Gratitude Today

I feel a huge sense of gratitude today.

It is a dull, cloudy, rainy day but the images I encountered on the usual journey to my son's school are in my head and my heart today. The beauty I saw filled me full of warmth and joy. I know this feeling will stay with me all day.

My son and I are up and at 'em early, so it was dark. Of course we were busy readying ourselves so I wasn't paying any attention to anything besides getting the morning routine done and getting us out the door on time.
As we pulled out of the garage I noticed a beautiful tint to all the trees, we rounded the bend and stopped the car in aw of the gorgeous sunrise. I had wished I had my camera or at least my phone so I could capture the beauty happening right in my front yard. (no time to run back in and get it) The photo below is very close to what I saw.... but that is only the beginning of the story...

Image from this site

We continued our drive. At the end of our road is a lake, behind the lake are hills and mountains. The high terrain, now standing in full fall foliage, was completely washed in a hue of pink. I have been living here for 6 years and have never seen that. It was simply beautiful. A gift to be cherished. But wait...it's not over yet....

THEN we spotted a rainbow! We ended up seeing both ends of the rainbow!!! It was a great way to start the day.

I dropped my son off to school and turned back toward home. By this time the sun had completely risen and was behind the clouds. The world now was a simple gray and it was beginning to rain. All the beauty we passed on the way was gone but the feeling is still shining within me. I don't see the gray, I see all the world washed in pink and a beautiful rainbow overhead. I am full of joy.

Fabric Folies

I can't put my finger on the reason why but as the season changes to Fall I find myself inspired to work with fabric. Perhaps this harkens back to my quilting days. I do have quite a stash of fabric still hanging around from those days. It comes in handy when the inspiration to make something of fabric strikes.

I came across a DIY tutorial, somewhere on the web, for a cup cozy. You have seen them. Almost any time you purchase a hot cup of java, tea or hot cocoa when you are out and about, you can get a sleeve to go over your cup to protect yourself from the heat of the cup. I was inspired by the tutorial to make some of these. I would share the link with you if I could find it again. I searched and searched yet I never did find that tutorial. I finally had to design a tutorial for myself.

It really wasn't that hard. I used a sleeve, from a cup of tea that I had purchased, as a rough pattern. Cut out two pieces of fabric, batting and interfacing. Sewed them together and whooola....Ema K's cup cozies were born....

I currently have these in a local gallery space but I will be making more to add to my Etsy shop.