Soothing, yes. Fun, definately.

I have not been posting any crafty bits lately because I had to take a break from sewing and crafting due to some neck pain. And by neck pain I mean almost debilitating headaches due to the strain I was putting on my shoulders and neck whilst sewing and crafting.

But after a much needed break (both physically and mentally) I have returned with a finished project and another in the works.

Today I bring you Lavender/Flax eye pillows made from instructions in Amanda Blake Soule's Handmade Home. Slowly but surely I will make all of the projects from this book!



These were simple and fun and really are immediately soothing. My mom is under the weather and I plopped a finished pillow on her eyes and she just kind of sat there sniffing away. Good stuff. I am sure I will be using one this evening after crafting in the near-dark. (Long story full of inadequate lighting.)

The blue floral material is a silk scarf I bought at a local thrift shop for just this purpose and it conveniently made exactly three scarves with no inches to spare. So I made one for my mom, one for my mother-in-law et moi aussi.

The inside sachet is made from a thrifted cotton remnant and the lavender I dried myself from a neighbor's garden back when I was living in Kelowna. It all came together so well. I have never used flax in it's whole seed form (for eating or crafting) but I can see why she recommends it. It i s a perfect weight (much lighter than rice) but still heavy enough to keep your eyes closed and yet there is a fluidity to it that makes it most comfortable.

Good stuff! If you haven't purchased the book I cannot tell you how happy I am that I did over and above the many books on my Chapters wishlist. Go now, buy, make, love.

Love my work too. Here are some photos four your viewing pleasure.

Colour of Grey is A-Ok

Today is absolutely gorgeous. We have already been to the park, had a nature walk and back. Wednesday is just winding down for her nap while I type this. But most of the week was under the colour of grey. The skies were full of dark clouds and sometimes rain. So we pulled out the big guns. Glue sticks! And markers of course.

I put down a table cloth and let Wednesday go to town with the glue stick (which rarely actually glued anything down) and markers which she rarely gets to play with. She was easily entertained and quiet for a good forty five minutes. Long enough for me to make four loaves of lemon zucchini bread.

Although she loves colouring in her ever expanding collection of colouring books she also likes to colour different pages printed up sometimes with her favourite characters, sometimes pictures of things she loves like butterflies and sometimes just random papers that need colour. This is a great way to use up scrap paper and don`t forget to print on both sides of the paper!

Here is some of my favourite links to free colouring pages.

Toopy and Binoo activities here. Some colouring, some finger puppets some activities. Right now Wednesday`s favourite show is Toopy and Binoo so needless to say these go over well.

Here is a link to some great Sesame Street pages. Wednesday likes the show Play With Me Sesame so Ernie and Grover are always welcomed.

Treehouse TV is the equivalent of Nick Jr. (I am assuming since many shows on this channel are Nick Jr. labeled) and they have a host of fun stuff at the website. For now I just print up these colouring pages which are very plentiful.

Here is a site for very simple one dimensional (mostly) drawings of animals and flowers etc, This is where I print up the butterfly pages for Wednesday to colour.

And finally here is some art history colouring. I like these pages in particular in the American Gothic couple.

Happy colouring mamas (and babes)!