Are You Dreaming of Springtime....

 

In Spite of the Weather....

Have You noticed, Dear Readers, the gradual returning of the morning sunlight? The Conservatory has been asleep, it seems like forever... but a few weeks ago, I noticed the early rays of morning sunlight shining on a tiny pot of snowdrops! Oh, how I long to see some snowdrops! At the moment, they are buried under mountains of snow in my RL garden, so I will not be seeing them soon. This picture was taken a couple of days before "Groundhog Day" (which is really Candlemas but it is not known by that around here). In this part of the world, a very important Groundhog (woodchuck by another name) comes out of his burrow on February 2nd, and if he sees his shadow it will be six more weeks of Winter. If he doesn't see his shadow... it will be an early Spring! This year he saw his shadow... and yes, we are still being Slammed by Winter! We just endured a very windy three days and two nights, and we were lucky that all we got was lots and lots of snow and sleet... ice and freezing rain had been predicted, but we stayed just cold enough to spare us the ice!

The view from my window the morning after the sleet...

And I stepped outside to get a few pictures but it was very windy and very cold!

But inside the Conservatory.... we can Dream of Spring ...

 

 And perhaps begin to plan the tasks for this year....

 

 And even enjoy the sight of little bunnies frolicking in the flowers...

Even though in RL they are an annoying pest in the Gardens!

It has been so cold in RL, that it is a bit chilly to work in my downstairs studio... 

so I have focused on the stitching (when I wasn't cowering from the Storm!).

I have made good progress!

 

 Here you can see the first two cushions are completed!

(At least, the stitching part is.)

And I am starting the outline for the third cushion!

There were four designs in the original set,

 and then Mary Corbet designed a fifth one

 which, of course, I had to have too! 

I started the next one right away! 

And I am stitching the Deer Cushion... 

mostly because it is the one I have already printed the chart.

You can see I am making it "upside-down"

 compared to the other two... 

this is strictly because it is easier for my hand

 to reach the stitching area in this direction...!

It is an 8" hoop and reaching all the way across is challenging!

 

And I just Know you will not be surprised that I had to add another Deer!

 

I tried to tell myself that I should just go with the design as it is....

but there is all that room....!

I took out my graph paper and colored pencils

 to see if it would work.....

 

 I needed it to look a little different... 

but tried to keep it really similar to the first one.....

 

 I cut it out and tried to find the right position on the printed chart...

 

 And decided pretty quickly that She was a Doe...

so no antlers were needed!

And I decided it was a "go"

 and all I needed to do was carefully mark

 where it sat on the chart...

(I ended up taping it in place....  carefully so as not to damage the chart)

And got right to the stitching!

 

Of course, I made an error early on with the counting... 

and didn't catch it until waaay too late to unstitch...

something about the position of her neck...

which means the whole rest of her body 

ended up being farther to the left than the design had suggested...

but no matter, she fits! 

(I was going to have to adjust the placement of the blossoms anyway!)

And that's as far as I got, Dear Readers,

Stitching Millefleurs and Bunnies and Does,

And Dreaming of Springtime

 in Spite of the Weather!
 

I Made A List......

(And the Sun Came to Play.......)

Have I mentioned, Dear Readers, how much I Love it when the Sun comes to Play in my Little Worlds? Even when they are situated far away from the windows of my RL house, so the sunbeams have to stretch and reach way into the distant corners.... and there they are for the briefest moments before they have moved on, illuminating the Tiny Worlds in a way that is impossible to copy with artifice! There were a few such moments on Sunday morning, making me pause Life in order to capture the moments with my camera! And here I can share them with you.....

Alas these moments are so brief, 

If you are not there with the camera, 

they are gone before you blink!

And in the Willowcrest too, 

the sun filled the Parlor with radiance.....

Don't you just love the way this delicate lace is silhouetted by the sun?

And the way the sun shone into the bedroom, 

casting a pattern on the floor!

I know you can't see it from here with the curtains closed, 

but these are the very windows 

that are causing me such trouble on the exterior!

Fortunately, I have thought of a workable solution to the problem.

 

But first I made a List, Dear Readers,

 of all the things I needed to do on this house 

before I could glue all the walls in place.... 

and it was longer than I had thought it would be!

There were ten major categories of tasks to do!

Everything from planning the attic lights wiring routes 

to completing the painted details on the bedroom walls, 

to finishing the trees in the Parlor, 

to fixing the curtain rods 

to completing the window frames details...... 

to mention just the most obvious ones!

Yes, it is a good thing I have NOT yet glued the walls in place!

 

Meanwhile, I have tested an idea for the exterior window muntins. 

You might recall that I was bothered by the idea that from the outside 

the muntin on the lower half of the windows 

would abut directly onto the exterior window sill....

(See previous post for reference pictures!)

I found some very thin and narrow coffee stirrer sticks 

to use as the framing material. 

Above you can see the lower edge of the "window frames"

being tested on the windows. 

I think they succeed in making the windows

 look more realistic from the outside.

But you can see here what it looks like from the inside!

 

Here you can see a little closer......

(Sorry it is so dark.... it is night and it is hard to get

 close enough and not block all the light!)

 So you can see I am going to have to add 

small pieces to the inside window frame too.

And I think it will work if I conceal the "crack" between them 

and the outer frame by adding a little window sill as well!

(At least I hope it will look okay... and the curtains will conceal it too!)

And here you can see the exterior with the thin muntins in place....

At least it Fosters the illusion that the lower window 

is set back and can slide past the upper window when raised...

entirely an illusion, of course, as these are non operative windows!

I think it looks So much better with the bottom edge 

of the window frame visible!

And believe it or not, Dear Readers, that is the Only thing 

I got done this week in my Mini worlds!

That and Making the List!

So at least now I know what I need to be doing...

Besides capturing the Brief sunny moments, that is!

(I do Really Love it when the Sun comes to Play!)

Oh look! There's that little fairy again.....

I wonder where he is off to now?