May is almost as busy as December. My mother's birthday is always within a week of Mother's Day. She and my sisters live in California, half way across the country from me. One of my sisters primarily cares for our mother.

My sister told me at Christmas time that our mother's sweatshirts had become tattered and she could not find any that were similar. That was a not-so-subtle hint to me to look for sweatshirts in Minnesota and particularly so since I had gotten most of our mother's sweatshirts for her. I had no luck finding exactly what we were looking for.

Shortly after the first of the year, I sorted through some of my fabrics and organized them a little better. I found this yellow sweatshirt fabric and matching ribbing. This week I pulled out a sweatshirt pattern. When I traced the pattern, I made the sleeves two inches shorter. I think I should have make the body of the shirt two inches shorter too. One of our sons thinks it will make a marvelous tunic that will go almost to my mother's knees.

Currently I am packing a box of gifts to send to my sister. She will be able to tell me if I need to make further alterations to the pattern. Once it is adjusted, I will be able to make sweatshirts out of regular sweatshirt fabric and fleeces.

Looks Like Spring

The tomato seeds are looking good. This is how they looked yesterday. Today there are more seedlings. I need to find a way to make a plastic wrap tent to give them a little more headroom. Maybe I need to find the florescent plant light tube to give them more light.

Friday I decided to shorten the shell that I had gotten Thursday. It was a good thing too because I was com- pletely involved in the baking on Satur- day. When I finished the hem, I moved on to piecing the panel for this pocket. I could have never concentrated on it Saturday.

Yesterday I thought that I was just going to insert the panel into the outside of the pocket. It went together so easily that I continued to work along with it. I actually finished the entire pocket last night. This time, I decided to try a button and ribbon closure.

Easter Greetings

I think that is a fair title as we are in the season of Eastertide. Now for some pictures.

First is my new Easter Egg out in the crocus bed.

Then some fancy daffodils. They have split coronas in two colors, apricot tones and sunlight tones.

Next is my narcissus cyclamin- eus, daf- fodil, probably "Jack Snipe". It faces down and fares best in an early, warm spring.

Last but not least are the Rutgers tomato seedlings in one pot. The ones in the other pot have yet to put in an appearance. These simply could not wait any longer. Mooch remains trustworthy with the tomato seedlings. :-)

After two days of extremely above average temper- atures, this morning, our temper- ature more closely resembles normal for this time of the year. Literally overnight lilac leaves began to come out and my daffodils began to bloom. While it is nice to see these signs of spring, I am a little concerned that their appear- ance may be a might bit to early. If the temper- ature stays around normal, everything should be just fine. Once again we are in a dilemma. Should we uncover the iris and risk loosing the flowers if we have an overnight freeze or should we leave them covered and risk breaking the brittle stems and leaves later on, loosing the flowers that we break off. We are continuing to opt for the latter choice and hope we have made the correct one. Here are spring pictures from the yard and garden.

Today is a baking day, bread and a cake.

Mooch has not gotten into the tomato seeds we started earlier this week. For a cat, he is extremely obedient. We are still waiting to see some sprouted seeds but that could take more than a week. I may have used too much water on them. I hope that mold does not grow on those cute little newspaper pots and that they do not tear apart because they are too wet.

Here is the Quaker motif with the stitching finished. I will use the floral print beside it for the finishing.

Yesterday I went shopping for a new spring outfit. I wanted a dress or a co-ordinated skirt outfit. Since I have nothing that I can wear from spring into summer, I decided it was time to go shopping.

Shopping can be such a demoralizing process. I went into shop after shop looking for something. The clerks would show me dresses and my only response could be, "That would make me look like a mother-of-the-bride. Since I have no daughters I would not want someone to make that mistake." From there it would become even worse. I could hardly believe my eyes with some of the suggested choices. Frequently my only response was, "I am old enough to be your mother if not your grandmother. If I were to wear that, it would make me look like a superannuated hooker." Then I would go through the criteria again:
1. Spring colors
2. A dress or co-ordinated skirt outfit
3. That means not a pant suit.
4. A little dressy is okay.
5. Very casual is not okay.

I really wanted something in pink or blue but did find something in lavender, a floral print skirt with a co-ordinating lavender lacy knit sweater. I thought it might be nice to have a new white shell to wear with it. It was a good thing I slipped the shell inside the sweater because I have to shorten the shell by about two inches.

Emulating little Mooch who is a very pleasant and agreeable cat with a very nice disposition, I can truly tell you I liked the outfit more when I brought it into the house than when I took it out of the shop. I like it better today than I did yesterday.

It is April Fool's Day!!

We have been busy and so has Mooch. Monday we took the plant shelf out and assembled it. We also found the little mold that forms the newspaper pots.

Yesterday we started the tomato seeds, four pots of San Marzano plum tomatoes and two pots of Rutgers slicing tomatoes.

Our primary question was how soon would it take Mooch to discover the seeds. The answer is before I could even put the camera away. The seeds are in the lower tray because it gets the most sun. Obviously it is also more easily accessible to Mooch. We wonder if the seeds have a strong enough tomato scent for Mooch to detect it. He is especially fond of tomatoes. When we cut or slice one, we absolutely have to give Mooch some. So far he has not gotten into the seed pots. But then, it has not even been twenty-four hours since we put out the seeds. :-D

Mooch reminds us very much of a three-year-old child.

Yesterday I thought it would be fun to tease you with the picture of the back of the ornament.