birthday birdbath

4.21.2011




My wonderful husband and son gave me this early birthday present today.  I've wanted a birdbath for a long time and was even going to try to make one...but this one is perfect.  I love it.  They did an amazing job picking out a gift.  I can't wait to get it settled in a spot in the yard and fill it up.  I really hope all the birds that have been around this spring come splash around!

sun dried

4.20.2011


Yesterday was the first chance I had to try out my new clothesline.  My mom always hung our clothes and sheets out to dry whenever possible, and I've been wanting to do the same.  Once you sleep on sheets that have been freshly dried outside, you won't want to go back, I promise you.  With limited space in my back yard, I thought a retractable clothesline that went from post to post on my patio would work well, and it worked great and held much more than I thought it would.  Everything dried amazingly fast with the breeze, even though it was only about 55 degrees.  It made doing the laundry actually fun, and it felt good to not run my dryer unnecessarily for several hours at a time with multiple loads.  Just another thing a lot of our mothers and grandmothers (and on down the line) all did that is efficient, economical, and fun for us to do now!

project linus

4.19.2011



I've almost completed a third baby afghan for Project Linus.  Working on these is something I look forward to every night.  It's become almost meditative for me.  It calms my mind at the end of the day as I unwind and let the tasks and stresses of the day fall away with the rhythm of the stitching.  Now it's time to let these go and find their way to some little ones to warm and comfort.

xanadu

4.09.2011


I stumbled across a place that is one of those finds I dream of.  It looked like a crumbling, very run-down old place from the outside, like nothing that could be an actual business.  There was a row of old chairs sitting out front, which instantly caught my eye, and then the "open" sign...  The first room was small and hazy with cigarette smoke.  There was so much stuff crammed in there you could hardly walk through all of it.  But of course I did, because this is exactly the kind of place you just know there is treasure to be found.  I wish I'd had my camera but all I had was my phone to take pictures with so I didn't take many.  The man running the place told me there were two more big rooms in the back.  There were actually three and they were each enormous, like warehouses.  Stuff piled on top of stuff.  

I had a moment of feeling like I was in Charles Foster Kane's Xanadu, in that one scene in Citizen Kane where they show his vast storehouse of things. Except my Xanadu was dirty and stinky. I can't wait to go back.

front porch spring

4.05.2011



{Old-fashioned bleeding heart.  We had one of these in Portland that was my mother-in-law's.  Besides the lily of the valley near the front door, it was my favorite of the flowers she left us.  Every year I looked forward to seeing it bloom and taking a small sprig to work with me.  It will always remind me of her.}


Sunday I got some flowers potted for the front porch.  It's so nice to see some color and life out there.  Come on, sunny spring weather!

a thoreau thought

4.04.2011


(Taken at Whitewater Preserve in California.)

by mlekoshi