Do you have “small treasures” made by children and grandchildren that you’ve saved over the years?  Do these take on special significance for you?
 I’ve saved a number of these and find the memories joyful.  ONe is a pincushion my daughter made by herself and gave me as a surprise Christmas gift when she was about eight years old. Even though she’s grown with a daughter in college, I still use this and treasure it.
My daughter has Christmas ornaments her son and daughter made in art class in elementary school.  Each year she puts them out for display.
There are other items …read more

Here is a common pattern that occurs when problems arise in relationships:  get hurt, argue, resolve, apologize, move on.  If you are in a relationship where you seem to argue quite frequently, you are probably more familiar with this pattern than others.  If you are in a serious relationship you don’t want to break up everytime you have an argument, so you just let it all out, apologize, then make-up and move on.  But maybe there is something more that you can be doing to cut down on the frequency of these occurrences in your relationship…maybe an apology is not …read more

Today is Labor Day for both Canada and the USA.  There are lots of different kinds of labor, but I’m thinking about “labors of love” today.
For me, sewing can be a real labor of love.  I can go to the big discount chain and buy a shirt for a friend for very little money.  Odds are good that it was made in a third-world nation by someone who makes pennies a day.  But it’s inexpensive to buy, and saves me a lot of time…

Or I could take the time and sew something that’s going to mean something – if only …read more

I love combining fabric and origami together.
I know that origami was designed for paper, but I can’t help it – I love fabric   Certain patterns don’t always translate well, and simpler is usually better for getting the best possible finished project.

I think this how-to would definitely work in fabric though.  Check out this great tutorial to create gorgeous little “magic boxes” from Life As Lou.  She uses paper, but what about using a heavy fusible fleece for the outer wrapper and heavy interfacing for the boxes?
image: Stock.xchg

Another great Etsy find….. Wobbly Squeezy Lime Pickle Breakfast plates from atelierBB’s shop. Wobbly platesare pretty much what you’d expect; lop-side-y, one-of-a-kind, and a whole lot of fun.
This set includes 1 each of lime, cream, green, and yellow plate. Other color combos are available including the Luna Orangina Breakfast Croissant collection of yellow, curry, dark orange, and light orange. 

The plates are made of stoneware and the glaze is dishwasher, microwave, and of course safe to eat off of. They are approximately 7 inches in diameter or 18.5 cm. They are all handmade and unique, each just a little different from …read more

When my husband and I travel, we generally bring home gifts for our grandchildren.  But they’re not the kind we spend a great deal of money to purchase. 
They are rocks and seashells, seaglass, foods from the area, something a relative may have made, and stories of places we’ve visited.  The natural objects are typical of that area and may tell of the geology and history.  We bring home recipes to try and ingredients we might not find at home.  (I use these for my travel writing, but the grandchildren seem to look forward to them, too.)
he “gifts” include:

 Rocks of a …read more

May this be a Happy Mother’s Day, midst the generations in your family.  This is a time of love and flowers, cards and gifts for the moms in one’s life.  May you create many happy memories and reminisce about those of years past.

One of the ways I like to teach the kids to show gratitude, is by having them make end of the year gifts for their teachers and the school staff. Teachers are the hardest working and worst paid professionals, I’ve ever met. Most of them, bring work home with them, spend lots of their own money to make the school year special and treat their students like their own  children. So we try to help out when we can during the year and do a little something for them, come year’s end.
Since we had a little extra money, I bought …read more