I Like #113

Welcome to another week of I likes!

1. This weekend was Easter and it was truly wonderful and joyous.  We had a saxophone quartet accompany the choir and organ at church, and it was fabulous to break out the Alleluia's and great Easter hymns.  The weather was perfect here too, sunny, springy, breezy but not windy, and warm but not hot.  Really perfect, it felt like a genuine blessing.  My friend Trish and I wore our matching dresses, and I also coordinated with my friend Clois!

2. My blackberries are blooming!  Hooray!  Hopefully that means good fruit this year.  I think I will have to net them; I've never done that before but everyone around here who wants the fruit (duh) does it, otherwise the birds get everything.

3.  I have a tulip blooming!  It's so far a really pretty pale white/yellow with pinkish edges.  So cool.  There are a couple more coming up, I hope they will bloom.  The hyacinths didn't really do very well.  One bloomed for a quick second and then promptly wilted, and the second one only bloomed halfway and is already starting to wilt.  Not sure what's up with that.

4.I got out and balled up some fun yarn I bought last year at the Kellyville Fiber Festival,  It's a hand-dye superwash merino (75/25) for making socks.  It's half black have rainbow speckle (sorry for the crummy picture).  I still haven't finished my shawl, but I want to get the socks started because they'll be more transportable for my upcoming Scotland trip.  I think it'll make up into fun stripey socks.  Very witchy-meets-rainbow!

5. My two tesseract quilts are currently at a contemporary fiber show called Exploring the Twisted Nature of All Things at the Las Vegas City Hall.  I couldn't go see it, but the kind arts curator sent me a picture of my quilts hanging up-  it looks like a great venue.  The quilts had a bit of a hard time arriving, so I'm grateful they got there.  Unfortunately I don't know who the other two pieces in the photo belong too.  The show will be hanging for a couple of months so anyone in or traveling through Las Vegas should go see it!

6.  Betty Busby, Cynthia Sanchez and the SAQA New Mexico crew also just got the latest SAQA NM show (Out of the Blue) hung at the NM State Capitol.  I made the catalog for the show and it also has some really great pieces, so anyone in Santa Fe this summer should go see it.  Here are some shots taken while they were still hanging it.

From left to right:  Betty Busby, Willow Revisited; Cynthia Fowler, First Light; Shannon Conley, 33°20'N, 105°33'W

Jean Neblett, Ref. 18-On the Slough; Shannon Conley, Peace be with you

Ann Anastasio, Nothing but Blue Skies, Betty Busby (I think?), and Vicki Conley, Water

It's kind of hard to see everything here, but on the left behind the man is one by Judith Roderick, and on the right is one by Lynn Welsch.


I hope everyone has a great week!  Click on over to LeeAnna's for more things to like.

I Like #112

Welcome back to another week of I likes!

1.  I like that my mother of thousands plant is starting to make leaf babies again.  It has grown very large but for a long time the leaves were just normal.  I was so excited to see some new babies on the leave edge when I looked at it the other day.

2. The monsters! I love them!  So much!  They are such good snugglers...

3. I loved this display of all different kinds of flamingo decor.  I saw it and it made me think of our fearless leader LeeAnna!

4.  I drive past this field of cows and calves napping in the spring sun the other day and it made me smile.

5.  So did these bins of baby chicks!  While at Tractor Supply getting some birdseed I saw them.  They were so cute and momentarily made me want to start raising chickens until I remembered that Blue and Bentley would not agree and I don't need any more mess. 

6.  I made two new flower beds this week.  I dug them out and planted dahlias and covered them with mulch.  I don't know whether anything will grow, but they look nice right now!

7.  I started a new illuminated quilt this week too.  It's going to feature a sung version of the Lord's prayer with music written by my good friend Linda. 

I hope you guys are having a good week and that spring might be in sight!  I keep seeing reports of late snowstorms!  Click on over to LeeAnna's for more positive things!

I like #111

Spring is still springing around here, and lots is blooming.  It's wonderful walking around.  Some of my bulbs are finally coming up and at the moment
I have some baby hyacinths that are making me happy!!

The crabapple blossoms from last week have opened and are having one of their best showings in years.

The apple trees are blooming wonderfully too.  Hopefully I can get some fruit before the birds snatch it all.

I went down to Becky's on Sunday, just for the day, and had a wonderful time hanging out with her and Andrew and the kids.  Becky and I took a nice hike in the morning around lake grapevine.  It was a lovely trail and so good to see her and spend time with them all.

I was so happy last week to discover that the Bullett bush survived the winter.  You may recall that when I lost him last year, it was the hottest part of the summer.  A terrible time to plant shrubs, and of course the only shrub left at the store was already on clearance for being mostly dead.  I thought I might have to plant something new this spring, but low and behold, down at the very bottom, there's beautiful new growth.  I miss him so much- he was such a good little dog.

And here's a Bentley for good measure. 

I hope you all have a good week!  Click on over to LeeAnna's for more wonderful things to like!

I Like #110

Hello again! 

Mostly springy things to like this week-  I didn't do much that was terribly exciting (filing taxes doesn't count), but there are still things to like.

My crabapple tree is blooming!  We had a late freeze last weekend, but I think it came through ok.

My redbud tree is blooming!  So pretty!

Over Christmas, my mom showed us some cute little quilted bowls she made for the purpose of holding onto your hot bowl as it came out of the microwave or oven or whatever.  I thought they were really fun, perfect for oatmeal or hot soup or something and figured I would make some.  But then I realized I already had the perfect thing!  I have a whole stack of these simple crocheted mats that my great grandmother made.  They're acrylic so you can't use them as true potholders for super hot stuff, but I typically use them under vases of flowers or something.  But some of them weren't flat, I guess she just didn't increase enough while crocheting or something and I'd never known what to do with those.  As it happens, they're perfect for preventing me from burning my hands on my Malto-Meal!  Thanks Gigi!

I haven't been very productive at home lately on the quilting front;  I've been stressed at work and by the time I get home usually just fall into my chair.  I did finish the banner for Becky this week though.  This is the back as I was getting ready to stitch the binding.  This week I've been building a stand for it and will take it all down to her on Sunday.  I think it came out really nice and I hope to get a full post up on it next week sometime.

So the birds are back and I finally got some pictures.  They'd been going through the food at a prodigious rate, and I realized why once I took some pictures.  There have been a few little cute ones, but mostly just hoards and hoards of voracious grackles.  The grackles are so pretty- black and purple and turquoise metallicky in color, but they're mean and chase off everything else.  I guess I need to switch bird food or something.

The pups are fine.  Blue didn't want me to sweep-  I think he was worried I was going to take outside all the dirt he had so patiently brought in.  No worries Blue, you'll bring back in just as much by tomorrow.

No tulips yet, but I think I have a pre-tulip!

Have a great week and check out LeeAnna's blog for more things to like.