The crocuses managed to fight their way through the snow and ice and bloomed into these lovely purple and white beauties.

And the yellow ones are so intensely yellow that they glow in the sunlight.  They were well worth the wait.

We have some hyacinths and the daffodils have finally decided to throw off their green coats and show off their frilly yellow dresses.  I think they are my very favorites of all the spring bulbs (at least until the grape hyacinths come up-they're so darn cute)



(photo from celtic swan website)



We had a birthday dinner for Em over the weekend and Pk and I gave her some hand forged needles from Celtic Swan Forge.  They're bronze and silver with rose quartz set in the end.  They are gorgeous.  We gave her some cashmere yarn to knit with them and I think she liked them.

And of course we had cake!  Em wanted chocolate so I called the bakery and asked for chocolate cake.  They made fudge cake and then put fudge on top of it.  It was delicious. 

Sunday I did the laundry and tried not to give in to the nervousness that is waiting just below the surface.  Peter Kevin got laid off on Thursday.  They gave him a modest package (he'll get 8 paychecks going forward 4 months and then that's the end).  Theoretically, if he finds a job within that timeframe, it's all good.  I am not so optimistic and our job market continues to be dismal so the nervousness sits just below the surface of my day. 

This is the first of two baby sweaters finished this month.  I think I'm caught up now.  Most of the folks who work here are young-ish and in that baby-making stage of their lives.  This is such an easy pattern to make and it makes a nice, unisex sweater.  I used a cotton/acrylic blend so it's washable and also a bit soft. 

I'm hoping the baby machine will slow down a bit.  I have to get started on Kate's wedding dress.  I'd like to finish it before the heat of the summer sets in.

I was given a gorgeous skein of red laceweight yarn and bought a pattern that uses roses as its main design because I thought it would be pretty.  The pattern has 6 charts.  SIX.  I am not good with charts and I am having second thoughts about this but I just put it aside for the time being.  I am cleaning out wips that are never going to get finished and looking for things to make that will require some concentration and will teach me something.  I'd like to try the roses but SIX charts gives me pause. 

Life goes on here like it does everywhere.  We will keep moving forward (as you do) becasue what other choice do we have?  There may be some belt-tightening going on but we are so lucky and have so much that we'll be fine for a while. But, if you run across any spare job finding mojo, could you send it our way?