This and That

I have a reputation in my house of having a "black thumb", that is that I can't keep a houseplant alive to save my life.  In my single days my house was a jungle of healthy plants so I think all the blame can't be mine.  I am happy to be able to say that the handful of  plants I have now do seem to survive and even thrive.  This is my pride and joy - the lipstick plant I keep in my bedroom safe from the cat's abuse.  Once or twice a year it decides to bloom and makes me very happy.  You can see here from the appearance of the blossoms how it gets its name.

Look who has arrived in my house to live!  Over the holidays I was too busy to concentrate on getting much accomplished and I found myself spending what spare time I did have doing pretty mindless stuff.  One of the ways I occupied myself was surfing around entering giveaways on the various blogs I follow.  I was delighted to win this sock doll, Pinky, from Karen at The Selvage Blog.  Karen's is one of my favourite blogs because I am always fascinated at the collection of unique items created from fabric selvages.  I have made a couple potholders myself from selvages that have been featured on her blog.  I would love to make a larger selvage project but I need to do a lot more sewing in order to collect enough selvages. 

As you can see, Pinky made friends pretty quickly after arriving at my house.  She and Seven, the calico tabby, are obviously quite fascinated with each other.  Never fear though - Pinky is much too adorable to become a cat toy.  She is mine!  lol  At least for now, that is - she may find a better home eventually.

I also won another giveaway prize - this beautiful handmade baby quilt from Rachel of Rachel's Quilts.  I wish the photo did it justice so you could see how lovely and cuddly it is.  Since I don't have any babies anticipated in the family in the near future, I forced myself to part with it and took it to the Hospital Auxiliary gift shop at the local hospital and donated it for them to sell in their shop.  These ladies get an amazing amount accomplished for the hospital, raising money and then saving it until they can purchase items that the hospital needs that aren't necessarily in the budget.  I was delighted to see the new leader of the auxiliary at the gift shop and realize it was an old friend, Elsie.  I will be turning up at their meeting next week to join and see what I can accomplish in a more organized way.  Instead of just donating the odd item I will be able to work with them to achieve their goals.  I'm really looking forward to it!