So Cool

What's so cool?  I'm certainly not very cool but KC, of The Sewcratic Method you are.  Thank you for bestowing The Liebster   award on me a few weeks ago.  In the midst of packing and driving north I hadn't yet acknowledged this honor nor responded appropriately.  
Terms:  thank the Liebster Blog presenter....the very kind KC!
Post the Liebster Blog award.  There it is.  
Pass the award along to five other blogger with fewer than 200 followers.
Well, here's where I'm going to fail.  It pains me to pick only five when there are so many creative bloggers who write and post just for the joy of sharing in this wonderful community.  So I'd like to challenge anyone reading this post to check out unfamiliar names on my blog roll and on the blog rolls of others.  Read some unknown bloggers' posts this week and then send them a comment on it.  We all love encouragement and a friendly face across the internet.  I'm committing to finding five new-to-me blogs and sharing my appreciation.  What about you?

Draped Front Cardigan

What else is cooL?  Well, the weather up north is decidedly cooler than we had been experiencing all winter in Florida.  No complaints on my part since I find chilly weather more energizing when I have projects on my to do list....and boy oh boy do I have a project list.  Right now our major focus is cleaning out flower beds and giving the garden a good start.  
On the sewing front I am grateful to the cool weather for inspiring me to pull out some wool jersey in a luscious turquise teal color and make another Draped Front Cardigan from Pamela's Patterns.  This delightful "third layer" fits my casual, sportswear style and is the right length to wear with the straighter leg jeans that are currently fashionable.  Now I'm going to add some tone on tone embellishing to give it some more style than just a simple cardigan.  Of course, there's a warm front moving in this week which will probably coincide with my finishing that embellishing.  C'est la vie.

Auditioning some embellishing ideas

Cool nights meant that I cozied up with my Kindle Fire and finished a wonderful book that I so enjoyed...Richard Russo's Bridge of Sighs.  I kept highlighting beautifully written paragraphs that captured the questions of what shapes us as individuals, the struggles of a small upstate New York town economy over the decades and the wonderfully contradictory but very real emotions of the three main characters.  Is it a perfect book?  No, I quibbled with the ending which seemed a little overblown and too tidy but no matter, I loved reading this one and highly recommend it.

Looking remarkably good after almost 500 miles! 

It's spring here in Maryland, a beautiful time of year and before we even arrived at our front door we stopped to visit Baltimore's beautiful Sherwood Gardens.  There are 80,000 new tulips planted each year in this lovely park located in a Baltimore neighborhood of grand old homes.  We missed the major tulip display since the mild winter meant they bloomed much earlier than normal but the remaining ones and the gorgeous azalaes were still impressive.  
Baltimore is a city with plenty of problems and challenges but just like the small town in Bridge of Sighs it is full of people trying to figure out their own place in the world while caring for their families, friends and neighbors.  It's nice to be here and part of that for the next five months.

Mostly unpacked and put away for the next five months