what i've been up to...

The weather is wonderful! 

The boys and I have started golf lessons... Golf = Summer around here!

On Friday evening, Mr Dill and I spent what seemed like hours unwrapping all the loveliness sent by Cathe @ JSIM. I still can't believe I won her giveaway! I was mentally creating projects for the items as they were coming out of the box! I spent the rest of the evening organizing it all, using mostly the containers included in the package. Thanks again, Cathe!!

I spent a lot of time Sunday cleaning off my three season porch. Actually it's really more of a two season porch- in Spring and Fall it is totally usable but not so much in summer or winter since there is no heat or air conditioning out there. If we leave the doors from the main part of the house open, we can cool or heat the area but only to certain low or high temps. Last summer, I set up the porch as my Etsy space, where I keep the vintage stuff I've listed and the kazillion things I have not listed yet [and wouldn't you know it that garage sale/flea market/auction season is here and so my pile to list is growing already!] I'm really hoping to get the porch set up so it's easier to take pics [windows on all three sides make for wonderful natural light out there] and list items as well as have some crafting space for work and/or storage. We'll see how it goes and how quickly the weather gets really hot!

And here is a bracelet I finished up last week...

It is six joined granny squares with a loop and vintage mustard yellow button. I really love how it turned out and was the brain child of the random crocheted shapes I mentioned in a previous post.

So what have you all been up to?

weekend wrap-up: happy easter and button love...

... I hope your Easter weekend was wonderful! 

The weather here was in the 60's and our flowers are starting to really bloom.

We had a very nice dinner with hubby's side of the family with the usual Easter fare... ham, green bean casserole, twice-baked potatoes, rolls and fruit.

The second part of this post is to send out a huge THANK YOU! for all of the blog love I have been getting for my embroidered buttons I created for the FS Swap!

The full set was included on yesterday's Flickr Friend Roundup @ One Pretty Thing (if you have not seen Rachel's daily postings of some of the greatest tutorials and DIY projects on the internet, you really need to check out her blog!)

The rain cloud with lightning has been tumbling around on Tumblr, with it all starting with adaiha's Tumblr page, Neat Stuff. (To be perfectly honest, I hadn't even heard of Tumblr prior to this... I'm really out of touch!)

And finally, the robin's egg nest was included in a post on Feeling Stitchy about some of the many beautiful buttons sent and received through the swap.




I really appreciate everyone's kinds comments and adding my buttons as favorites on the blogs mentioned above and on Flickr!! It's very humbling, exciting and a boost to my crafting confidence to have my work enjoyed by others!


Have a wonderful week everybody!!

swap package sent...

...Rose confirmed today that she received my package yesterday and loved what I sent, so now I'm free to share! First, Rose and I were thinking along the same lines as the buttons I made were spring related too. She is from Seattle, which made me think of rainy things (we get a lot of rain here too) so I mixed it up with a little sunshine...

Here's a closer look

Part of the swap was to send chocolate and any other little goodies, so I included dark chocolate as Rose had requested, dark green bakers twine, four-pointed stars made with vintage fabrics and magnets in case she wanted to convert the buttons into magnets.

For the final wrappings, I decided to make envelopes out of kraft paper and washi tape

Again, Feeling Stitchy put together a wonderful swap and I'll be participating in any future ones for sure!! If you love to embroider or just enjoy looking at it, you should definitely check out their blog!

swap package received...

... from the Feeling Stitchy Embroidered Button Swap! Rose of craftymcgee is my wonderful partner and my package from her arrived today. I was anxiously waiting for it and almost blew the surprise for myself since Rose let me know earlier in the week that she was posting the pics of what she sent onto the Feeling Stitchy flickr pool and it took all of my will power to not peek. And I'm soooooo glad I waited! Here is the wrapped package and the contents:

I love all of it, but aside from the buttons, the embroidered chick badge is my favorite part! And chocolate and caramel are my favorite combination!

And here are the buttons in all of their beautiful Spring glory:

Aren't they pretty?! Rose, you did a wonderful job!! 

I'm so pleased and glad I participated in this swap - Feeling Stitchy did a great job putting it all together! I have pics of what I sent to Rose, but I'll wait to post them until I know she has received my package to her...