We went for a walk last night after dinner and I was able to get some pictures of the beautiful Azaleas in my neighborhood. Just look at all the colors!
There were some funky flowers too that I had never seen before:
And tulips of all colors!
I love this orange one:
The Redbud and Dogwood trees were also very beautiful!
Springtime in DC. It doesn’t last very long, but my gosh is it beautiful!
This is a picture from the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum’s website. It’s here in DC and they have beautiful Bonsai trees. This one in particular caught my attention because right now the Azalea bushes are blooming like crazy all over DC. Unfortunately, I haven’t been out with my camera to capture all those colors, but I’m hoping to have some time this weekend. Maybe… What with packing and getting ready for the move to Boston on Monday, we’re very busy!
When we lived in Japan, we would always go see the Azalea bushes on top of Mt. Takine in the town my husband taught at. The entire mountaintop is COVERED with bushes that all bloom at the same time. It is spectacular! You could see the pink mountaintop from miles away. OH! Japan is a truly breathtaking country, it really is. Their respect and admiration for the beauty of nature is exactly what I wish we had in the United States. Maybe someday…
Hope you are all having equally beautiful springs! :)
I like wooden spoons. The funkier the better. I don’t know why, but they feel so nice and soft when you drag them across the bottom of a pan or bowl. And quiet. Steel on steel makes such a loud, unpleasant noise, that it’s nice to have a soft wooden spoon to work with. 
I guess that’s all I have to say today…Weird, huh?
Posted in about meMade napkins this weekend. My classmates from my surface design class are all making napkins to hold an exchange. We’ll each end up with five different napkins by the end of it. (It’s a small class) I can’t wait to see the others! I’ll make sure to post all the beautiful napkins they make. Here are the ones I made:
I don’t believe in white or light colored napkins unless they’re only going to be used ONCE. Everyone knows they’ll get all stained up and gross, right? So I dyed mine indigo with a simple shibori pattern in the center. I also mottled the indigo instead of making it a solid blue. That way, stains won’t show up that easily.
I hope my classmates like them!
Remember the granny book I made? Well, I just got an e-mail from my client (her granddaughter) telling me that her grandmother had received the book and loved it! She even attached photos of her grandmother writing in the journal while enjoying her morning tea. Isn’t that AWESOME?!
This is my client’s mother looking at all the wonderful old photos. Apparently, she didn’t know who the people in the pictures were either (my client didn’t know). That must have been so great to learn all that family history!!
Isn’t she just beautiful? :) There’s nothing more special than to see your work making other people happy. Thank you for sending me these wonderful photos and allowing me to blog about this wonderful experience!
Swamped with work and too shocked and saddened by the Virginia Tech incident to really write anything…
Posted in about me
This is a picture I took in Puerto Rico last October when my husband and I went for two weeks with my parents. It was nice and sunny and waaaaaaarm that day. Exactly the opposite of DC right now…I’d give anything to be sitting in one of those chairs!
I promised you a felt bag and here it is! TA DAAAAA. The picture doesn’t do it justice. In person, you can hold it and feel how incredibly soft it is. I love it! It’s mint green with a wispy soft white inside. 
I picked just one color for the outside because I want to embroider flowers on the flap and thought it would look too busy if there were several colors going on with the roving. For the straps, however, I chose the mint green and a nice peachy color that matches nicely with the mint and white.
Doesn’t the peach look nice against the mint?
I’ll keep you posted on my progress with the embroidery. I’ve never really embroidered before, although I have all the materials, but I can’t wait to try! I’m determined to make this bag look awesome! :)
We’re moving to Boston!!! You might remember that a while back, Kurt and I had gone to Boston for the weekend. Well, I was actually up there interviewing for a job. And I got it!! We’re officially moving to Boston the first week of May. Kurt is already in Boston, apprenticing with an awesome painter for a month, so he went out and found us the cutest apartment! This is the living room here. On the far end, you can see French doors that open on to a sunroom type space that would be great for plants. We’re really hoping to buy a house (cross your fingers!), so we don’t plan on being in this little apartment for long, but it sure is cute!!
Now that we’ll be farther north, maybe we can go back and visit all those cute little shops again! Tomorrow I’ll be posting pictures of the new felt bag I just made!! Stay tuned…
Yellow tulips. I love them. Fifteen years ago, when my husband and I went out on our first date, he brought me yellow tulips from his mother’s garden. I still remember asking my dad to put them in water and turning VERY red in the process! I also remember how devastated I was when my mom threw them out without asking me first when they had wilted. I wanted to press them in a book, but never got the chance. Instead, I buy yellow tulips every spring to remind me of those beautiful beginnings!