Weekly bird in the hand

Here is this week's list of things I am grateful for - my "bird in the hand":

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

• Crisp frosty mornings with sunshine.  Puts some color in your cheeks!
• Making time to play with food! I made igloo cakes and penguins for my book club Xmas lunch yesterday.  I'll show you them on Wednesday for my "bird a week".
• A good bird vet.  Poor Harold hasn't been feeling well this week.  Lots of feather loss and not eating. Hoping that the vets advice will sort him out and have him feeling tickety-boo in no time at all!
• Dinners out with friends.  This time of year it seems we eat out with friends nearly every day!  Lovely to see the friends but next week we need to eat less food!
• Sad movies.  Watched "Sarah's key" last night. I'd read the book for our bookclub ages ago, but loved watching the movie too.  In fact, the journalist annoyed me much less in the movie than she did in the book! 
• The anticipation of becoming a grandmother.
• The excitement of putting up the Xmas tree this afternoon!

Hope your week has been exciting too.

42/52 Bird a week challenge - Cold hands, warm heart

Gosh - fancy being at week 42 of the year! That means only 10 weeks until the end of the year! 10 more birdies to make........

This week's birdie was made today!  I normally try and start them earlier in the week and finish them on the Wednesday but not this week! So I was busy this morning sculpting, drying, firing, polishing and adding resin.

Today's little guy is entitled "Cold hands, warm heart".

I'm sure you've heard the saying.....however scientists now say that it isn't true!  Yes, the Telegraph Paper in the UK wrote about how scientists have dispelled the little myth!

They found that people holding a warm cup of coffee were more generous and charitable than individuals holding a cup of iced coffee!

Oh well! Even if the myth doesn't hold up, I still think it makes a nice penguin necklace!  I wonder if scientists have tried the coffee study on penguins?

And what about people with Raynaud's disease too, whose hands go white in the cold as circulation decreases?  My hubby has Raynaud's disease - and we are just getting into the bad season for it with temperatures getting colder - but he has a warm heart!

Cold on the snowflakes

Hope your heart is warmed today.

Take a look at the links below to see what other birds have been created this week as part of our year long challenge to make a different bird each week.

Merry go round - a Merry Gift

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 9 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month's topic is: A Merry Gift. Our little group of merry bloggers have become great friends from all around the world so we decided this month to each make a little something for one of the other merriers.  I drew names out of a hat as to who would make for whom, and we had the option of making something personalized or not.   Our blog post today is therefore to show off the gift we received and then we can link and see what the others got!  I'm eager to find out!

My gift came from Sara from Sara's Texture crafts.  Sara was one of the first people I connected with online when I started selling on Dawanda.  We both joined Dawanda at roughly the same time - 3 years ago - and I was always inspired about how often I saw her name in so many different places! She did and does a great job of marketing and connecting.

Her store has changed direction since then with more focus now on selling supplies and connecting "fiber" people together on forums and other platforms for learning, support and experimentation.  It's been great to see that path develop, and now all the new things that she seems to be trying.

I got a lovely lavendar heart as my gift from Sara.  The top of the heart is hand made felt in flesh tones and feels so soft and cozy - very  comforting.  It is adorned wtih beads and embroidery - and the beads just happen to be in my favorite color!

The reverse is maybe muslin or some such fabric (?) and now the fun begins as it turns into a scratch and sniff toy!  The lavender aroma comes through the fabric and even more so if you scratch it a little!  The scent is calming and it reminds me of my mum.   Not really sure why... I don't recall her wearing lavender perfume....we grow a lot of lavender here and while she and I have made lavender wands together...it isn't that.  Anyhow - it doesn't matter why -  she comes to mind when I smell it and that just adds to the comfort and calming feeling.

I love it - including Sara's little tag on it which says " Handmade for you by Saras Texture Crafts".  It just adds to the piece and also provides a means of hanging it, if you want.  For me I'm going to put it in my closet between some clothes and then be pleasantly surprised when I take them out. 

Thank you Sara. I feel comforting love exuding from it!

I made something for Mariana at Florcita.....no I'm not going to tell you - you'll have to go and take a look!  Her link is below, and  I hope you'll look at  all the other merriers so see what everyone made.   As we are all on different time zones, please be patient if someone has yet posted their merry gift!

Alison at Tweed Delights - http://idreamoftweed.blogspot.com
Mitsy at ArtMind - http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com
Kim at Vilt a la Kim - http://viltalakim.blogspot.com
Sara at Crafts of Texture - http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
Fabienne at Easterya Jewellery Creations - http://easterya.blogspot.com
Mariana at Florcita - http://www.florcita.eu/
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent - http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com
Lily at Lily Pang Art and Design - http://lilypangart.blogspot.com

Winter come gently....

The lovely Lori from Moda di Magno just created a treasury of wintery work by the Etsy Metal Clay Team entitled "winter come gently". She included my little "cold hands, warm heart" penguin.

Thanks Lori. Such a pretty collection. So happy to be part of this team.