April is over already?

I can't believe that it is already the end of April. My hyacinths are all in bloom as well as some more daffodils.

 Unfortunately the stalks of my hydrangea are hiding the daffodils. I never got around to trimming them in the fall. Looking at the picture, I have to straighten that brick border as well.

My university class is almost over. There are a few more lectures and then the final. I still have to write the final exam and all my work for this class will be complete mid-May. Of course I will have to grade the final, but that is easier than preparing and giving lectures. Once  the semester is finished I will have two more days per week that I get home by 3 p.m. I am so looking forward to having afternoons that I can spend crafting as my day job doesn't require any prep work. I just have to show up and help students all day.

I managed to add piece #13 (the one on top) to my Advent Calendar. This one went more smoothly than the last. 

I also finished the first round of border on my Granny Rose Afghan. I am going to add at least one more round, maybe two or three, of the white background. 

I was contemplating adding some rounds with the colors of the flowers, but I ran out of some of them and I really like how it looks with just the white.

You can see from this corner that I have just added a single granny row around the outside edge.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I hope to add another piece to my Advent Calendar today.

Thanks for stopping by!

All together

All of my Granny Square Roses have been connected and now I am just working around the outer edge. 

 I think I will continue as I am, sort of making a big granny square round all around the outside edge for at least two rows. 

Then, I will decide what to do next. I have some options that I have seen on other blogs.

I managed to add another piece of Christmas Tree to my Advent Calendar, but it wasn't without it's trials. 

I was home alone one night this week and decided to fill my time by adding that top piece. I set myself up at the kitchen table, cut out the piece and started adding the embroidery, sequins and beads. The embroidery...there is only a little....went just fine. Then came the sequins. I was tired and a little stressed so of course despite my carefulness I tipped over the box of beads and sequins. It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't pretty either. Some of the sequin colors mixed together and had to be sorted.  Some of the sequins ended up on the table....some on the floor. Believe me they were not easy to pick up. Some of the beads were mixed in with the sequins. Thankfully none of those ended up on the floor. I cleaned everything up and sorted what I could and started stitching the green sequins, but then I kept picking up the sequins and beads with the needle prior to bringing the needle to the right side of the fabric. 

I finally gave up and finished it yesterday afternoon when I was in a much better frame of mind. 

I may add another piece today. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. My Advent Calendar is in my sights. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring has Sprung for a day or two.

So Friday and Saturday we finally had some Spring-like weather. Hubby and I managed to take a walk around our neighborhood on Friday. I was good to enjoy some sunshine. On Saturday we paid a visit to Home Depot. We needed a new hose reel, hose nozzles, garbage pail, "weed and feed'' lawn care and some potting soil. I also picked up a few pansies to pretty up the porch.

I planted the pansies in a pot for the porch and then I put all of my Easter plants in the ground. You can see one of the tulips that I planted in this photo.

My daffodils are almost all in bloom.

Today is much colder than yesterday with rain expected. I need to go food shopping, but otherwise I will spend some time crafting. My Advent Calendar needs some attention. 
I have only managed to finish a couple more columns on my Granny Rose Afghan. 

I don't know why, but my crafting has been lagging. I think I am just tired from working and the cold weather isn't helping my energy level. We have cloudy skies and temps back in the 40s today. We are not expected to get out of the 50s for the rest of the week. Spring come baaaaaack!

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Busy week off

Despite having this whole week off, I only managed to add one piece to my Advent Calendar.

One is better than none and I did manage a little trip as well. My daughter lives in Boston and just bought a house with her boyfriend in a town just outside of Boston. She hasn't moved in yet as they are renovating the kitchen and painting first. I have seen it in photos, but I wanted to see it in person. I drove up on Friday...through rain and snow...5 hours. Unfortunately, Hubby couldn't join me. I saw the house and then had dinner with the two of them. 

On Saturday, Katie and I took the T into Boston and visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 

This is quite a unique museum. The scope and variety of items that this woman collected are just amazing. They are all housed in the palace that she built called Fenway Court. Here are just a few of the things we saw.
 This is the indoor courtyard of the palace.

 There are many Greek, Roman and Egyptian artifacts.

 This is a view of the elevation.

 This Madonna and Child are so pretty.

 This is the funeral statue of an ancient warrior. This kind of artifact disturbed me as it feels wrong that it was moved from the resting place of this person.

 There are hundreds of paintings. Many by famous artists and many religious in nature. This camping picture by American artist John Sargent is called "A Tent in the Rockies". This appealed to me much more than the many portraits.

 I was also disturbed by the number of chairs that Isabella Stewart Gardner collected. I think that furniture is made to be used and I find it sad that these haven't been in a very long time. I realize that they are now so old that this may be impossible, but often there are 10 or more of the same chair. I like to see this beautiful furniture, but this seems excessive.

 I loved this inlaid chest.

 There were several different versions of Sheffield silver candlesticks throughout the palace. I think the lines on this one are so beautiful.

 Okay, this is a famous painting, by a famous artist, but there wasn't any way for me to record the info at the time.

 Another beautifully inlaid piece....this time a guitar.

 This piece is inlaid with Mother-of-pearl.

 These two doors are just hanging in a hallway. They are gorgeous.

 This is a beautiful ceiling.

 This room was my favorite. It was the most "normal" room. This table is set for coffee and hot chocolate.

Here is a close-up of one of the panels on that pretty tablecloth.

 Mrs. Gardner was also an avid collector of lace. I thought the roll on the left was amazingly beautiful.

 Finally, there was this gorgeous stained glass window.

In each room there were laminated pages that described all of the pieces of the collection based on each wall of each room....North, South, East and West. There was a brief description each and every item.

We spent a few hours at the museum and could easily have spent longer, but we were getting tired and I still had to drive home. I was lucky that my daughter was going to a party that was about halfway through my drive so she drove the first half of my trip home. I left her at the party....she had a ride home... and then I completed the last two hours of the drive home. Thankfully there was absolutely no traffic on the entire drive home.....a very rare occurrence when driving to and on Long Island. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I have to grade an exam that I gave my university class this past week, but I am hoping to add another piece to my Advent Calendar at some point today tomorrow. 

Thanks for stopping by!

It is April and Spring is still not here.

 Yesterday I took this picture of two mini-daffodils that found their way to the bed in front of my porch.

I didn't plant them there, but they look so pretty. I love daffodils in Spring-time.

Wait, it's Spring? You wouldn't know it from the scene that I woke up to this morning.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen that is about 3 inches of heavy wet snow. 

I wonder how long it will be until we can use our back-yard furniture.

Hubby and I had to bring my car in for service this morning and I was not happy about driving on the icy, slushy roads.

Thankfully by this afternoon it has melted off of the streets which are now clear and dry, but driving this morning was not a pleasant experience.

I had a full week of work this past week and my son and daughter visited this weekend for Easter so the only crafting that I got to was connecting some more of my Granny Square afghan. 

All the rows have been connected as well as almost 3 complete column seams. You can see that there are four columns connected on the left and then spaces. I still have five more column seams to finish, but I have to do so slowly as this seems to hurt my hands and strain my forearms. 

I am hoping to get some time to work on October Morning and the Advent Calendar during my week off, but there are no new updates at right now.

Finally, I want to show you the pretty flowers I received as Easter gifts this year.

 This is called a Mona Lisa lily. I prefer the colored lilies to the traditional white Easter lilies.

I love to plant all my Easter plants in my garden once they are finished blooming. I like tulips second only to daffodils. These will be nice additions. Right now these flowers are in my garage so they won't be ruined by the snow. I can't bring them into the house as I am allergic to their fragrance. I just like to look, not smell.

I joined the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to this site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Easter!

I hope that all my readers who celebrate are enjoying a blessed day with family and friends.