Spring!

Easter Eggs by Joan Coats

From snow and cold to wind, sun, and springtime so fast my head is spinning!  Happy Spring to everyone, hope your Easter weekend is wonderful.  We are loving NO snow, getting around easily, spring coats....whoever thought it would feel so good to put on a light pretty spring jacket?  I thought I was doomed to live in my puffer parka forever.  Argh......!

I haven't been quilting, as "other things" took over my life recently.  Some eye problems which are doing better now, lunches with friends, getting new smart phones and learning how to use them while trying to activate them, not a recommended procedure.  However, I now know my little sweet phone so well, and am glad I finally took the plunge and feel like an adult with my slim cool phone tucked in my purse.  It is truly amazing what it can do.

Then......we got rid of our phone land line!  It was scary, but it is very freeing not to have that phone ringing all day, early in the a.m., during meals, during evenings, during showers, drove me crazy.  It is blissfully quiet now, and if you must contact me, please use my usual email:  dianequilter@sbcglobal.net 

I did have to figure out and hook up our new high-speed internet, but that went well too.  I also had to face the spaghetti of cables and wires and confusion behind our tv when the DVR from our cable company just decided to quit working right and wouldn't record.  

Detective work on my part indicated our DVD player sitting beneath the cable DVR was not working, but it was all looped together in a maze of scary cordage.  I mapped out all the connections, drew a picture, pulled cables out of the DVD player, re-hooked pertinent cables to the DVR and tv using common sense, and voila, it worked perfectly!  Whew......needed some coffee and chocolate after that day.

It has been stressful but I feel the demands of modern day technology either require someone in your life who does it for you, professionals coming in and doing it and making you feel like the old folks on the sofa, or learning how to do it yourself.  I chose the latter and am happy everything is perking along fine.

Oliver helped us do the taxes one weekend, sat on the calculator, rummaged and messed up the stacks of papers, and finally left to take a power nap upstairs in peace and quiet while we added, listed stuff, and double checked.  He is so handsome and gets sweeter every day.  He goes in for his yearly vaccination this week so we're not looking forward to that.  

And......we celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary, photo below.  I lost all our wedding photos in a house catastrophe over 20 years ago, but last year we got my mother-in-law's photo of us with her other two children, framed and on her dresser her entire life.   I dug it out of the cupboard recently as it was so faded I didn't want any more light on it, opened the frame to take a photo with my new phone (fantastic camera and I can edit right on the camera.....who knew???), and there, stuck behind the photo she displayed, was one of my husband Alan and me, faded but not too bad.  

It was 1969 and Edwardian style was in.  I had very short dyed dark brown hair after a swimming pool in college turned my light hair a pea soup green.  The large cabbage ribbon thing on my head covered most of it!  The sleeves and bodice were sheer, and there was a lovely lace applique down the entire center to the hem, with tiny buttons.  How young we were, hard to believe we didn't even know it. 

I just finished making this plate of deviled eggs for our grazing day of eating, as we are going out for Easter dinner tomorrow.  The card is from a friend who sends me pretty postcards every now and then in the mail, brightening my day each time.  This one was left on the counter and I discovered the rabbit's eye was missing after Oliver checked it out.  I found it down in the grassy stuff on the card, which fortunately was not eaten.  

Hope all of you are enjoying spring, getting out to spend time at quilt events, and doing some quilting.  I hope to get back to my quilting soon and will post some updates on my adventure into working with feed dogs.

Keep quilting!  It is the most relaxing meditative thing I have ever done....happy spring,

Diane