Happy Thanksgiving

This is Hubby's and my first Thanksgiving in our tiny cottage, cooking dinner in the tiny kitchen. How tiny is tiny? Well, when we went to the grocery store we brought a tape measure to make sure that the turkey would fit in the oven. :) It should be an interesting day!

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Window Shopping in PJ's

It is snowing outside, so I decided to play over at Etsy while having my morning coffee. I love window shopping from the top of a mountain in pj's. :) Do you shop at Etsy?






1-Vintage Christmas ornaments from bleueclectic
2-Handmade paper star from Paper Eclectics
3-Vintage blue ice skates from Repurposing
4-Knit hat & fingerless gloves from KnitBerry
5-Christmas card from Judy Stalus

Matter

Every so often, I wake up in the middle of the night (early morning really), slip on my shoes, put on my glasses, and go outside to see the stars. The night sky is so clear and there are so many stars that I cannot make out the constellations. Straining to see as far into the Milky Way as possible, instead of feeling like some insignificant speck of dust, I feel included and loved - an important piece in this gigantic revolving puzzle called life. With that, I go back to bed, and when I wake up again I remember what I saw and felt - and I know in my heart that you and I are not only matter, but in fact, we matter.

Photograph by Ingo Berg

Just A Little Peek

I know it's still November and Thanksgiving is next week, but can't we take just a little peek into next month? These ideas are all so pretty!







Photographs: 1&2-Pale & Interesting, 3-Hannas Sjarmerende JUL, 4-pb home, 5-Cox & Cox

Made It With What I Had!

Today is Cindy's "Made It With What I Had" linky party at her blog, Cottage Instincts. The idea is for us to use our ingenuity and creativity to come up with unique, beautiful things for our home using what's already laying around.

Perfect! I wrote a post a few weeks ago called "A Little Touch of Red" when I serendipitously discovered that I like red accents, and Cindy's party is exactly what I needed to get going and create some red accents for our tiny cottage.

This first photo is of the red kinnickinnic berries I strung several weeks ago that kicked off the whole red accent idea. I added a few to Gertrude and Heathcliff's birdbath for a splash of color...



I had some red velvet ribbon and red embroidery floss, so I used those along with some fabric scraps and buttons to make a small heart-shaped bag. I like the soft, raveled edges, and the little piece of lace is special because my sister gave it to me years ago...



There was plenty of red embroidery floss left over, so I spruced up a dishtowel with redwork...

UPDATE: Cindy asked for a tutorial, and I'm sending you all over to Janet McCaffrey's blog, Primrose Design, where she shares Stitch School how-to information!



And my last project was to frame a watercolor I painted. I already had the old frame, the wildflowers were pressed last Summer, and I was able to use up the last of the red velvet ribbon. The quote is by Blaise Pascal and translates to "The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of."



So that's what I made in time for today's party. Thank you, Cindy, for inspiring us to use up what we had to create something new! Now I'm off to visit everyone that participated today and see what they've made. Just click on "Made It With What I Had" - and I'll see you there!

Small Meadow Press

I want to share another favorite cottage industry with you today. Lesley runs Small Meadow Press from her home, and creates some of the most beautiful paper products I have ever seen. Just take a peek for yourself...







Aren't they beautiful? These are just a few of the items that Lesley currently offers. To see more, please click on Small Meadow Press.

Mosaic Monday - Teaching Myself to Paint

I'm living in a tiny cottage, 10,000 feet up, surrounded by forest, Hubby and a wild rabbit as companions, with 7 months of winter ahead of me. I couldn't be happier! For the past two weeks, I've been teaching myself to paint with watercolors, and I thought it would be fun to share what I've been working on. By next Spring, I hope to see some serious progress made! You can click on the image to see a larger view if you'd like...



Thank you for visiting, and if you have the time, please click on Mary's Little Red House for Mosaic Monday. The creativity, beauty, and fun shared through these mosaics is a joy to see!