Friday Finish!

 Well, I worked on my stitchery when I could, but I still have a few more leaves to add. There are a lot of flowers and leaves, so taking longer than usual. So, I worked on another butterfly painting. After this, I have one more butterfly and then I move onto flowers. I work on painting a bit a time, in between cleaning and cooking. I also put together two smaller table toppers to work on, when I finish the stitchery. 

This butterfly was more pink in the tutorial, but I didn't have that color. But, I realized on my next one, I was missing the part that gives recipes for those colors, by using the ones I have. 

Last week we went to the island for some beach time. This time of year is always nice, no crowds yet, so we can enjoy beach combing and Bean can run free.

In the fields we spotted a flock of Glossy Ibis. They are always on the move, so hard to catch one.

I always like to stop at the cove with lighthouse views and was surprised to see the new addition to the Osprey nest. Not sure how it got that white cloth there, maybe stole it from someone's clothesline?

Today we went to the farm preserve. Last time it started to rain when we got there, so it was nice to have warmer weather with a nice breeze. The donkeys seemed to be loving it up today.

We also spotted an Eastern Bluebird.

And a lot of Swallows in the other boxes.

The walk ends in a cove from the river, so we spotted a few more birds there. 

And on the way home, we caught the female Osprey, calling out to her mate. They can be quite vocal and get upset if their mate stays away too long or doesn't come back with dinner.

Tomorrow will be rain, so a day in or maybe shopping. We want to do some things around the house, so we might go looking at supplies to see what we can get and pricing. I am getting anxious to go camping, but it seems to rain on the weekends, so hoping we can go next weekend.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. We had a nice day with the kids. I wasn't going to do a hunt, but Alex asked if we were doing it, so how could I say no. 

Love is in the Air Giveaway!

I received my last two prizes today and so thrilled with how wonderful they are. I haven't had any time to decorate and it is so nice to have the new items to bring some love to my house. These gifts were all part of a giveaway hosted by Primitive Handmades Mercantile.

Robin of Bird in the Hand Primitives sent me the most wonderful prim doll. Of course prim does not show well in photos, but hopefully you can see how wonderful she is. The fabrics are all aged, and she is placed on a rusty spindle. I placed her on my apothecary next to my chair, so I can admire her. Robin really puts a lot of detail into her primes. It is those details, a worn spot, vintage fabrics and the hand stitching on the face that make a true prim so wonderful. She even has a hand hooked heart necklace. I just love her, I think she will stay out all year;) Be sure to visit Robin's blog, she has wonderful free doodles and a new one today.

The last gift I received was from Margie of Hungry Hook Primitives. It is a beautiful hand hooked heart, made with a variety of beautiful wools. Of course I can never get the true look on hooked pieces, I think the camera gets confused with all of the dyed wools, but I think I got it pretty close with a little photoshop magic. It is just so beautifully hooked and gorgeous wool shades.

I feel truly  blessed to have been the winner of so many wonderful gifts and with the bad month I have had it really brightens up my day to see them in my home. I have been working on some more angels, trying tan prints, this time. I am starting to feel better again, so hopefully I can get back to finishing my projects and maybe do up some new freebies.

I have also been practicing with my good camera, just automatic for now,  just to get the feel of the camera, it is heavier than my old one. I also got a zoom, but not sure if I got the right one, my photos seem to come out too fuzzy, but it takes really nice macro shots of items that are in a certain range. So, here are a few shots that I took, and had to enhance in photoshop. I really wanted to get a nice crisp shot of the bird, and wondering if all those focus points are messing me up, maybe I need to adjust them.

What kind of bird is this? A type of Bluejay? We have a bluejay that visits and he is a lot bigger than this little guy.

And here is an edited photo. I was taking a shot of the pond, from the falls and the cropped shots of the falls, had some interesting details. I used a filter on this one, it is the water falling off of the rocks, do you see something in this picture? Leave a comment about anything from this blog and you will be entered to win a free epattern from my ecrater site. The giveaway is open until Sunday at midnight and I will announce the winner on Monday night.