My heart fills with joy and compost

I love the spring. All I want to do is garden and enjoy worms and green things and eat asparagus and new potatoes and spring onions and wear full knee-length skirts with woolen sweaters and flats.

I know I am an utterly spoiled American and so it's unlikely that I can fully commit to seasonal eating, but man, am I excited about eating all the stuff I've been eating all year round when it actually tastes like itself. Fresh berries and sweet sweet onions and the end of summer glory of tomatoes.

But, not much to be done outside yet. . . Despite the warm/hot weather this April, I know it could snow at the end of the month. So, I won't jump the gun. But there's no rule against seeing what all the cold frame Dan made for me can get done in this unseasonably warm weather. . .

L.P. helps me pick what to grow in the cold frame (or possibly, is just ripping the yard apart looking for the tiniest stick he can find to play with. . . using this photo evidence, you be the judge. . . )

There's bona fide Stewart/Phillips compost mixed into the potting soil in these seed starts. I'm hoping the seeds find that terrifically yummy. But you're looking at squash and artichokes and nasturtiums and beans and zinnias. . .

New Caterpillar

check out the new embroidery piece at fivetrees.etsy.com

Chinatown and Spring

The chandeliers in the dimsum restaurant where D and I had lunch were ridiculously grand.


The world's cutest pasta ever. I'm not sure I'll ever eat it. I'll just take it from the pantry from time to time and admire its flowery cuteness.

A Summey April

An April so summery and lovely that even the students' bikes seem to be dressing up in their cheeriest colors.

Sweet Mouse

This sweet mouse doesn't have a name yet, but she's dear nonetheless.

She will be posted to Etsy later this week.

Manifest is Coming Soon

Columbia College's annual urban arts festival, Manifest, celebrating all of our graduating seniors and graduate students is coming up soon. It's one of my favorite days of the year. . . but truth be told it's not just a day. Every year, at about just this time in April, an energy hits campus that is the beginning rumblings of that exciting celebration and it ramps up gradually through out the spring.

The staff throws a kick-off party today--and that's part of it. But that's so official. The thing I'm talking about is like little waves of excitement running through the students and the community. Usually how I notice it first is through higher levels and higher quality of graffiti around campus.

Exhibit A: Beautiful Wheat Paste on Harrison


Exhibit B: A Great Video About Landry Miller's Process in Designing the Branding for Manifest this Year



In the same way that there are the first signs of Spring, there are the first signs of Manifest. As they pop up, I will share them here. . .

L.P. v Bacon

The Wee Grape

la Uva! The Grape! Ole!


Finished a few toys that have been in the works for a while, this little luchador amongst them. Also a stegosaurus, and a chic mouselet.

Spring has Sprung

It was high 70's, low 80's Thursday and Friday. So every bud that's been thinking about opening for the past month did.

It's starting to look like spring around here. Rained all Saturday and so we lazed around the house, but the heat and the rain woke everything up.

Last night, on the final trip out with L.P., I heard the worms rustling through the grass and left over fall leaves. And I'm not kidding or exaggerating. The worms in our backyard are monstrous, and at night, after a steady rain, they come out to play. I've seen L.P. jump two feet straight in the air after stepping on one. They're fat and huge and fast.

New Bunny Design

So, I usually crochet or knit every bit of my critter, but one day a few months ago, I tried my hand at sewing a doll. I tried a bunny, but she didn't come out exactly the way I pictured her and so I thought her a failure and didn't finish her.

But then there was an opportunity to donate work to fund student college scholarships and I figured I would finish her and give her away--which I did. But to my surprise, she turned out to be beautiful.

Here she is:

Columbia April Fool's Loft Party

So, Columbia faculty and staff have been invited to a BYOB April Fool's party to have fun and participate in a silent auction on art. It's brilliant. The same folks donated the art and are bringing the booze and then are bidding on the art.

It's a fundraiser that doesn't cost the college any money. The money raised goes directly into student scholarships. I'm going. I'm bidding. I also donated this motley crew:


I have my eye on three full-colored, poster-sized New Yorker Magazine Covers that were illustrated by Ivan Brunetti. I'm betting I won't be able to bid high enough. . . but I'm going to try. If I don't get them, I can at least drive the price up to better benefit the scholarship fund.

Baby Mosh Pit

Sunday afternoon, after Salvage One and after a little Indian appetizer lunch, D and I went to see our buddies Justin Roberts and Liam Davis perform at the Old Town School of Folk Music as "Justin Roberts & the Not Ready for Naptime Players."

They were great and we had a fun time. It's hard not to be happy happy happy when watching your friends perform a rock show for babies and tiny children.




Thus the name of the post, every show, Justin encourages the kids to run around and to form a little mosh pit up at at the front of the stage. As it turns out, kids don't really mosh. They twirl. They jump up and down. The cling to the edge of the stage and staring adoringly at the band. They hold hands and swing in circles. Kids are really really cool.

Big Dave and Little Dave. I love Big Dave's big shoes.


See. A bona fide rock show! The two little girls at the bottom of the picture holding up a sign. They weren't the only ones. Signs saying the drummer rocked. Signs claiming their favorite songs--a particularly awesome one for "Sweet Tooth" including a beautiful multi-colored brontosaurus.

You should check them out.