Wedding Shower Favors

I just mailed a 19 pound box of soaps and lotions to my DIL for wedding shower favors. Go to the soap blog (www.oldtimerlily.com/blog) for a peek at their unusual wrapping and labeling.

Como Says...

Olivia is here! (With her stickers...)

Coming to Life...

As I've posted before, I love springtime - it's so hopeful.

Last week I had just come home from work and was about to walk down to the pond to feed the fish, when I noticed a goose family! We haven't seen a nest nearby, and it was only a one day visit, but aren't those five fluffy goslings cute?


And then, we noticed the thousands of tadpoles along the edge of the pond. Here's just a small portion of them:
Cosmo likes spring, too. Of course, he's a little disappointed that the hydrangea isn't blooming yet - it matches one of his eyes.
Over the long weekend, Oldtimer gave the deck a good cleaning, and all the wood is now nice and fresh and ready for sealer. What did we ever do before we had a power washer? The back of the house looks so fresh and clean, I can't wait to get it all put back together.

I spent the long weekend doing housework, ordering art supplies, watching my newly-purchased EPB video, and ordering some MORE art supplies. I finished my own contribution to the fabric cone swap, wrapped and labeled all the soaps & lotions I'm providing as bridal shower favors, played Mario Kart on the Wii, and got ready for this week's visit from my daughter and granddaughter. Thank heavens for long weekends!

Bird on the Sill

The past few days these birds have been tapping at the window, fluttering about, making the rounds of each of our office windows. Obviously a male and female, I'm assuming they are hoping to nest nearby, and see their reflection as competitors for their high-rent choice - multiple trees overlooking a "pond." (I think it's street run-off, but that's not very appealing...)

Yesterday, the male spent a good amount of time outside my window. I know he couldn't see me, and I know he couldn't see the red stress ball on the window sill, but it still was quite the sight - orange breasted bird, red stressball, and fuchsia blooming rhododendron!






Here's his lady friend. She tapped a bit, too, but mostly she sat in the rhodo and preened.


I took the photos with my camera phone, so they aren't the best. When we figure out where the actual nest is, I'll take better pix.

Think Pink Dolls

I have all my goodies and creations from this last weekend unpacked - kinda. I put away most of the pens, pencils, glues, hemostats, etc. - kinda. I put all the dolls on my work table, squished in around all the other things going on. Here's an overall picture of my so-called work table:

This shows what I've finished so far on my Barbara Willis doll:

And here's the EPB doll (she has a Bob Hope nose and a Jay Leno chin!):

From Karen Shifton's class:

And from the Patti Culea class:

I met a lot of great people, and was even able to put some faces to online names I've known for some time. One of the vendors was from a local bead shop (I bought some fabulous fluorite beads from her!), met Kate Erbach, Ellen Haytas and Li Hertzi, and made a connection with a local doll club. One of the best parts, for me, was that a mother/daughter duo who were there for a "bonding weekend" adopted me. I had someone to sit near in classes and at lunch, and I am almost falling-down grateful. I have such a difficult time going into these situations where I know no one, asking if I can sit near someone during lunch, etc. I am always miserable when I'm in that situation, though I can sprinkle a bit of mental courage dust, and force myself to go into the meeting/class/etc. Just in case you're reading this, Cassie & Susan, Thank YOU!

Having said that, I could easily become a cloth doll class junkie! I learned much, was inspired more, and have a whole new perspective on a couple of things. Oh! And the other thing I learned... Don't you just love those fabrics by Heather Bailey? Who among us hasn't bought a bundle for a special project? Do you know EPB was selling bundles of Heather Bailey fabrics, besides all her patterns and DVDs? And...have you caught on yet? Heather Bailey and EPB have the same last name! Duh...of course they do...they're related! I never made the connection between EPB and her daughter-in-law.

OK...before I "hit the hay" here, when's the next class???!

Overload!

There have probably been times in my life when I've had more on my plate, but right now, it's hard to remember when. AND...many of the recent events (all except one, as a matter of fact!) have been pure pleasure, so even though they've added to my work and stress level, they've been about good things.

I just completed the two and a half day event "Think Pink, It's a Girl Thing," which was a wonderful doll gala held here in Ohio. I was able to attend all the social events, AND take four half-day classes from the much admired dollmakers EPB, Patti Culea, Karen Shifton, and Barbara Willis. I learned so much, and even some techniques that were not new to me were so much more understandable, because I saw them in action. I cannot believe how exhausted I was at the end of each day. I haven't been in that intense learning environment for some time, plus I went into the session not knowing one single person, other than having shared a couple of emails with folks, which is always stressful for me.

I really hadn't fully recovered my routine from Gen's visit and the Ohio soapmaker's gathering when we had a shake-up on the job, which caused some tension and drama in my life. However, that's behind us now, and we're getting the wheels back on there.

The Third Ever Herbal Soap Swap occurred in the midst of all this, and I shipped out 22 boxes of heavenly soaps a week ago. That's always a fun event, although it becomes a bit physical - making sure each box gets a full complement of soaps, none of them their own. Then packing, sealing, labeling, shipping. Thank heavens I have my Oldtimer to help me sort and hoist.

Things have been so busy, I haven't even posted the newest products to the Oldtimer & Lily site: glorious pistachio oil and new, organic (refined) shea butter. The soapers are going to love it - as soon as I let them know it's there!

Right now, the treehouse is littered with unfinished cloth dolls (and my brain is littered with ideas for many more), I have two round robins waiting for me to do my bit and move them along, fabric cones (ala Ruth Rae) are arriving for a swap I'm hosting, and I have some specialty soap orders! My daughter and Baby O will be here for a visit soon, too. Guess I better get off this computer and get to work! Photos soon, I promise.

The Best Day of the Year

Happy Birthday, "Oldtimer." I love you.