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"Like Mr. Holland's Frumpus, but lamer." - Hubby "August Rush: bringing false hope to orphaned children everywhere. Ridiculous." - Me

The beautiful flowers Hubby gave me for our anniversary against a snowy background. That's right, I said snowy. March 27 and its snowy. Sigh. But back to happier thoughts, the flowers are a bouquet of pink star lilies, white tulips and a delicate calico hydrangea which I happened to have in my wedding bouquet. Lovely, huh? From a local florist called Roots.

Here are a few photos of our Easter. . . Lucy in her Easter dress, our nephews and our Easter Egg Hunt. Clever feet photo with candy all over the ground courtesy of Katherine Wallin of Wallin Photography . Oh, and Lucy in her bunny ears with her favorite snuggly bunny (both by Bunnies by the Bay , the softest and cutest baby stuff you can imagine). Ok, cool story. . . after the Easter Egg hunt, our nephews were still kind of in seek-and-find mode so they were going on a treasure hunt around the courtyard of our complex. They found all sorts of "treasures" like a screw driver, petrified gum, a stick that looked like a gun, a lug nut that looked like a bullet, some cool rocks, colorful plastic bits, etc. To make it a little more exciting and to keep them going for awhile I told them there was a real treasure around here somewhere, that the other night when hubby and I came home from who-knows-where, a neighbor we'd never met, poked his head up over the fence and asked if

I snapped this little self-portrait of me and Lucy showing off our St. Patty's day greens this morning and moments later she spit up half her bottle. Being the caring mother I am, I diverted the eruption of spewed milk away from my new birthday trench and her hand-knit sweater. . . I know, I know, its only "stuff" and I shouldn't be so concerned with worldly stuff. . . but its green stuff, darn-it, and we are going to wear this beautiful green stuff all day, if it kills me!

So, like I said, we bought a house. A beautiful, little old bungalow with loads of charm and space and room to grow. But it also has room to improve, so we're knocking down some walls to open things up and updating kitchen and bathroom and, well, practically gutting it. Hubby's been hard at work all week doing demo. . . and being incredibly rugged and masculine. Give the man a sledge hammer and a crow bar and he can bring the house down. . . bet you never knew a guy who even irons his clothes to go camping would enjoy getting this dirty.

I started teaching a Flash class today at one of our local colleges and because I'm such a blog nerd, I had to create a blog for the class. Some of you design and animation geeks out there might like to follow along as I link to cool sites, find tips and tricks, and post student projects there. Here's the link to eagats!

I know we're already 11 days into the month, but here is my inspiration board for the month. . . a small collection of things that make me happy when I look at them. I rotate stuff through every month or so, depending on my mood and whatever strikes me. No theme really, except that I like the way it looks together. Oh, and that fortune is possibly the best one I've ever received, it says, "Your talents will be recognized and rewarded." It may stay on my inspiration board all year. . . I'm putting it out there to the universe, Oprah.

So, I'm an artist and I really should draw more. So I'm going to make it a goal to do Illustration Friday with the thousands of illustrator/bloggers out there. And yes, the above illustration is about my birthday this week. . . and my obsession with cupcakes. . . and I think I need to animate it. Make it a little e-card.

I'm behind on three tags so I'm going to try to catch up. Tag #1, the Bag Tag. . . I was tagged by Katherine to share what's in my bag. Well, here is my latest and greatest bag, a gardening tote with all the essentials. . . a fabulous birthday gift from my parents. I can hardly wait to don the hat and the sloggers and get out in my new yard, that's right, I said new yard. We just bought a house and for the first time in a long time I'll have a yard to tinker around in! (Jamshack ladies, let's not bring up the fact that we killed the lawn and several of the bushes way back when in Provo, I'm starting fresh with this house and it will be totally different, I'm more mature now). It has rose bushes and a tulip border and an apricot tree AND an ivy hedge with a picket gate you walk through to get to the back yard, my own secret garden. I'm so excited about it and this bag will get plenty of good use. . . And I tag A. Porter , A. Pratt , J. Geddes , Missy

This is a fairly modern baby quilt I made for some dear friends' new baby. . . James. I have to give props to Denyse Schmidt for the design (don't you love her?) which is based on her series of Rugby Stripes work quilts. I really enjoyed a podcast I heard a while back where she was interviewed by craftsanity and she said she was glad she's inspired quilters out there and doesn't mind if they mimic her work, it is the greatest form of flattery, right? Anyhow, my dimensions, if you want to know, are: Thick stripes (4 brown and 3 blue) 5.5" x 36" Thin stripes (6 maroon and deep red) 1.5" x 36" one yard of 45" wide fabric for the back 1 1/4 yard of solid red for bias tape, with plenty left to bind another quilt or two Final size is about 36 x 42" P.S. I stick with Denyse's general rule of using mostly solid colors, and then prints and patterns just to add interest. If you run out of a color (or even if you don't) find a scrap in you

I wanted to thank you all for contributing to the Friendship Quilt we put together for Alice Edvalson. She was so thrilled to be presented with it at the Christmas party and really was touched. And I want you to know, that it has been complete and delivered to Alice where she had a quilt stand ready to display it on! It turned out beautiful and was a fun project. Thanks again for taking the time to let Alice know how grateful we are to her for her years of service as our Sugar House Ward Relief Society President and how much we love her. The friendship quilt is a wonderful tradition that is hundreds of years old. Quilts were often made by church congregations to give to their departing pastors and their families as they were moving on to another town or parish. Luckily, Alice isn't going anywhere, but we can still thank her for a job well done.