Princess Bubbles Creates

LeeAnna  has asked fave childhood halloween candy? I liked Rockets.  Sour or tart candy has always been preferred over sweet.  I guess I have never had a sweet tooth.  It is easy for me to say no to sweets, as I find they just aren't worth the calories.  Now, savoury and crunchy are a different story! I love a warm autumn!  It is already 20 degrees!  It seems like a good day to take some stitching outside.  If the leaves were off our tree, I would rake them today.  There is still a lot of good colour in the neighbourhood.

  Saturday, I hosted an art day with some family.  Six of us played with clay and made these dragon eyes.  Mine is the green one in the top photo.  Everyone did a fantastic job!  My granddaughter made the white one.  I am so blessed to have nieces who want to come and play.  One has a daughter who will be a teenager next year.  She still wants to come.  I wonder how long that will last.   Everyone pitched in with some snacks.  I made a big pot of chili.  There was talking, laughing, art-making, and eating.  What a great day!

LeeAnna  has asked What’s your favorite holiday food item that you look forward to enjoying every year? It is rather hard to pick a favourite!  I love a good turkey dinner with all the fixings.  I love having a more relaxed dinner where I put out loads of finger foods.  I count myself very blessed to have so much wonderful food to enjoy. I also count myself blessed to have had such a lovely holiday with my hubby.  He is pointing to the peak that we hiked to on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.  There is another higher peak but this one was challenging enough.  The trail had turned into a waterway from the previous night's rain.  I did not have the proper footwear for that.  I am so grateful that we are able-bodied enough to still do this sort of thing! A local church offers free noon concerts once a week.  A friend and I went yesterday and enjoyed it immensely.  What a treat to listen to such talented musicians!  We are hoping to att...

 I have been having a lot of fun playing with collage.  A group of us have been getting together once a month to play in the collage world.  The last time we were together, we focused on black and white.  I brought home my scraps and created this.   I think the two flowers on the right are interesting.  The one on the right is a bit off.  I am not sure how to fix it, so I will leave it for now. 

 I guess it isn't possible to love every mandala I create.  I am not a big fan of all the white space on this one.  I did enjoy creating it and that is good enough.

  I have started another butterfly.  I've tacked down all the fabric pieces.  I have stitched some interesting yarn to outline the butterfly.  Now the fun part can happen.  I love adding the embroidery to these butterflies.  Going through my scraps, finding the right pieces, and placing them is also a lot of fun for me.  It is all good. It has been a while since I have done a stitched mandala.  I am thinking it might be fun to try one with this method.  Do I really need to start another project?  Probably not!  I might do it anyway!   I am linking to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/

LeeAnna  has asked What is a comfort food you love to cook or bake as the weather gets colder? I like soup.  Lots of different kinds of soup.  My hubby isn't a big fan of soup so I didn't make it for many, many years.  Now I make it and enjoy it.  I always gave my kids the option to make a peanut butter and jam sandwich if they didn't like what I prepared.  Sweet hubby can do the same. I like that there are free noon hour concerts once a week at a church not too far away.  I have been meaning to check them out for years.  I now have plans with two different friends to go in the next couple of weeks.   I like Dale Chihuly glass.  I was amazed by this piece at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  It is huge.  Just the section pictured above has to be at least ten feet. Here is a photo of the whole piece. A much smaller piece by Chihuly was donated to the local Glass and Clay Museum.  I haven't taken a photo of it yet. ...

 I have been working on the body of the unicorn stuffy I am creating.  This unicorn will be a character in the book I am doing for my second granddaughter.  I hope she doesn't grow out of loving unicorns before I get it done!  I am enjoying adding all the embroidery to this.  

  I am auditioning the butterflies on this mandala.  I printed the butterflies multiple times.  It is an image of one of my stitched butterflies.  I feel like it is an interesting way to use some of my textile work.  There is something about this mandala that I am not loving.  I am not sure what it is.  I think the butterflies are though.  What do you think?

 I have created more flowers.  These ones don't feel quite up to snuff.  I may put them back in the pile to work on further.  I think more stitching is needed on some of them.   We did our big Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, so today will be quiet.  I will enjoy some stitching time and some leftover turkey! I am linking to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/

  LeeAnna  has asked Do you prefer fun and festive Halloween decorations or truly terrifying haunted houses? Oh, definitely the fun and festive decorations.  My neighbourhood puts up a lot of decorations.  I'm glad the motion-activated witch isn't up this year.  It freaks out Banksy.  It is huge and I always wonder where people store all these giant decorations. I like that it is Thanksgiving this weekend.  I like that all my kids and grandkids can come for a big turkey dinner.  I like a big turkey dinner and wish we did them a little more often.  Even if it were just once or twice more often per year.  They are a lot of work though.  I am grateful that everyone contributes something to make it a little easier. I like that I am getting together with some art friends this afternoon.  We always share interesting conversation, some laughs and art-making.  This group has been mainly focusing on collage.  I saw this giant ...

  I have started another scroll.  I cut a strip of fabric from a cleanup cloth.  I love the serendipity of colours.  At the moment, I think I will just use some of my metallic thread.  Is there such a thing as too much shimmer?  Yes, I suppose there is.  I am certainly not one to shy away from shimmer or colour, for that matter.  I am not afraid to let my inner child out to play!

 Lots of shimmer on this mandala!  Shimmer always makes me happy.  Of course, you can have too much shimmer so I try to control myself.  

 I love the silk ribbon stitching that I added to this butterfly.  Stitching with silk ribbon is luscious!  I have to figure out what to stitch in the centre of the silver spots.  They seem a bit boring at the moment.  Maybe some beads.  It feels like I have played with my beads for a long time. The temperatures dropped yesterday.  I guess my days of stitching outside are done for this year.  I hope I am wrong.  I would love one more day of stitching in the sunshine!  It feels so good. I am linking to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/

LeeAnna  has asked What is your favorite thing about the shift from summer to fall? Summer feels too short for me.  I feel a certain melancholy when summer fades into fall.  Yes, I enjoy some things about autumn; however, I am rarely excited about them.  I am glad that I live in a country that has definitive seasons.  I would miss each of them if they didn't happen.  I would make summer longer and winter shorter though! My favourite thing is the colourful leaves of fall.  They are so beautiful. It is like the trees are filled with brightly coloured flowers. I like being home from vacation.  I like all the space that we have in our home.  I like having decent toilet paper!  I like my own cooking even though it isn't my favourite thing to do.  I like snuggles with my Banksy.  I am so very grateful for my beautiful life.

 I took this scroll with me on holiday.  I packed five threads to use. I didn't want to use up a lot of space as we travel light.  I knew I would want to stitch while taking the train from London to Edinburgh.  I knew the scenery would be beautiful.  I also knew that I would not be able to look at scenery for four hours straight.  We also had some driving time and I love to stitch while driving.   I feel like this scroll could use more stitches but I am loath to do add them.  I really want this scroll to be solely done in the UK.

  Oh yes, I do remember how to blog!  It feels good to be home and to get back into my routine.  I am very blessed to be able to travel.  I am very blessed to live in a home with a lot of space.  I have so many reasons to be thankful! This mandala is a simple collage using interesting papers and some dimensional stickers.  It was quick and easy to create.  Sometimes you need that!

LeeAnna  has asked 2. what has been the highlight of your week? I hosted my family for a barbecue.   It is a Labour Day weekend tradition we have been doing for over 10 years. I love seeing everyone!  Some people have quite long drives, but they still come.  Some of them this is the only time we see each other.   3.imagine you won the lottery, what are your first three purchases? Fun!  I would buy a wonderful vacation for my family.  There are 12 of us, with another one on the way! Next, I would give my sons some cash; I guess that isn't buying something.  Still, it is what I would like to do.  The third purchase would be some home renovations.  We have been wanting to replace the flooring on our main floor.  These would be the first purchases.  A big chunk of money would go into retirement savings! 4. Prioritize your favorite here, one two three TV, books, movies Books, then TV and movies last.  Most of the movi...

  Last month our collage group did collages.  We used imagery from Georgia O'Keeffe art books.  It was a lot of fun to reinvent Georgia.  I really this collage but I haven't glued it down yet.  I haven't found the right background for it.  I am sure I will figure it out eventually!

 Here are some more bright and cheerful flowers.  These flowers are such a fun playground for me.  I can think of numerous ways I want to use them.  It is a good thing I have a plethora of scraps for making them.  The possibilities are truly endless!  It looks like it is going to be a lovely day.  I am imagining enjoying some stitching outside this afternoon.  The weather looks perfect for it.   I am linking to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/