The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources -Albert Einstein

I am writing this post on my new (to me) laptop! I’m super-excited about it and have to say thanks to my best friend Evan who, when deciding to get a new laptop himself, took pity on me and offered me his old one. My PC decided to stop working around December and I couldn’t afford to get a new one. I was a little worried about what I would do when school came, so I’m really grateful to Evan for being such a great friend!

I won a giveaway over at Travelling Longhorns a couple of weeks ago and received these beautiful little pieces in the mail last week.

Aren’t they lovely? Jennifer made this coffee cozy and tissue holder out of some Japanese fabric she picked up and did a giveaway to (sort of) celebrate her 100^th blog post and blogiversary. I also think the card she sent along is super-sweet too!

I also received my two free swatches of fabric from Spoonflower that I made for their Free Swatch Day. I had intended to work on some designs when I first heard the day was coming up and then completely forgot about it until I received an email the day of as a reminder. I quickly put these two together so that I could get in on the action.

The greenish-yellow one did not turn out the way I wanted; I think I uploaded the design too small and so you can’t really see the pattern at all, but it’s still a nice colour and I’ll use it for something. The other I like much better and is based on an illustration from a 19^th century book.

I had a slightly jarring, yet also entertaining experience on Friday. I was home alone and heard a noise in the kitchen so I decided to investigate. Upon entering the kitchen I found a squirrel sitting on the kitchen table! The window was open and he had come in through a small hole in the screen; when he saw me he tried to go back out through the hole but I think he was a little scared too and couldn’t get out. I ran to get my phone, keeping an eye on the kitchen as I went, and called Alex because I didn’t know what to do. He suggested that I get a broom and try to shoo him out to which I replied “but I’ll have to go past the squirrel to get the broom!” When I got back to the kitchen the squirrel was gone, and since I knew that he didn’t come out of the kitchen I guessed he’d gone back through the hole. I promptly shut the window. I think he was trying to get into the container of zucchini bread that I had sitting on the table, I’m guessing that was the noise I heard when he knocked it over. While I never want to have a squirrel (or any other woodland creature) in my kitchen again, he was really cute, and it was a fun story to tell that day. I wish I had been able to take a picture.

Alex and I headed to Walmart on Saturday to buy a new floor lamp. I wanted to check out the range of Martha Stewart supplies that they carry and so I headed to the craft section. I had no idea that the Walmarts in Canada carried fabric, I was stunned! I knew that some of the ones in the US have fabric centres, but I never thought they’d have some here. Here (at least at the one I went to) they only carry fat quarters and a couple of packages of half yards.

I picked up these fat quarters while there. They came bundled together and were pretty cheap. You can’t see it on the orange one (second from the left) in this picture, but it has a faint argyle pattern on it along with the little flowers. I have no idea what I’ll use them for yet, but I thought they might come in handy at some point. Also, the quilt batting at Walmart is cheaper then anywhere I’ve seen before.

I can’t show pictures of the project that I finished this week because it’s a birthday gift and I have been told that the recipient does in fact read my blog. I will post pictures after her birthday which is in about two weeks.