A day of seasons bridged

I got out of my car to get the mail out of the box at the end of the driveway (always a possibility of the mail of my dreams!), wearing no coat and having driven home from work with the sunroof open -- to see kids out at the end of the street sledding down the big hill. I love days like these, when there are two seasons absolutely going on at once. Spring was unmistakable today, but it's going to take quite a few more days like these to melt the snow.

While there IS still snow on the ground, I'll post one last look (I *think*) of my current mini-Christmas quilt project:
This is just the center of a roughly 8.5 x 11" piece; same photo transfer process that I described with my very first post, below. The fabric sheets come 8.5 x 11, so I filled two up with images which is why I'm sort of stuck in this rut -- I want to use them all up and then tuck them away until Christmastime. Meanwhile my head is filled with spring-ier themes, Easter, and other kinds of quiltmaking (that reflect more of the real me than these holiday ones do). And posting the card, yesterday, made me eager to get back to more scrapbooking and collage....

Dean has caught my current craft bug, too; he's been busily making bead patterns and crafting out of Sculpy and Fimo (are we giving ourselves serious illnesses by baking that stuff in our home oven?). He's also finishing up work on a small bunny he's sewing. His teacher commented recently that he wasn't big on the small-motor-skill projects she presents in the classroom -- I think he's just worn out from all that he does at home!

I happened upon a long and fiery discussion -- turns out there are MANY on the subject out there in blog-ville -- about copyright and copying and imitation and "rights." I think people just need to be nice, and to "do unto others." People don't seem generally to understand that the whole issue of copyright comes up around the selling of a thing, or impinging on someone else's ability to sell her thing because you've made a knock-off that costs less, but it IS a slippery slope now online. I'm blogging because I've seen blogs others have written and have been delighted by them; I'd like to share and be open to a broader world community. In a day or two I will post the pattern I made for the little fox that appears below -- he is my work, but no, I wouldn't have made him if I hadn't seen so much toy-making online in the past month. Does it make me shallow and imitative? I don't mean to be, but I also think *original* is preeeeettttty rare to come by, and I have no intention of selling anything I do....