Lovelihood

That bushy little growth I'd stuck in my inverted planter back in the fall is now more of a hanging vine, at first just invading The Mr.'s headspace over the sink, but now also tickling at my cheeks when I scrub at dirty dishes.

There is a tedium associated with english paper piecing that has perhaps scared me away in the past. Last night, it seemed just the thing to try my hand at. And while I was at it, I put together a little kit to keep all the little bits together.

The Boy greeted the snow day with a five-year-old's eagerness to suit up and get out to the business of snowball-making, an enthusiasm quickly adopted by his little sister, who, in the day's quieter moments, would beseech us for more snowball time. It seemed like as good a time as any to bring out the Polaroid to capture in a low-tech way a low-tech kind of play.

Growing up in the Bay Area we had zero snow days that I can recall. I'm sure there was a slushy day here or there, and plenty of mornings with stubborn rimy coats on windshields and shrubbery. But having been in the Northwest for the past decade and a half (minus that couple of years in much warmer climes) the novelty of snow has pretty well worn off, replaced with the annoyance at the interference with my marathon training, and dread at the prospects of Monday morning commute. Still, with the right camera phone filters, it can be pretty.

It was cold enough this morning that the bucket that had remained out on the back deck busily filling itself up with rainwater had frozen itself into a near solid block of ice. By the time we returned home from school in the afternoon all that remained was a floating sliver with a heart shaped divot melted out of it.

Ever since reading about some ultra-sweet glabrous apricots, I've been suffering a mild obsession with finding one for myself. The ones I picked up at Trader Joe's were just of a typical fuzzy, un-glamorous variety. But they were un-mealy, giving off a nice little tartness, and in the torturous half hour it took to cook up and cool off the mac 'n cheese bites, also picked up at TJ's, Bear convinced me to cut up another two to augment the pre-lunch snack we'd made of the first two apricots.

It'd been so long since I'd been on the sewing machine that I couldn't remember what the Teflon foot was doing on there. Also, I know that in an ideal world, the needle would get changed out for every new project. I'd just be less embarassed if I could manage to switch it out more often then I get my hair cut.