winter has landed and baby it's cold outside~!!~! when winter arrives i always think of it as soup season. the ultimate in comfort food when a bit of inner warmth is required. i love soup and am always on the look-out for new and tasty vegetarian soup recipes. there are certainly other fabulous comfort foods that i enjoy such as mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese (extra cheese please) and a huge mug of warm tea with honey added . . . maybe a scone on the side . . . you get the picture.

normally i do not think of carrots as comfort food but i've recently discovered that a carrot a day helps keep me warm on the inside too. let me explain: a couple of weeks ago i got quite annoyed at myself while looking at my studio walls full of small quilt tops that need to be completed. in general these are the ones that i began or collected for myself and had to put aside until there was "more time" . . . the ones that i would like to hand quilt and keep in a tiny dolly cupboard or trunk just for me, occasionally rotating two or three of them as house and/or wall decorations. some of these tops i made myself. some are bits that i purchased as unfinished blocks and tiny tops . . . my favorite ones are those made from vintage/antique fabrics and blocks, primitives that look as if a young person was acquiring sewing skills as they "played" with their dolls. clumsy stitching, naive patchwork and sometimes no real pattern at all . . . but oh-so-charming anyway~!~ i was looking at these small treasures and thinking about how cute they are, but as pretty as they are in the unfinished stages i would like to see them in their finished form. my fingers began itching to stitch one of them and then, as usually happens, i realized that i had many other obligations to fulfill. damn it. and then i hatched a little scheme so that i could work on these pieces guilt free.

i have decided that if i have kept my commitments to the best of my (fluctuating) ability/energy levels on any given day then in the evening i will thread three needles with thread and empty them into a project just for me . . . sort of a carrot/reward system that will allow me to see some progress on my own special small and doll quilts while still gaining ground on the projects i am doing for others. now i know three needles is not much stitching but i am seeing some very nice progress and think this may be working out rather well.
i have come to think of it as my daily carrot and am very comforted by this regular bit of self care. some evenings i'm just too tired to even pick it up or i only manage to get through one or two of those threaded needles but usually i get in at least a few stitches and frequently enjoy all three.

and best of all i have one of those primitive little vintage tops nearly full of my own hand quilting stitches and almost to the binding stage. i've decided to only show a sneak peek for now but may have a small hand quilted doll quilt to show you soon.

and someday maybe i'll have a whole bunch of "carrot" quilts to show off~!~

another comforting activity that i am trying to make more time for is reading. this happens to be the book i am reading now. actually i am re-reading this one. i read it years ago and loved it and recently decided to re-visit it. and it's as good (or better) than i remembered it~!~ if you haven't read this one you should definitely put it on your list. i'd love to hear your thoughts about it if you want to share them.

now all of this chat about comfort brings me nicely to my next announcement. i am offering a "winter comforts" giveaway. if you leave a comment on my blog on Halloween day (October 31) with the words "trick or treat" written somewhere within it i will put your name in the basket for a drawing that is all about the "treats" and not the "tricks"~!~ a small package of surprises to bring comfort to a lucky someone during this upcoming winter season.

~!!~i did it~!!~

this is my digital postcard creation for sunday postcard art (halloween). my very first digital creation and if you ask me how i did it i would not begin to know what to tell you because it was a whole lot of experimental trial and error. it's not perfect or anything but I DID IT~!!~

www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

btw: this was created using five of my own photographic images

last weekend i went for a wander up into the nearby foothills and it was a beautiful day. as you can see the snowline is dipping lower with the trees seemingly in flames down below . . . our fall season has been an extended and beautiful one so far and i am enjoying the profusion of color all around me.

i loved taking these shots of the local seeds, hips, berries, petals and leaves as the local flora approaches it's lengthy winter rest. this is a fairly harsh environment and these things struggle in our high altitude and short seasons. it's both exciting to see the colors and sad to know that it will soon be covered by snow. i am grateful to have my camera and be able to capture and save these sweet mellow moments of this fleeting season.

i only wish that i were as adept at capturing these wonderful natural gifts as my fellow blogger Carolyn at http://www.love-stitching-red.blogspot.com/ . if you want to really see some fabulous photography and how she interprets it into some of the most sensational needlework i've ever seen you should pop on over to her blog. let me warn you that you should plan on staying a while because you will almost certainly find yourself wanting to brew a cup of tea (or two) and get comfortable as you explore her sweet space. she's been doing some still life photography using vellum as a layer within her set ups and it's just one of the many beautiful and oh-so-inspiring things you will have the pleasure of enjoying. she has been on a short blog vacation and i've really missed her but a little bird tells me that she'll be back to posting very soon and may even be hosting a give-away . . . just one more good reason to go over for a visit . . . i'll be there and i hope that you will join me in welcoming her back.

Exciting News~!~

i've just been to Eileen's at: http://ruralwisconsin.blogspot.com/ and learned about a wonderfully generous giveaway.

you really must go see the fat quarter bundle of Red Rooster's Pumpkins & Spice Fabrics by Whimsicals. that's a whopping 27 fat quarter surprise pack that's being offered at: http://pumpkinpatchprimitivequiltshoppe.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-happy-halloween-giveaway.html
Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe is being extraordinarily generous with this one and isn't a Halloween give-away a great idea~!?!~ it brings trick or treating to a whole new level~!!~ and now i'm going to have to think about what i can offer as my own Halloween night giveaway . . . hmmmmm . . .

it's all about golden sunshine moments

and COLOR today~!~
check out the intensity of that blue sky~!~

i am grateful that i live

in a color filled world

and

that i have the gift of sight.

last night it rained. and rained. and rained. i expected our temps to dip into the freezing zone and i would wake up to snow but that did not happen. instead i woke up to partially cloudy skies and some sunshine trying to break through so i went out with my camera to see what i could see . . .

at first glance things look bleak as there have been some frosts (earlier this fall) and the plants are all brown and droopy. but i simply cannot look through that lens without it being set to macro and so discovered a multitude of seeds. when looked at this way, i decided that i could be grateful for the many and varied "promises" being made by the garden to enchant me once again after their winter rest.

the ornamental crabapple tree is just loaded with tiny little fruits that are getting redder by the day.

these fruits are about the size of a marble and the birds are going to have plenty to feast on this winter.

some have fallen to the ground and made their own colorful poetry.

thank you to all of my readers who left such understanding and comforting thoughts on my last post. i have discovered that one of my gratitudes is the friends that i have made via my blog.

i have no reason to be overwhelmed by depression and yet i am. it is such an ugly state to be in and i find myself knee deep in it with the waters rising dangerously fast.
my current ammunition of choice is to hunker down and look for the gratitudes within my life until it lifts. i do not give this information in an effort to elicit sympathy. i don't want sympathy. what i do want is understanding for whatever may come. i'll continue to share what joy lies in my life in an effort to stay focused on the positive because if i don't, the negative will darken my life like the worst kind of dark storm. these things may or may not be things that you feel grateful for and i will totally understand if you decide to mosey elsewhere while i get through it.

i am grateful.

for lunch i enjoyed a toasted parmesan cheese bagel with a slice of muenster on top and a few slices of a deliciously ripe nectarine on the side. as i prepared and ate it i kept in mind how much i enjoy this tasty meal and how lucky i am to have virtually whatever i might like to eat at any given time. i live in a wealthy country and can enjoy a simple, nutritious and beautiful meal whenever i feel motivated enough to prepare it. never do i cry because there isn't enough to nourish myself or those that i love. this is a gift and not everyone is able to enjoy it.

this week's SPA challenge was

"SKULLS & SKELLIES!".

www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

the progress report this week is a bit lean. i've been working primarily on the Christmas postcards for my daughter which judging from the way the postal system works in Honduras may be arriving at their destinations sometime next Christmas . . . better late than never?

i did get three more scrap/crumb/string pieced nine patches finished.

my total on these to date is 22 finished.