I am terribly sick of the rain.  It’s been raining straight for the last two days, and the flooding has begun again (it occurred just a few weeks ago from more spring rain).  Luckily our house is okay but I know of many people who’ve had damage to their basements.  There’s usually a small stream that runs in the woods, but when we get too much spring rain the entire woods gets flooded out.  Today I woke up and could hear the “river” moving at a fast pace behind our house, and the entire yard is so rain-soaked that it can’t hold anymore.  Puddles of all sizes are popping up (including right next to the front garden beds I just cleaned out).  Hopefully the rain will subside quickly and the sunny, spring weather returns soon!

{for more of my rainy days photos, check out my Flickr}

Last year, a friend of mine came to work with a new short hairstyle and I was shocked to see her long, full hair cut off.  However, she told me that she did it for a good cause: the hair was donated to a program run by Pantene called Beautiful Lengths.  Unlike Locks-for-Love, you only need at least 8 inches to donate (unlike their 12 inches) and all wigs are given to cancer patients for free (unfortunately Locks-for-Love sells their wigs to patients, not donates).  Her act of kindness inspired me to participate.  I’ve never been able to give blood as I’m extremely anxious of needles, and just having my blood drawn for tests has ended up with me passing out and laying for a half-hour with orange juice and crackers in hand.  But growing my already long hair out was something I could do.

For months I’ve been taking good care of my hair, trimming it as needed and keeping it in good condition.  There were plenty of times when I had “bad hair days” or was sick of wearing ponytails, or just really wanted to just get a big haircut.  But I reminded myself of those who didn’t have the luxury of having “bad hair days” at all anymore, and that put it all in perspective.  After all they would go through with their lives being turned upside down, chemo and/or radiation treatments, and the emotions that I could only imagine one would have when they would lose a physical part of themselves… I could completely handle dealing with just another pony tail.  After months of waiting, this weekend my Mom so lovingly helped me (she is a self-taught and fabulous cutter of hair!) reach my goal and made the big cut for me: a total of 9 inches.  It takes a total of at least 6 ponytails to make one wig, so I’m asking any of you to consider donating to the program as well.

I’m so excited to start the spring off with a new hairstyle, a new look and a fresh start.  After months of waiting, I can tell you that it was definitely worth it.  I hope that my inspiration from my friend transfers into inspiring some of you too.

Click here for more information on participating in the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program.

We’ve had a few days of glorious sunshine and warm weather, and I’ve caught the spring bug – bad.  I’m taking a short break from cleaning out the porch so it will be ready for the “season” (spring until fall).  I plan on having breakfast on the porch Saturday morning and spending the entire day out there as well, working on my design work.  The birds have been chirping like mad, windows have been opened to let in some fresh air (which smells like heaven), and the garden is popping with all sorts of bulbs.  These are the first crocus I’ve spotted so far, and I didn’t even notice them until I knelt on the ground to photograph the green bulbs and saw these little ones blooming under a shrub.  I think I’ll start brainstorming on my garden to-do list this weekend, which includes the big clean up (I don’t rake until spring; I like the dead leaves to act as a blanket on the perennials for the winter) and moving the catmint (which narrowly choked out all other plants last year in the front garden beds).

I can’t believe that spring is already here!  What do you plan on working on this spring weekend?

{for more of my in the garden photos, check out my Flickr}

Wow.

It’s officially been a full year since I wrote my first post on craft lovely, and it’s been quite an experience to say the least.  I started a blog for many reasons, but the main reason being that I have a creative outlet (at a time when I wasn’t feeling so creative) that I had a commitment to.  I hardly knew if anyone was reading, but the fact that I made it part of my everyday life, Mondays through Fridays, to always post was something that I’m glad that I’ve kept.  There are days when my mind is flooded with ideas of posts, photographs, recipes, designs; and then there are days when I’m doggone tired and realize, “Shoot, I haven’t done my blog post yet.  What on earth am I going to blog about today?“  Not counting the time away I took from the holiday season, I believe I only missed 2 of my five weekly posts over the whole year.  It’s this commitment that I have to myself and to you loyal readers, that I’m most proud of… it’s taught me that whether or not you’re feeling creative, or even feeling in the mood to post, you stick to it.

It’s been extremely fulfilling to write on craft lovely, and I appreciate each and every one of you.  Thank you for your readership, your support (there’s been so much!), your comments and feedback, and most of all your friendship on this little corner of the web.  Here’s to starting off another wonderful year!

~ Colleen

{images in mosaic are from my Flickr}

Sunday was perfect: family, good food, lots of tea, a hot fireplace, and plenty of relaxing and gabbing.  The birthday tea party I hosted for my Mom went well, with the exception of some very missed and loved family members (who were all sick… and I hope are all on the mend!).  I did a little bit of decorating for the party, including making 2 paper garlands for the fireplace mantel (after being so inspired by this garland by Lobster and Swan).  Surprisingly, preparing for the party went well and there was no rushing or stressing at all (hopefully my new outlook on parties and holidays is paying off).  The soup was delicious, the sandwiches perfect, and the desserts and scones absolutely scrumptious.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves and got to relax and catch up with each other.  I’m now thinking tea parties should happen at least once a month… or even once a week, for that matter.

{for more of my perfect parties photos, check out my Flickr}

To celebrate my Mom’s recent birthday, I thought it would be nice to have a small get together with the immediate female family members and have a tea party this weekend.  Take out the fine china, make some finger sandwiches and soup, and of course have scones and desserts.  I’ve tried so many scone recipes and this one is by far, the best.

Here’s my best advice to any scone recipe… do not overmix the dough when you mix the dry and wet ingredients (or they’ll be absolutely ruined) and use your hands.  I cannot stress this enough.  It seems a little odd, but trust me in that it makes all the difference.  After so many of my attempts at scones came out horrible, I started watching videos of older women from various parts of the UK making scones and the one thing I noticed was how they mixed the wet and dry ingredients: with their hands.  This proves two points: sometimes hands are better than spatulas, and sometimes you can’t just read a recipe to really understand it.

Thank god for youtube… where else can you learn how to properly make a scone from a 65 year old woman from England at 10:30 pm in Massachusetts?

{image belongs to House of Annie}

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend and although I don’t really celebrate it that much anymore, it still appeals to me.  My husband and I have been married for three years but have been together for nine, so at this point it’s really just about picking up a card for one another.  However, if I could order the perfect Valentine’s Day this is what would be on my list:

• sleeping in late with my hubby
• making breakfast together, perhaps crêpes and fresh fruit
• visiting a museum, perhaps this one that I haven’t been to in quite a while
• going out to an Indian restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner
• coming back home and having a fire in the fireplace, snuggling in our pj’s on the couch, and watching a period film (I did say they were my perfect Valentine’s Day ideas, not my husband’s!  I wouldn’t spend it watching District 9, mind you.)

What are your Valentine’s Day plans?  Whatever they are, I hope you have the sweetest of weekends!
- Colleen

This weekend should be filled with lots of cleaning, designing, planning, and of course seeing close friends and family.  I hope it also involves a warm fireplace (it is freezing here today), staying in my pj’s, and some good hot cocoa.  To start off my day of designing, I perused my Flickr Favorites (something I should do more often).  It’s interesting to see the images as a whole, and this page is my favorite combination of other talented people’s photos:

What do you plan on doing this weekend?
- Colleen

Not sure if it’s the season for crows, but I’ve been seeing a lot of them lately.  One very early morning after dropping my husband off at work at 6:00 am, I was driving home and upon stopping at a red light I heard a very loud noise over my car heater and radio.  I shut off all the interior noise and rolled down my window, looked up at a tree in front of me and realized it was a huge flock of crows.  The tree was completely full, there must have been close to 200 of them.  The noise was literally deafening.  I sat there with my eyes and mouth wide open, wishing someone else could be in the car with me to experience this strange situation.  The image was so surreal with the sky still completely dark and the black silhouettes of the tree and crows against it.  This sound clip is similar, but honestly would have to be reproduced about 3-5 times to match the loudness of those crows.  I have also yet to find a photo that can match how many crows were in that tree.

Then, twice this past weekend we had flocks of crows in the backyard, sitting in the trees and again “cawwing” and squawking and making all sorts of noise.  I’m beginning to wonder why I keep seeing large groups of them, which by the way is called a “murder of crows.”  It’s making me slighty nervous.  I wonder if seeing large amounts of crows is an ominous sign for something…

{image shown belongs to MissusK}

Some images from my walk through our Audubon Sanctuary with my husband over the weekend.  Even in the middle of winter, there is still so much to see.

{for more of my snow images, check out my Flickr}