Yesterday was a sad day in more ways than one. My heart goes out to everyone affected by yesterday's tragedy. I am thankful I have my kiddos and their creative little minds to get my mind off of things! We finished up our spring image writing yesterday. We began the lesson by reading a spring book (of course!). Then the kids each painted sheets of paper in the colors they would need. It takes awhile, but the end products are well worth the time spent!! Each started by making a page in all blue (for the sky) and all green (grass, trees, & flowers), then I let them decided which colors to do from there. They were so cute, making sure everyone had the colors they needed! Many of them were helping their friends when they finished. Teamwork! When the paint had dried, we talked about all the fun things we can do in the spring. They each chose their favorite and made their spring image showing that. We wrote a spring acrostic poem to go with our beautiful pictures. (I am also using these poems for our library poetry contest!) Here's a few samples! "Super warm days Perfect weather Rainy drops fall It's nice out Nice, pretty flowers Gorgeous flowers grow" "Some sunny times Pretty plants coming Rainy days begin It's time to plant New animals come Gorgeous things are here" "Spring is here, caw Pretty plants Rain coming, caw Ice melting Nice roses Grow flowers" I have some great writers! I love how their pictures came out. Image writing is one of my favorite things to do because they each come out so different! I put the spring paper I used in my TpT store as a freebie! It includes the acrostic poem and a page for creative writing if you choose to do that instead. :) Click here to get it!!!! Enjoy this beautiful weather!

Earlier in the week, I started a new kawandi quilt project. I got the back all pressed up, inserted a layer of thin cotton batting and then trimmed, pressed and pinned down the pieces around my edge. I stitched maybe one row around ... and then didn't get any further. Life, generally, just got in the way of any sewing. This morning, up too early for a Sunday as I had to drop my daughter at work by 7am, I sat in my sewing room when I got back and thought I'd add a couple of rows to my kawandi... and then kept at it for a couple more hours. I turned on my audio book and enjoyed the process. I did eventually have to stop and get some jobs done around the house (blurgh) but looked into the room and saw the sun shining on my sewing table, so thought I'd sew a little bit more. I tried to film a little bit of the stitching and upload a short reel to TikTok. Anyone else on TikTok? I much prefer Instagram, but I thought I'd give it a go and try to be more active on the platform. Here's the link to the video if anyone wants to have a look. @sameliasmum Hand quilting on a sunny Sunday afternoon #quilt #quilting #kawandi #aurifilthread #sewingtiktok #quiltingtiktok #handmade #sameliasmum #bigstitchquilting #slowsewing #sewing ♬ Little Things - Tiqta In other exciting news, I've been selected as an Aurifil Artisan for 2023/2024. This will be my second year collaborating with Aurifil. I'm looking forward to seeing the upcoming list of challenges and working on the themes, in my own way. Fun!

A close look at Georges-Pierre Seurat's 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884' reveals much more than a warm portrait of a sunny day in a lovely park.

What does an Amber do with a sunny Sunday, a polystyrene mannequin head, a box full of Modroc and two empty yoghurt pots? I asked myself the very same question…. Back to mask making it is. It…

Afgelopen maand heb ik gezien hoe ontzettend populair de wallpapers met de zonnetjes waren en ik kwam erachter dat ik deze nog helemaal niet had…

Especially here in Italy the perennial herbaceous plants have not yet spread they deserve They have the great advantage of being plants that becomes more beautiful and bigger every year, and have a low cost. Specialmente da noi in Italia le piante erbacee perenni non hanno ancora la diffusione che meritano Esse hanno il grande pregio di essere piante che diventano sempre più belle e grandi di anno in anno e di avere un basso costo. (source here) here blue and white salvias, pink phlox, nepeta, graminaeous You can also easily get from seed, with the double advantage of save money and have the magic satisfaction of seeing grow something from our hands. Inoltre si possono facilmente ottenere da seme, con il doppio vantaggio di contenere molto la spesa ed avere la magica soddisfazione di vedere crescere qualcosa dalle nostre mani. (source Here ) here allium The first photograph is one of thousands of examples of what we can obtain with herbaceous perennials, because they are also enormously versatile: there are dozens of types for every need cultivation: an arid climate and sunny, moist and shady, very cold or very hot ... La prima fotografia è uno dei mille esempi di cosa si possa ottenere con le erbacee perenni, perhè esse sono anche enormemente versatili: ce ne sono decine di tipi per ogni necessità colturale: clima arido e soleggiato, umido e ombroso, molto freddo o molto caldo... (source here) here stachys lanata, Allium Schoenoprasum Here some pictures of some herbaceous perennials perhaps a little 'lesser known great charm, and well worth a place in our hot garden. Qua qualche immagine di alcune erbacee perenni forse un po' meno conosciute che hanno un grande fascino, e meritano sicuramente un posticino nel nostro giardino soleggiato. ( source here) blue and white delphiniums linum (lino) helichrysum (elicriso- liquerizia) (source google) gaura lindheimeri (gaura) Have a nice sunday darling friends! Buona domenica, cari amici!