where did the time go?

I see I did not update my blog since April last year!
So much time I did not update, all summer and the last winter, spring is here again.

Some pictures of last summer:
My cat does not trust to much when I was swimming at the pool:

The sunflowers were back in my garden and the goldfinches loved them:

After a lot of time and patience I finished 'my coat':

And than it was winter, we had several nice walks in the olive groves.  I love the old trees there:

I worked on some orders, one of them a baby blanket:

I also did make several pieces of 'chicken scratch' embroidery, I loved it and will make more:

And then spring was back again:

with walks and enjoying our garden:

And I am stitching and crocheting again.  After making the same design granny shawl for years I really got bored with it and made a new design ... we will see when I list it on eBay if customers will like it, but I was so happy with how it looks I want to start another one ... but first some work on orders........

It is April already and summer is getting close.
The weather is a bit more stable, although maybe some rain tomorrow.

To  make it different than the usual flowers, here some birds in my garden:
A Turkish blue jay:

And a little owl, visiting us most evenings:

We did not yet get a close picture of these, we think it is a couple of hawks, here one hanging in the air this evening:

And yes, I did work a bit.

The order of pillows is on its way to the customer:

 and a pillow for the nursery :

again some months flew away ...

It is almost end of winter here.
We had some very cold freezing days.  It seems it was the coldest winter in 50 years in this region.
Several plants in my garden were frozen, I still hope some of them will recover.

When it was not raining we went for long walks,

After the very cold we had already some nice springlike days, the first trees are blooming already... 

And when it is raining or after our walks I start working on my miniatures,

usual under control of my bosses.

 I know it is a bit strange to see me working holding my work close to my face without my glasses, but that is the way I can see the fine work better

I am still working on an order of petit point pillows, the stitching of two is ready and the last one is going  fast because it is a twin of the second pillow:

Crochet dress

As promised here pictures of the dress I made last week.
Yes it took me more than a week - not fully days ! - to have it finished, but I loved working on it so I could not stop!

I got the inspiration on Pinterest, where I collect pictures of real size crochet, mostly vests, to make for myself one day...  When I saw this dress I really liked it but asked myself, when will you ever wear something like this?  And then the idea was born to try to make it in miniature.
I had to reduce the design and for the shape I had the dress form to control measurements.

               front of the dress:

                                back:

and here a last pic, together with the hat:

Summer is definitively gone now, we had the first rains and it cooler outside now.

But we still can enjoy eating outside.

Finally finished the stitching order, and started working on crochet again. 

I wanted to do something different and made a hat ... working on a dress now, I have to restart today but I am learning :)

and I hope I will remember to put a picture of it here when I finish it.

I am sure everyone knows by now I am not good at blogging :).  It is August already ... time flies so fast.

My garden is not as fruitful as it was last year but I still enjoy it.
The only thing what did grow very big were the sunflowers.  We did enjoy for several weeks the sound of the goldfinches visiting us having breakfast lunch and dinner at our place:

I worked on a petit point pillow order, the top two pillows, the bottom ones are also sold already:

And then I prepared for the Miniature Show Online what will open today.  I made several new crochet pieces:  some half inch scale bedspreads,

some crochet pillows:

and several doilies :

This year I also enjoy the evening walks and the tea with my neighbours,  it is the first time I have good friends in Turkey... maybe because it is only now that I retired that I have time for friends :)

more spring :)

Last week we went to some places to buy plants and flowers for the garden,

so now my garden is ready for spring:

In some weeks it will be time to plant the vegetables, so now we are finishing the winter crops of leeks, celery and beets ...and we all enjoy the sunny days:

And now back to miniature work!