"A friend is a gift you give yourself."

Robert Louis Stevenson

i'm counting my blessings in the form of friends today ...

i have just returned from a 10-day trip home to ontario ... normally i have two children and a groom in tow but this time i was traveling solo ...

had a wonderful time with, in no particular order:  karen-anne, diane, denise, joanne, cathy, sherrie, karen and sharon ... how lucky am i ...

martinis, bellinis, wine and good food ...

we laughed until our cheeks hurt--denise, joanne and cathy ...

and knowing that the plane goes in both directions, perhaps i'll have some visitors in the near future ...

i love you all ...

thanks for the memories ...

creativity is happening today ... but not in the studio ...

rather i've had a hankering for some domesticity and please believe me when i tell you that this does not happen often ...

the washing machine is going full tilt ...

the dishwasher just finished it's cycle ...

a pot of homemade chicken soup for the soul is bubbling on the cooktop ...

and homemade chocolate chip cookies are baking in the oven ...

no artificial color, no corn syrup, no soy products ... just fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies ...

why this need to be working at "home" ... ?

well we had some excitement on the homefront yesterday when my recently temporarily retired groom was in a car accident ... he was on his way to pick up our firstborn at school ... she'd been sick during english class and needed to come home ...

the story ends well ... no one was injured despite there being 3 cars involved ...

we give thanks that jeff and the other drivers walked away from this accident ...

the woman that caused the accident had a wee baby on board ... the baby slept through the entire accident ... more thanks given ...

'cause as many of you know, "those" phone calls often don't have a happy ending ...

love you jeff ...

and for laurie and tom and suzanne who always seem to be there when needed, i have some cookies for you ...

a rainy wet day today in the northwest ...

which would be typical of the northwest in winter if we ever had a typical northwest winter ...

i've been living here eight winters now and every year it seems i hear the comment "oh this isn't typical" ... 

this comment is usually preceded by "unusually heavy rains causing flooding" or "unusually heavy snowfall causing road closures" or "unusally heavy rainfall causing mudslides" ...

you get the picture ...

and have any of us forgotten the winter storm with "unusually high winds" that left us stranded without power for days on end ...

i have discovered though that for accurate weather forecasting, a trek to Ace Hardware is a must ... those men know their seasons and have been able to predict for me a looonnnnnggg winter well in advance ...

just my little tip for the day ...

this year we've been blessed with "unusually sunny and warm" winter days, early blooms and light spirits ...

and i'm feeling rather put out that it's raining today ...

but perhaps it means i should spend the day catching up on my "other life" ... maybe making a meal that doesn't come out of a box with microwave instructions ...

yesterday, our sweet daughter was off skiing for the afternoon while our youngest cherub was receiving his yellow belt in karate ... he and his friend are training together and i must say that they are doing very well and receiving many complimentary words from their sensai ...

i'm proud of both boys for working hard and reaching the next level ...

in the meantime, get outside and enjoy the beauty of nature ... rain or shine ...

here are the cherry trees outside the university of washington's school of art ...

once the blossoms start dropping, it's like a lovely pink rain ...

have a wonderful day ...

i'm off to spackle and touch up walls today ... and maybe even prepare a decent meal ...

ah ... the return of the knobby knees ...

good afternoon dear friends ... and thank you for sharing part of your day with me ...

it's been a while since we sat and chatted ...

i've been on an art rollercoaster lately ...

i've just wrapped up the final project for our second course in the certificate of fiber arts program at university of washington ... 

and while it's been a demanding quarter, who would not want to enter these doors given the opportunity ...

i must say that i've been blessed by beautiful university campuses ... i attended acadia university in the 80s which is in the annapolis valley in nova scotia and wow what a breathtaking campus it is as well ...

at the same time, i'm training for a half marathon (along with my recently temporarily retired groom), my first in a few years, and so life has become a series of juggling acts ...

with the household chores being the ball that gets dropped most frequently ...

but i'm ok with that ...

well i'm ok with that until forced to use paper towel bits for toilet paper and then i know it's time for a quick trip to that big box shop nearby ...

$347 later ...

i have enough of that toilet paper that it shall be willed to my children ...

so here's my final piece from my second quarter class ... entited "17,568 Stitches in a Knit Life" in which i knit a stitch for every day of my life and used different patterns to reflect changes in my life ...

it turned out quite well i think although need to work on the mounting ... but limited to cork board in class ...

thankfully it is an "unfinished" piece as i'm not dead yet and hope to not be dead for quite some time ...

thanks for sticking around ... i promise more later ...

i am on "desserts" tonight for my bunko group so must go work on that ... a platter of sweets and some strawberries are on the menu tonight ...

enjoy your day ... and tell your children you love them ...

and if i happen to not make it another day, would someone please cast off my knit piece? ...

thanks ...