Happy St. Patrick's Day!

     Just a short post today to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day and to share our shenanigans
and maybe hear about yours! 

The brisket is in the slow cooker...

(I have never soaked beef in water for ten hours, so fingers crossed--
on the other hand, it can't possibly be as bad as previous years' attempts)

    

 The Irish Soda bread is out of the oven...

...and the weather outside is miserable.
If there were a parade within 100 miles of here, we wouldn't want to be at it today, anyway!
It's been freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-- I think this is our third mud season this year.

    But it's the kind of weather the maple trees love-- the sap is flowing! Who ever decided to try collecting water from trees and boiling it forever to see what happens? It is comical to watch the little bubbles zigzag through the trees, and then amazing how they fill a 40 gallon bucket in no time!

    In the coop, Betsy the blue-egger is laying again-- she was the only one who decided she'd take the winter off. Oh, Lordy, I do love that hen. We saw her, eyeing up the nesting boxes last week. 

    

 So you might thing I'm sewing shamrocks today, but it is more than appropriate that maple leaves are falling on the sewing room floor. I managed to get twelve of these done last week-- they are taking longer than I thought (no surprise there.) I'm picking colors and then sewing each individually-- then hand sewing on the stems. 

     I like a thin stem, so applique seemed the way to go. I cut 3/4" strips, fold the sides back 1/4" each, and machine baste them down.

I thought I had enough junior jelly roll to make 25 leaves, but after I get to 16, I think I am done! I want to add some smaller leaves-- the big leaves are 10" finished, so if I make these smaller leaf units to 10" as well,  I can mix them up for a final layout. I don't want leaves like soldiers in a row-- I want them scattered on the ground. Luv my graph paper.

This reminds me of a beautiful moment I had years ago-- do you have certain moments that stay with you through life? About 40 years ago, I was on my way to work and had just stepped out of my Brooklyn apartment in the early morning, into our dowdy stairwell with the peeling brown paint, smell of roach spray, and cracked marble tiles. There was a window in the stairwell that was open-- it was floor to ceiling, so you could look out onto a flat roof below. All kinds of fall leaves were stuck there, of every color, and the rain was pattering down on them-- you know, that always makes the colors even brighter. I paused for as long as I could, and dreamed of making a painting-- I hadn't discovered fabric yet. Then off I went, over to the subway and the busyness of the day. Here I am-- whether I had a good day or a bad one it is all lost to memory, but a piece of me stayed with those leaves, and here I am finally making that piece of art! I feel very grateful.

Wishing you a beautiful moment or two, today!

xox

Carol