March For Our Lives

Our day at the March For Our Lives in KC.  My grandson asked, "Grandma, you don't like guns?"  He has two, a water gun and a fart gun.

SPRING!!....sort of

Spring is here, although the weather hasn't felt like it. Yesterday's welcome was a cold and drippy day, (perfect for the pot of chili I made). Today is cold but the sun is breaking through.  In honor of  the first day of spring yesterday I bought a flat of lettuce.  The color alone was hard to resist.  I intend to pot it up and keep it on the deck just outside the door, easy to pull inside in case of future hard freezes.   Today's sunshine will make potting it up a nice project for this afternoon. 

On Saturday, in honor of St. Patrick's day I baked a Guinness Chocolate cake to take to dinner at our daughter's house.  Everyone loved it, except for me.  It turned out perfectly but it is a very heavy cake.  Regardless, it was a nice way to celebrate the holiday.  I've always loved St. Patrick's day but growing up in a Mexican/German household we didn't really celebrate it.  Marrying an Irishman and now my kid's being half Irish has made the holiday a lot more fun!

Also over the weekend I finally finished my poncho, an on and off again project I've been working on since fall.  I finished it, blocked it, and wore it to a birthday party on Sunday.  It did not turn out as I intended it to in the beginning.  I had to make adjustments to make it work.  Several times I considered ripping it out and starting  again.  And still I wonder if I shouldn't just start it over again.  Tough call.

The birthday party was for our oldest grandchild Olivia,  who just turned ten!  I think I was as excited as she was for this birthday.  I wanted her to have something in the mail so I painted her a little postcard.  I drove to the town where she lives to ensure it would arrive on her actual birthday.

Years ago I altered a Barbie doll into a Mexican sugar skull doll.  Olivia has always loved it and throughout the years has asked me to make her one.  This year when she asked again I thought at ten she was probably old enough to have one so I made one for her.  It's not a doll that would stand up to play so we'll see how she does with it.

Since this was a momentous birthday, I also wanted to give her a gift to commemorate it.  If you've read my blog or are a Facebook friend, you've seen me share the soft books I make for the grandkids on their first and second birthdays.  Since Olivia was turning ten, I made her a photo book from Shutterfly filled with pictures of her over the past ten years.  I spent an emotional two days putting it together and submitted it.  I was so excited for it to arrive.  But when I did get it and was thumbing through it I was horrified to find out that I had mistakenly left three pages blank at the back of the book!  

Days before when she was visiting she saw some of my poetry books I had left out on the coffee table that I had been reading.  Together we read some of my favorites.  So after much consideration, I decided to write her a letter in the back of the book.  I included some of the poems we read, along with my recipe for granola that she's been asking for.  It really turned out to be a lovely keepsake.  I'm so glad she liked it.

Finally, my photo for the small things yarn along.  The poetry books along with the three pair of evil eye gloves I'm knitting for the March For Our Lives on Saturday.  Have you seen them?   They are to be worn at the march like the pink hats were at the Women's March.  #evileyegloves.