I have new tools.
After my last post, I couldn't get the diy crochet hook idea out of my head. One of the suggestions was to use Sculpy, an oven bake clay,  to make handles. On Thursday after work, I headed to my favorite art store and picked up five colors: red, blue, chartreusse, violet/magenta, and "translucent." We talked about this at work and I can't remember who suggested it, but making your own awls came up. I don't have a lot of crochet hooks, but I do have tons of needles. Happy crafting day for me!

I got a little carried away. Who needs five awls?
I've had Sculpy and Fimo all my life but it has be a very long time since I've made anything with it.  It gets so soft that it becomes a little difficult to work with. I struggled a bit with the flowers but in the end I think they came out just fine. I tried doing some weaving things but the clay didn't hold - it was too soft.


I got to use my crochet hook all weekend. And I do like it very much!

Last weekend I reported on the above. I finally got the suction cup hooks up here and hung it in the window.
 
I had another project in the works but wasn't feeling very excited about it. This goose is just too boring.
Poking around online let me find this much more interesting composition.  
 


I like this one a lot but I am using thinner thread. It is not holding up so well when I hang it in the window.

I'm not quitting though, I've done too much. Besides, if I use the larger thread I think the curtains will be way too big.

In another weather update, boy did we have some strange weather this weekend. It snowed for about 5 hours yesterday! It didn't stick but there were all of these huge snowflakes floating down all afternoon. It was really prettty. Last week with all the wind, the birds lost. A pair of Robins was building a nest in my Newport Pine, with the power line running right through it! 

 This does not seem like a wise architectural choice.
I wasn't able to do much yard surveying until about Wednesday. The entire nest had blown down and was in the middle of the grass.  

Also in the middle of the grass was this tiny egg. Obviously not a Robin's egg as it is not the tell-tale shade of Robin's Egg Blue, but rather it is a Mourning Dove egg. This brings the total number of known nests in the Newport Pine this year to three. My tenants reported that the cardinals are back and are (or maybe were) building a nest in the same place as last year. I understand the choice to build the nests in this tree. It provides plenty of cover for little birdies to hide. But unfortunately when it is so windy it's rather violent.

I won't leave you with a sad story - I'll leave you with my favorite actual news story of the week: Global Colored Pencil Shortage I'm not kidding. What a wonderful thing. I brought it up to the cashier at the art store and she just scoffed and said, "I coulda told you that - we can't keep them on the shelves and then can't get them when we order them."
Hm, first world problems...