Watercolor Wednesday - Regina's Sunflower

"How wonderful yellow is, it stands for the sun" ~ Vincent Van Gogh

…and sunflowers!

I've been having fun painting and using yellow lately. Perhaps because I feel autumn in the air, even if our air temperature is still in the mid to upper 90's. . . I can still try to incorporate the mood with my paintbrush, inside my air-conditioned home.

Happy Easter!

My cool and clever friend, Monica, sent me this Easter greeting!

A couple of cute chicks enjoying the sun!

Aren't they cute? And wearing protective eyewear from the rays of the sun streaming through the window, trying to warm up the house this morning. (Brrr! It's in the 30's right now!) My friend Bonnie made the one on the right for my birthday a few years ago. And I got the new gal as part of an IOU from our Neighborhood Group notions swap Christmas party. I like her creative definition of pincushion, very worth the wait! Their tail feathers are two prairie points with smaller points for the beak, the feet are beaded, the wattle has loops of red beads, and the comb on one is orange rick-rack and the other orange yarns. I sure am (c)lucky!

Who are these people and why are they here?!

As you can obviously tell, I have a rather eclectic group of friends and fellow bloggers in the right alley. I thought each week on Sunday I would randomly showcase one from the list and why they are there. I love to discover new blogs, and I think you will enjoy the introduction for new places to visit in Bloggy Land.

This week - Monica's Material Pleasures

I met Monica several years ago in the Houston Chapter of the American Sewing Guild. We were so lucky to have her in our Neighborhood Group before she and her husband retired and moved to the top of a hill in the Texas Hill Country. I'm glad she is my friend in real life and here in Bloggy Land. She is so fun and so talented. These were her "Dancing With The Stars" ATC's for Quilting Arts' Artist Trading Card swaps at this year's Houston International Quilt Festival. How lucky were the swappers who were able to get one. This was one of the "Start To Finish" series of "Postcards Battle Cancer - Fiberart For a Cause" she did for the American Cancer Society in 2006. Monica and her hubby are into NASCAR and she picked up these car bits from a repair garage floor and sewed them onto postcards! Here's the sewing journal book she just made for me - hand-bound with handmade beads, covered with netting and pattern tissue. We are the Mutt and Jeff of friends!

Those days...

I miss those days when I was going to friends' weddings and baby showers. Now I'm attending their funerals.

My good sewing friend, Karen Peebles passed away unexpectedly yesterday. I was lucky enough to meet Karen through the Houston Chapter of the American Sewing Guild. She was a founding member of our Chapter and my Neighborhood Sewing Group. We had great back-in-the-day sewing memories of buying fabric at Foley's, Frost Brothers and Sakowitz department stores! All the speakers and special events attended - Designing with Dusan, Bobbi Carr, Donna Salyers, Clotilde, Sandra Betzina... Karen was multi-talented - a machine knitter and savvy with the computer, too. In fact, she was the one who got me started on eBay and introduced me to Burda World of Fashion and Neue Mode pattern magazines.

Though I take comfort she will finally be able to achieve a perfectly-fitting pants pattern, she will be missed by all of us here.

Gift in a gift

Wish I could take credit for this, but I can share it instead. One of my oh so creative and cool friends, Monica, made this gift bag for the beaded bracelet she made for my daughter (yes, I'll post photos of it, too). It is made out of felt and top-layered with tulle. Isn't it pretty? Click to see better...

This is the closure, I put a piece of white paper underneath so you could see the details.

For Linda

For my friend, Linda Ridgeway, who passed yesterday. . .We'll always remember you, the laughs ("Turtle Soup"!), lunches at Luby's and all the good times.