post some pics when it’s done!

A Very Happy Monday

Happy Monday everyone! It is a rather happy Monday over here in Pea Soup Land. First of all we are having what I call a "Lamp Day" today. Meaning it is so foggy and murky outside that are little lamps lit throughout the house. So cozy!

The second reason that it is a happy Monday is because these two showed up on my porch!!!
Isn't that the very best? You look forward to a special mail package and then it shows up like a present for no special occasion at all! These two adorable Japanese appliqué and embroidery books are from the wonderful shop Chocolateswirl. If you haven't checked out this great Etsy shop yet, please do! I think I want one of everything. And talk about speedy shipping! I didn't even have a chance to wait in excitement for my new books they came so fast!

The third reason that it is a happy Monday, I finished my project that I started a few days ago, you may remember this post. Well now they have turned into these!
Oh how I love this blooms! I made a dozen and each one is different! I went heavy on the buttons, one because I love the way it looks and two, I want to buy more buttons and had to thin the stash! I am planning on posting them all in the shop eventually; this one will be first and should be in by tomorrow.

Okay, I think show-and-tell is over for today. Why you may ask? Because after all those blooms, this is the state of my work table!

It is Super Bowl Sunday, I come from a long line of football enthusiasts . . . and I am not 100% sure I know who is playing in the Super Bowl today . . . Giants? New England? Tom Petty? All I know is, Super Bowl Sunday is one of those special occasions that you can have all snacks for dinner . . . not that I would or anything . . .

Anyhow, I just posted this little cardinal in the shop.

It is another one of my drawings turned felt creation. I made three of them awhile ago and I have had the hardest time getting decent pictures. I don't know if it is the red felt or the shape of the ornament or what. I was too impatient to wait for more acceptable pics, so here it is! There are only three made, so if you like it, snaggle it up!

Mod

I was a little more house-work productive today, so not much creating was accomplished. But I had a really fun night last night experimenting with some new materials (more on that later.) I also cut out these "Brady Bunch" flowers as Ed called them. I thought that they looked so pretty on my table, I ought to share them with you!

(Color combo testing.)

A Rainy Ice Day

A most interesting weather day today. We awoke to a crunchy layer of slippery ice and it has been raining steadily. Needless to say, I have been indoors for most of the day, lets see . . . there was a little bit of sewing and cookie making and tea drinking that happened. Nothing house-work-y at all!

As far as creating, sometimes in the midst of making new designs, I will throw in an old favorite, to stock up more than anything. So, in a very random decision, I have been making fall leaf pins and earrings. I know, strange. But now I am back to making more fruit and breakfast cards and another secret project I will tell you more about very soon!

Here is a little collection of Valentine goodies that are in the shop!