Hi all.  I hope you are enjoying the weekend.  Right now I’m sitting in front of a cozy fire.  I don’t want to get up to do anything, so it’s a great time to write to you all.  Outside it is raining quite heavily, and it’s not a warm rain, I might add. Our wind chill is 29°F (-2°C) degrees on this April 29th!  Ugh!  I’m dreaming of last weekend and earlier in the week when it was beautiful.

I find that I sleep better at night when I’ve been out for a walk (probably because it wears me out-ha), so I’ve been trying to walk daily.  I took some photos last weekend and earlier in the week of how things are looking here in northern Illinois.  I want to share them with you.

I often walk down this country road; it’s very peaceful and quiet.  This crabapple in front of a little farmhouse was very colorful; I had to capture it with my phone.

This is just a fraction of violets that covered a huge expanse of someone’s front lawn.  They don’t last long though.  When I walked past today, the flowers were almost all gone. I do love violets though.  Even the heart-shaped leaves are pretty.

Back at our house we had tulip quadruplets in bloom.

The brilliant red violet lilacs have started blooming.

Gina found this nest which fell out of one of the tiny lilac bushes.  She inspected it, and will be putting it securely back for mama robin to return to.

We have carpets of lilac phlox blooming around our property.

Our apple tree is in bloom now, too.  I brought some branches inside last week, when they were beginning to bud, and they bloomed inside.

The daffodils looked pretty for a couple of weeks around Easter time.  Now, this is how they are looking.  I kind of like how they all dried up and seem to be stuck in this state.

I couldn’t resist showing you this next photo of our backyard.  I know dandelions are weeds, but sometimes I find them kind of cheerful.

Back in the studio today, my sweet Alice wanted to say hello.  Alice is painted by Nelly Valentino.  I think I only had to wait a year for her to arrive, she arrived last June.  Don’t you love her brown eyes!

Also, today I rinsed and preshrunk this bunch of fabric.  There are a couple here that I will be using next.  Even though it’s an extra step I like to preshrink all fabrics and cotton laces because I often dampen when ironing and I don’t want some things shrinking more than others do.

I hope you are staying warm and dry wherever you are today.  Happy springtime!  Bye for now, and thanks for visiting with me today.