Spring Green

It was my lucky day on March 17th...lookie what a leprechaun left for me! Okay, not really, but it sure looks like it could have come from one.

I've been wanting to make a purse with this fabric for, oh, about 2 years now. So glad I finally got to it! I love these batik fabrics. The essence of spring.

Do you recognize the shape of this purse?

I was inspired to make the bag this shape based on the shiny ceramic "vase" in our newly remodeled powder room.

Works well for home decor and shoulder bags, eh?

So in honor of St. Patricks Day and spring in general, I decked our dining room out in green.

These happy green drapes will stay up until it's time to put my red and white polka dots up for July 4th activities. They're not lined, so they were a snap to make. And I haven't gotten around to hemming them yet...don't tell anyone, okay? Actually I haven't hemmed any of my drapes yet. They're pinned in place, I just never seem to get around to doing that final, tedious step. I'll probably do them all when it's time to move. You may laugh, but that's what has happened in the last 2 houses we've lived in. One of my many, many quirks. Anyway, you can find a tut for these drapes in my sidebar in the Tutorials category. I show how to do fully lined drapes, but you can make them with no lining as well.

My wall-o-plates is spring-ified too.

I love these plates. Each one has a story, and they all evoke lots of happy memories.

I love the combination of cobalt blue and soft green. So fresh and crisp.

I pulled out a lot of my white ceramic pieces for this display. The striped square is an unused picture frame, and I lined the backing with quilt batting, then wrapped the fun stripey fabric around it for the backdrop. A lot faster than making a painting for St Patty's day!

More lucky, happy green.

True to tradition, I made an all-green meal on March 17th. Hyrum was once again thrilled, Eliza was once again grossed out and refused to eat almost everything. Hazel was a little disconcerted by the strange green tint of her beloved mashed potatoes, but she got over it. And the Jello was a huge hit for both Hyrum and Hazel. I need to make Jello more often. I never think of it until it's nearly time to eat and it wouldn't set up in time. Guess if I figured out what I was going to make for dinner sooner than half an hour before we sat down to eat it would solve that problem. (sigh) I just get so busy with other things that I tend to avoid thinking of what to make, hence the lack of planning. One of my friends lives by the counsel of deciding what to make for dinner by 10 am = much less stressful that way. I wish I had the foresight to operate that way. Dinner is about the farthest thing from my mind at 10 am. Multitasking is just not one of my strongpoints. So all our meals are things that I make in 20 to 40 minutes. And since our kids are picky eaters, I tend to make the same things over. And over. Again. Very boring, but when I occasionally break out of the mold and slave over something new and exciting I'm met with an uprising akin to mutiny. So it's back to the tried-and-true staples I go...hmmm, no wonder I don't ever want to think about dinner!

Then again, how can I bother with thoughts of pasta vs. Black Bean Chicken when I've got a backyard to completely gut and transform in time for gardening (already getting late for that...I sure hope my sugar pod peas produce their wondrous sweetness before the summer heat wilts them!) and create a flat area for a trampoline?

The weather this week has been P*E*R*F*E*C*T. Seriously. It's been an irresistable 65-75 degrees outside, sunny with a gentle breeze to cool me off as I swing the sledge hammer through the partly rotted boardwalk that stepped down the side of house. The sunny side of the house that is just perfect for a cut flower/vegetable garden. The boardwalk got in the way, and it was starting to sag in places anyway, so I attacked it this week. I actually really enjoyed playing demo crew - it was quite fun. I need to go to a carnival now and find one of those hammer contests. Bet I could win a stuffed animal. :-)

So anyway, I can't tell you how excited I am to have a "bit of earth" to (finally) have a real garden. Our neighborhood in Hawaii didn't allow such things (the yards were all teeny anyway, and tropical weather - plus accompanying bugs - aren't the greatest for most veggies). I can't wait to build some low stone retaining walls to terrace the sloped terrain, and then once the soil is amended, the kids and I are going to have the time of our lives planting all the seeds and tending our garden. It's going to be great, I just know it. It's a singular feeling of satisfaction, isn't it, to bite into a ripe tomato or sweet, crunchy carrot that you have planted, tended, watered, and harvested in your own garden? Been looking forward to this for over 6 years. We always had a HUGE garden growing up on the farm, and at the time I was annoyed with how much work it was, but now I sure am grateful for the knowledge and experience those summers have given me.

To get you ramped up for spring flowers, here's petite Miss Crocus, the first flower of the season! After this crazy blizzard-stricken Winter with a capital W, seeing my sweet little crocuses pop up is truly a heart-warming sight.

White or purple, they're all gorgeous.

It's so incredible how these warm gorgeous days have lifted my spirits and drawn me outdoors to revel in the beauty of nature. I SOOO love the change of the seasons. Always something new to look forward to. Thanks, by the way, for all your kind comments and cheerful support. I really, really appreciate it. Happy Spring to you all!