Spring Ahead Giveaway!

One of the happiest days of the year for me is Spring Ahead day, when we move our clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Savings Time.  I know that a lot of people hate springing ahead, but I love extra daylight at the end of the day.  I feel like I have more energy and get more things done.  And it means that spring is right around the corner!  This weekend we will be setting our clocks ahead one hour, and I've decided to do a little giveaway to celebrate.  Here's what one lucky winner will get:

It's a mini Ott Lite!  And look!  It has pretty spring flowers and birds on it!  Here's a little extra light to go with the extra light we will be having!  My husband says that I should do this giveaway in the fall, when we "fall back" and lose an hour.  His reasoning is that a light is what someone will need with less light in the evening.  Makes sense, but I couldn't wait to do this giveaway!  And besides, this light has springy BIRDS and FLOWERS on it!

If you would like to enter this giveaway, please leave a comment on this post.  You have to be a follower of my blog to enter.  It's easy to follow - just click the "Join This Site" button on the right (underneath where it says "People Who Follow CraftyCat").  Make sure there is a way that I can contact you.  I will draw the name of one winner on Friday, March 13th at noon EST and will announce that winner right here in my blog.  I'll also e-mail the winner.  Good luck!

ATTENTION BLOGGERS!
 I thought I'd also mention the Meet and Greet that is taking place on March 20th at the Sew We Stitch blog.  It's for bloggers who do applique, embroidery or cross stitch and will give us the opportunity to share our favorite projects with bloggers from around the world.  It's a great way to get your blog seen and to highlight your favorite needlework pastimes.  So just go visit Sew We Stitch and find out how to join.  And even if you're not a blogger or just don't feel like participating, you can still go to Sew We Stitch that day to see the different blogs taking part.  Check it out and have fun!

And This Is What I Did With It!

In my last post, I showed you the little thread catcher that I had made.  Here's what I did with it.  We have a gift exchange on our Saturday Stitch Days and Starbucks cards are always very popular.  So the thread catcher became a gift card holder!  Sheila picked my gift and became the owner of this cute little ort catcher.  Now she can stitch and enjoy some good coffee too!  My fellow stitchers gave the thread catcher good reviews, so I'll be whipping up more of these for sure. 

Flowering Cherry Tree

Encore Azalea

Spring is in full bloom here and the pollen has actually abated.  Yay!  The temps here are more like mid-May than early April.  All of our perennials are showing signs of new growth, if not already blooming.  It seems really early for some of them, but it's so beautiful that I'm not questioning it too much.  Both of these blooms are from my backyard.  The flowering cherry tree was a total surprise to us during our first spring here.  We didn't know what kind of tree it was until the pretty pink flowers appeared.  It's just a wonderful springtime treat to see it.

Not much stitching or craftiness of any kind has been happening here lately.  Mark and I went on a mini-spring-break trip to Florida last week.  It was a busy kind of trip, so I didn't even take my stitching.  And now I'm back to work and using my free days getting caught up with laundry and house cleaning.  We're having our family and some friends over for Easter dinner.  And wait!  There will actually be some creativity involved with that!  I'll include photos on my next post.  Have a Happy Easter!

A Teeny Tiny Sewing Project

We've been looking at the world through ocher colored glasses lately.  Yes, it's that time of the year when lovely yellow particles rain down from the sky to tint our cars and make some of us miserable.  Pollen time!  Yesterday our pollen count was 9369, and today it is all the way down to five thousand and something.  I heard once that somewhere just over 100 is considered extremely high.  If I tell you that right now my car appears to be orange, you can guess what color it really is.

This week I did a little sewing project that turned out so cute that I will make more.  It's a triangular thread catcher.  This appealed to me because of the geometry of it all:  a perfect equilateral triangle turns into a tiny receptacle for your orts.  I found the directions for it on the blog "Needling Things".  You'll find the directions very easy to follow with clear photos to guide you along.  The only change I made was to apply "soft" fusible interfacing to one of the fabric triangles.  I know exactly what I'm going to do with this one, and will include a photo in an upcoming post!

I've been making a little progress on "Folk Eggs" and will have a photo update soon.  I'm starting to think about that Kitty Kalendar again, and might work on that a bit.  Saturday is Stitch Day and I'm looking forward to seeing my stitching group.  We meet at the Stitch Store one Saturday a month.  Sometimes that doesn't seem like enough!  It's always a fun time and I get in a lot of stitching time, which is very much appreciated.

I just had to share some photos of what's blooming in my yard right now.  The fringey looking shrub is a Chinese Loropetalum.  It's always been a healthy plant, but has never bloomed so profusely as it is now!  I see this blast of bright pink whenever I look out the dining room window.

Dianthus

Chinese Loropetalum

Phlox

What a surprise to find out that the dianthus we planted last year are perennials!  In fact, they bloomed most of the year.  Nice to have so many flowers in March!  And finally, here are some sweet little Phlox, which we hope will take over some of our "island" areas.  Ahhhhh, spring!

I now have 60 followers!  You don't know how it makes my day to go to my blog and see that another person has decided to follow my blog!