Update on the Bird Nest

Remember the cute bird nest I told you a couple of days ago? Here is the update. It's not abandoned. I found one of the most beautiful little egg in it last night! It's a wonderful bright turquoise/aqua blue. I am not an expert, so after a little bit research, I think it's a Robin's egg. Haven't seen the parents yet, maybe they are super careful and alert, and always spotted us before we got any closer. But unfortunately, because of the sudden temperature drop, I had to move all my plants back into the house. No way my jasmine can survive outside, so I had to move the nest from the jasmine pot to an empty pot. I left it at the same place, so the parents can still find it, and maybe they won't notice the pot change. Crossing my fingers now. If the parents abandon this nest and egg, it won't even have a chance to hatch. Last year, a robin baby fell into my yard from a tree. I tried to help it by putting it into a small basket, but it was so scared and crawled away. The parents were around, and trying to feed it, but without the safty of the nest, it was killed by some other animal the very next day. Hope this one has a better luck. I will post the pictures later.

And I cannot understand why nobody interested in my little birdhouse. I made it very roomy, and painted it dark green, like a tree. And the best part is it has a roof! It has been raining for the past two days, and everything is soaking wet, including the bird nest. How can the parent birds keep their egg warm in such a cold and wet nest? Why don't they move into my carefully built birdhouse, which is definitely dry inside. I left it next to the little nest, so if the parents changed their mind, it's easier to move. We'll see.

More updates. I am happy to report that the parent birds didn't abandon the nest. Actually, they laid another egg in it. I don't know how many are they going to have, but I am definitely going to keep a record of this whole process.
And look at what I found on my porch, another nest! What is going on with these birds? It seems they all very much in love with my pots! This one is built even better. The birds actually waved my English Ivy into their nest, so I couldn't even take it out. Guess the ivy I grew whole winter, from tiny cuttings, are gone now. Cannot wait to see how many eggs this nest is going to hold. So much activities!

Great Weekend

I had lots of fun this past weekend. First of all, I got a little surprise when I got home from work last Friday, a cute little bird nest in one of my pots. I put my glass coffee table out on the deck and rearranged my plants last Thursday night, and then watered them Friday morning. Just a short day, the birds built that nest in my jasmine pot. It was perfectly built, with dry grass carefully waved into a bowl shape. I was hoping the birds will come back and lay eggs in it, so I can document the birth of the babies. But I think they might realized that is not a safe place, too close to human, and abandoned it. How sad! I built a little bird house that night and hoping the birds will like it and nest in there. But nobody is even showing interests in it. Guess I cannot have a CLOSE relationship with the wild birds. I have to settle with just watching them from inside the house.

I went yard sailing Sat morning. I had a doctor appointment and came back around 11Am, so didn't have time to hit more locations. I only found 4, and not many exciting stuffs. Guess great ones already sold earlier. But I did got something I wanted. I bought two framed arts from our neighbor's moving sale.Since we are neighbors, I didn't negotiate the price. But I drove pass their house late afternoon after their closed up, and got a couple of free glass vases and a glass bowl. So, not bad there. I will paint the frames black to match my other frames, and replace the arts in there. They will look FANTASTIC, and nobody will know they were from some yard sale. OK, maybe keep the paintings for now, until I find better ones.

I drove to the next town, where they were having a town wide yard sale event. The first family was very nice. It was a mom and daughter team, they were selling some old clothes and small things. But I locked my eyes on the pile of fabric immediately. The tag said $.50 each piece, and I found some very nice ones and they were all 2-3 yards! So, I got a whole bag full of fabric for just $3! The bottom two are quilting fabric, and the top four are flannel, so soft, great for baby gifts. And look at the close up of them. Don't you just love the color? Oh, BTW, that little table was also from yard sale, I got it about 8 years ago, and just recently painted it very pale blue. Thinking about using it in our future baby nursery as a small changing table or something. The mom was trying to sell some of the earrings she made too, so I told her about Etsy. She was very happy and give me a bottle of hand lotion for free. NICE!

The last one I went was kind of boring, but I did buy a small fish bowl for DH's little blue fish, so he cannot say I didn't think of him. He liked the fish bowl, and moved the fish right into it. BUT he managed to cracked it that night, and had to throw it away. That was $.75 well spent and wasted in 10 hours! Lucky I got the free glass vase, so the fish still has a home.

Yesterday (Sunday) I got some free time to work in my garden. I dug out some perennials, and moved them to the raised flower bed. I started them from seeds, so they were in the "nursery bed" last year. Now they are big enough and should bloom soon, so I have to move them to their permenant home. And some of others got too big last summer, and started to block the sprinklers. So, now I have one Lavender, 3 Columbines, 3 Purple Coneflowers in the new flower bed. Still waiting for the foxgloves to grow out, and then that flower bed will be very beautiful. Oh, another major thing I did was putting down the soaker hoes. I bought 75ft one, but it's a little bit short. So, now I have to get a shorter one, and connect them to cover the long flower bed. I tried it out, besides the water pressure kind of low at the end, it works perfectly. It will save so much of my time this summer, I can see myself lying in the lounge chair, drinking juice and enjoy sunset!

Overall, it was a great weekend, very productive and satisfying. Sorry for this mile long posting, it's just so much happened during this weekend, and I didn't blog about them until now. So, if you count this one as 3 postings, they are not that long. =)

Yard Sale planning

Tomorrow is weekend again. Since we had all these nice weather, yard sales popping up like mushroom after rain. Just checked Craiglist for listings, and found some great ones. A house about 2 blocks from mine is having a moving sale. I bought some very nice porcelain/ceremic pots from a yard sale hosted by their next door neighbor. Hope I can find something interesting this time too. And I heard stuffs at moving sales could be much cheaper, since they just have to get rid of them. Crossing my fingers now. But I cannot make it right when they open, since I have an appointment with an acupuncture doctor at 9am, and his office is pretty far away. Just hope when I come back, there will still be something interest left.
And I found a listing for a town wide yard sale event in the town north of us, which about 15 minutes driving. There will be 45 yard sales in that town, they even prepared maps for people to pick up. Since I don't have certain goals, and might not have time to pick up the maps, I will probably just drive to the town center, and follow the signs. I don't really need any furniture or kitchen stuffs, but I love vintage fabric and jewelry. A girl can never have enough fabric or jewelry. And even if I don't like the jewelry, I can still use the beads for my projects. That will be fun.
Man, I am so excited! Why I made that appointment on a Sat? Hope it will rain tomorrow, so most of those yard sales will postpone to Sun. Hehe, that's my little wish, kind of selfish, so don't tell anyone. BUT, before I can go to any of these yard sales, I have to talk DH into it. DH hates it when I buy these old "junks", and this will mess up our lunch routine (we normally go to the mall and have lunch and then shop a little there). We will see.

First Harvest This Year

Yesterday I harvested my first batch of vegetable from my little garden, some Chinese chive and asparagus. And there are more to come. I just love these perennial vegetables. You plant them once, and that's it. As long as you water them and fertilize them well, they will just keep coming. Last year, I cut my Chinese chives 8 times! Lots of very tasty dumplings and of course DH's favorite dish, Chinese chive with five spice Tofu and chicken/pork. I have lots of american chives ready for harvest as well, need to find some good recipes for that. My asparagus look very promising this year. I planted them two years ago, and have been waiting very patiently. Finally this year, I am cutting some and enjoy my fruit of labor. Tomato seeds haven't germinated yet, it's still a little cold for that. And I need to start the green beans and cucumbers soon. Going to be another very busy and quite rewarding season. And since I am planting more flowers for cutting, there will be fresh beautiful bouquets to enjoy this summer.

I was trying to figure out how to arrange my plants. I put all my plants out onto the sunny deck and the covered porch. I have a very old metal wire shelving unit for the porch, it's not very sturdy, but after tying tightly to the railings, it will be fine. I am one of those thrifty girl, who never throw away anything "useful". So, this shelf just have to work for at least one more season. And I found it on the side of the street, so I won't feel sorry if I have to throw it into the trash at the end of this year. However, I am having hard time arranging the plants on the deck. Most of them love full sun, which others need very bright light but can be burnt under direct sunshine. And I don't like to put the pots directly on the deck, worrying that could damage the wood. So, do I have to buy some expensive outdoor flower shelving unit, or build some wood shelves which will start rotting after a couple of years? This morning, it hit me. I have an old coffee table in the basement, it has those thick glass top with metal frame. I got it for $10 from a yard sale about 8 years ago! It served it's purpose until we moved into this new house, and then was replaced by a big ottoman. It has been sitting in my basement for the past 3 years and taking too much floor space. Also, I picked up another metal/glass cart from the curb last year. It also has metal frame, with 2 glass shelves, and the best part is it's on wheels. Both of them are little rusty, so I can paint them the same color and if I do it right, they won't rust any more, which is very important, since they are going to be watered along with my plants everyday. Oh, I am a GENIUS! And this way, DH won't complain how messy the deck is and won't push me to give away my plants or sell my coffee table. Huh, one stone, how many birds? I will definitely show you the finished pictures. The question now is, WHAT COLOR DO I WANT?WHITE could be too bright for my eyes under the sunshine. BLACK doesn't go with my furniture so I cannot use it indoor for winter. How about some fun summer colors? I do have some summer stuffs in BLUE. So many options. But you know me, I have to wait till DH on business trip to start this project. Oh, boy, will he be surprised when he comes back!

Here is a close up of my wonderful jasmine flowers! You can see it in the other picture, not very clear though. You have to be here to really appreciate it. There are about 300 flowers now, the smell is just heavenly! It was attacked by spider mites earlier this winter, and lost lots of leaves. I thought it was going to die. But after careful treatment, shower every other day, and some spring sunshine, look at it now! Just simply breath taking. One thing I learned from gardening is to be patient, which I was not very good at. I am very glad with the result.

80F Degree Today

Yesterday and today are both very warm, feel like early summer. It was high 70F yesterday, not very hot for human, but apperantly too much for some of my plants. I put them out on the sunny deck last weekend, and they were fine. But last night when I got home, I noticed some of them got severely sunburnt! One of the huge elephant ear leaf, which was facing south got burnt the worst, almost entire leaf turned white! And all 3 of my stargazer lilies, which I started indoor and transplanted last weekend, both the leaves and the flower buds were burnt! Now I am worried the flowers got damaged and won't open this year! How sad! And I was stupid enough didn't do anything about it, especially when I knew today is going to be even 'hotter'. Now I am worrying that how many more plants going to be stressed. I moved all the Oncidiums under a chaise chair, so they can be protected a little bit. We will see whether that worked or not. The temperature is going down tomorrow. Actually these two days are way over our average. Because of all this heat, all kinds of trees and flowers are blooming in Boston. Anyone who haven't visited Boston during spring and fall, they missed the most dramatic shows of nature. We have only about 2-3 weeks of spring and fall, so in spring, all the trees and flowers bloom around the same time, and in fall, it's the famous foliage show, not just red, we also have orange, yellow, and green. Imagine all these color mixed together, and layers and layers of them, cover the entire city! Oh, OK, back to spring time. Suburb is cooler than the city, so plants just woke up in my neighborhood. Cannot wait to show you pictures from my own yard. Here are some pictures of signs of spring in my yard. My first crocus!The tulips are coming out. No signs of my daffodils yet. The new leaves are coming out on my oak trees.And my azalea flower buds are opening up too.

Boston Marathon

Yesterday was much better day than last year for all those brave men and women who ran the 112th Boston Marathon. Since Patriot's Day is a holiday, and lots of streets closed for the marathon, I stayed home. It was wonderful. Worked in my sunny backyard, and took several long breaks watching the marathon on TV. I perfer watching big events on TV compare to standing on a curb, because I can see all the details, everyone, and at every location. And the most important thing is I can sit in my sofa comfortably, drinking some nice tea and just being lazy. =)
I admire those people, not just those famous athletes, but also all those brave ones who tried. Some of them didn't make it to the finish line, but they are still heroes. To read the full coverage of the marathon, you can go to boston.com. And here are some great pictures. Men's wheelchair division winner Ernst Van Dyk crosses the finish line.Women's wheelchair winner Wakako Tsuchida crosses the finish line.Robert Cheruiyot from Kenya breaks the tape to win the men's race. This is his 4th time winning Boston Marathon.Dire Tune crosses the finish line ahead of Alevtina Biktimirova to win the women's race. Did you see how close those two were? Very tight race in deed.

All about gardening

Went to DH's company yesterday. He had something that has to be done on a Sat, I know, total waste of a wonderful sunny day. But I love their lobby and love to ride the car with DH, so I went along. That lobby never disappoints me! It's as beautiful as I remembered, little rocky mountain (of course man-made), a waterfall runs down the "mountain" and becomes a creek, which then runs underneath a asian style wooden bridge, and all these are surrounded by tropical plants. There are so many different varieties, I can only recognize some of them. But they are all wonderful, I feel like wondering in a botanical garden. There are even real bananas hanging on really really tall banana trees. And I found some really interesting flowers too. Wish I had more time to take more pictures.And today was all about gardening as well. The weather was really great, so I put all my plants out on the deck for the first time of the year. And of course, I had to give them a nice shower. They looked very happy under the bright sunshine. Then I spent the entire afternoon working in the garden. I replace the mulch for the front yard, and cut off those old dried up branches and dead plants. Some of my spring bulbs are doing pretty good, but others are getting smaller and smaller over the years. Maybe I have to give them some fertilizer. None of them in blooms now, so you guys just have to wait for the new pictures. Then I added some compost to the long raised bed, which is further away from the house. I decided to plant perennials there instead of veggies, it was too much work last year. To my surprise, I saw some nice firm asparagus tips. Nice! I planted some lilies, 3 stargazers, 7 oriental lilies, and lots of tiger lily seedlings. I got the "seeds" from AK, and patiently waited more than 3 months for them to germinate, now they all have very nice root systems and a very healthy leaf. Tiger lilies are absolutely beautiful, but I have to wait 3 years for the flowers, since I started from seeds. It's ok, at the mean time, I will enjoy my stargazers and orientals. I also planted some summer bulbs, gladiolus and canna. I saved them from last season, just hope they are still alive. My annual seedlings are still way to small for transplant, besides our last frost will be early May, I just cannot risk it.
Since tomorrow is holiday, I got one more day working in the garden. I will transplant some purple cone flowers and hostas and set up the soaker holes for the vegetable garden. Lots of work need to be done. Oh, I should plant some snow pea and beans too.
Let the fun begin.

Personalized Baby Gift Ideas

Since I have all my fabric and my sewing machine out, I went on searching for some personalized baby gift ideas. Two of my girl friends are pregnant now, I could just go out and buy them some gifts, but as any other crafty girl, I like to make my own gifts. And this way, they will be unique, and the babies can feel the warmth from my heart. JUST LOVE BABIES!

For Jennifer, since both she and her hubby Andy are pediatricians, they have everything already. So, I am thinking about making her a nursing cover like this one,which can be used as a stroller cover, or a light comforter for the baby too. And with this detailed instructions, this should be a piece of cake. Jennifer is also a crafty girl, she has a beautiful crafts room, with build-in desk and shelves, full of fabulous materials, all stored in fancy Container Store containers. Andy called that store "The Insane Store"! Very funny! They already decided not to check the baby's gender, so I have to choose some gender friendly colors. And if I have left over fabric, I can make her a matching burp cloth.

For "little fish", my best friend from high school, I am thinking of a set of matching bibs and appliqued onesies. And I found this tutorial, so this should be a very easy job. Little fish and I were very close in high school, but lost contact after we went to colleges a couple of thousand miles apart. Little as we know, we actually came to US around the same time! We ran into each other at a Chinese grocery store about a month ago. Such a small world. She married our high school classmate, Yong, and just moved here because of a new job. How wonderful! She is pregnant with their first baby, and she is lucky enough to be able to work from home.

BUT, I have to work on the gifts for my family first, since DH is leaving early next month and I don't have much time left. Lucky for me, the weekend is a long weekend, I can work on them after I finish the spring cleaning in the yard. I think it's warm enough to transplant some perennial and plant some summer bulbs. And I always wanted to take new pictures of my jewelry outside, so cannot waste tomorrow's great sunshine. But if the weather is too good, DH may want to go shopping for his trip. So many things to do, so little time! Weekends are always very short and busy for me.

Bag Fever too!

need to think of some unique gifts for my mom, really late, late birthday gift or a mother's day gift. Also, I'd like to come up with something for my sister Cathy and her cute little girl Iris. I know they have everything they need already, and they are simple people like my DH, so I cannot give them fancy gifts, which they will never use. I am making matching aprons for Cathy and Iris, and thinking about making some bags for all of them. Mom never carries any bag, and everyday she comes back from the farmer's market with those tiny plastic bags hanging on the bike handles. So, I am thinking about some shopping bags for her, and maybe matching ones for my Dad, for their weekend antique hunting trips together. For Cathy and Iris, I will probably make some causal handbags, so they can have matching ones when they go out. Since they live in HongKong, and it's warm there all year long, I will use some bright color, of course mix with pink for Iris. Here are some of my inspirations. Love the shape! Mom can either hang it on the bike handle or carry it over her shoulder. Perfect! Maybe not that many pockets on the outside though. This will be great for Cathy and Iris. Loving the fabric! This one is great for Cathy. I love the color, but Cathy is not a color person, her stuffs are all black, grey, and brown. So, have to find some nice fabric for her.
Oh, don't forget the nice shoulder bag tutorial I found. That will be great for Cathy and Iris too, and will be easier for me, since I already know how to make it.
Just wish I can finish all the gifts by the end of this month. DH is leaving for China early next month, and offered to take the gifts back with him, and send them to my family there. So nice of him. Sending gifts from US to China will be way too expensive. Now you know why I am not making anything bulky and heavy. I will take some pictures once I am done. Won't be as pretty as these bags though, but I don't care, I made them with love, so my family have to love them.

BTW, DH came back really late last night. And since I sprayed some perfume on the curtains and futon cover in his office, he didn't even notice the paint smell coming out of my 'new' closet office. Told you I can hide things from him! Mission accomplished! Now what can I do during his next business trip? Paint the master bedroom and the dinning room? Or water proof the basement? Oh, first thing first, I need to install more shelves in my closet office to hold my fabric. Too excited now!

Aprons, anyone?

I am in my sewing mood now, and just crazy about aprons. So, I did what I always do when I am interested in something, searching for inspirations on google. Love google! Here are some gorgeous aprons I found. And later on I will show you what I created for me, my sister, my niece, my mom, and ...This one reminds me of spring!This will be perfect for my niece. Just need to make hers little smaller, and in pink of course. She is such a little princess now.And I want this one for myself! Love the classic black and white, and elegant contemporary design. I want this sexy little thing too. I can definitely wear it as a summer dress, with the back sew closed of course. =)Oh, this one is cute too.
Cannot remember where I found the first three, but you can find the last two on Etsy. THE BEST PLACE OVER THE ENTIRE INTERNET TO FIND ONE OF A KIND HANDMADE TREATURES! Sorry, I just want to yell this out really loud. The sexy little pink apron is from Momo's Retro Fashions, and the cute yellow birdy one is from Dappers Duds. These ladies are so talented, their work just like eye candy for me. Now I have to go to Fabric Place again tonight to find some happy spring fabrics and, of course, something in PINK. I love that place for so many reasons, it's so close to my home, and they always have those tons of remnants. I am not really good at sewing, I can only do the simple things like curtains, slipcovers, and aprons. And those remnants are perfect for small projects like this, at a very reasonable price. I probably will make more for all my family members and friends. Everybody can use some happy things after this 6 months long winter.

Messy situation

I am in BIG trouble! DH left on Sat morning, so I jumped right into my secret plan. I pulled everything out of my closet office, and started painting. I have some leftover paint in the basement, from other paint jobs around the house, so I didn't buy new paint this time. My original plan was to paint the entire closet the pale blue color, which I think looks very nice against the green color of that room's walls. Even though I ran out of the blue paint very fast, lucky for me, it covered the front wall. So, I had to use some lavender color paint for the side and back walls, where no one else but me can see it, and it happened to be one of my favorite colors. So, I am fine there. Then when I finished and turned around, I realized how many stuffs I had. My boxes and containers were all over the room! And those are not even all I have. I have more boxes in the living room and other closets too! How am I supposed to fit all of them back into the small closet? My solution was INSTALLING MORE SHELVES! A quick trip to Lowe's and very simple installation later, I got myself more storage space. The only thing left is to put everything back to their place. But here is how I got into trouble. I started noticing some stuffs need to be organized and rearranged. As you know, I am REALLY GOOD at organizing, at least I think so. So, all kinds of tiny things flew out of the boxes and onto the desks and floor, and that was just the beginning of my trouble. Since I am deep in organizing mood, when I went downstairs to grab more plastic boxes, I noticed other things I should do, and without hesitation, I started doing those too. So, the snowball kept growing. Now I have the winter clothes all over the bedrooms and living room waiting to be packed and put into the attic (I washed them last night), I packed all winter boots and put them into the basement, and took out all my summer shoes. And I have some of my sewing projects on the dinning table and the sofa. My big vacuum, ironing board and some boxes are in the hall ways. And since DH was the one washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen, I have dirty dishes and pots all over the kitchen! My house is such a huge mess, like we have just been rubbed. I am exhausted already, and I have till Wed to clean everything up. DH always complains that I have way too many stuffs, that I should open a yard sale to sell them. So, for the safety of my treasures, I have to hide them before DH comes back. I need a team of people to help me out! Oh, I forgot to take a before picture of my closet office, but I took the during pictures, so you can have some idea of the situation. I will post the pics when I am done. I have ABSOLUTELY no time to do anything else, but cleaning up.

Not again!

I had it enough! Another weekend with rain? Apperantly the big storm which is hanging around the middle of America is spinning towards us. So, we are going to be wet for several days. Why it's always sunny and warm during the week, when we stuck inside? I work in a big office which has no window to the outside, so we don't even know whether it's sunny or rainy, summer or winter most of the time! Like yesterday, the high temperature was around 70F, but it was not that warm in the morning. So, I have to wear more clothes than I wanted. Should have taken a nice walk and enjoy the spring yesterday, but there were just too much to do. When can we get a decent weekend around here? I need to start working in my gardens and yard sailing now. Guess I just have to be more patient.
OK, enough complaining. Let's enjoy some spring flowers, things that make me happy.
These are not from my yard. I guess it's colder than other years, all the spring flowers just started coming out in my neighborhood. I will take some pictures of my Crocus, Grape Hyacinth, Daffodil, and Tulip later.

Why don't we have yard sales like this here?

I am a big yard sale fan. I like the idea of recycling and reusing things. I used to go out almost every Saturday to hunt for something, then end up with a whole bunch of things I didn't even need. It's fun for me, but not for DH. We have different taste and personality, so it's hard for me to find things that we both love. And DH is a very simple guy, he just want the necessities, doesn't care much about decoration. So, he can never understand why I buy "unpractical" things all the time, and always spend hours in the basement working on some project. He has been pushing me to open a yard sale and get rid of all my "treasures". NO WAY!
Since we have REALLY long winter here in Boston, I normally get very anxious by now. It's still consider cold for most people to set up their yard sales, so I google for other people's yard sale finds sometimes, just to see what I "want" and what could be out there. Here are some examples. Look at that little blue table on the left. It's just so adorable! I don't think it can fit in my living room, but I would love to find one of these to add some color into my life. And how about these vintage painted furniture? I need some small shelves like these to display my orchids, books and maybe some framed arts. Endless possibilities here. Look at the wonderful job this person did to this ugly old chair. Now it's such a modern piece. I think it looks better than a West Elm chair, and can be easily sold for $200 in their store. Great job!
And who don't have room for this little beauty? The lady who bought it just replace the top with that bright red fabric, which she got from another yard sale. And there it is, a perfect little stool for any one, in any room. See, why cannot I find great stuffs like these? Maybe I need to get up earlier. I will try this year.
OK, now I have to stop. I cannot control myself any more. I want to go shopping RIGHT NOW! Since DH is going out of town this weekend, maybe I can squeeze some yard sale hunt into my busy schedule (the "secret plans"). Better go check the craiglist and other local listings now. And I heard this Sat supposed to be very nice and sunny, the first Sat without rain since Feb 23rd! To those of you who are lucky enough to live in warm states, go out and hunt for some treasures. You never know what you will stumble upon. Happy yard sailing!

TranquilityKnot is back

Since I was sick for a long time, the sales in my store slowed down, almost stopped for a while. Now I am totally recovered, I have to work harder to bring my customers back. Yesterday I spent several hours for my store, communicating with other people on the Etsy forums, and also gift wrapping a couple of items. I have customers buying things as gifts, so I normally wrapping them in pretty little boxes, and decorate it with some beautiful craft/wrapping paper and ribbons. I love gift wrapping! Here are the two just sold. Guess a girl cannot have enough pink!
And another exciting thing yesterday was one of the fellow Etsy shop owner, dzfantasy, offered to take my business cards to her craft shows this summer! I was thrilled. What a great way for advertising! Thanks so much, Donna. You guys should check out her store! It's a magical place, where you can find all kinds of fantasy characters, magical mermaids, whimsical cat fairies, forest fairies, witches, leaf spirits, fairy face pins, butterflies, and much, much more! Donna is a self-taught, 3D-Fiber artist who found her own style in designing fiber sculptured fantasy figures and she has been creating the magical fantasy world for all of us for over 10 years now. She has been selling her creations at art shows in Wisconsin, and through her YOUNG AT HEART web page (http://dzfairies.com). I think it's time to bring some magic into New England. Just look at this beautiful golden butterfly fairy, isn't it gorgeous?