Around Here

Around here....  

On Thursday night it started to snow and didn't stop until Friday evening, leaving behind 13 inches of beautiful white stuff. 

As the Daily Camera article above notes, only a few inches were forecast, schools did not close, and a sunny weekend was expected with highs near 70 tomorrow.  All this is typical for a spring snow around here.  

Here's a photo a friend took at her house during the storm when she measured 9.5 inches.  See how gray the skies are? 

But within a day the bright warm sun was back along with Boulder's beautiful blue skies. The snow was heavy and wet on the pavement and sidewalks, making shoveling a chore, but light and fluffy on the bushes and trees, which made them look very  surreal.  

It appears that the bulbs and flowering bushes aren't going to be severely affected by the snow, but we'll see.  

Spring break is just starting and the big snow was a welcome event in the mountain ski resorts where many families vacation.  And of course snowfall eventually mean water for us as the mountain snows melt, and that's always a  good thing. 

Around here....

We are hanging out with That Handsome Dog Gus this weekend, keeping him happy while his owners are away.  Although this is a family affair, Paul is the official tender and has been doing a great job putting into practise the dog handling techniques he's learned from Gus's owners and by going along to Gus's obedience training.  Check out this nice "sit" Gus managed to hold for a second or two while being shown a new toy. 

Dog walking is a major activity in these parts and now we've joined the crowd, at least for a few days.       

Gus prefers to break new trail in the snow... 

...even though he occasionally has to take a short break.

Gotta love those snow covered foothills. 

Around here....

The Boulder quilt guild had a Mad Hatter Tea party to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice In Wonderland.   White gloves and fancy hats were the suggested attire for guests and I managed to find the perfect headpiece.  

Freshly baked scones and properly brewed tea were served and everyone had fun. 

You may rightfully be asking why a quilt guild would want to celebrate the publication of a book.  Well, every year the guild issues a challenge to its membership to make a quilt based on a subject or theme, and this year it was Alice in Wonderland.   

Before the tea Guild members showed and talked about the creations that came out of that challenge, and then the art was displayed for members to examine first-hand during the tea.   It was a nice way to showcase member's talents; no voting to choose "winners,"  just a fun exchange of ideas and results.  I didn't participate, but liked this way of handling a challenge so much that I was encouraged to "play" next time.  

Here's one of my favorites, a small piece showing Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole.  (I think the black swirls and Alice's face and yellow hair are painted and the rest of her is appliqued.)  You can see that my guild doesn't just do traditional quilts.  Actually, this whole area is a hot bed for modern and art quilting, both of which are very interesting to me.     

Around here.....

All my own quilt projects are stalled, requiring either hard decisions or hard techniques, so I was happy to spend some time yesterday helping my friend Inger hem up an embroidered table runner she had finished.  Isn't it beautiful?   Love that gold and orange against the brown.  

Today... 

Paul has a Ska band practice, Ben is looking forward to a long hike, and I'm signed up for an Apple workshop about using iMovie.  The sun is shining and it sure looks like it's going to be a good day!