Back from Detroit

So happy to be home. Takes a couple days to get used to the hum-drum everyday existence that is this farm. Met a great group of women on the set of Shay Pendray's Needlearts Studio who were also being tortured. I love to meet women who share my passion. You can read about the taping here as it speaks for my experience too. Interesting to meet Stefanie Japel, author of Fitted Knits (a.k.a. the Glampyre) as I had read her blog for the first time in the early a.m. on the free computer at the hotel. I found it through a link on the Knitty surprise page which arrived in my morning e-mail. Oh, how I wish I had quick internet access - it is mind boggling to see what is out there.

It was a serendipitous trip as well. I got on the plane in Hartford - late - as is my preference. As I am climbing back to my window seat in the back of the plane, I spy a familiar couple of faces. And then I look - I am sitting next to my old friend Peggy Church, the weaver, formerly from Dunstable, MA, and her husband Warren. I haven't seen them in six years. Needless to say - lots of catching up. I felt bad for the people sitting close to us - boy did they get an ear full if it wasn't plugged into something.

Friday I was sitting at lunch while waiting to go on the set and I met two lovely women who called themselves Chicks with Sticks. Turns out one of them - Mary Ellen - was the sister-in-law of my good friend Jim Doyle who I used to work with at CEY. What a totally small world. They say six degrees of separation and I truly do believe.

The daffodils are blooming finally. One thing nice about this blog is I've got a time frame to judge garden events against - we are two weeks behind last year.


The kittens have also grown. They're ready for solid food. We've named them Fern, Charlotte, Templeton, and Toby - after our favorite characters in Charlotte's Web (except for Toby who is just Toby because). They play hard and sleep hard - just like children.


I'm a day late on my illustration deadline but things are moving along. I hope I finish these illustrations soon. I've got the fine motor stuff to contend with now and I hope I don't mess anything up so I have to start from scratch again.