Thunk

That is the sound of hand slapping forehead.
I grew up in the Twin Cities, and when I was 12 a fantastic Sculpture Garden was dedicated in Minneapolis.This spoon used to hold a giant cherry.
I don't know where the cherry went, does anyone out there?

Anyway, I have been to the sculpture garden under 5 times in my life.
This is dumb.
I took the Hug-a-Bugs there today and we had a barrel of fun.
Even with the chilly weather, they had a super time.

I like this one, it looks like a ball of yarn.
The garden is divided up into 'rooms' surrounded by 8-10 foot hedges.
The kids loved discovering what was in each new hedge room.
I had a lot of fun with the structure in this hedge room, it was a collection of walls some of which were made up of screen-like material and others of reflective glass.


All in all, a totally fun experience.
And there is on-the-street, 1 hour parking for free!

To continue our art theme, last Friday we made jigsaw puzzles.
I drew a picture of a castle surrounded by a moat and then I cut into about 16 pieces, and the Elder Hug-a-Bug thought the subject matter could be further explored.

I have to say, her puzzle is particularly challenging.
She cut it out herself, and there are a lot of pieces.
She did a fantastic job, no?

Hope you are having a good Monday,
please send dry thoughts to our friends in northwestern Minnesota and northeaster North Dakota.
Jess

Caritas

We, Caritas Vocal Ensemble, are singing a concert this Sunday, March 29th, at Community United Methodist Church in Columbia Heights.
The concert starts at 4:00 PM.
Please come and join us as we make some good music and support a worthy cause.
And, since I dislike photo-free posts, here is a preview of my garden later this summer.
O.K. I took this at the Conservatory, but I will have lots of Foxglove this summer in my garden too.

Some yarn-related silliness

The Yarnery had an author event yesterday, Sally Melville and Caddy Melville Ledbetter came to Saint Paul to talk about their new book Mother Daughter Knits. I had a sick husband at home, so I had to cut out on the talk early, but they brought the samples from the book and the designs are really lovely.

As some of you know, I am a member of the "youtube sensation" the Yarnery Family Singers.
Once again the lovely and talented Meema wrote some great new lyrics to some old favorites, this time it was Gypsy, due to the mother/daughter theme.

So, here are the videos. I'm the one who can't seem to keep from adjusting her gray sweater.

It's always fun to be a part of these events.
As a little aside, we have done three of these events and each time, without planning our wardrobes, we have come wearing the same color. Last two times it was blue, but yesterday we all wore red. Whoa. Kooky.

Have a great Monday,
Jess

Superhero Photo Challenge: Clouds

I love clouds.
I suppose that everyone can say that.
On Shutter Sisters today they issued a photo challenge - show us the clouds.
Here are some of my favorites.






As I was going through my photo archives, I see that beyond crafty stuff, and trees I appear to have a third photographic obsession.

Have a great Saturday!
Jess

Sewing and Knitting wrap-up

I have been getting a lot done on the two main projects in my pile over the last couple of weeks.
I am working pretty steadily on my Tangled Yoke sweater, and I have also been cooking along on a quilt made from the squares received from the Charm Square Swap.
I am on the cables on my sweater and I am so excited to get finished!

For the quilt, first, I just sewed them together randomly.
I really tried, but I couldn't see it coming together.
So I started thinking about setting them up in color wheel order, maybe with white sashing between, and then I saw this and it clinched the idea for me.


I have a little more than half of the solid strips to sew in and then I will have a completed queen-sized top.
I don't think that my little Spartan sewing machine will be able to handle the quilting on something this big, so I think I will save up and send it out to be quilted.
Do any of you out there have any recommendations for quilters in the Twin Cities? I don't really have any idea about what it would cost either.

Well, despite waking up to SNOW! I am going to wish you all a happy Spring, and hope that you all have a great day!
Jess.

Hooray for Tiger Direct!!

Our new video card came today and the fantastic Husband installed it, and here we are, back together again.
I did a lot of sewing and knitting during my brief break, (pictures to follow tomorrow) and a lot more of this-





Hooray for Spring!
See you soon,
Jess

Technical Difficulties

The video card on our computer died last night.
So, I may be absent from this world wide web for a while.
That works out ok for me, though, as it is pretty close to being spring around here, and I should be outside and not on the computer anyway.

Have a great week,
Jess