Bunnies to the Rescue

When I chose the thread-painted robin I really did think I was doing ONE motif for a swap....when Susan said 8-10 I had a panic attack. If I was doing one I wanted it to be extra special.

But next to birds on felt I love doing bunnies on felt and they show up often on RR blocks I do for others. These all went onto one block for my friend Lisa who had a fondness for bunnies and her block was rather bare by the time it got to me (being the last to work on it.) All the time I was working on them I was humming "Bunnies Hopping Down a Button Trail" thinking I would use that idea some time...

So the robin will go on hold and I will overdye some thread and think bunnies... I can get nostalgic about furry little embroidered bunnies but when they get into my garden they are "rotten rabbits.."

Update and Kudos to Gina

When I think of cotter pins I think of the one on the far left... but these are all varieties of cotter pins.. The bottom two on the right can be called hairpin cotter pins, hairpin clips, humped cotter pins, humpbacked cotter pins r-clips, retaining clips and radio tray clips ..just a few of the names I found... Had no luck googling plastic cotter pins. I did find sources to buy in bulk... really bulk...like 1000. Also found places where I could buy just 100 but the shipping was outrageous... But Gina found a seller on Esty who had 50 from her grandmother's button box... How appropriate is that? I snapped those right up. Thanks to everyone who responded and if you run across any more - cheap ...let me know..

Name that thingy!!!

I wish Google had the option of me entering a picture and they come up with a name/or a source... If you use Google images you need something more specific than "little metal thingy". We all have seen these forever as the little thingy that holds a button on a card. Every little thing, no matter how insignificant, has an official name...

I wanted to find some to put buttons on cards...and needed a source and to find a source I needed a name. I started out searching images for button clips with no luck at all and spent a good long time going through various clips on google images and managed to find they're in a category called r-clips (retaining clips). But r-clips covers a large variety of clips and finally I found an official name for the small ones in the subcategory.... radio tray clips... I found one source but it only sells in small quantities (20) and I want to buy 100 or more. But just finding the name is the biggest part of the problem so now I can expand the search.... I'm thinking Cathy K.'s husband can help me as he has an incredible electronics hobby room and must get catalogs filled with "radio tray clips."

Motif Swap for Adventure

I signed up for a motif swap at the upcoming adventure in CT.... Susan assured me that one of my little embroidered birds on felt would be acceptable..

So I checked the state bird for CT and it's a robin...one of my favorites... THEN in yesterday's mail my embroidery magazine "Inspirations" came and look what was their master class in this issue..... a robin.. This was definitely a sign... All right it's a European robin but Wilma is coming from the Netherlands and maybe she'll get my motif...

Trish Burr of South Africa has written the article... It calls for DMC stranded cotton in no less than 39 colors and her instructions are really explicit so I'm going to give it a try... Mine will be a bit modified by being smaller and using less colors but since I do so many birds I'm excited to try some new techniques... you can follow along...

The barn in the beginning

It often happens I'm taking a picture of one thing and inadvertently get a photo of something else that I need later. I was actually taking a picture of the gallica roses in this bed going into their second spring... Not realizing I was also capturing the outside of the milking room in its original state.

I did all the construction and remodeling in the winter so that next fall I started on that room... I figured I'd have to do "shabby mismatched" (my specialty) but found the 5 matching windows at the left at a thrift store "as is" lot. I couldn't believe my luck. The same day I found the 4 smaller matching windows on the right which are in the gift shop...

Before I could even start remodeling we had to shovel out a huge amount of dried manure and scrape the floor clean... My DH is not a "handy man" with a hammer but he can really shovel "sh--"!

This room became an all-purpose work room during the nursery years... I build things for the garden in it such as benches and arbors etc. during the winter... In early March when plant seedlings began to arrive it was transformed into a potting center.

May 1st the nursery opened... Friday, Saturday and Sundays it was open to the general public and during the week it was open by appointment.. So on the weekends the room was gussied up as a tea room with overflow from the gift shop..

During the week it was transformed for workshops and lectures...

Then when the nursery finally closed it was transformed again into my big sewing room. This was another accidental shot... I was getting the room ready for the weekend not realizing I also got a picture of the original drain in the floor which carried all the cattle waste out of the barn... All someone would have to do is shovel the gravel out and it would be ready to use again... In fact it's one of my fantasies that when we sell someone will buy milk cows and turn it back into a milking room...Wouldn't they be contented cows with all those windows and surrounded by roses..????