I have been relying on Neve to take my pictures of finished apparel since I haven’t got a remote for my camera.

Usually it turns out well.  She’s got a little work to do making sure she frames the shots right and doesn’t get me a totally unflattering angle (she likes to sit and shoot upwards at me, which tends to me me look super top-heavy).

Today we had a cute distraction, so it’s okay.

But first, the dress.  I used The Amelia Dress pattern from Green Bee Patterns (you should check out their other offerings; there’s some cute kid patterns!) which is a dress that uses regular woven cotton or linen, but is cut on the bias so it hangs in a more flattering and comfortable fashion.

For the fabric I chose “Sprinkles” in Indigo from Dear Stella.

I’ve made the dress once before and enjoyed both the project and the dress itself, so I thought I’d have another go at it.

I super love it. Also, it’s 100 times more flattering in person. (and it’s got pockets!!!!!)

(This is my “I’m going to move a bit to the left but oh are you still taking pics?” look.

I really like that that the fabric has a kind of universe/Doctor Who-y kind of feel about it.

Orzo really liked it, too. In fact, he showed his appreciation by rolling all around on the ground at Neve’s feet while she was supposed to be taking pictures of my dress.

Which is how I wound up with many more pictures of him than me.

Oh well. Can’t argue with cute!

Then she handed off the camera and cuddled him up.

In other news, the roses are blooming, and there’s a sweet little bird’s nest in one of the bushes!

So far I haven’t seen any activity going on in it, but it’s still nice to see it there.

We’ve also been getting a respectable amount of strawberries out of the garden.

So far we are getting a good handful every evening.  I haven’t been allowing them to spread so that they will focus their energy into berry production. I’ll stop picking off the feelers after the peak fruiting and next year we should be absolutely awash in strawberries!

I love this part of the year; the air smells fresh and cool and earthy.  Full of the promise of things to grow. The rains are warmer now, and the first early bulbs are just starting to send their shoots up through the surface.  Normally this also the time of year we look forward to lambs and kids, but we have taken the year off.  Though I will miss the wee lamb noses and kid bleats, I’m relieved to have more time to devote to the garden and other farm projects that are sorely in need of attention.

I have gone through all my seeds and ordered the ones I needed; i’ll be starting my seeds in the mini greenhouse this week. Peas will be going directly into the ground in the next few days.

We did lose one bee hive over the winter. Not sure if it was the Varroa mites that did it or the cold; it was the smaller of the hives and not as strong as the swarm hive I started out with.  I will be sterilizing the components of the hive and seeing if the swarm hive decides to produce another swarm this year. If it does, I’ll be ready for it. That hive is super strong.  It went into winter with a bumper crop of honey.  I decided not to harvest any because there wasn’t a large amount above what they needed for themselves, and I wanted to be cautious in my first year as a beekeeper. It seems to have paid off, because they still have a few frames of lovely honey left and I’m not really needing to feed them much extra.

The chickens are finally starting to lay with some reliability again, to my great relief.

You cant see the color really well in the picture, but that is a blue egg!  I’m looking forward to being overloaded with eggs again; it’s it’s been far too long!

Little daffodils and crocuses poking up!

I’m hoping to be able to get out and work in the gardens a bit today and clean them up a bit in prep for planting.  I am going to be trying the Deep Mulch method this year. I have so very much waste hay that we may as well put it to good use!

One of our lovely Silver-Laced Wyandottes, Penny. She likes to hang out on the porch.

We’ve been able to have the windows open during the day lately, and the cats are loooooooving it. I’m thinking this little one needs a perch next to the bird feeder so she can better stalk her prey.

All this springyness has got me wanting to get sewing a whole lot as well. New dresses and skirts!

I’ve been getting a bit done here and there, and I’ll reveal all soon.  But I am excited about the newest Lonsdale dress I’ve made with some lovely Moda crepe:

This fabric reminds me so much of one of my favorite sewing bloggers – Lauren over at Lladybird.

For now I am excited to get outside and get the gardening started for real. What are you excited for this spring?