Take That, Winter

Most of you in the United States have seen some harsh winter weather in the last month (special shout out to those of you in New England).  Here's what my back yard looked like last week:

and that was before the next storm dropped about 8 more inches of the white stuff.  Kids have been home from school and underfoot which has made it difficult to get anything productive done.  But, in the last few days we've seen some warm temperatures and lots of melting, and it has put me in the mood from some gardening. The snow actually helped a bit in the garden, allowing us to tramp out various ideas for future beds and see what they would look like.  So while the weather outside was frightful, I spent some time with seed catalogs and graph paper, dreaming of gardening weather to come.

This weekend I decided to start a few seeds, mostly annual flowers to intersperse with the vegetables.  I needed some quick plant markers so I punched some colored card stock (the colors conjuring up Easter eggs) in flower shapes, wrote the plant names on the front and added a tiny dot of hot glue and a toothpick to the back.

Very quick and easy.

That's Slim Pick'ns (or Slim, for short) in the background, my garden kitty.

It still seems a long way off, which is probably a good thing given the amount of tasks that I need to accomplish before the last frost, but these little seedlings warming on my window sill (and a lone crocus) remind me that spring is just around the corner.

Heading to the Expo

For those of you in the United States, you know what kind of winter we have had.  Record low temps and snow totals, ice storms in places that rarely see that type of weather, and school closures.  I've nearly lost my mind.  You might think that all of this time stuck inside would have led to lots of sewing projects.  Well, you would be wrong.  Most of my time has been spent refereeing two little boys who have had quite too much "togetherness" and cleaning up piles of Legos and other messes.  So, I have nothing to show for what is usually my most productive time of the year, winter.

I am, however, heading off for a bit of inspirational time at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Baltimore on Thursday.  But this year I won't be shopping and attending classes (well, I might do a little of that, too), I will be teaching some of those classes.  I have been offered a most fantastic opportunity to fill in for a teacher who couldn't make it at the last minute.  I was only asked to do this about a week ago, so I have spent the last week (in between yet more snow and more school closures) coming up with lesson plans, making samples and packing supplies.  Here's my table all piled up with my preparations.

I have to say that sewing these samples has really inspired me to come home and make myself something from the lovely heavy-weight linen that I used for my samples.  Perhaps it will be ready by the time spring arrives.  Which can't be soon enough in my book.  I will leave you with this link to a post from the past which conjurs up memories of spring and cherry blossoms:  What I Like in March:  Cherry Blossoms.