It's Been a While....

I don't know that I've been so busy, but I sure haven't posted for a while!

I went on spring break.  We visited California... my SIL lives outside of San Diego and my aunt lives near Disneyland.

I went on a Segway tour of San Diego:

It really was a lot of fun and no one wrecked, either!  I decided that if I lived in a metro area, I'd have a Segway to ride around :)

I also went to a discount fabric shop by my aunt's house.  I had gone there two years ago, also.  I went a bit crazy....

Some of these pieces,  I already have a plan for and some I don't.... I've been wanting to get them organized with my other fabrics, but I wanted to take photos and share them, first.  Mainly, I just couldn't resist.  I think I ended up paying an average of about $4/yd for the fabrics and there are a few pieces that are even organic cotton.

What else have I been doing?  hmmm...  Well, I went on a quilt retreat weekend with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  We went to a place in Racine, Wisconsin called the Siena Center.  I had a good time getting to know a bunch of the other guild members.  My friend, Emily, was kind enough to let me pick her up and ride along with me.  She thought that I was doing her a favor by giving her a ride to the retreat.  Really,  I was delighted because then I didn't have to arrive all by myself, especially since I've never been there before and didn't know the routine.  

I know there is so much more to tell, but I'm getting a bit foggy (it being all of 9:30 pm and all....).  I am counting down the days until the end of the school year, and I'm getting ready to write along list of all the things I would love to accomplish over the summer!  I probably won't get even half of them done, but it will at least give me some direction.

Terrariums

Earlier this week, I went to visit my friend and we made terrariums!  We had been talking about doing it for a while and finally set a date.

We had fun planting them.   We both bought plants and then shared them with each other.  After I got back home, I also reclaimed some moss that I found around on the shady side of our garage. 

Of course, my terrarium has a lid and the whole thing is a bit fogged up right now, so I can't get a good photo of it completed.  I also ordered some mushroom figurines from Etsy (when I was a little girl, we would go mushroom hunting with my grandpa for these Morel mushrooms) to put inside my terrarium.  I saw a really cute gnome figurine, too, but I'm waiting a couple days to order him.

Of course, I'm not really sure if my plants are suited to terrarium life, so we'll see if they survive.  We had fun planting them, which was the most important thing!

Lupines (At least I'm pretty sure they're lupines...)

Wow.  I did not realize that it has been over two weeks since I have made a post!  I hope to soon return to a more regular schedule of blogging...mainly because school will be out and I'll have a lot more time.  I am only contractually obligated to work 5 more days for this year...not that I'm counting or anything.

What have I been doing since my last post?  Well, I've had a cold which was slowing me down, I started (but have not yet finished) an Amy Butler Birdie Sling Bag using this fabric, this fabric, and this fabric.  I wanted to finish it by the 20th, but that didn't happen...and it is still sitting on the table in an unfinished pile. 

The reason it is in an unfinished pile is because my husband and I left the night of the 20th to take a trip to Las Vegas.  We had a nice time, but it could have been better.  We met some of my husband's family to celebrate my husband's nephew's 21st birthday.  I don't know if any of you have ever taken a trip with a group of people or not, but it is always difficult to accommodate everyone, there is always a complainer in the group, and someone wants you to participate in some sort of activity even though they didn't fully check it out first.  I did enjoy the sun a bit, the pool, and just having a lack of schedule.  We arrived back home last night, pretty late, and then I had to wake up early this morning to prepare for a meeting I had at 9 a.m.  Fun, fun.

I am happy to be back home with the thought of school finishing very soon.  I did sign up to be a classroom aide for our summer school program...a little extra money for craftiness and what-not, without the responsibility of being the teacher. 

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There is a story behind the lupines.  The first year I graduated from college, I did not have a job as a teacher.  Instead, I was a sign language interpreter for a 3rd grade student in a general education classroom.

During that year, the students read the story or story excerpt from Miss Rumphius.  In the story, there are lupines.  (Don't ask me anything else about what happened in the story...it has been 12 years since I read it) I had never heard of lupines before and I'm sure most of the students had not either, and the teacher had never seen them that she knew of.  (P.S. I really loved that classroom teacher...she was one of the best teachers I had the opportunity to work with).

Somewhere along the line, after that year, I was browsing in the seed packets at some store and came upon lupine seeds.  Then, I think I had the seeds a year or two until I gathered my wits and actually planted them.  Then, I promptly forgot about them. 

I'm not sure when they actually started growing maybe two years ago?  Last year, the plant portion came up and I didn't really know what it was...but I didn't bother pulling the plant up since it didn't look like a weed.  This year, the plants started growing early and last week I was delighted to see two flowers beginning to bud.  When I left for Las Vegas, they were still small and all green.  This afternoon, I had five flowers out there blooming.  They are all the same purple color.

I really like when I plant things and then sort of forget about them.  It's a nice surprise when they start growing and blooming!