I'm still here...

Not doing too much of any one thing. The children keep my busy. I am taking an art class on Wednesday night. I am taking it for continuing education for the Master Teacher Program. I have also been doing a bit of gardening to get my yard prepared for the summer. Also trying to get some spring cleaning done. Still listing stuff on ebay for people.

Things are ok. :)

Congratulations to my brother Danny...

and his lovely wife Emily, who did all the work! They had a sweet baby girl born yesterday morning. Her name is Mikenzie Christina. She is their fourth child (two boys, two girls) and my parent's 14th grandchild. I look forward to meeting her in June!

In less interesting news, I have been tring to get over the winter blahs (read: depression) and doing a lot out in the garden to try and get any sunshine I can. I was even out yesterday afternoon / evening in the rain. Oops. I dumped all the pots and redid them with new soil, planted all the fuchsias, snapdragons, and allysum. I also planted my fuchsia garden and the shade garden up on the hill that's been on my to-do list for over a year.

Tomorrow I have another art class. I'm taking it to work on fulfilling the continuing education requirement for the MTP. It's a four-part class all about how to teach color in the classroom so it will be very interesting.

Onwards!

PNB's "Swan Lake"...

I took the girls to see "Swan Lake" yesterday down at Pacific Northwest Ballet. It was lovely... I loved the swans! What a beautiful production. Not at all like this. (Although the girls would have appreciated more humor.) Victoria was pretty sad at the end... although I knew the story once I'd forgotten that he is alone at the end. Barbie did a disservice when they changed the ending!

I did mention I took both girls with me. It was more of a challenge. They're both well behaved but it requires a lot of my attention and I don't think I want to deal with that every time. Victoria likes more contemporary dance, of which PNB does quite a bit, and Madeline liked Broadway Festival (loved it actually). They were both interested in Swan Lake but Madeline did fall asleep halfway through the third act. So, I don't know who to take to the next one. It's director's choice, which is probably code for "Peter likes the unusual", so we'll see.

The music was wonderful. Victoria sang it the rest of the evening. We already have the CD
so I'm glad she likes it!

In the meantime I haven't been doing a lot. I made the girls some spring dresses on Saturday and we went to the zoo Friday. I have a ton of Master Teacher stuff waiting to get finished and mailed. I taught the Iris at our guild on Thursday. Through it all I'm fighting off allergies and waiting for the weather to warm up so I can plant my fuchsia starts. Madeline's favorite book right now is Fuchsia Is Now.

Pat Van Cleve's Iris and Butterfly

This is a charted canvaswork design from Pat Van Cleve. It is called "Iris and Butterfly" and is from the 2005-2006 ANG Chapter Project Booklet. I will be teaching it at our guild meeting this week. Fun!

Bits and pieces...

I've been getting projects completed the last few days. We replaced four of the rotted fence panels on the back fence and hung three mounted baskets on them. I planted some hostas, ferns, a vine maple and a small magnolia tree. I did get out to Flower World a couple weeks ago and picked up the basket starts so I'll do all my pots sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Today I framed Twister. I bought the mats and the frame from Cascade Frames in Mercer Island so I just had to lace it and put it in the frame. It took forever though! I really don't like to do framing but now it's completed. :-)

I also sewed two more little Pick-Me-Ups... the lavendar one is sold but the red one is for sale for $38. E-mail me if you're interested in any of the ones I have for sale.

Fabric layered bottom with a cute twisted cording trim. Hand-beaded button accents.

Lavender and white blend with a beautiful woven ribbon.