Primavera

Hello, all, and Happy Easter!

Yes, I'm still here, but have not been inclined to spend a lot of time on social media lately. Guess I'm kind of capricious that way.

I thought I would just stop in long enough to share a photo of my rare tulips.

They're rare because this is the only plant that grew, although I planted a dozen bulbs when we moved into this house four years ago! The "soil" is mostly clay, and I didn't think to add compost when I stuck the bulbs in the cold, hard earth. Gardening just ain't my thing. But I do love tulips, and to get two (and another bud) is quite an accomplishment here on my little patch!

Gluing crap together is my thing, and here's a finished piece of baroque confection that I originally posted on my Facebook page, and linked to 52 Pick-me-up a few weeks ago.

It obviously wasn't enough to just do the collage - I had to glam up the frame, too.

Ray Strauss vintage scarf from The Citizen Rosebud on Etsy

Happy Spring!

Val

Easter Melange

I love that word - melange. And I couldn't think of a better way to describe this post, which covers Easter, birthdays, men's style, food, family, sunshine, sewing, and a gnome.

In my family we have plenty of birthdays in April - my mom's, my sister's, my brother's, now also my nephew-in-law's, my sister-in-law's, and also one of my best friends's (pronounced "best friendzuz"). At least here in this town we're able to combine three birthdays and celebrate at once. It just happened that Easter was the best time to get together for a barbecue!

my brother-in-law barbecuing

I've been wanting to take some photos of my very cool nephew-in-law, Kenji, who was one of our birthday celebrants. Kenji would like to find some men's style blogs, so if you know of any, let me know.

 

the sunglasses are Ray Ban's

Cool, huh? He's also an absolute sweetheart, which is nothing less than my niece deserves.

This is Kenji and his wife, Lisa, with their two nephews.

This photo includes my sister, color-coordinated with Lisa, and my other niece, Mildred. The boys are her sons.

My goodness, these people are multiplying like rabbits! My mom and I joined the line-up.

And what is Val wearing, I hear you ask. Well. I made a cape thingy from a scarf and wore it over a white tee shirt.

maybe Kenji's coolness will rub off on me

I'm also wearing my Frida necklace (made by the delightful Tamera) and some pale pink jeans.

Here's the back of the scarf-cape. I just had to cut the scarf in half and stitch the long edges together, leaving room for my head, of course. The fringe was an added bonus!

We had lots of yummy food.

The carrots (made by my sister) are cooked in broth with cream cheese (!), then chopped pecans and green onions are added, and a little lemon juice. I bet this would be good without the cream cheese, too.

What do you call an angry garden statue? A gnomad! (Thank you, Mr. S.)

And then we came home.

Linking up to Visible Monday and Creative Mondays! Have a good week, everyone!

Thursday - I'm also linking up my upcycled scarf-cape thingy to The Citizen Rosebud for Secondhand First. The scarf was bought at Buffalo Exchange resale shop.

Val