Laowai

For spring break we went to visit some German Speaking Universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We were on the go! Here are a bunch of photos.

First Vienna.

We went to the Natural History Museum

Empress Maria Theresa's little dog.

Many many old specimens like this one from 1758.

Next we went to Munich.

Taking a retro, cute train outside of Munich to a Universtity.

This is Munich's fantastic science museum – highly recommend.

At this point Claire and I left – we flew to New York to spend a few days with Jennifer and Jenna. Brian and Bea continued onto Heidelberg which looks like a really pretty city.

They were there on Good Friday – lots of things were closed so they enjoyed a hike.

Then it was time for a quick stop in dear old Zurich before heading home.

This is the Hellebore Cowl by Jamie Lomax. A fun project.

I went for a walk at the botanic garden yesterday and enjoyed the first bits of color. All the tough little flowers bouncing in the wind and reaching for the sun. Beautiful.

I'm super pleased with my latest completed project. I picked up this broken bench on the side of the road last fall. The plastic straps that formed the seat part were broken. So I ordered some black macrame cord and re-wove the seats. I've remade lawn chairs with this same technique in the past – it's pretty easy. The cord cost about $65. That's pretty cheap for a comfy bench that I will enjoy all summer. 

Here are the before and progress and after photos.

Also, look at the Amaryllis that mom gave me for Christmas. It's already made a bunch of blooms and it's still going strong.

I took Claire and her friend to a concert over the weekend. We went to Milwaukee to see Olivia Rodrigo on her GUTS tour. We had SO MUCH FUN! 

That's Mabel in the photo above – she drove up with us and met her cousins. Below are the bracelets that Claire made and traded with other girls. I didn't know that was a thing – again – so much fun!

I do have to say if you really want to hear her voice don't count on hearing it at a concert. Mostly you just hear everyone in the stadium singing all the words to every song! But it's special, like a Girl Scout sing-along gone wild. The graphics and the videos during the show were great – sort of rock, punk, retro and also looking like something a young girl would doodle in her diary. Her songs are all about the feelings of a young girl with a bit of cursing and screaming thrown in. I kept looking over at Claire – just to enjoy all the fun she was having.

I bought the tickets months ago and it was a bit of an ordeal. I might have panicked – spent way too much money – then felt terrible and didn't want to tell Brian. But our seats were fantastic and to top it all off as we ware falling asleep last night Brian said "thanks for taking Claire to the concert". He could tell she loved it too.

I thought I was supposed to get more patient with age but gosh I have never felt so ready for spring as I do this year. I've been looking for any little signs of growth and finding ways to begin the gardening season.

My little climber has perked up – it lives in my west-facing bathroom window.

I check on my winter sown seeds way too often.

I made a new and improved trellis for my peas. It's a couple feet taller that the old one.

Then I planted my snap peas and some lettuce under the cloches. 

I pulled these daffodils out of the fridge a few weeks ago and they are blooming already!

Dreaming of sitting outside on my up-cycled bench. I'm making progress working on the weaving part now.

I went to the Chicago Botanic Garden's Orchid show with some friends. The colors were so pretty.

I pulled my sleeping geraniums out of the basement. They always have pale little leaves this time of year and they are ready to be potted up again.

They will live in the dining room and have time to grow until it's warm enough to go outside.

Is it May yet?

Oh my gosh I've put off posting some interesting photos for way too long. Photos of a trip that Bea and Brian took to Rome. Bea had a four day weekend in the middle of February so they jumped at the chance to do some traveling. 

I keep wanting to find some time to sit down with Bea and write about the trip but we keep putting it off. So I'll post the photos and maybe she'll fill in some info later.

I can tell they had fun. I know Brian feels our time with Bea slipping away so these moments are appreciated. And he also appreciates this Italian candy.

This week Brian has been hopping around Europe (eating Brezelkoenig) and the girls and I have had some quiet days.

I tackled some projects. I admire simple dresses like these and I've wanted to try sewing one.

I used the Liesl and Co. Camp Shirt Pattern and added a basic gathered skirt. Also, I added a bit of detail with bias cut sleeve cuffs.

Aaack, bad photos and I didn't brush my hair but I'm happy with this dress. I can wear it with or without a belt. The fabric is a bedsheet that I got at a church rummage sale ($5 yay). I hope it doesn't look like I'm wearing a sheet. On the other hand, I'm totally okay looking like I'm wearing graph paper.

The next project was kind of a fail. I've been wanting a green jacket like this for a long time. 

So I made this – It's more of a chore coat style. The corduroy fabric I chose was too light-weight and I shortened it too much. It's not my favorite. I'll probably wear it out in the garden. And maybe I'll just buy that jacket above.

Two more projects are being influenced by the weather. It was the last week of February and we had two really unusually warm days. It was 73F!!! My Witch Hazel blooms popped right out.

This is a cowl project I've been slowly working on and when the weather turned warm I thought I should hurry up and finish it before it's too warm to wear it this year. 

And lastly – this broken garden bench that I picked up along the side of the road. I'm going to try to remake the seats with macrame cord like I've done on lawn chairs in the past. The warm weather makes me think my days of sitting outside are just around the corner so I dragged the bench inside and got started. Stay tuned.

I've been going to the Botanic Garden less regularly since I finished my weekly photo project. I should change that because things are going to start happening soon – blooms!

The hellebores made me so happy. I only spotted five or six blooms but there are buds all over. 

This area is near the end of my usual walk. It's a sunny south side corner of a building that is just carpeted with snowdrops. It's my favorite. I practically run to it and then I love to stand there gazing at the bright white flowers as they nod in the wind.

Even though we've had a super mild winter it's nice to see that Spring is on its way.

I made Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart.

They have the same smile.