Books

I read 156 books this year. I could have read four or five more, but 156 is divisible by 52 and I'm a bit neurotic about things like that. I started a really really long audiobook and otherwise I'm just re-reading things until new year.

Favorite Non-fiction reads of 2013: The Black Count by Tom Reiss, Toms River by Dan Fagin, Sister Citizen by Melissa V. Harris-Perry, American Nations by Colin Woodard, Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, The War that Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander, Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary, Indian Givers by Jack Weatherford, Marie Curie and Her Daughters by Shelley Emling, The Vikings by Neil Oliver.

Favorite Fiction reads of 2013: Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson, Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (most unexpected!), The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat, A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama,

Favorite Children's and YA Reads of 2013: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, The Illyrian Adventure by Lloyd Alexander, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggins, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede,

Oh, here I am.

Where have I been? Not crafting, that's for sure. 

I have been in the biggest crafting malaise since September. I've finished a few things, sure (though I don't count the knitting) but not nearly enough and I've designed nothing new.

It's been awful, but unavoidable. Part of it came from trying to stitch the Roman piece again because having stitched it once already it was just boring. I have finished the pattern but issues with the program I use to create symbol patterns means I haven't listed it yet.
Lately I've been dealing with a psychiatrist I dislike (hey man, saying things like "You don't look like a girl who would be single" is confusing, inappropriate, and creepy), horrible side effects from trying different anti-depressants, and the knowledge that those medications are unlikely to help me but this psychiatrist won't address what I feel WOULD help (don't worry, I've left him).

I actually got a bit further than this

So here you see what I've managed to get done, and a fractal piece that's nearly done (I'm cropping the pattern to fit in a 5x7 frame), though I probably won't finish it for Christmas. I've also knit this dinosaur cowl for my niece and I'm in the process of knitting one for my nephew. Hers is green with blue spikes and his is orange with blue spikes. 

Also, I've put up my Tintin, Captain Haddock, and Arsenal FC patterns for free (happy winter holiday/New Years). You can find all my free patterns here.

Present for a friend's baby.

I wish I could snap myself out of feeling the way I do, but it is a symptom of my life, and there's not too much I can change there. What I hope to change is the level of irrational anxiety I feel when communicating and especially when initiating communication. That's what's causing most of my depression, I think, both due to a lack of socializing and seeing myself act in a way that's SO foreign to my pre-disabled personality.

We'll see what 2014 will bring. 

How I feel/what I want to do. So jealous of my cat.

New DMC Colors

In the continuing feeling of BLEAH I've gotten very little done. I did go camping for a couple days last week though, and that was really nice. I miss being outside a lot, but the weather and my body's issues with the weather makes it hard.

I did, however, buy the new DMC colors like a fan-girlish fool (the box set is a lot more expensive than the individual colors will be when they're released singly). But when you own all the colors you get a bit silly.

Anyway, I thought I'd give you all the rundown on how each new color compares to the ones already out. Basically, there's very little difference, and at least one looks to be absolutely identical (the very bright orange).

The bright spot for me is the nice royal blue. It's brighter and lighter than 311, and a bit brighter than 803. There are so few blues, and I've definitely felt the absence of a better basic blue. The bright fuschia, 3886, is the also a nice edition. There's a brownish-grey, 3895, which doesn't have a close match either.


These pictures make them seem closer to pre-existing colors than they are, but seriously, they're really close and most don't fill a real gap. Wish they'd just done an all blue and purple expansion, as that's where I most often feel I can't find the exact color I need.

Rome - WIP 03

I've been in a slump and not wanting to stitch, I'm afraid. I'm tired of doing the things I can do rather than what I want to do.

I love reading, I'd read lot even if I weren't disabled and alone mostly, but if I were active I wouldn't read over 100 books a year. I'd have other stuff I wanted to do. I'd rather be playing soccer in the park with my niece and nephew, or taking long meandering walks around town to take pictures. I'd rather be working 60 hours a week in the bookstore or really anywhere than creating and stitching cross-stitch so much.

It's just hard, and I'm not doing well coping with my life lately.

In any case, here's my progress on Rome. Getting close to the finish, though taking a break today to finish up reading a library book that's due soon. It's The Riddle of the Labyrinth by Margalit Fox, about the decoding of Linear B, and a woman who deserves a lot of the credit but died and got none. Story of womankind right there.

Rome II - WIP 01

Well, I finally tore myself away from Christmas gifts and started working on the second-stitching of my Roman mosaic. There's just enough done to look super creepy and Halloweeny.

This was the first "pattern from image" that I created, and the largest thing I'd stitched the first time around (probably still the largest, really, in terms of individual stitches). I was still a novice in every way, and didn't think too much about the design once it was done. I altered a few things while stitching, but not much.

Now of course I'm altering plenty, to give it smoother lines and curves, and taking it further from the original mosaic. When I stitched this the first time I only left a border of three or four squares of blank fabric on any side. I didn't use any sort of frame, either. It amazes me now, but that's the only way I knew to do it then.

I need to write down all the Christmas stitching ideas, as I keep forgetting them, thinking I have nothing planned, and then suddenly remember that I have almost everything planned. Sigh! Honestly I'm feeling dreadfully behind on shopping, and I've got two birthdays to plan for before Christmas as well!

Scraps - Finished

So here's the finished Scraps, The Patchwork Girl of Oz. Probably the most appropriate Oz character to stitch!

Here's a secret for anyone using the red iron-on colored pencils for pattern transfer. It doesn't wash off, but you can fade it completely if you let the piece side in the sun for a week. This one needs some more sun time, but I couldn't wait to show it to you.

It's on a vintage handkerchief, which still has quite a bit of room left. I'm considering filled the entire thing with Oz illustrations, because John R. Neill was an amazing artist. I used to copy the illustrations all the time in middle school. Loved drawing them.

I wish I could share what I'm stitching now, because it's really pretty. Sadly it's a Christmas gift and you know how that goes...

Scraps - 01

Scraps is going pretty well, and I'm done with all the black parts. My plan is to the do the patches in the darkest blues, purples, and greens in the DMC range. I didn't want to fully colorize it, but also didn't want to have it be all black and white. Though, now that I'm thinking of it, my other illustrations are just with black thread... Drat.

I've managed to contract a children's livestock disease - hand, foot, and mouth (okay, it's not related to the livestock disease, I just say that to annoy my sister). It didn't go around our areas when I was a child or my mom was a child. She'd certainly never heard of it. This is the second year that my niece and nephew have gotten it.

Benjamin was here the other day, and we ate lunch together, sharing some silverware, before I knew it was going around. Sigh. I should know better than to share silverware with any child, no matter how healthy they seem. My body is not liking it so far.

A great thing is that when he was here I got him to do a little stitching on plastic canvas! He probably would have done more, but I kept correcting him on which side the needle should go in (I know, I'm dreadful). I'm hoping he'll want to add to it (in other colors) on his next visits. 

I was interviewed!

Catherine of Ancora Crafts was extremely kind and asked me to do an interview for the series she's running on her blog. 

Of course I ran around like a mad goose texting everyone I knew (okay, so there are only like... five people I text, but I was unspeakably excited). I'm tell you now because my interview is up!

I had every intention of starting my remake of my Roman mosaic but I really wanted to do another illustration for the stitch-along, so I'm putting it off again. I decided on Scraps the patchwork girl from the Oz books, and John R Neill's lovely illustration.

This time I decided to trace it with my iron on pencil, since I didn't want to Fabri-solvy obscuring the evenweave like it did with the owl piece. Only of course which part shifted and smudged during the ironing? Only the head... only the part with the most detail. Sigh! That'll teach me. This is from The Gnome King of Oz, my favorite of the Ruth Thompson set.

Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

I stitched this ages ago, and sold the finished piece a few months back, but I've only just put the pattern up for sale. I'm really proud of my dead bird based on the classic blackwork bird design.

I've been thinking of putting together some blackwork design packs (of my original designs) with themes, but I'm not sure it's worth it. So many people seem weirdly nervous of blackwork, even though it's the exact same level of difficult as cross-stitch (aka - super easy). 

My current mission is to get a friend to try non-counted embroidery, which she's nervous of. I don't think basic embroidery stitches (back stitch, stem stitch, satin stitch, etc...) are any harder than doing cross-stitch. Really it's just a great relief to mindless follow a pattern printed on fabric, with no need to be constantly counting and checking up and glancing between fabric and pattern.

I have too many things I want to work on right now, one is a big Christmas present (15,000 stitches! It will be my biggest piece yet), then I want to restitch my Roman mosaic, add some embroidery to my mini-crazy quilt, work on my patchwork Aida concept, do another piece for the Illustration Stitch-Along (free choice this month), etc...

Bless This Hive of Scum and Villainy

Here it is, gang, my greatest embroidery pattern EVER.

I'm so happy with it all around. I actually tested all the colors on a scrap of the fabric before starting to stitch (unheard of for me) and I think that really helped, as I'm really happy with that aspect as well (though the blue is a bit bright in certain lights/pictures.

Anyway, the pattern is now up in my Etsy shop.

Currently working on a Christmas present that I can't post here, but I've also got a small free embroidery piece going that I should be posting soon. I'm intending to restitch my Roman mosaic too, now that I own all the DMC colors.

I've started using software to convert some of my patterns into all symbols versions, since I know a lot of people prefer that. They're so hard for me to read myself though. When you've got a lot of colors obviously that's the best option, likewise if you've got limited printer ink, but for a simple pattern I think colored squares are so much easier to read. Of course I can't use printed out patterns at all since I'm pretty well lying down when I stitch. 

Tomorrow I'll have a post about this year's Quilt National exhibit at the Dairy Barn. It's an especially incredible group this year, with loads of embroidery incorporated.

Crazy Quilt - 01

So I've been working on this placemat sized crazy quilt. I did it all wrong, because I started without looking at any books (my usual style). So it's rather rough, and if/when I do another one I'll make it using the antique method.

There are plenty of regrets in this, starting with not using dark reds and purples for all the seam stitching. C'est la vie. I'll do a bit more embroidery on the patches when I pick it back up again, but I needed a break from that type of embroidery.


Next I'll be starting what my very well be my GREATEST PATTERN EVER. I won't give too much away yet, but it involves Star Wars.

Parenting Decisions

I'm sure every parent feels like this utterly unimpressed owl when people negatively (or maybe even positively) comment on their parenting decisions. I could make millions selling these, right?

Not being a parent myself, I'm spared this. Though I do feel a twinge of it when people comment on my cat's behavior or appearance. In reality, she's the den mother in our situation.

Anyway. That's done. I decided what would be super fun is to start a (very small) crazy quilt without knowing anything about making one. That's fun right? I mean, I know how to sew fabric together and how to do the embroidery stitches, but I've never done any sort of quilting before (granted, I know crazy quilts are often not technically quilted).

The precision of quilting has always put me off. I am not a precise person in any respect (okay, other than arranging my teacups and books). I am certainly not a precision crafter or someone who bothers to look up the correct way to do any craft.

Sooo... we'll see how it goes and whether or not I can convince my mom to do the binding where maybe using a machine is more helpful. My sewing machine isn't working and I can't sit at it for more than a few minutes anyway, so I'm piecing this thing by hand.

speedy stitching

We are in trouble as a species if people will refuse to believe
in things they couldn't actually do themselves.
--David Mitchell (not the author)

My parenting owl stitched up SO quickly. I have to wash him and then stitch a few more details, but that should be very quick.

In the meantime I decided to be totally crazy and just stitch up a beloved quote from comedian David Mitchell. I sort of feel bad, because I think maybe it's the kind of thing he would disapprove of/be uncomfortable about, but oh well. I can't go around worrying about what celebrities think.

Of course this is the time when my washable marker would completely disappear, so I stitched it without any guide whatsoever. It's messy (impossible not to be on that fabric and at that size, honestly), but not nearly as messy as I feared it would be.

The quote is from an episode of QI. They were talking about people who don't believe the moon landing happened. It's part of this clip.

Parenting

This is my next embroidery project, all laid out! Anyone is welcome to use the pattern. The owl is a medieval motif (that's pretty damn public domain!), the handwriting is my dad's.

I've got the pattern printed on my solvy and stuck on to my fabric, so I should be starting on him today. I've never done non-counted embroidery on evenweave before, so that's a new thing which is slightly freaking me out. The linen is higher than 28ct, but I haven't actually counted. I found it as a huge piece of fabric in a thrift store for $4, which was really awesome.


My cat is mad at me for letting my niece in the house. Sigh. My niece was adorable, though also full of herself. I said her drawing was nice and she replied "I know." Takes after me, I guess...

St. Trinian's

Well, here she is, in all her finished glory. Actually this piece needs to be watched in an actual washing machine (in a mesh bag and on delicate, of course) to get all of the printable solvy off so the thread isn't stiff, but it will be a while before I get that done (do not trust my building's washers).

I am having a rough time of it lately, in terms of depression. I think it's probably an every summer thing, since I can get out of the house even less now. The next project I want to do, with the owl, can't be made until I have the right handwriting for it. I've thus far been after at asking my sister to do some samplers for me. 

There's a cross-stitch pattern idea I have too, so maybe I'll work on that a bit. Right now all I want to do is eat constantly, maintain a slight alcohol buzz all the time (impossible for monetary reasons), and watch humorous shows I've seen 5 times already.

Hockey Sticks and Balls of Steel

First, let me say that field hockey is the best sport. They give you a big wooden club which is weighted with lead at one end! There's nothing that can make a teenager happier. Just for fun, here's a picture of our more laid back spring hockey team from my sophomore year. I'm the one at the back holding her stick aloft (with dark hair).


Second, I grew up with St. Trinian's comics. We used to look at the books when going to work with my dad, starting when I was in second or third grade. Those nasty girls were part of my life before I went to boarding school and became the terror of the field hockey field (right forward, if you must know). There's never been any other sport which I've loved playing more. I liked playing soccer, but it was for a bit of fun, whereas I was actually competitive with field hockey.

So I am now stitching some fearsome field hockey lasses from St. Trinian's (by Ronald Searle) and wanting to rewatch the recent St. Trinian's movie remake with everyone.

It's a lot more solid stitching than I've done before. I used satin stitch on the right side there, because it seemed like it would work better on the narrow parts. I've used long and short stitch on the rest of it and it's honestly looking better than I'd predicted.

I go back to feeling very childish with non-counted embroidery. I just think back to being shown how to thread a needle and make a stitch and how frustrated I felt at not being able to make my stitching perfectly neat.

Cthulhu!

Man, I've been so dozy lately. I'm sure it's partly just the summer, but I don't know, there's a serious case of ennui here.

In any case I finished Cthulhu, and I must say, I'm quite pleased with it. The pattern is for sale in my shop now. Getting the greens to work and be distinct but blendy was a fucking nightmare. Seriously, I hate the color green, I think it's worst for "Oh these look completely distinct unless I stitch them at which point they are indistinguishable."

Now I've started a small piece or St. Trinian's art, featuring field hockey players of course, but after/in the middle of that I have many plans for this thoroughly unimpressed owl.

The first one is for a parent friend, and will say "Yes, please tell me your opinions on my parenting decisions." Then I think one for me that says "Yes, I'm sure yoga will cure my neurological disease."

It's a concept with no bounds, I feel. Oh, the owl is from a medieval motif, which makes it even better.

Cthulhu

Geez Louise, guys. I have wanted to do anything but needlework lately! 

In spite of that I started the Cthulhu subverted "bless this house" piece, and it's looking good. Trying to choose greens that didn't just disappear into each other was really tough though. I sort of hate green now.

There's a bit of text in a large font that will go above Cthulhu, and I have to say, I think it will look pretty awesome.

After that, I'm going full artsy. Maybe. My real focus should be finding something truly awesome to stitch on the large piece of dark red linen I bought as a remnant. It's so gorgeous, guys.

I also bought a stamped embroidery tablecloth with a gorgeous floral design that I might start soon. If nothing else, stamped embroidery is just so mindless for me anymore, and that should help. I'm also mentally devising a cunning sort of harness for the q-snap frames to facilitate easier stitching, but SHH. We'll save that for Dragon's Den (I'll admit, I'm a bit tipsy right now, since I think that shows...).

While it doesn't need to be done until 2015, I'm also thinking about the wedding sampler I want to make for my sister (2015 will be her tenth anniversary). I think I either want to go pretty traditional with a few nontraditional elements or else completely nontraditional and crazy. In my mind's eye I see rows of beer bottles...

Vagina!

This is my late (though always relevant) tribute to women getting shushed for using the word vagina during political debates and such.

It's going to have the main parts of the female genitalia stitched repeatedly in reds, pinks, and browns. Then I thought I'd fill in the smaller spaces with slang words, done in blues. 

I've also started on a commission piece/pattern I've started for a friend. It's the Cthulhu one I've mentioned before, just still in such early stages that an in-progress shot seems silly.

Maisie Kate

Ah, I can't believe I forgot to post this! I was so happy I got to finally use this alphabet. It took me YEARS to track down an extremely poor copy of the pattern, and was more frustrating to read than stitch. 

I made this for my friend Christine's new baby, and was so excited to post here, and then once she'd received it I forgot!d

In other work, I spent ages on the robot sampler pattern design and decided I just hated it. Then I spent some ages on a Cthulhu twisted "bless this house" design, which I like and will start stitching as soon as I get some more 14 count Aida, since of course that's the one count I don't have.

I'm also working on a (gasp) subversive project. Free embroidery, more artsy/political statementy, which I'll post a progress shot of in the next few days.

It's summer, and I hate summer. I've also been desperately looking for something to stitch for my mom's birthday, but nothing is speaking to me.

Blackwork Quilt 2 - Finished

I thought I had finished this and then remembered that I still had to outline it. Grumble grumble. I also found a big mistake which was SO annoying.

Anyway, it's done at least, and the pattern is now for sale on Etsy.

I'm feeling a little blocked in designing patterns that are sale-able. I do want to finish that robot sampler which I hit a block on, and there's an idea with foxes that I'd love to make work. It's one where I know EXACTLY how I want it to look but I'm having trouble getting there.

After that, I'm planning to transfer a bunch of entries from my second grade journal to one big piece of cloth and embroider them along with some drawings from the same period. Is that silly? I think it will be sort of neat, though now I wonder what on earth I'll do with it.

Mermaid!

Here is my mermaid, all finished. I'm really quite happy with her.

I was weirdly nervous about stitching an iron-on transfer piece, I think for fear that I wouldn't cover the transfer lines or something.

This project went ridiculously quickly. I still need to work on my Frida project, but getting appropriate background color filled in (non-embroidered) has been a pain. I hope I'll be working on that again soon though.

Blackwork Quilt - nearly there!

Well, I got almost half the background done and ran out of floss. It's my favorite purple (154), so it seems stupid that I didn't have an extra skein around. Oh well. I'm hoping to get to the store tomorrow, but I really like the way the purple is making it pop.

Wish I'd chosen a different color for the flowers, or done them in half-stitches, but oh well. This one had a lot of mistakes and things I had to work around. Maybe someday I'll make another and it will be perfect (ha, like that will happen).

In the meantime I've been working on my first kitschy transfer piece! I have a big thing for mermaids, and strong feelings that they wouldn't have pink skin or red hair.  Here she is so far.

Meanwhile my mom is is Italy, taking pictures of things she feels would make excellent cross-stitch patterns (and cats lounging on statues).

Blackwork Quilt

I could have sworn I'd posted update pictures of this piece already! Apparently my brain has gone hooey.

Soo, this is the piece. There have been some issues. Didn't have enough of the one hand-dyed thread for the squares, went to get more, but I'd written down the wrong number. Realized that the sun had faded the other pieces anything, so waiting to use more of that would still leave problems. 

So I used one green-blue kind and one yellow-green kind, then decided to do have the piece is more greenish colors and half in more yellowish colors. It's not really noticeable enough though. I now have many things I wish I'd done with the the corner pieces, but oh well.

I'm doing the remaining white parts in dark purple (154) half stitches. I don't dislike the piece, but I can't help thinking about what I *would* have done if I'd sat and given myself time to think about the choices. I wish I could make myself go through all the options ahead of time, but I don't seem to have the knack. I'm slower with my color choices now, at least, but that's as far as I've come.

Onesie City

My friend got her package, so I can show you the onesies I stitched!

Unlike with all of Benjamin's onesies, I used fabri-solvy as a stabilizer and just drew the design on that with a water soluble marker. It worked brilliantly and make the task SO much easier. 

The designs are a big wonky, because I free-handed them pretty quickly, but I'm pretty happy with them. 

I'm having a block in finishing my robot sampler design, so it's back to work on the blackwork quilt piece.

Finally!

I am finally stitching again! It is quite the relief. I finished two small free embroidery pieces, but I'll have to wait a few days to show you, as they're a gift that's currently in the mail and I'm playing it safe.

However, I found this old piece that I started and nearly finished over a year ago. It got shoved in my purse for a while, and then into a drawer. It was a quick finish, which made me feel nice and productive.

I also spent the last few days cutting and gluing fabric onto hoops so I could start an embroidery display wall! It's not the in the best place for it, but I've lived here for almost three years and my walls are pretty damn crowded.

still healing

Well, the stitches came out, but only a fifth of the incision knit together, so now there's a great big gaping hole in my arm.

Two weeks or more before that's healed, and god knows about the pain. The nerve disease I had, RSD, is sneaky. The more you rest the affected limbs the worse the pain and inflexibility gets. So there's more pain all around, due to resting the arm. Stitching, cooking, and cleaning are my at-home physical therapy, but with tangible and helpful side effects like food, a feeling of productivity, and a clean environment.

I can't express how frustrated and depressed I am. Hope I'll be back to normal sooner than I expect.

endless boredom

I went in for what I thought was a tiny mole removal. One to two stitches they said. 

Now I have six stitches over an incision a bit over an inch long and I can barely use my right arm. Also the student doctor, right before she started the stitching, said "I'm so nervous!"  UGH.

No idea when I'll be stitching again. Anything like this tends to react with my nerve pain disease like crazy, and I heal slowly. The pain when I type more than a couple sentences is ungodly, so it seems like a poor lookout for stitching.

Hoping I'll be good for mouse-work soon and can work on some pattern designs at least. The boredom is making me ridiculously crazy but the extreme stabbing pain (even three days after the incident) makes it rough to concentrate. 

I will spare you the disgusting picture of my stitches which I've subjected everyone else to.

Blossoms again

I added just a bit to this. I think it looked odd with just the little bit of black. I'm pretty happy with it, though I'll probably look for a smaller hoop. There's a whole series of these similarly sized circular designs, and maybe I'll eventually do the lot. Or not. We'll see.

Now I've started on another blackwork quilt piece, with a different block design.

Blossoms

Look at me, stitching things I didn't design/create the pattern for... Crazay. This is from the book Classic Orientals for Needlepoint and Cross-Stitch by Mary Duckworth. It makes you wonder if she had to pay for each word in the title and thus couldn't at least stretch to Classic Oriental Designs. Oh the 80s.

I actually made myself do French knots this time, instead of my usual Chinese knots cheat. The pattern called for the black to be done in the darkest pink of the pattern, but it didn't look great in the picture. I'm thinking about outlining the outer circle in black as well.

I've also got this Creative Needle Imari collection, which has some gorgeous designs. I'm still kind of "Oh what to do next..." in terms of stitching. I have some non-craft projects I really need to work on though, including scanning a few thousand family photos.

My mom is finally all moved, so at least I'm not thinking about/attempting to help with that anymore. I had my nephew over here the other morning, which started out rather traumatically (a bathroom accident and then bread in my toaster oven catching on fire), but ended with Shirley Temple. Apparently Benjamin was tap dancing about for the rest of the day.

Easter!

Did you guys have a good Easter? We don't celebrate in the Christian sense, just the "all the stuff borrowed from the Pagans" sense. After my parents divorced my dad started taking us to the tiny Episcopal church (it was much like the Vicar of Dibley, even down to the fat, lady vicar). I didn't understand religion though. No one told me that people *believed* and I assumed it was just a traditional thing that had hung around (yet was treated like the study of ancient mythology).

In any case, it usually meant a new dress and an Easter hat, which I both enjoyed and disliked, somehow. I didn't wear dresses much, but I enjoyed, particularly if I could find a Shirley Temple element therein, and I loved the hats.

This year was a bit of a downer. I didn't get to dye eggs with the kids, and I was so tired on the day, from helping Madre tidy her new house for brunch. I did make Benjamin and Evie each an Easter hat, with this yarn which I felt looked Easter egg-ish in color. 

As a child Easter was my favorite holiday, because it meant my birthday was no more than a month away. Now I think I like it more than my birthday, because of the focus, because of not having to make any decisions, and being able to opt out if I don't feel well.