Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just as he did in The Corrections, Franzen tells the story of a complex family (but what family isn't complex, at some level?) from the viewpoint of almost every family member (I do have to wonder why the daughter never got a chance to tell her story).  Just when you get comfortable with one narrator, you're whisked away to another one, who you learn to love just as much, and you see the first narrator in a totally new light.  This book really makes you think about strange political issues (birds?  you really want me to care about birds now?) and makes you question what you're doing to help the world, at least that's what it did for me.  The characters can disgust you at times, then surprise you when you realize that you love them, then surprise you again, when you realize how much they are like yourself, in their disgusting loveliness.


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Festivus for All of Us.

Friday night was my annual Holiday Party/carol sing/gift exchange.  It was another huge success, with 3 bowls of punch being drunk up by about 20 people.  (that's 2 handles of vodka, 6 bottles of champagne, etc.)  Needless to say it was a long, loud evening and I hope my downstairs neighbors don't hate me!

        Christmas Carols later turned to a Guns 'n' Roses singalong by the piano, and I got a ShamWow from my secret santa, which had to be used soon after for multiple spills.  Yesterday was spent mopping my floors, then lying on the couch for 9 hours at my friend Anna's "hangover party," watching some great Christmas movies and Point Break.  Since most of my party pictures need to be censored (ahem), I will pass on this one little gem, when, late in the evening, I was convinced to get out my accordion.

Gingerbread Houses, of a sort

I've been meaning to blog for a while, and believe me I've had lots of interesting things to write about, but I've been too busy to write!  Worse things could happen, I know.
             Anyway, what I'll write about in this quick post is about a quick little thank-you gift I made the other day for my Architecture History professor, who is writing some grad school recommendations for me.  In the very spirit of our class, I made my traditional gingerbread cookies with buttercream frosting, which I've been giving as holiday gifts since grade school, with a bit of an architectural twist.
            A few weeks ago I bought house cookie-cutters - to cut walls and a roof for a gingerbread house.  I haven't made a 3-D house yet, but I used them this week to make some facades.

I made a gingerbread Frank Lloyd Wright Home (minus the studio):

A gingerbread Farnsworth House, by Mies Van Der Rohe:

and a gingerbread AT&T Building (now the Sony Center), by Philip Johnson:

I hope that the cookies look this good when he opens the box, but I highly doubt they will since they got jostled some on the train ride downtown, which, by the way, was on the CTA holiday express.  I wish I had had my camera with me (I got this pic from the internet) for that magical train ride (ehhhh) but I will have the visual memory forever.

Meet Vicky

Last Friday I woke up early, wanting to do some serious sewing and about 30 minutes into my project, my machine had a total meltdown. I tried to be patient, took it apart, figured out what was wrong, and also figured out that I couldn't fix it. Yes, I will take my good old Singer sewing machine in to a shop to get fixed . . . someday. But in the meantime, meet Vicky.

Vicky is my new love, she is a sturdy, Husqvarna Viking who can embroider letters and everything. And thanks to Vicky's help, I finished a quilt on Friday. Free motion quilting is a lot of fun with my new baby.

I've also spent most of my weekend cleaning for my mom's visit. She's coming on Tuesday and we've got some fun stuff planned, but to be honest I won't be surprised if we stay home and sew for most of her visit. Just in case you thought that all of my craftiness comes from nowhere, here's a picture my mom sent me of her latest weaving project. Beautiful.

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the first book I've read for a new food-themed book club and if it's any indication of things to come, then I'm very excited.  Ruth Reichl is such an easy-to-read and easy-to-like author.  She has an amazing job and instead of being insanely jealous of her, I just fell in love with her.  She's like the popular girl in school who you want to hate, but then you get to know her and you find out she's the nicest person ever.  Gah!  She doesn't even need to be writing about food for me to appreciate her words, but boy, when she writes about food, it is gooood.

Book club meeting will be a pot luck of some of the recipes throughout the book.  I don't know if I can wait the 2 1/2 weeks until that dinner!


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Cupcake mania on a Sunday afternoon

A while ago my friend Brittany and I signed up to take a cupcake decorating class this weekend.  If I had known I would be having a physics test the following day (which I should be studying for right now instead of writing this post!) I may not have planned it.  Nevertheless, the 2 hour class was a sweet study break.
            The class was run by Give me Some Sugar, taught by a lady who seems to split her time between a couple different bakeries, giving classes, and offering private classes in people's homes (she'll even clean up your kitchen afterward).

            We started by making cake balls, which are just balls of crumbled cake mixed (by our own hands) with some buttercream frosting, then chilled in the fridge for about a half hour.  Here's Brittany, getting her hands right in there and mixing things up.

            We got to dip them in multi-colored candy melts, and could even put them on lollipop sticks to make them look like lollipops.  This was my first cake-ball experience and I was not bowled over, but I could be talked into giving them a second try.  Even though most of mine didn't look as cute as I wanted them to, they tasted just fine.

            We each had 6 cupcakes to decorate however we wanted.  There were 3 little girls in the class who went pretty crazy with the frosting and sprinkles especially.  I wish I had gotten a picture of some of those cupcakes.  Brittany's and mine were a little more subdued.  I was taking my sweet time with some of them, and was actually the last person to finish frosting my cakes.

            I experimented with a basket-weave, which I had never tried before.

            Brittany and I each made a plaid cupcake (mine is on the right).
            We also got to try out some fondant, which Brittany and I agreed doesn't taste that good, but I'm definitely going to decorate with it again, and hopefully soon!

             The best (or worst) part of the whole class was that we each got to take home our cupcakes and cake-balls, so I've got about a week of desserts in my fridge.  Unless someone wants to come over and help me eat them!

Me, published on the internet

             I mean, in a different venue than this one.
             My friend Ruthie write reviews for Gapers Block, a website reviewing places and happenings around our fair city of Chicago.  Ruthie recently started writing restaurant reviews for GB, and I've been lucky enough to be her date to a few new, hot restaurants, including Girl and The Goat.
            Anyway, Ruthie also writes about books, and a while ago she sent out a little questionnaire about what her friends are currently reading.  It took me a while to get back to her because, even though I am normally reading 2 or 3 books simultaneously, I either didn't like or wasn't proud of the books I was reading.  I finally buckled down and answered her questions.  Here is the result.

Halloween on Racine Avenue

Now, I live in a city, so trick-or-treating isn't as usual around here.  Besides, I'm not usually home when trick-or-treaters would be coming by, so last year I put together little bags of candy for the 5 kids in my building.

             This year I'm going to treat their parents as well (and maybe the kids not so much).  I'm going to give each apartment a little bag of the pumpkin fudge (kids probably won't like it) and some potato-chip and pecan cookies I made, frosted lovingly with maple frosting.  Mmmmmmmm.
            The cookies are made from a recipe I found in Real Simple a few years ago.  They're very yummy but also very crumbly.  If I ever want to make shapes with them again I'm going to experiment with using some egg to hopefully bind them together (any experimental bakers out there are welcome to make suggestions!)

           I've also put up a few decorations in my place - some black paper bugs on the windows (thanks Martha!).  I thought nobody would notice, but friends have confirmed they did notice them, even  though my place is on the 3rd floor.  I have a little funkin I carved in my family room - no big deal.  I also have a Halloween wreath on my front door, which gets a little better each year.  This year I supplemented it with a few of those window bugs.  And thanks to one of my neighbors (I don't know which one) I have some candy in my wreath as well.  Score!

            I'll leave you with one last Halloween cookie - he's a little messy, but he's my favorite.  A little Dracula, with blood on his hands, and on his fangs.

Sunday Pumpkin Party

After I got home from drawing class today, my friend Katie came over for some help (read: use of my sewing machine) putting together her Halloween costume.  She was making a red polka dot skirt for a Minnie Mouse costume and it's looking like it'll be a good costume.  I can't wait to see some pictures next weekend.

            After we were done sewing, we decided to do some baking.  I had a can of pumpkin puree left from last year and we figured we would make some pumpkin apple bread.  While that was in the oven for an hour, we got a little antsy and started a batch of pumpkin walnut fudge as well.  After some long discussion as to what the "soft ball stage" entails, we got it all figured out and ended up with a nice batch of fudge.

            I haven't cut into it yet, but everything from the testing spoon was wonderful.

Getting Sketchy

I've been taking a drawing class to help me put together a portfolio for architecture schools (and hopefully get a letter of recommendation from the teacher?).  It's a 10 week class and today we hit the halfway mark.
             It's been a good experience for me.  I haven't really drawn anything since high school, and then it was abstract stuff.  It's been really eye-opening to try to draw actual objects and go through the frustrations of not having them turn out the way I'd like.  It's also very different from the art I normally do; when I'm sewing, quilting, or needlepointing, I feel like I can see how it will turn out, but when I'm drawing it's like anything could happen.
           I've been enjoying it overall (aside from the fact that it's 3 hours every Sunday morning) and I think I have some good work to show for it.  Here are a few of my favorite pieces, including one I drew in this morning's class.

             This one is from the 3rd week, when we drew fruit with pastels.  I really enjoyed working with colors.

            This one is from this morning's class.  We were working with graphite, which is good because you can be more precise with a sharpened pencil, but I surprised myself by making all my lines and marks shaded instead of drawn.

News from my back alley

            I normally wouldn't mention the goings-on in the alley behind my house, but lately it's been exciting to see this new, green house getting built rather quickly.  One day there was a hole.  A few days later, there were walls.  Now there is green siding, windows, and a garage that is well on its way to being green as well.  It probably doesn't sound that cool to someone who is not, well, me, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

            This summer, unfortunately, I never got around to planting flowers on my back deck.  However, the other day I noticed a late bloomer, apparently left over from last summer.  Good work, little calibrachoa!  I wish I had noticed you sooner, but you seem to have done pretty well on your own.
            This morning, I had a very fruitful trip to Target.  In case, dear reader, you are a Target visa-holder, as I am, you might know that they're changing their policy with regards to the 10% off shopping sprees that you get once you've earned enough points.  As of the end of this month or thereabouts, those will no longer be offered BUT every time you shop at Target with your card you get 5% off.  That seems like a more than decent trade-off to me.  However, I do enjoy my 10% off sprees, so today I packed up all my coupons and headed off for one last hurrah.  After spending an unnamed amount, my checker lady was very impressed with the $127 I saved from my Target 10% off coupon, their extra 5% off, and all of my manufacturer's coupons.  And I won't have to buy any bathroom/cleaning products or non-perishable foods for a good 6 months.

             I also found this little guy in the produce section.  I'm set with apples for at least a few weeks.  Beep Beep!

When my ears beheld a weary sight.

I had a little spook today.  At one of my lessons, the electricity flickered off and on at my student's house.  When it came back on, the stereo automatically turned on and started playing whatever was in the cd player.  My student and I didn't notice it, until we heard a spooky voice sing "I was working in the lab late on night . . . " and we realized the stereo's song of choice was Monster Mash.

Don't let your presents get cold

Thanks again Michaels!  I think that Michael's craft stores officially have the best selection of dollar goods (well, I don't shop at Dollar General or anything, so I don't have too much to compare it to, but I can imagine).  I went in today to get a picture frame and left with . . . . deep breath . . . . lots of Christmas stuff.  Don't worry, all the xmas stuff was from the dollar section, and this is too good to pass up.  Some of my faithful readers probably know that I loooove sweaters, so this may be the best wrapping paper I've ever seen.  It looks like sweaters.  I got a roll of red, a roll of green, and a roll of blue (for my Jewish gift recipients).

As if I weren't already looking forward to the xmas season.  Another thing I got was some Halloween lollipop molds.  I give Halloween candy to the kiddies in my building, and this year I might make it myself.  The families eat the Christmas cookies I give them, so I think they'll trust my Halloween candy as well.  I can't wait to try recipes from the candy cookbook I got at Hancock Shaker Village.  

Wall Hangings

Earlier in the summer, I went home to CT to stay with my mom for a few weeks, and since it was such a long visit, we finally had the chance to go on a long put-off trip to the Berkshires.  I went to high school just south of the Berkshires, in the northwest corner of CT, and we had always said we would go on a trip someday, and now, 10 years after I graduated from high school, we finally made it.

           It was a great 3-day trip, which we packed with sight-seeing, and drove home with a list of 3 more days' worth of things we'd like to see and do.  Maybe in 10 or 15 years we'll make it back up there.  Anyway, our first stop in the Berkshires was Hancock Shaker Village, and that's the inspiration for the projects I'm blogging about today.  Mom and I love Shaker style furniture.  The very simple designs are totally classic and timeless, and in many ways the Shakers were ahead of their time.  One of their big things was putting pegs on every wall so you could hang stuff - coats, hats, buckets, even chairs - up and out of the way.

             When I got back home, I decided to do some redecorating, and I used this idea in a little bit updated fashion in my bedroom and my (new) craft room.  In my bedroom, I used navy blue 3M command hooks to hang purses under the cutest little canvas art work that I found at Michael's for $1 each.  You can't really beat that; I put this whole wall together for probably less than $20 (not counting the gross amounts of money I've spent on the purses over the years).

            In my craft room, I used the 3M command sticky-tape to stick clothespins to the wall, which I spaced out 5" apart, so that I could display stuff: mostly pictures of past projects, but also a few of my prints from my screenprinting class.  I'm probably going to get some more clothespins soon so that I can have another row or two of wall-hangings.

            The last project isn't inspired by the Shakers, but belongs under this post-heading nevertheless.  I went out and bought a queen-sized (excessively large) piece of batting so that I can lay out my quilts on a vertical surface.  The only problem with this system is that I won't be in such a rush to sew the quilt together since it's already nicely out of the way, unlike when I used to lay it out on the floor and then sew it together quickly to get it out from under foot.  But, the quilt blocks make a pretty nice piece of art on the wall, so all in all, it's not a bad situation.

a match made in Old Town

My high school friend, Jon, set me up on a blind friend date with a girl he met after college.  She moved to Chicago back in November and he thought we might get along, so we played email-tag for a while, and finally managed to set a date for lunch today.
            Mariann and I met in Old Town, which I have visited at times (The Spice House is one of my favorite spots to get hostess gifts for people, when I'm visiting homes outside of Chicago) and checked out some places new to both of us.  We had a nice sandwich for lunch at 33 Club.  We didn't save room, per se, but managed to fit in a cupcake after lunch at The Twisted Baker.  (I saw a sign there that they sell their frosting by the pound for $5.  Must keep that in mind!)

            After we had gorged ourselves thoroughly, we wandered north on Wells St. and found some great little shops.  I was tempted by many cards and things at Greer, and really almost bought the flower pin (pictured) which I may end up going back and buying someday.  I ended up leaving with some good ideas for upcoming crafts - including stationary with fabric.  Hard to describe well, but you know if I make it someday, I'll post pictures.  We also looked in at Fabrice, which was a neat little store having a crazy sale on everything.  It's hard to believe I came back home with no new stuff.
            Overall, it was a nice way to spend one of my final summer Thursday afternoons.

The penguin, in the kitchen, with the butter knife.

This weekend, I am headed out to the suburbs for an engagement brunch.  My friends Dan and Katy, who got engaged back in April, are having a brunch thrown for them by our friends Chris and Zara.  If the invitations are anything to judge by, it will be a very classy event!

            Katy loves penguins.  About a year ago, Jenny and I found an old set of Aunt Martha's iron-on transfers that were days-of-the-week penguins for embroidering onto dish towels.  It's been a while since I've seen Jenny, so it's looking like she won't get a chance to do hers, but here's mine, the Friday penguin (minus the "friday") ready for kitchen display.  Katy and Dan have a pretty classy place these days, so I hope this little guy is up to snuff!

Birthday gifts bound for Rhode Island

I know I've been MIA here for an inexcusably long time.  The first reason is that I haven't been doing many crafty projects, so I haven't had much to report on.  The second, and main, reason is that I've been having a hot and crazy summer (the summer has been hot, and I have been crazy).  I might get into that more in a later post.  But anyway, I'm back on the wagon, crafts-wise, and here's what I've been up to in the past week or so.

            Yesterday was my sister's birthday.  She is the quintessential "I can't think of anything to get her" girl, but she does like bags, so I made it a little more personal this year.  At the new Michael's that opened [a dangerously short] walking distance away from my house, I picked up a set of canvas bags, and some new paint and spouncers.  My sister loves all things pirate, so I stenciled this skull and crossbones onto some freezer paper and more or less screenprinted it onto the bag (with some helpful pointers from my friend Brittany, who I met in screenprinting class last spring).  I think the skull and crossbones turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.  The initials, not as well, but you get the idea.

            The day before my sister's birthday, one of my best friends from high school, Dan, and his wife had their first baby - a boy who they named Henry.  I had had a fleeting idea of making them a baby quilt, but no definite plans or anything.  So I surprised even myself when I woke up yesterday morning, about 12 hours after hearing the baby had been born, and said to myself "I'm going to make a quilt for Henry today."

            This was a marathon of quilt-making.  I picked out fabrics that I had on hand, and went off to JoAnn Fabrics to pick up some backing (cute blue flannel checks) and batting (fusible - I had never used it before and I doubt that I will again. . .).  After making a quick stop at Target as well (JoAnn and Target are across the street from each other, so I can never go to one and not the other), I was back home, ironing, cutting, sewing, basting, quilting, and binding.  I finished binding the quilt at about 9:30 last night, making the whole quilt process about 12 hours from start to finish.  Only in the summer can I really devote a whole day to a project like that.  Well, that's not totally true, but it's mostly true.
The quilt is in the washing machine now, hopefully getting de-bunchied and less stiff (that fusible batting!) and I hope to mail it off this afternoon.

            I hope that Dan, Emily and baby Henry enjoy the quilt.  But with this heat, they probably won't enjoy it for a while.

Sorry I've been MIA - maybe I'll have a good new post up here soon.  In the meantime, please give money to my filmy friends!  They need to raise $10,000 on their own to qualify for lots more money from some other people.  They make good films, and you can get free stuff from them too!
Click here and give money!

And in case you want to know the caliber of moviemakers you will be endowing, here's a link to their project from last summer, 12 films in 12 weeks.

Printerlude

I thought I'd give you a little update on my the screenprinting course I've been taking.  I've had 4 classes, and my final class is this weekend.  (I have to rush home after the class to get cleaned up for my student piano recital, in the afternoon!)

            The first week we made a print of just some normal shape (for me it was red toast).  The second week, we added to our prints with another image (yellow, then orange, tomatoes - which ended up, of course, looking like lemons and oranges - don't know why that didn't occur to me before I did it).

            The third week we all brought in a black and white transparency, photocopied from an image we liked.  I decided to trace/draw my own version of Hokusai's Waves.

We set to work cleaning off our screens from our first prints (toast), then applied the emulsion and exposed the prints on the light table.  All of that took up most of the 3-hour class, so I came back for the Sunday open studio time with my printing buddy Brittany to make many many prints of it in dark blue, then teal, then both.

            Last week, I added a few little purple birds to my waves.  This week, maybe a sun, or some clouds?  We shall see.

            Oh and here's one of Brittany's prints - I'm such a fan!

Open, Sesame

Today I taught 6 piano lessons at 4 different houses and at each house, one of my students opened the door for me before I even got to ring the doorbell.  I guess those kids just can't wait an extra minute for their lessons!

Thanks, Michael's

Yesterday I stopped in at Michael's craft store before teaching, because I had some extra time and a 40% off coupon.  To think, after a walk around the store I almost left empty handed, but at the last moment I saw a little desktop organizer that looked like it would hold my craft stuff (scissors, pens, etc.) so much better than the family reunion mug I had been using.  Of course, it was on sale, so I was already getting a deal.  But then, at the register, the lady gave me a whole bag of free stuff that had been on clearance for a while, but was being taken off the shelves.  It was a collection of stuff by Who's There, Inc, and it's the kind of stuff I always thought was cute but never bothered to buy (apparently I'm not the only one) - but, as free stuff goes, this is pretty cool.  Sticky notes, file folders, etc.  Thanks, Michael's!

Cousin Gabe's Paris Apt.

My super stylish cousin is being featured on a blog with pics of his swanky Parisian apartment.
Check it out!

Printroduction

Yesterday morning, I had the first class of a 5-class Introduction to Screenprinting at the Lillstreet Art Center.  It had been a while since I'd been in an actual art class, so I was a little nervous about what to expect the first day, etc.  It was a small group of students - mostly women - and certainly some crafty individuals, like me.  My teacher, Thomas Lucas, showed us some prints from previous classes, which intimidated me at first because they all seemed so clever and clean, but really got my creative juices flowing.

            He also told us about a few Print exhibits going on downtown right now.  Nate and I were headed downtown to the CSO for the evening (to hear Pavel Gomziakov play the Haydn Cello Concerto in C Major - it was fabulous!) so we decided to go down a few hours early to check out these exhibits.  It was lucky we got down there this weekend because the Printervention exhibit is closing in just a few days.  This was a really neat collection of old fashioned-type political/propaganda posters that were all made recently, regarding issues of today, with a sense of humor.

            The other exhibit, at the Chicago Cultural Center, was "graphic works" by Romare Bearden.  These prints looked a lot less like what you would expect of "prints" and more of what you would call a collage.  And they are definitely a lot more advanced than what I can accomplish any time soon, but it was a really great introduction to what printing can be - so much more than I had thought.  The print I'm showing here (one of my favorites for obvious reasons) is actually a lot more of a traditional print - many of them had great textures that just made you wonder . . . "how?"

New Restaurant Review: Pizzeria Serio

On Belmont Avenue, the street I drove to and from work on every day, I've noticed some new business popping up - a good sign of the times.  One place I couldn't wait to try out was Pizzeria Serio, which opened last week.  For our little Friday night date, Nate the Great and I braved the threatening weather and walked the 3/4 mile over to the new pizza place.
            They are clearly still in the beginning stages of opening - no liquor license yet, a few oversights with the service (we never got any water) - but the food was good.  The menu was very basic.  The 2 appetizers offered were flatbread and mini calzones, both of which sounded good, but a little too much like pizza for us to order them.  We had a caprese salad (like an uncooked, crustless pizza!) and then a "sausage and peppas" pizza.  It was a a very usual choice for us, but the pizza options were also a little limited and it seemed like a good way to judge.  The pizza was yummy and very thin crust.  That's actually a plus for us, since (not true Chicagoans) we prefer thin crust, unless we're at Pequod's.  The kitchen was open so we got to see them take our pizza out of the brick oven, which was pretty cool.
          In the end, we may stick with our neighborhood fave Sapori di Napoli (which has more exotic toppings) but Nate did enjoy drinking Mexican coke with real sugar in it.  Also, the location of Pizzeria Serio is pretty great, because after dinner we hopped less than 1/2 block over to get frozen custard at Scooter's.  A fine Friday evening.

Anaïs's Quilt and Wedding

            About a month ago, I started cutting up fabric for a quilt I was making for my friend Anaïs's wedding.  The one other quilt I've made for a wedding (last July) I finished more than 3 months in advance.  Since I was only starting the quilt with about a month to go until the wedding, this was very last minute for me.

            Luckily, the blocks did come together rather quickly once I started the sewing.  Nate's family was in town last weekend and Nate's mom helped me baste the quilt and mark the lines for quilting.  I had some fun with the binding; when I was at JoAnn Fabrics last week, I found the Bias Tape Maker machine I had been eyeing on sale!  So that should help with a lot of quilts to come :-)

             The fabric I used was a jelly roll of Amy Butler Love fabrics.  I like the different colors in this Amy Butler collection, and I also like that some of the patterns come in flannels as well as cotton, so I made the backing a warm cuddly flannel.  The front of the quilt was a Daisy Chain pattern which I got out of a book of Jelly Roll Quilt patterns by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  This is my first Jelly Roll quilt, but I had some fun doing it, so I definitely will try more of the patterns.  The main color of the quilt, yellow, was a fabric I found at JoAnn to supplement the jelly roll.

          With about 24 hours to spare, I finally finished binding the quilt and threw it into the washing machine.  Friday evening was spent box the quilt, wrapping it up, and finding the perfect card (a repro of an old postcard) to go with the gift.  

            It wasn't planned, since I didn't know which wrapping I would use, but the wrap job ended up matching my wedding outfit perfectly!

            The wedding was a very nice affair, just outside of Chicago in Elmwood Park.  We had a whole table full of Colgate people, many whom I "knew" from Colgate, but had never gotten to talk to before yesterday.  Many Congratulations and Best Wishes to Brian and Anaïs!

4th Annual Easter Brunch

Easter started a few days early for me, on Thursday.  What would normally have been a totally terrible afternoon (my car practically broke down on my way to work; I had to turn around, and leave it at the shop, so I cancelled work and came home) was magically turned around when I was home to receive a special delivery from my mom: a beautiful pot of hydrangeas, which helped get my house in the Easter spirit.

            Today was our 4th Annual Pot Luck Easter brunch.  I played Easter Bunny yesterday, filling little baskets for everybody (16 people!) and snacking on lots of candy while doing so.  The brunch was a huge success, and the weather cooperated this year.  It was the perfect temperature for a little post-brunch walk, which I went on with a few of my guests.  The spread of food was epic as usual.  Lots of full plates, and, soon after, full bellies.  The guests have all dissipated to sleep off the meal, but it will be Easter for a few more days at our house, where leftovers have taken over the fridge.