An Early Spring in 2012!

I don't know about you, but I am cautiously optimistic - it seems that spring is here!  We enjoyed a fabulous weekend in the upper 70s with a wonderful summer thunderstorm late Saturday night.  I fell asleep with the window open enjoying the fresh, cool air, the scent of moist earth, and the soothing sounds of rain falling softly on grass and leaves.  The birds are singing, the neighborhood kids are out biking and I feel like I have the energy of ten right now - I love this time!

Earlier in the week, I got the Blue Ribbon Box pulled together after my fun and well-needed break with some smaller stitches.  This box is such a beautiful and delicate project and I must admit that I am astonished at the short time it took both to stitch and to assemble!  If you ever get the chance to take this class, please do!  You do not have to be intimidated in the least, I promise!  

Here it is, in the bright spring sun, perched among the grape hyacinths.

 

A beautiful scrim piece by Marcy Pumphret adorns the front of the box.

 

In the last photo you can see the pretty little mattress pin-cushion better.  This little cushion is probably my favorite part of the entire box!  I splurged and bought the ruler and the accompanying thread winder scrims too.  Right now, this piece is my treasure!  I am already pondering how to make sure that it is kept away from beaks, claws and elbows...  LOL

We spent a good deal of time weeding the garden during Saturday;  Note the beer below.  Wherever the beer goes, DH will follow...  LOL  After 2-3 hrs straight weeding, I have to admit that there is still not much of a difference.  The weeds really got a good jump-start this year.

Our tiny magnolia bush planted last year seems to be doing well, which is nice since we lost two magnolia trees during last years terrible yoyo-spring.

It may feel a tad intimidated right next to the neighbors fantastic magnolia tree.  It almost looks like pink snow on the ground where all the petals have fallen.  I am so glad that the old neighbors moved out - they were nice enough and all that jazz, but they insisted on treating their poor magnolia like a topiary and cut the crown into a ball each year.  You can tell that it is happy to be set free and to finally be allowed to look like a tree and not a gigantic pink lolly pop.  (I am pretty sure that all the other trees around here were smirking at it...)

  

Do you find it hard to pass up on all the colorful pansies and violas in the store this time of the year?  I do, which means that I ended up getting a good deal more than I know where to dig down.  The orange pansies are my favorite, but they seem to be tricky to get hold of.  I have only found space for about two thirds so far - I am hoping that inspiration will hit tomorrow after work!

After digging in the garden (and impressing DH with the largest worm ever!) I had to do some spring decorating at home.  DH did one of his gigantic bi-yearly furniture move-around.  The bird cages are now situated next to the living-room windows and on a safe(r) distance from the spool cabinet, so I am taking a chance here.  I realized after setting this up this little display and working in the yard that spring in Kentucky is incredibly colorful, so this display looks a bit bland...  Oh well.  Guess that means that I have to stitch up something more colorful for next spring.

Speaking of spring and bulbs and so on - I am a big fan of Thistle Threads, so I am not real sure how I missed Tricia's very pretty tulip freebie on the Thistle Threads site (see the two "pages" on the top right?).  It is one of those cool historical needlework applique pieces and the instructions look very good, as always for TT projects.   I may even dare to try this one out one day!

I do promise to give all of you a full account of last weekends trip later this week.  Until then, here are some pictures of kittens that my MIL is taking care of for the animal-shelter she volunteers at.  Aren't they adorable!?  More about them in my next post!

As always, thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week.  I hope that you get a chance to enjoy spring as much as I do and if not yet, I hope that spring will come to you soon!

Happy Spring Stitching,