house wren studio

living in blue

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I'm listening to the Canada geese flutter and honk out back on the mill pond. They are making their plans to share the water, the air, the shore. Won't be long before the season changes again. Up here in the studio, I feel it too. 

The summer was full of blue and white, inside and out.

My work table is heaped with pieces of dyed remnants. 

I stitched up a new bag from some of the pieces I indigo dyed and repurposed the strap from a bag I wore out. And it's just what I hoped it would be.

It has been such a sweet summer with my family and friends. I didn't get to tell you about Mo and Matt's wedding, the delightful June retreats with Jenn McGlon and August Wren. Betsy's first birthday. (Maybe you saw some images over on Instagram.) Thank you for staying with me here though.

Vermont life is so good. I am grateful every day to be here! 

girlfriends weekend in Vermont

Read this post on my new site at www.housewrenstudio.com!

Just for the fun of it, I hosted a girlfriends craft weekend here in Vermont. Robin drove up from Boston area and Melinda came from Philly. Meleen joined us and my daughter Erin came over too.

Because it was almost Valentine's Day, I suggested we make tagbooks like this one I made years ago for Mary's magazine. Everyone brought personal photos and bits to add in and I have so much stuff in my studio to share. Wow, it was a crazy, fun craftorama.

We built the books from scratch making pockets to tuck tags into. Click here for another look at the book I made for Mo. (BTW our little Mo's getting married in June!)

Melinda brought this pretty stack of wool and the vintage card - her cats are actually named Bubble and Squeak!

Meleen filled her book with clever tags for recipes.

Robin delighted us with her cute bunny ears!

There was a fair amount of hanging out with mugs of coffee, simmering meals (and a Dutch Baby) and comfy evenings relaxing while catching up. 

Southern Vermont is such a magical place and I love to share it. Having this happy group of crafty women at my home was such a treat for me. Soon the weather will let us be outside on the deck where we can stir up a pot of indigo and dip dye our tag sale finds. We can explore the back roads of paradise. And when we've made the most of the day, we can build a campfire at the pond and let the laughter fly up to meet the stars.

If this sounds like fun to you, email me. I'm an AirBnB host and would love to create a special girlfriends weekend experience just for you. Summer is so sweet here!

well, hello, 2018

Wishing you all a happy new year! 

I just updated my sidebar date and cannot believe this is year 12 for the blog! I'm going to try to be more playful and creative this year. But I think my word for the year will be Focus. Really. I want to be more attentive to the hours, to the days. It all goes by so fast.

And I would like to be more present here on the blog. 

With the cold weather, most of us are focused on warmth and comfort. I'm letting the holiday decorations linger because they do help with the deep darkness of Vermont in January. And this is the prettiest and freshest tree I've ever had. 

Snow falls as I write this. So happy to be tucked inside with stitching, tea and twinkling lights. 

Over the holidays, my children and grandbabies were here for a visit. What a great gift to have them filling the house with giggles, stories and activity.

And little adventures!

Wow, it was 5 degrees or something and Vince could not wait to get out into the snowy banks. We walked to the library which is right across the street. Perfect escape. Still, it was intense out there. His dad and I were ready to get right inside again, but Vince loved being out there in it. Yes, he asked if he could drive one of the junkyard lawnmowers. Don't think any of them have moved even an inch in years. First chance he gets, he will probably repair one and drive it off down the street!

Hoping you all are staying warm and keeping busy with all the things that make you happy to begin a new year. So many possibilities! 

That grand old poem called winter.

~ Henry David Thoreau

xoC