A new month and new challenges!

Ah February morn! cool and rainy - a pot of Russian tea made in my pink and black cat teapot and drunk from my pink Victoria bone china mug - a wonderful day to stay inside and create!

I crafted the above necklace from a large silk flower that I purchased with several others at a thrift store. I took the flower apart and sprayed the petals with black cherry glimmer mist and then sewed them back together making sure to fold them over to the back leaving a place through which to pull the ribbons that I used as the necklace. I added some netting and attached a vintage heart pin on top. I created this necklace for the current Artz de Scrap challenge - to alter an artificial flower. You have until the end of February for this challenge! Have fun and try something outside the box - or should I say, outside the flower!

This layout is for the new Candy Shoppe Designs challenge - something for the single girls and primarily to use an arrow in your layout. So, do you think chocolate is better than a man? Sometimes I wonder......... Be sure to get us your layout or project by the 14th! We have a great prize!

The next two layouts are for the Scrapgal Manufacturer of the Month contest - this month is Little Yellow Bicycle, and both of my layouts are done with LYB Baby Safari girl papers. The above photo is of a house in New Providence, Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, The Bahamas, and the alphas are Thickers and the flowers are Prima.

On this layout of my niece, I also used die cuts from Pink Paislee and Jenni Bowlin, and some stickers from K&Co. The animals came from a set of African papers and embellishments that I purchased at a thrift store. You have until the end of February to post your LYB layouts and projects on Scrapgal! We offer a prize at the end of the month.

I am sewing the borders on to a watercolor-style quilt top that I made about 2 years ago. Hopefully I can finish it by the end of February so that we can use it on our bed - since it is queen-size, it is quite a bit of work! I meant to post the quilt I finished made of my mother's fabrics but that will have to wait until another day - it's so dark it would be hard to get a good photo of it.

 Tomorrow is the traditional day to celebrate Imbolc, Candlemas, or Brigid's Day (in the same way, it's Groundhog day). It is halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and symbolizes the end of winter and the beginning of spring.As always, I will light candles and say a prayer of thankfulness for my many blessings. When I lived in more northern climes, I always felt tired and depressed at this time year, longing for the return of the sun and the warmer weather. This little ceremony always cheered me and made me feel that winter would soon end. In Jacksonville the azaleas begin to bloom and even in Colorado we would begin to see crocuses and grape hyacinths by the end of February - their bright cheery blossoms blooming definitely through the snow. It's time to watch movies and read books that are set in warm sunny places. Hope you have a great day and think happy spring thoughts!

 thanks for reading and have a great week.

ttfn

Chris

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