Home!

What a whirlwind couple of weeks I've had! It was my intention to keep up with this blog while I was away, but it just didn't work out. So here I am, playing catch-up! A quick overview of my TD Canadian Children's Book Week tour in southern Saskatchewan: I gave fifteen presentations in thirteen different locations in five days. I drove 1280 km, showed crafts and made Button Buddies with over 750 students and staff, visited tiny communities and good-sized cities, and everywhere I went I was greeted with enthusiasm and warmth. It was awesome!

The first town I visited was Moosomin. (I couldn't get enough of these beautiful grain elevators!)

As I drove into town down the main street, I was surprised and tickled to see this announcement on the window of the public library:

Wow, they were expecting me! I was given such a warm welcome by two members of the library board, the staff at MacLeod School and best of all, by the students.

We had a great time making Button Buddies and chatting about creativity!

The students loved their buddies and were happy to show them off.

At Wapella School, I presented to the students in Kindergarten to grade 9, all 50 of them!

They loved choosing buttons from the many thousands that I had packed! 

I ended the first day of my tour with two presentations with the wonderful students at Carlyle School.

I'll share more photos and stories in the days to come!

Happy crafting,

Judy Ann

Packing!

I'm trying to get packed for my trip to Saskatchewan as part of TD Canadian Children's Book Week . I have way too much stuff! Would you believe I have to pack 10,000 buttons (I'm not actually counting each one!), 1500 pipe cleaners, about 1000 wooden beads, permanent markers, yarn, and as many craft samples as I can fit in my suitcase. I also need to bring along a couple dozen copies of my books!

I have no idea where I'm going to put my clothing! In the five days of the tour, I will be doing fifteen presentations to at least 750 students in thirteen different locations. I'm excited about visiting Saskatchewan for the first time and looking greatly forward to meeting a whole new batch of students, teachers, librarians and many others.

Okay, deep breath, here I go!

All the best,

Judy Ann

Spring unfurling before our eyes!

What a perfectly beautiful morning, with spring unfurling all around us! I wandered around the yard, camera in hand, to record some of the beauty.

Our red bud bush is getting so tall I couldn't get a close-up shot, but the blossoms are a lovely purple colour. (I've never understood why it's called red bud!)

We have quite a number of maple trees, and right now the leaves and keys are small and perfect.

I didn't realize the bleeding hearts were in bloom!

Even weeds look pretty good up close, don't they?

As I photographed this hosta, just sprouting, I realized that some creature has trimmed one of the sprouts!

I guess I can understand its appeal, after all, it looks like fresh, crisp lettuce!

Enjoy this lovely Spring day,

Judy Ann

Button, button, who has the button?

I do! The other day I received a delivery of two heavy cartons filled with boxes and boxes of buttons. How many new buttons do I have? Almost 20,000! Every couple of years I run out of perfect crafting buttons and have to place an order. I scooped a few thousand into a large bag so that the colours are already mixed up and ready to go.

Here's a close-up of the ten beautiful colours. 

The purple buttons are quite dark, but when they catch the light, you can see how deep the colour is.

This is the first time I've ordered buttons with a shimmery polished finish. I really like them. I can hardly resist playing with them so I hope kids will like them too.

Enjoy your day,

Judy Ann

Still trying...

I'm still trying to find time to stitch together a quilt I've designed using Kaffe Fassett fabrics. A few of us got together on the weekend to work away at our various projects. The extra sewing time helped, but I'm not as far along on the project as I had hoped to be by now. Here's a photo of the cheerful jumble of partially-pieced petals on their way to becoming a quilt top:

The weekend weather was cool and refreshing so our sewing time was interspersed with lovely, long walks. And lots breaks for indulging in delicious food! 

No time to sew today, maybe tomorrow.

All the best,

Judy Ann

St. Patrick's Day Craft

We're having a St. Patrick's Day Ceilidh this Saturday from 2- 4 p.m. at the Byron Library. Jeff will be playing music with Celtic Knot, we'll have yummy (green!) refreshments and I'll be doing a craft with anyone who would like to participate. Here's what we'll be making:

I'm sorting through my buttons today, digging out the green ones and a few different sizes of black ones to make these cheerful Button Buddies. Way too much fun!

Enjoy your day,

Judy Ann

One last piece

On Sunday we celebrated my mom-in-law's 82nd birthday with a fun gathering at our house. There were 31 of us including all her kids, many grandkids and a bunch of great grandkids too. (The little ones provided most of the entertainment!) I baked a four-layer chocolate buttermilk cake, an oatmeal cake with pecan and coconut icing, and a large batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Other family members brought lots of yummy snacks and, lucky for me, many guests filled up on the snacks, leaving a bit of leftover cake. As of today, there's one last piece of oatmeal cake on the platter. I'm tempted to just gobble it up myself, but I guess I should likely wait until supper and share it with Jeff. At least that's what I'll try to do!

Enjoy your day,

Judy Ann