In Like a Lion

I think I am not alone in wishing February a not so fond farewell. We are just into the month of March, but I can feel the shift; the days lengthening, the energy sapped in the darkest month of February is on the return. I am loving the crisp and cool weather, storms blowing in and out almost every other day....sweeping the sky of smog and blanketing our mountains in fresh new snow. The rain never lasts long and the snow is not outside the home so there is nothing to complain about. I know that is not quite the case on the East and you have my deepest sympathies as the winter drags on over there.

Speaking of the East Coast...I finally took a step in that direction. Quite literally, actually. Over the weekend I decided to attend the Blogher 10 Conference. In part because it is in NYC and a great reason to head back in that direction after 10 long years away. In part because some of my favorite women are going to be there and I love thinking of this as an opportunity to meet, listen and speak to some of the people that have been so inspiring in so many ways. So, if you are going or in the area (ahem, Marnie) then I want to know. I kinda' feel the same way I did when I was 17 and moving to NYC to start at NYU...not knowing a soul in the city and not exactly sure where it was all leading to. Excited and a little intimidated.

The decision seemed to spur some fresh energy for clearing and starting so I gathered all the pretty things I could find and decided to take a few photos...inspiration in a minutes time. I love doing this when I am trying to focus my relatively scattered creative energy. All these things have been lying around on my bedside table, in piles and bags.


First up, Easter finery...well, not that we celebrate Easter, let's call it Spring finery. I have had the urge to sew up some more Oliver and S pants, the grey corduroy is light wale and looks quite handsome next to some Heather Ross lining fabric.

Eventually I hope to pair the pants with some (lets hope) quickly knitted vests and we will have the outfits to take them through Spring family celebrations, birthday parties and graduations. The yarn is a closeout cotton with a fairly soft hand...the swatch was the start but I am almost halfway through a vest body in the knitting. Something about all that Olympic knitting has kept my hands itching to knit more.



And then there were all the scraps from the cutting of the pants and I am starting to understand how hard it is to toss scraps (especially OOP Heather Ross stuff) and I ran into a tutorial on string squares over at Film in the Fridge and the scraps quickly became a few of these squares. Fun, right?

I am gleaning so much inspiration from Julie Frick (who was going to blog again, but so far is sticking with Flickr...man, Flickr and Twitter have so killed the blog world) and the latest thought is to pair the strip squares with fresh green tree squares and see what happens...

An then I found this on the bedside table, initially intended for a yoga classmate and her now 8 month old daughter...

Not sure it will fit, but it has to go somewhere, it is too cute to sit on the bedside table any longer. A few buttons and a few ends to weave and I am committing to finding a place for it to go.

March is in like a Lion around here and it feels really quite good. How is it shaping up for you all?

Glancing through the pictures conforms my love of orange and brown and grey...so 70s but in a new way. I love the 70s so that seems to be all good.