Tag Archives: Sewing

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Updates and New Garden Beginings

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Well, the bad news is that thanks to Swine Flu our trip to the Riviera Maya has been postponed until probably November.  (Insert sad face here).  I am not sure what the rest of the week will look like for us now.  My MIL and SIL are coming to stay with the girls so perhaps we’ll find someplace to get away to for a day or two so we can still enjoy a bit of a break.

Good news is that the front  gardens are well on their way to looking the way I was hoping they would.  We have yet to get moving on the big vegetable garden for the back – that will require much tilling and will be the next project in the cmong few weeks.  But the front looks great!

When we first moved in there wasn’t any grass or landscaping done at all.  Not even the bare minimum.  It looked like this:

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See?  Nothing.  If you’ll recall, last summer we built two raised boxes on the left side there and in the fall we edged out the front right and started putting in lava rock:

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Left Side

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The Right Side

Our plan on the left side was to surround the raised beds with pea gravel, and it now looks like this:

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There’s a nice hydrangea tree in the corner that is beginning to bud.  The beds will be planted with some nice annuals flowers, sun flowers, peppers, beans and tomatoes. (the back garden will have the squash, watermelons, peas and other vegs)

The front right side now looks like this:

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In lieu of mulching every few months (or weeks with the rate the stuff gets washed out around here) we opted for some nice lava rock which has that red mulchy look to it and accomplishes the same thing.  I’ve got some bulbs planted in there which will be popping through this summer and I’ve just put in a number of perennial herbs like thyme, rosemary and lavender which should spread well.  There’s a nice Japanese Maple in the center, some nice blue vinca starting to grow around the edges, and some double blooming peonies and giant hollyhocks in the back.  Little by little I’ll be filling in the empty areas with nice colored blooms.  All in all I am very happy with how it’s all coming together.

I also finished Emily’s mermaid quilt, months and months after I started it.

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And since we’re on the sewing subject, here is Neve’s new sundress I made a few weekends ago:

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She’s worn it three times already and still loves it.  It’s holding up really well to all the punishment she subjects it to, and I love that she can feel pretty and dressy in something she can get dirty and throw in the washer at the end of the day.  I’m working on a tropical print one for Emily, whose purple hair has faded quite a bit.  But when we first colored it, it looked like this:

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Next time she wants blue.

Now I am off to do some cleaning and baking (brownies with some hidden spinach and whole wheat!!) and planning for chickens that we will be soon acquiring.  Did I mention that is one of the girls’ jobs this summer?  Helping to care for the chickens?  They are also being tasked with weeding and cultivating the big garden and piano lessons.  I have to keep them busy somehow – no lounging in front of the tv all summer.  Again.

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(Paul got them a special computer based piano tutor that has sensor stickers on the keys and progressively teaches notes, timing, finger placement and reading sheet music.  It’s set up like a game and they love it)

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The Sweet Stench of Progress

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It’s all over me.  I’m all sweaty and dirty from a job well done.  The house is considerably more presentable now, and a lot of the grime has been scrubbed off the walls, doors, windows and shower.  A good portion of the clutter has been taken care of.   A few plants were set in  the ground – forsythia out front, a nice flowering cherry tree, a lilac and a rhododendron in the front garden.  Soon the raised beds will be planned out and planted as well, and we are getting ready to till up a large portion of the back for squash and watermelons.  This is going to be an experimental year garden – wise.  In other words, how well can I manage a huge garden out back, and can it logistical work out there and survive all the deer/rabbits/goodness knows what else.

Paul got started on the built – in window seat for the playroom.  We decided to turn it into a nice twin bed – sized retreat that will lift up on hinges for storing toys underneath.  Hooray for hidden toys!!!  Now I just need to find a good twin size futon mattress that won’t cost an arm and a leg.

The girls took advantage of the beautiful weather by playing outside with the neighbors’ girls (we likewise got to spend time with their parents and relax a bit).  And Emily gother hair dyed purple.  I know.  Calm down.  I figured that childhood is the best time for weird hair colors and such and we should just let her get it out of her system now.  Besides, Emily has beautifully dark hair so even a shocking purple comes out more as subtle highlights in her hair.  You don’t see “PURPLE!” when you look at her.  You see a cool dark brown with a neat purple sheen to it.  Besides, it’s supposed to wash out in 3 weeks.  I have to say, though – the dye we used was awful.  We got it from Hot Topic and it was the thickest, messiest hair dye I have ever seen or used in my life.  It got all over Emily – her neck still needs a good scrubbing to free it from the lilac shade it has taken on – and all over my tub.  I had to scrub it clean afterwards.  I have pictures but they’ll have to wait.  My computer is woefully low on hard drive space, a condition I’ve been assured by Paul to be absolutely my own dumb fault for tuning out his expert computer geek advice and filling it up with 27 gigs of pictures.  So I can’t upload until I’ve fixed that massively horribly bad and I totally don’t want to think about it let alone solve it slight problem.

I also finished a dress for Neve and a dress for me, both nice and light for summer.  Again, pictures later.  I started working on a wrap skirt for myself from Weekend Sewing but ran into  a slight snag – I ran out of fabric!  I though I had enough, but it turns out that instead of a small I am in fact a Medium/Large. Now, I don’t mean to sound all self – congratulatory or anything, but this has been bugging me lately.  I am a fairly small person.  I hear it from a lot of people around me, and even the nurses at the doctor’s office refer to me as “petite”.  Dudes, I have chicken legs.  I’m average height (about 5’5″) and I am less than 130 lbs.  How on earth is that a Medium/Large?  It’s not really this pattern that’s got me bugged about this.  It’s clothing stores in general these days.  I just can’t believe that I would be a large in anything, and if I am, then what about all of the  still slender women I know who are taller and heavier than me?  Are we really going to call them XL?  Crazy!  No wonder all of us women have body issues.  Anyway that was my little rant for the evening.  Soon I will hopefully get pictures posted of all of the projects both complete and in process and the beginnings of this year’s garden.  Now that things are moving along I feel invigorated and ready for summer.

Bring it on!

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Feeling the Craftiness

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There are times when I am really really glad that I have creative projects to fill my time, occupy my hands and keep me mentally engaged.  The weather has been very typically spring – like here, in that it varies from 75 and sunny to cloudy and damp and chance – of –  snow – ish.  Not really conducive to a lot of outdoor work yet.  Also not so much to sending the kids outside to play to preserve cleanliness inside.  They are home this week on spring break, and I had hoped to keep them out of doors, but so far it hasn’t worked out quite so well.  I may be spending time today putting some energy into creative games and projects for them to do.  There’s a new game called Scrabble Slam I want to get, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.   It looks fun, plus it would be a good exercise in vocab for the girls.  Meanwhile they are driving me crazy fighting over the Wii and arguing about anything and everything else they can.

Saturday was the one really great day we’ve had since spring break began.  It was sunny and warm and Paul was in more of a mood to spend quality time with us than work.  It was ncie to have a lazy and slow start to the day and Oona enjoyed having papa with her.  She even let me do her hair!

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Not that it came out that great, what with her fidgeting and all.   Notice the ginger ale she manipulated away from Paul by batting her cute little eyes and saying soda please.

Emily mowed the lawn for us, and did a pretty great job to boot.  What really amazed us was that as she started up the hill we saw her stop suddenly and disengage the blades, turn to us and yell “Gekko!!” We ran up to her and sure enough, in the grass in front of the spot where she stopped was a small lizard, camouflaged well enough that I still cannot believe she saw him.  I certainly would have mowed right over him.  Paul picked him up and transferred him to my garden so he’d be safe.

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Research showed him to be an eastern fence lizard that is pretty common around these parts.  And they eat spiders.  Did you hear that?  I’m thinking about maybe starting a new life as a lizard herder.  I hope he’s got lots of friends.

Alas, after the Saturday fun (and ice cream cones for dessert) things have fallen into a slump.  Yesterday I went to the dentist and was informed that the expensive crowns I had “installed” about 4 years ago all need to be redone, courtesy of the constant vomiting and reflux from my last pregnancy.  Geez at this rate if I have another baby I’ll lose all my teeth altogether!  Stomach acid plus teeth equals bad news.  I don’t even want to tell you what the estimate is for that.  Let’s just say I could buy a car.    A crappy not – so – luxury – or – top- of – the – line type of car, but a car nonetheless.  And my day got even better.  A routine test at the doctor’s office came back “not good”.  Now I get to go have a “procedure” and further testing.  Fun for me!  Actually it’s not that big a deal, really.  It’s a fairly common thing from what I’ve been told.   I like to think of it all as a little reminder from my dear friend, the Universe that things can’t be too good for too long or things become too unbalanced.  That’s how I get to sleep at night anyway!  I’m just glad I have family right now.  You need people to talk to, and as I have not heard from my friend with the abusive spouse (and I’m not sure I will after I told her I want nothing to do with him ever again),  I’ve been feeling a bit lonely (I expect that’ll change once the weather warms up – I have friends in the neighborhood with kids but we’ve all been cooped up inside with the rain).

So to keep my sanity and not give in to the anxiety demons I am diving deep into the fabric and yarn stashes to work the creative mojo and crank out some fun projects.  I’ve got some things started for me from  Weekend Sewing as well as some projects for all 3 girls from the Japanese sewing books I got on Ebay.  Knitting has been taking a bit of a back seat lately as I work off my sewing obsession but I do have a few cute projects to start on the needles as well.  I’ll post updates on that as they pop up.  Mexico’s coming up at the end of the month and I do plan on bringing my knitting.  You know, there’s nothing sexier than a ghostly white – skinned woman on the beach knitting. It’s what all the hotties are doing.

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Fathers & Daughters

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Last week was the Father – Daughter dance for Girl Scouts.  It’s always a much anticipated event here, what with choosing a dress and the opportunity to wear make-up!  This year was special because it was Neve’s first year going.  Unfortunately they didn’t let me choose what they wore but I think it turned out well anyway.  At least they didn’t insist on doing their own cosmetic application.

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Neve got mad while I was curling her hair, claiming I was making her look like George Washington.  Can’t please ’em all, I guess.

I did some sewing this weekend and finished 2 simple dresses from the Weekend Sewing book I got.

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Not only do the girls like them but they asked to wear them to school tomorrow.  I’d call that a success.  I even agreed, as long as they wear sweaters with them.  Apparently that was unbelievably unreasonable of me, but at least it wasn’t a deal breaker.  They’ve been rather restless and unruly lately.  I’m guessing it’s the weather.  They’ve got cabin fever in a big way and having the weather starting to warm up is making them itch to be outside and more active.  It rained all weekend, so they were ready to bust.  So much so that Friday night it was obvious one of them had been playing with the Febreze (they sprayed it everywhere, and soaked my slippers with it.  And no, my feet don’t stink!) .  No one would cop to it so I threatened to not allow them to have ice cream.  At which point Neve piped up and said “Ok, I’ll tell the truth.  It is all Emily’s fault.

That’s my Neve.

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Smitten

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This week has been very typically March – rainy, a little windy, a little chilly, but full of blooming trees and flowers.   For me it’s been perfect for being in the craft room and working on some spring and summer outfits for the girls.  Oona does keep my pace at little better than turtle speed, but I’ve made some progress nonetheless.  I’ve gotten 3 new books that I am absolutely obsessed with and they are keeping me busy.  I bought Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross and I can’t stop drooling over the different projects she’s got.  Her fabrics have always been some of my favorite – the mermaid quilt and curtains for Emily are from Heather’s Mendocino line and I have a pink VW Bus fabric of hers currently on my quilting frame (been working on that on and off for the better part of a year now).  If I can locate some more of her fabric from that line (I am not sure it’s still in production) I will be scooping it up for some of the designs in the book.

I am also going crazy over 2 Japanese sewing books I bought on ebay.  I’ve been noticing a lot of crafters in the blogosphere raving about them for months now, so I looked around and decided to give them a try.  They are fantastic!  The designs are way cute – for kids and adults – and even though the books and patterns are 100% in Japanese (and I don’t read or speak Japanese) they are so well put together that I am still able to understand them.  That’s really saying something, I think.  I made a little blouse for Oona out of some cute little bird fabric I had.

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It’s the first pattern I have ever made where I couldn’t read the instructions and yet it still has turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever made.  I’ll be working on plenty more from these books,  I can already tell.  What’s better is that I made them using a $20 sewing machine I picked up used a few weeks ago.  It’s an older model Singer that’s pretty much no – frills compared to my model 401-A that I adore, but it sews very nicely and practically makes buttonholes for you, so I am over the moon to have picked it up for such a great price.  Plus my other machine really needs a servicing so now I have something to use while that is being cared for.

In non – sewing news I have found a lady who runs a small farm with lots of chickens and plenty of hatching eggs in the breeds I was looking for.  Sometime after we return from Mexico I’ll be picking up some eggs from her and we’ll be hatching some baby chicks!  For now I need to get to work getting everything ready for them.   I hope my mother doesn’t mind chicken sitting when we visit family later this summer!

Speaking of animals……. looks like little Jasper cat has ringworm.  Let’s hear it for fun fungal infections!  After the last ridiculously expensive go round at the vets I am hoping to cure it without a trip in.  I searched around the web and some shelters suggest using Lamisil cream to clear it up, which would really be preferable at $5 a tube.  But let me ask this:  who the heck is in charge of marketing this stuff?  And what the heck are they thinking?  Are they trying to embarrass people into NOT buying it?  Because the generic CVS version of Lamisil is a bright green box with equally bright white HUGE lettering that simply says JOCK ITCH CREAM. I mean, really.  How cruel do you have to be?  I wonder if the teen cashier who rang me out believed me when I feebly mentioned “It’s for my cat” ?

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Doggone It

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Happy First Day of Spring everyone!  I wish I could say that I was able to get my spring cleaning done, or even finish off any of the projects I’ve had laying around all winter, but it’s been a week, let me tell you.  I did whip up a batch of cupcakes last night for the girls to celebrate the equinox, however.  Neve had picked out a box of cake mix last time we were at Target that had springy rainbow chips in the mix and some fluffy pink strawberry frosting and has been waiting not so patiently ever since for me to bake them.  So after dinner was done last night Paul took Oona for me so I could get the little pink treats done.  I’ve never actually bought strawberry frosting before (I come from the yellow cake with chocolate frosting school of cake appreciation) but it tasted pretty good.  They looked lovely sitting on the island in the kitchen, waiting for Neve to discover them.  Too bad she hadn’t eaten her dinner.

Not that it mattered anyway, because after changing Oona into her jammies and changing the sheets on the bunks for the girls I returned to the kitchen and where there should have been 15 pink cupcakes there was instead this:

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Gone.  Paper liners and all.  You can’t see it in the picture but there was also pink smears all over the floor around the island.  And one very guiltily satisified dog lounging in the dining room, licking her paws.  Paul was beyond mad.  I was rather upset myself, considering I was the one who put in all the baking work.  But I was able to not be too angry because it called to mind the incident of my 10th or 11th birthday (can’t remember exactly which) when we lived in a rather tiny house in Kingston, NY and we had another golden retriever named Nugget.  My mother baked me a chocolate cake with chocolate chip frosting (and I was SO excited!) and left it in the middle of our dining room table to wait for the festivities.  And it vanished.  Completely.  The plate was found licked clean on the floor.  I don’t remember what happened after that but we love to bring that story up every tme a family dog eats something they shouldn’t.  I simply sent Pippa to bed without her doggy dinner last night.  After all, she was no doubt quite full.

It has otherwise been a quiet yet frustrating week.  Oona has strep, and though she has been on meds since Monday she is still not really herself.  She won’t let me put her down for anything, which makes cleaning and meal prep (not to mention showering) rather difficult.  Tuesday was our 13th wedding anniversary and since we are going to Mexcio in May we didn’t complain too much that we spent it trying to keep Oona happy (mostly successfully).

I’ve also been sitting with my eye on a large box of fabric that Paul’s aunt brought down this weekend for me.  So very nice.  I can’t even begin to tell you!  It’s a bunch of upholstery weight bolts from a closed out warehouse.  I am so psyched to make things with it that it’s been killing me sitting still with Oona, who is not happy unless my butt is parked in one spot all day.  The only thing I’ve managed is to finish Neve’s pj pants which were already cut and pinned and lingering on the sewing machine.

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Such a cute print!

Hopefully the weekend will be better and Oona will recover from her woes.  She’s just been so frowny and miserable.  I want my happy baby back!

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Bunk Beds, Strep and Jasper

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Last week I found a set of bunk beds on Craigslist for $150 and mom and I drove out to pick them up.  I needed a set that was twin sized on top and full sized on the bottom so that we could still accommodate guests (and because we already had a good full mattress) which made it slightly more difficult.  I also wanted wood, not metal, and these things retail for about $1500 new for a nice set.  Ouch!  So when I found a set on Craigslist I jumped.  I am a huge fan of recycling good used items this way.  It saves things from being hauled to the landfill and buyer and seller both make out pretty well.

Anyway, I spent all Friday painting them white.  Originally they were more of a honey color, which was still rather nice, but I have a color scheme I am working with here, so they had to be white!  I was so very pleased with the result when all was said and done.  I got exactly what I wanted for Emily and Neve’s room.  Yes!  They are sharing a room now!  Partly because with 3 girls and 2 rooms between them someone was going to have to share, and partly because they bicker so much I figured it was time they learned how to live together and get along.

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Excuse the poor quailty picture (still waiting to buy a real camera!).  I still have some reorganizing to do (and cleaning.  ALWAYS cleaning…) before it’s truly their room together.  They fought over the top bunk so we have compromised by making them take turns.  So far, so good.

I also worked on some sewing.  Specifically, new cotton pj’s for the girls.  I did manage to finish Emily’s pair but I ran out of elastic before getting to Neve’s.

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The colors aren’t quite right here – the fabric is a rather brilliant turquoise, one of my new favorites from Heather Bailey.  I also like to add a little tag in every item I make for them.  I had a bunch made up that say “Mama t’aime”, just to remind them that their mama loves them.

I had planned on finishing up the cleaning and getting Neve’s pj’s done but Sunday night Oona ran a fever of 105 and nobody got any sleep.  Monday I took her in to the doctor and was sent home with antibiotics, as she has strep throat, which surprised me, as I was expecting either an ear infection or a gastrointestinal virus.  I’d had a dermatology appointment directly before Oona’s appointment and as I was getting off the elevator to approach the office she puked all down the front of me.  But I was assured that strep throat can irritate your gag reflex and make you nauseated, so there we have it.  Who knew?    She’s feeling a bit better today but still insists on being held ’round the clock and isn’t sleeping well.  No creative or cleanliness progress being made here.  It is supposed to be 70 degrees here today though so I plan to open up all the windows and air out the house again. I got my big snowstorm a few weeks ago; I am now officially ready for spring.

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And Jasper is officially ready to be cuddled, all the time.  He loves Maddie!

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I’m Souper, Thanks For Asking

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I don’t know if it’s the airing out of the house or the whole “spring – ness” that is in the air, but the I’ve been pretty happy with how the last few days have turned out.  I am still suffering a bit with the stomach upset that plagued us all a few weeks back, but more or less I am well physically, and I am feeling a bit lighter and less weighed down than I have in awhile.  Oona is totally weaned and I am actually now below my pre- pregnancy weight. ( Really I don’t care so much about that, but I do want to firm up that middle mushiness that carrying three babies will do to you, especially since I got a new bikini for Mexico.)  That means a lot more options when I walk into my closet in the morning.  There’s not much that makes a girl feel better starting her day than that!

Oona now sleeps through the night, Emily’s impetigo is all cleared up and she’s back to school and we’re all back on schedule. The cloud of negativity seems to have lifted and we’ve been more productive.  Yesterday I managed to bake 2 loaves of homemade sandwich bread and whipped up a tub of dough for the fridge.  (We’re addicted to panini right now so we’re using a lot of bread).    I also made Auntie Anne’s pretzels for the girls.  ( I subscribe to Food Network Magazine and they had a copy cat recipe of those sinful pretzels from the mall and I just had to try it. )  I think my kids may have snorted them they ate them up so fast.  And yes, they do taste just like the ones you buy.  Score!

I also sent Neve to school in a peasant blouse I made for her and she looked adorable.  Emily got a new headband from a Heather Bailey pattern I downloaded  so her hair won’t look so funky anymore.    It was a good day to be the mommy of the house.  Today I continued cutting fabric for more spring and summer dresses for the girls and a halter top for me to take to the resort.  I’m hoping to pick up a set of bunkbeds this week for the girls so I can get everybody organized before summer hits and they are here all the time to get in my way complain about what I am doing slow up the process.

Today was chillier than the last 4 or 5 days have been so I decided to use the butternut squash and apples I had to make some soup.  Normally I only make this particular soup in the fall, when the apples are in season, but Neve loves it, and I have had a craving for it, so it seemed like the day to do it.   I don’t actually have a recipe I use, I kind of just “wing it”, which I find more acceptable with soups than most other types of cooking.  I knew what I wanted and grabbed the appropriate ingredients, and voila!  Yumminess!

First I chopped up a nice big squash.

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While I was chopping this up, Neve commented that the knife was pretty big.  I agreed.  Then she went on to say “But you know papa has a bigger wrench than that.  I mean a REALLY big wrench!” Which of course meant that I couldn’t stop chortling to myself with laughter, picturing the euphemisms that Paul is sure to take from that.

When I stopped giggling, I chopped up two large granny smith apples.  Then I added all the chopped stuff to a pot along with a stick of butter.  Yes, a whole stick.  No, I don’t think my recipe is on the low fat side, but I didn’t use any bacon fat or lard, and I figure it’s chock full of vegetable and fruity goodness, and plus it tastes really freakin’ good.

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I love this part, because I turn the heat on medium high and let the squash soften with the apples and it smells SO good.   Once they are all nice and starting to get a little mushy (but not too much) I add some chicken stock.  Now, when I first made this soup I was using store bought stock, and it was still good.  However, last fall I started buying whole frying chickens from Sam’s Club for $7 and making my own stock, and let me tell you.  The difference, if you’ve never done it, is phenomenal.

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A big ol’ chunk of frozen stock.  I hadn’t had time to thaw it out, but I’ve found it doesn’t really matter.  I just let the whole mess simmer until the squash is totally softened and it just smells too darn good to resist anymore.  That’s when I whip out the immersion blender and puree it all.  I used to transfer it all to my blender, but that can be kind of messy and then there’s another thing to clean.   When it’s all smooth, try not to put your face in it like a hog.  (I myself have a hard time controlling myself).

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When I haven’t had homemade stock on hand I’ve also added onions to the first step and sometimes even a bit of apple cider to bring up the apple taste.  But really, this is one of those dishes that is better for its simplicity.  Just ask the 5 year old who slurped down 2 ginormous bowls of it tonight.

SO that’s my gift to you tonight.  A yummy and easy treat and a hope that all of you are having a positive and productive week.  Enjoy!

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When Things Go Awry (In which I wax all philisophical and stuff)

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We’ve all had those days where we have to make tough decisions and hope things turn out for the best.  I guess it’s part of the fun of life, right?  Too many things can’t go well or the universe might become too unbalanced and smack you in the face.  At least that’s where we are right now, feeling the effects of a tough decision, feeling regret, but confident that it’s all for the best and we’ve made the best decision we could.    I’ve quietly watched some pretty awful stuff going on for quite awhile now and I’ve said very little in the interest of just being a good listener and keeping the peace (and let’s face it, you can’t help someone until they are ready to hear you, as difficult as it can be to hold back).  But it all exploded in my face (well, actually, my ear) yesterday and I could keep my mouth shut no longer.  I won’t say more than that, but I think everyone knows friendships and relationships are a sticky situation sometimes, especially when you see bad things happening to someone you care about.

So what DO you do when things go awry in your corner of the world?  If you’re like me, you open your windows to air out all of the germs from the last few weeks and get your “sew” on.  It’s about 80 degrees here today (hence the window opening) so I whipped up a peasant blouse for my Oona.

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I love these little shirts because you don’t need a pattern if you’re familiar with the basics of garment construction (if you’ve sewn enough patterns, you have an idea how a shirt goes together).  I have a pile of leftover fabrics that I will be putting to use making more of these for all of the girls.   This print is from In the Beginning Fabrics. I got it from Fabric.com, my fabric equivalent of a candy store.   I’ll be working on the others  later in the day, after I’ve done some sweeping and scrubbing and airing out.  Out with all the bad and the negative (and the infectious!) and in with the new and the fresh and the positive.  Paul even drive all the way home from Charlotte despite his plans to stay through the week just so he could be here as a supportive force.  He loves his girls, and it’s a good weekend for them to play outside together and have fun and decompress.  The crocuses are blooming!

Happy weekend!

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Still Chilly

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Well, it’s almost March.  That seems sort of unbelievable to me.  Almost time for spring cleaning – didn’t I just do fall cleaning?  It is a bittersweet time of year for me, the early spring.  I am sad that winter is winding down, though happy that the early bulbs have started sorouting up from the ground.  To many people right now I am sure that spring seems far off, as they while away the days under blowing drifts of snow.  How I envy them!  I am sure they, in turn, envy me and the lack of white on the ground here in Virginia.  I actually find the dearth of snow more depressing – all around me there is brown.  Brown grass, brown trees, brown shrubbery, brown brown brown.  I’d rather see a pristine blanket of white than dead vegetation the entire season.

I take a lot of flack for this.  Most adults have outgrown snow.  I think it is sad, personally, that by the time we reach adulthood the majority of us have lost that sense of wonderment that makes childhood so special.  Remember when snow was magical?  You could run outside in it and it would seem like all the world was holding its breath;  it made it seem, if only for a short while, that the world was being cleansed and renewed – sort of a metaphorical clearing of the slate, if you will.  (Not to mention the fun!  Snowmen, igloos, snowballs, snow angels……ah!)

And it isn’t just snow.  We’ve collectively lost interest in the fact that the natural world around us and all of the small, simple things that are going on every day, are amazing. I feel ridiculously lucky that I am where I am right now, able to watch the subtle changes in the trees and the sky from my window and share it with my kids.  The lack of snow is unfortunate.  I’ve always thought that the lingering snow with the green sprouts shooting through to find the sun was a miraculous sight.

Yesterday we had an errand to run at the lake and since it was just before twilight and the lake looked so serene (and I had my camera with me) we decided to stop at one of the beaches and enjoy it for a few moments.  The sun was just dipping below the horizon, a few straggling ducks were still out and about, and the smell of smoke from someone’s wood fire hung in the chilly air.  It was a darn near perfect time to be out.

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They loved watching the ducks and walking around in the sand.  (For the record – their coats were in the car, and I tried to make them put them on, but no luck. )  They even found two little shells by the water’s edge.

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Not that they need anymore shells.  My parents have a shellfish addiction (clams, oysters, mussels) and there is an impressive mound of shells out near the garden where they toss them after meals.  My kids think it’s the most incredible thing in the world, and they came home the other night with a bag full of them each.  My house runneth over with shells.

But back to the spring prep.  I’ve dug out some Heather Bailey fabric I’ve had for awhile that I think is perfect for this time of year.

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I am obsessed with this fabric!  So far it has become a carrying case for my knitting needles, but I think it is going to turn into many other things as well.  A new apron, some placemats, pillows, maybe a quilt………..