Pixie Playhouse Blog

ummmm ok I’m still figuring this thing out so if anyone is actually reading this thing bear with me please

….like a hole in my head!

I always said I’d take up quilting when I retired. Well chalk it up to too much time spent browsing great and inspiring projects online. I’ve got a few projects in the works now. I’ll be posting them as I complete them.

Don’t you need a new project too? Get some inspiration by checking out the blogs of some great fabric designers. Lila Tueller is having a fabric giveaway of her latest line. Check it out and enter!
Lila Tueller Designs Blog

For when I ever manage get the business back together.

I live  in a neighborhood that is just country enough for people to feel comfortable ditching their animals here.

So this story starts back in maybe October 2008, when I came home to discover a deceased kitten on my sidewalk.  After freaking TOTALLY out for several minutes I discovered that I…well my car, in fact, was the cause of the kitten’s demise.   That day had seriously sucked already and Scott was in Florida on business. So my preggo self ended up burying a kitten in the back yard trying to prevent Alyssa from figuring out what I was doing.

Apparently, someone had dumped a lovely calico who had taken up residence with a rather stupid looking (his eyes are too close together) gray cat under my house and they produced 2 kittens.  I’ve spent the last several months trying to catch the remaining kitten.  The mama calico I only even laid eyes on twice and it has been quite a while.  Papa cat, in his defense, stayed around for some time but has been notably absent lately.  Other visitors to the porch include an orange cat as well as a giant fluffy black cat that Scott and I refer to basement cat.  We already own one cat, a stray we took in when we moved in, who is a fixed indoor cat and at times seems like one cat too many already.  Anyway, survivor kitty is just friendly enough to come up and speak but not let us pet or catch her.  For the past several weeks I’d seen less of her and she was looking pretty bad …then I realized… the poor thing has had kittens!  She is just a kitten herself, not even a year old!  I started keeping my eyes out for kittens.

So today I was in the yard in a short lived attempt to play in the sprinkler with Alyssa.  It was too hot and she was scared of the sprinkler.  I saw the big orange cat flouncing across the yard and noticed he started acting weird when he reached the steps. I looked past him and there they were 3 kittens under the front steps.  In an attempt to break the cycle I scooped them into a box and called Animal Control who will pick up stray cats if you have caught them.  While waiting for the officer I found a 4th kitten under the lattice of the porch and I hope that is all.  Mama porch cat appeared at the same time the officer did, so I put some food down so he could snag her too.   Despite the hook she kept coming to the food so he managed to catch her.
So please spay and neuter your pets folks and don’t dump them in my neighborhood anymore…plskthnks!

A basket cover!!  I didn’t use a pattern, just traced the bottom on some plastic and measured for the rest.  I probably could have used on though becuase the inside it a bit wonky.  Some playsilk easter grass fixed it right up though!  I was pretty proud of myself for pulling my embroidery attachment out for th first time since Christmas!  Alyssa carried it around for the rest of the week calling it her “dolly baseck”

It held the haul quite nicely

We were very serious about Easter morning.

Egg hunting with the cousins

After I pulled that fabric out I remembered how much I liked it!  So I stared at it for a week and decided it was time try the Round Neck Top/Dress from That Darn Kat.  It’s a little big on the skinny kid but she’ll be able to wear it for quite a while.  I was unsure of how these fabrics would look together, even though they are from the same series (something Alexander Henry but I don’t remember what).  Now that it is all together I just love it!  We are calling it “The Zoo Dress” so I guess now we need to go to the zoo!

My but she is SERIOUS!!

I love this garden and can’t believe how long it had been since my last trip there.  It is a wonderful setting for photographs.  My sister and I had our wedding portraits taken here and many shots taken for my photography classes in college were done here.  Some of these are by me and some by my sister.

I didn’t make the babe’s dress for this one.  It’s Gymboree and to be honest I didn’t like it at all when I pulled it out of the box.  It grew on me until I decided to actually put it on her and I think it turned out very cute.  It is by wild chance that she let me put a bow in her hair.  Most days she won’t even let me brush it!

The little pond is full of silvery little fish and a few gigantic …well…. monster somethings fish.  Maybe they are some kind of carp.  I tried to get a picture but they flashed away too quickly.  Although who really wants to look at carp?  How about this instead.

Sometimes I get used to looking at her and forget how tiny she is

Something very Alice in Wonderland about this I think

Kissin’ baby sister

I hate to just shove this here at the bottom but if you need a comfy way to carry your baby or toddler this is a mei tai made by Silly Goose Baby.  It is so very comfortable even being so pregnant.  This one was made as a custom project from Alexander Henry’s Tillbrook Sprites line of fabric.

This is how it goes with South Carolina weather.  It can be a bit undecided this time of year.  We had some summer last week with a touch of winter over the weekend and the first part of this week.  I think it might be spring today.  It reminds me of an animated movie I watched when I was little where the bird said “Autumn!!” and suddenly the season changed.

So with the momentary onset of summer I decided that it was time to break out the pansies and dirt and a little bit of summer sewing.

First of all the dirt

And now the heat has melted us

But we have flower boxes!

This is a project that I started last year.  I finally talked my serger into working properly so I could finish it.  YAY for rolled hems!!!

SWING!!!! If someone would stand and push her in the swing 24/7 I think she’d stay there.

Next time …spring in Hopeland Gardens!

But I’ve got a big work in progress!

And a quick peek back at this winter’s projects

These cuffs took entirely too long to finish!   She actually loves them though and even insisted on wearing them before I had a chance to weave the ends in.

And this set could have been for Christmas but it took me too long to finish so it was for Valentine’s day instead!

She’s so cute with her wee hat!

And finally… remember back to SAFF? Here is the handspun worked up into Alyssa’s winter hat!

All hail!

And the fairy dragon

Ok so who dresses up thier precious little girl as a dragon?!?!  Well it’s just that somehow when she was learing animal sounds (you know….”what does the cow say?”  MOOOO) somehow “what does the dragon say?” got thrown in there.  So you say “Alyssa … what does the DRAGON say?”  and she says “grrrrrrrrr” deep in her throat with her little nose scrunched up.  So I had to make a dragon costume.  She sort of hated it …oh well.

Oh yeah and the cousin is cute too!

What is SAFF you ask?  Well check out the info here but its the Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival, which takes place near Asheville, NC.  Now that I’m not working every.weekend.of.my.life I decided to make a day trip of it.  Scott declined the invitation to go with me, instead volunteering (VOLUNTEERING I SAY) to keep the babe… a declaration which he tried to recant at about 6am the morning of … no such luck babe, sorry.

I had great ideas to blog this on my return but found when I hit the “gone too far to turn back” point that my camera was at home tucked safely in my laptop bag.  An attempt to take a picture with my phone resulted in my phone near loosing its mind. I mean really…who wants to read a blog with no pictures.  humph

So there were alpacas and bunnies and llamas there and if there were sheep or goats I didn’t see them.  I have decided that my sister needs to forget about horses and start an alpaca farm.  They are so cute AND they produce a crop!   Other than the animals there was a building full of vendors offering every imaginable yarn and fiber product.  I caved to peer pressure and bought a drop spindle and some pinkish/blueish/reddish roving in a wool tencel blend.

I also found red and black sock yarn, 2 bargain bin sock yarns one in  green and one pink, and a big skein of homespun in pink to be made into a hat for the babe.  At that point for the sake of actually paying my bills this month I had to stop.

Before returning home I made a side journey to the Asheville Farmer’s Market, open year round, where I found local muskadines,  apples from Easley, SC, candied pecans, and sausage made from ingredients you can acutally pronounce.

It was a heck of a day trip.  Next year maybe we can make a weekend of it.  Look out llamas …next year I’m taking your picture!!