Potholder Pass Holiday Edition

I couldn't resist joining in the holiday round of Potholder Pass :)
You make two holiday or winter themed potholders plus a handmade ornament and you get the same in return. I thought it would be perfect to have a lovely new holiday set of potholders for Christmas dinner and I just love surprise packages *grin*. If you are interested in joining in you have until tomorrow and you can sign up here by leaving a message that you want to join :)

So to feed my Christmas creativity I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the annual Quilting Arts Gifts magazine. It always kicks my holiday spirit into high gear and it is chock fully of so many great projects!

flickr pic via lindakl

But if that doesn't get your crafty motor running and you need something immediately more visual then here are a few scrumptious holiday themed mosaics to feed your crafty soul *grin*.

flickr pic via vivie95

Loooove it!!

Hugs,
Rosina

Hello & Thank You

A couple of days ago I found a lovely little note in my email inbox from Jodi @ Pleasant Home letting me know that she had stumbled across my blog and was going to share about it on her blog. It was so incredibly sweet of her :)

The funny thing was that I had just been over to hers only days before drooling over how absolutely lovely her blog is!! If you have never been over to visit her you must go right away. She has gorgeous photos of her sewing projects, tutorials, recipes and you've just got to check out her 'Needle little Inspiration' section to find some of her favorite blogs she has found :)

And if one blog just isn't enough eye candy to satisfy your need for all things sewing related....

You just have to see her new blog Sew Picture Perfect *grin*
Oh wow! So many photos of fabrics, quilts, crafts, aprons, sewing notions and more from other quilters and crafters. It's sure to bring a smile to your face every morning :)

So thank you Jodi for the feature and for all of the wonderful inspiration that you share on your blogs and thank you so much to all of you that visited, left lovely comments and hello to all of my new followers :)

Hugs,
Rosina

A Lovely Surprise

The little bunting birthday cake that I made for L's birthday party this summer has been featured in the One Pretty Thing weekly flickr friends roundup.

What a fun little surprise :)
I hope you all are having a great weekend!
Hugs,
Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Green Wedding Favors

1. Essence of Summer, 2. Trio of Trees in Burlap, 3. DIY Green Wedding Centerpiece Favors, 4. Bird Seed Heart Favors With Custom Tags

With Earth Day having just passed and the fact that the wedding season is kicking it into high gear I thought it would be fun to share some ideas for earth friendly wedding favors :)

If I had my wedding to do over I would have loved to have given away tree saplings for guests to take home and plant in their backyard! And check out those place settings above... a potted herb would be fabulous as they could be taken home and be used as cooking spice later. Or how about making homemade jam? A delicious treat and extra special because you made it with love :)

The possibilities are endless! Seed packets with your names & wedding dates filled with flowers or vegetables to be planted or how about cloth market bags to replace one plastic bag each time a guest goes shopping the next time :) Think edible, plant-able or re-usable when picking a favor this year and the earth will thank you!

Want to join in the fun and share your flickr favorites? Head over to Misty's blog and join in!

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Travel

1. houses of Bryggen, 2. Coronet, 3. Jack Detoured Through The Castle Garden, 4. 2009 07 09_7733_edited-1

I'm not sure how I came to rounding up this set of photos. Perhaps it was the thought of traveling to a quaint town by the sea, picnicing in the park, cruising along with the top down and catching the sunshine in a field of golden poppies *grin*.

Sounds heavenly to me, how about you?

Want to join in the fun and share your flickr favorites? Head over to Misty's blog and join in!

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Spring

1. I'm Really Rosie..., 2. #575 黃鴝傘彩, 3. Spring Blossoms, 4. The Spring corner

I think that we have finally broke through from the dreary days of winter and sprang right into SPRING!! Well at least for now *grin*. It has been so warm and sunny that it has lightened my spirits immensely.

I think that I may have had a touch of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) with the non stop gray rainy days we had this winter. There wasn't even any snow this year to shine brilliantly during the day to make things brighter :( But the bees are buzzing, the blossoms are opening, the birds are chirping, we're enjoying nature, singing & dancing and feeling 'springy'. *grin*

So today it's all about spring!

Want to join in the fun and share your flickr favorites? Head over to Misty's blog and join in!

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Marvelous Macro

1. Coccinella, 2. Stamen, 3. the dance of fire, 4. Giant-Blueberry

Macro photography is always so interesting! The simplest of objects can be magnified so intensely that they look quite alien or a tiny visitor such as the snail on the blueberries above becomes glaringly apparent especially if you happened to have not noticed him and might have eaten him!!



This is a photo I took of a Helleborus pistil and stamen. I love how you can see the little bits of pollen clinging to the anthers.



And this is the underside of a limpet that we found beach combing one afternoon :) Isn't he the creepiest little thing you've ever seen?! He was totally into checking out his new surroundings and you can see his mouth and tentacles extended in the upper left hand corner.

Yucky but oh so interesting *grin*. Have you taken any macro shots lately? I think I'm going to have to take my camera and see what sort of spring shots I can capture!

Want to join in the fun and share your flickr favorites? Head over to Misty's blog and join in!

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Easter Crafts

1. home made fluffy easter chicks, 2. Egg-cellent Easter Grass, 3. easter eggs, 4. Chicks sandwich

I thought that with this coming weekend being Easter and all that I would share some really great Easter crafts that you can do for yourself or with your kiddies :)

All of the above photos in the mosaic have links to their tutorial pages and below are some more of my favorites that I've ran across so far this year. Have fun crafting!



Super cute Easter Chick bag made with placemats!

Turn an empty oatmeal can or tin into a creative Easter basket :)

Love these fuzzy chenille carrots!



Easter bunny treat bags or party favors made with envelopes

And I've got to make some of these adorable Ballet Bunnies!! So cute :)

Want to join in the fun and share your flickr favorites? Hop on over Easter bunny style to Misty's blog and join in!

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ 39 Squares Stitch Along

1. 3, 2. 8, 3. 4, 4. 10

I couldn't help myself but make a mosaic entirely comprised of freestyle embroidery by Amy from Inspireco. They are freaking amazing and I just had to share them with you :)

In celebration of her birthday this month she had decided to do a birthday sampler with one tiny little postage sized square for each year of life and she has even started a special blog called '39 Squares' where you can join and stitch along with her while creating your own sampler.

Oh do I want to do this to *grin*. All I need is to get my hands on some linen and I can start! Check out the flickr group that she has set up for all of the other ladies to share their squares on as they stitch along :) So fun!

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Take Two

1. Rosina du Gui Nel, 2. rosina, 3. 01 Puppe Rosina, 4. Lauris Elms Dame Joan & Rosina Sunday 5th Nov 2005

I completely forgot that Mitsy had given us a challenge for this weeks flickr favorites so you'll have to excuse the over abundance of mosaics today as this is my second in a row! *grin*.

The challenge was to create a mosaic of photos that showed who I am. It didn't have to be actual photos of myself and I thought it would be interesting to search for photos with my name, Rosina. I've got to say that apparently my name tells me a lot about myself!

So here is a little bit about me to go with each of the photos I chose.

1. I'm a Sagittarius, an Archer, a water horse. I love horses and have owned them in the past. I like to spend time watching from afar, not quite the social butterfly I would like to be :)

2. I went to nursing school... fresh out of high school at 17. I've always loved those starched white caps. The photo actually reminds me a lot of myself.

3. I'm a crafter. A day without being creative is torture!

4. I'm a mother, a daughter and a sister :)

Bisous de Rosina ;), originally uploaded by jacaranda4.

So now that you know a little bit more about me I'm coming to stick my nose around your flickr self portrait *grin*. You can check out the first mosaic I made today here if you like to :)

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Hex Mania

1. Hexagon Quilt , 2. Grandmother's Flower Garden, 3. hexagons, 4. hexitis macro

I'm having a serious case of hexagon envy! *grin*. I thought that I would oogle some of the other hex projects happening on flickr and came across so many beautiful quilts. Oh my! So colorful and so many variations :) I also stumbled across a really interesting tutorial on how to do an invisible ladder stitch for binding quilts. I just might have to try this out :)

I've finished ironing all of my little hexagons for L's little dolly quilt and I ended up cutting out four new ones in a solid green linen that I had so that I can do a little freehand embroidery on them. I'm not sure if I will stitch her initials or little flowers or what yet but now that I've added them I've got the option to make it a little more personalized for her :)

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

Flickr Favorites ~ Crewel

1. felted stone covered in french knots, 2. crewel embroidery, 3. crewel embroidery, 4. Crewel: 26

I love thick & chunky crewel embroidery. It's just so delicious looking *grin* Definitely something that I would love to be able to devote more time to.

Say It With Stitches, originally uploaded by Artdoodads.etsy.

As I was searching for embroidery photos I came across this pattern book for the most adorable children's embroidery patterns. I wonder if I can find this at the library or on ebay. I could definitely have some fun with it :)

How about you, any crewel or other embroidery books that are your favorites right now?

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Through The Looking Glass

1. "...and even if my head would go through...it would be of very little use without my shoulders", 2. Through the Looking Glass, 3. Alice through the looking glass, 4. Mad Hatter

With my Alice in Wonderland package safely on its way to my swap partner I'm just itching to share with you what I made for her but I'm going to have to keep it a secret for just a little while longer until she receives it :) What I can share though are some fun 'through the looking glass' photos that I found on flickr as I anxiously wait for Tim Burton's new version of Alice to be released on Friday!! It looks like it's going to be good, plus I like the dark twist he puts on his movies *grin*.

Anyone else heading out to see it this weekend?

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ 2010 Olympic Games

1. Happy 45th Birthday, Maple Leaf Flag, 2. Olympic City, 3. B20100531_Ski_Jumper, 4. Vancouver_Olympics_Luge_OLYBO155.JPG

Friday was the official kick off of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games here in Canada and boy did they put on a spectacular opening ceremony!! We missed the first airing of it on the television so my husband and I actually started watched it at midnight to see what we had missed and boy am I glad we did :)

We had the chance to see the torch pass through when it started its cross country journey and now I'm putting together a scrapbook for the kids with all of the best photos and articles that I can get out of the newspaper. The Vancouver Sun is dedicating quite a few sections of the daily paper to covering all of the events and so on so I am really looking forward to reading it and watching some of the games on the television with the kids to :)

How about you, are you doing anything special as this games unfold?

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind and join in!

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Red Joy

1. Crochet Mushroom, 2. Red Hangers Arow, 3. Yayoi Kusama "Ascension of Polkadots on the trees", 4. red + white

The other day one of my market totes was featured in the most amazing red polka dot treasury and it was so bright and lively that it just made you want to smile. So I thought I'd put together some of my favorite red polka dot photos to bring a little 'red joy' to you :) Perfect for the dreary gray days of winter! I must say that I would love to wrap some trees with polka dotted paper. Wouldn't it be so striking in the dead of winter with snow on the ground to run into trees like that?! Something that perhaps you would find in Alice in Wonderland :) Enjoy.

Play along!
Build your own mosaic and visit Artmind's blog to join in :)

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Eye Spy

1. Owl, 2. Polka dotted, 3. speak2, 4. Precious Gems

I am completely in love with turquoise and blues right now and as I searched Flickr for some photos matching that color I found these amazing pictures of eyes :) The photo in the bottom right hand corner made me think of a magnified section of an iris. The color is so vibrant!

Play along!
Build your own mosaic and visit Artmind's blog to join in :)

~ Rosina