::love is not love which alters when it alteration finds:: -Shakespeare
Thank you, Tim, for loving me and my "alterations" for nine lovely years.
Happy Annivesary. I love you.
It’s here. Well, almost here anyway.
Spring.
That time when the fresh green glow of tiny shoots start poking through all the dry, mushy, muddy, frozen stuff. The time when babies both human and of the animal variety start arriving with pleasing frequency (I now know three women who will give birth in early summer. I am in baby heaven.)
Spring to me has everything to do with all things sweet, soft, new, fluffy, and warm. I glimpsed our daffodils and grape hyacinth peeking at me this morning. Such a sigh of relief came up from inside me with an anticipation that is at it’s strongest when even the smallest indication comes of an end to the endless winter.
Our home is set back in the woods just a bit. Enough to make the interior of our house somewhat dim in the winter months. It’s hard for me, the Wyoming-ite, who is used to uninhibited sunshine, even in the cold months. So, this morning I sought out any little square of sunlight I could find inside this abode of ours. And I found one and sat in the pool of warmth, eyes closed, drinking it in. Pretty soon Little Bear joined me and then Josh. We sat there in the quiet of the hallway, enjoying the others’ quiet company. Bear would give me the occasional kiss and then settle back in a langourous doze.
It was nice. So very, very nice.
And then we got up and did school and dishes and laundry, and became busy in the typical ways. Only now with a sense of calm accompanied by a faint, but pleasant, urgency. Because with the passing of the old comes the urge to get ready for the beauty that is coming.
Some people might call it ’spring cleaning’.
I call it ‘hope’.
So ‘hope’ is beginning to show up on our to-do lists in the form of sorting, purging, re-arranging, and creating. Nooks and crannies are getting more attention from the broom and mop and duster and with the new sunshine starting to peek through, we are realizing our windows need to be helped to see their full potential. Dead grasses will need to be raked away to make room for the new and seeds need to be planted in order to be ready for the garden we hope to have this year. Not to mention the little, tiny sewing projects I get to do for new babies and their mamas. Nothing gets better than that.
I love this kind of to-do list.
The biggest priority on that list this week? Finishing some of those baby gifts. And finally using some of the vintage, teal sewing thread I found this fall and haven’t used yet because this color should be used in such a way that it can be seen.
So last night I broke out one of my favorite books and came up with some neat ideas that I adapted for brand-new little human beings.
I made this card and tag quilt with a bit of inspiration from Denyse Schmidt’s Quilt book. I plan on making two more sets along with some more bibs. Can never, ever have too many bibs. Or cards. The card took me all of maybe five minutes and the “don’t measure anything just cut” tag quilt is just so cute…can’t wait to make more. However, when I do make more, unfortunately I won’t be able to post any pics here until summer ’cause Aunt Christa might peek…or Aunt Elizabeth. And we can’t have that now, can we?
What kinds of projects are knocking on your door with the warmer breezes of spring?
Anna was the artist this time. In her unselfish way she forgot to put her own name on it, but she got everything else pretty much perfect. Look at my waist. I could just kiss her.