I am a woman with passion for many things. Because of this, I tend to say yes to things that sound like I would like to do them. Often I say yes based on my enthusiasm, and not on the amount of time available to do them.

Right now I’m in the process of crossing off as many of the items I’ve said yes to, which are starting to pile up in an embarrassing way. If you say yes, people think you mean you have time. I need to realize that many things take a LOT more time than I imagine they might.

From Friday night until Monday evening, I had a chock-full schedule. It was good stuff but I was not home much. Tuesday was wonderful but it involved seeing Sarah, Deb, Sara, Jo, Mom and Altu. Mostly one person at a time, except for Sara & Jo who I saw together.

And I did see Brian, of course. I left at 10am and got home after 9pm, did a little email and listened to Progressive Torch and Twang on WDBM and then it’s already past time to sleep. I’m nodding off as I type this, but that’s part of my life right now.

The wonderful part of all this is seeing the life I have. It is full of people I care about, people who make my life worthwhile. The hard part is trying to do things like get enough sleep and get things done that I promised. I’m working on a project for my Mom right now that I had hoped to do in December. Sigh.

I had a series of yesses to deal with, a list that got too long back in 2007. I got over-yessed back in the fall. And I’m working out of that situation slowly. After the job for Mom, I have a few knitting promises for the kids I teach at Foster Center. Then I’m working on not doing that again without really thinking about it. I do love helping where I can, especially when I truly have a skill my loved one does not have.

Also I keep losing things and that makes it hard to be efficient. I can not find the cord for my Kodak digital camera anywhere. I have not been able to download photos from my camera since the 5th of May, over a week ago. I will now need to give up and just go buy a replacement cord, but that takes time.

Meanwhile, the photo today is a tulip that showed up at our house in an odd spot. I may remember seeing tulip leaves there before but I had never seen a bloom. This one showed up a couple of weeks ago against the house. About a yard/meter and a half out from the house, was a single grape hyacinth as well. The second was surely buried there by a squirrel, as I planted those in the side yard, not the back yard, and this was just in a random place. The tulip, I’m not sure.

On April 27, five members of the Habibi Dancers (including me/Eudora, front right in first photo) performed as guests in a show at Hannah Community Center in East Lansing. We were invited by a troupe which rehearses at Foster Community Center, as we do. The Ballet Maria Luz, another troupe which rehearses at Foster, was also represented in the show.

I stood at the side of the stage as I often do, taking photos when I was not preparing to dance myself. I have uploaded a number of photos (34 total) to my flickr site as a photoset of just that show.

There are some fun shots, and some quite expressive ones with wonderful costumes… the photoset contains a lot more photos of the Mexican dance with double-circle skirts and the flamenco soloist, among others.

I have decided to give in to my enthusiasm for these photos and share a good number of them here. If you enjoy these, click the link above to see more.

If only you could see them actually dancing! There was so much good perfoming at that show, it seemed every single dancer was at their best. Wonderful.

I’m so glad we were invited. (I have lost my program so I don’t know the name of the troupe… if anyone out there knows, please feel free to let me know and I’ll update this post.)

Of course, this was three weeks ago. Life sure gets in the way… I finally processed the photos last Tuesday and now a week later I’m telling you about it. Whew!

Photos, though? They are timeless. The time passed since the performance does nothing to mar the excitement of these images.

We spent the day with Brian’s family on Saturday. Many photographs were taken. Brian took this one of his sister Kathy, using my camera. Yes, this is the magnificent cook behind “Kathleen’s Vegetarian Kitchen.”

She is an artist, in the painting/drawing studio as well as in the kitchen. We get along really well, and I often wish I lived next door to Kath and Pedro (in Jacksonville, Florida… that will not happen this year, anyway). However, it is always wonderful to see them and we do usually connect at least once or twice a year.

I think this photo shows the fun, beautiful person I call my friend… in a most excellent way. Maybe you would like to go and visit her cooking blog. Even if you eat meat, you will find wonderful recipes and links to recipes she found and liked on other websites.

I’m excited about a link she includes to Strawberry Ice Cream (without egg, which works for my allergies). I also just found a link to homemade ricotta cheese which would make a really wonderful lasagna, after years without cheese in lasagna. (I can not have yeast/mold foods such as cheese and yogurt, but after 5 years of not eating dairy I can have milk and non-aged dairy products, it’s a wonderful gift to have it back.)

For the record, the 50th Anniversary event was delightful. We played a lot of music both at the official luncheon and at a gathering at another sister’s home after the luncheon. This family is very big on jam sessions, and there were two jams happening at the same time at Karen’s house.

I again have over 300 photos on my camera which I have not unloaded to my laptop. And since my friend Rae is out of state visiting her Mom for Mother’s Day, I’m going to do my best to help out at her store a few hours on a few different days… we will see how much blogging I get done with this more-busy-than-usual week. I may be posting without photos if need be.

Brian’s parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday. It will be a very big deal, with their 8 kids and a zillion spouses and grandkids, plus other relatives and friends all gathered. I’m particularly excited to see Brian’s sisters (and a brother-in-law) who live in far away states.

This clan gets along very well. In fact, at Thanksgiving a few years back I sat with the young adults (our nieces and nephews) and one exclaimed out loud how much they loved their family. This was followed by other young adult family members agreeing wholeheartedly.

Personally, I am the proud spouse of their 3rd child. I adore Brian deep down into my cells. He is one of the finest human beings I have ever met, and he loves me and treats me well every day. I don’t know his parents as well as I might, but I am deeply grateful for their son who is now my husband, and all the bits that they contributed to how he became the person I appreciate today.

I am not used to big crowds; the gatherings this family can put together sometimes overwhelm me. (My family, on both sides, has six people in this state even if you count our partners.) I love people, and I like every single one in this crowd. It embarrasses me sometimes that the more activity in the room, the more I sort of get fired up, over-active and anywhere from a little too loud to distracting. When I can stay at the physical edge of the crowd, where it’s a little less crowded, I do better.

I want everything to go well for Larry and Marilyn in their event tomorrow so I am going to focus on calmness and moderation for the day. I’m taking some knitting to keep my hands busy during the parts of the event where that would be appropriate. They know I knit pretty much all the time I sit still, it is not a problem for them, though I won’t knit at their special church service.

Of course, since we had a concert event in Pontiac (north of Detroit) Friday night and got home past midnight… well, we won’t be getting much sleep. It should be a wonderful day, in any case. The weather service says sun tomorrow, though it will be chilly. We’ll take sun!

These photos have been taken over the last week and a half. I do not remember a spring so full of flowers. Often the flowers start too soon and we have a frost which kills a lot of buds. This year, the cold held on so long that nothing bloomed until we were pretty much past freeze warnings. We have not had many really warm days, maybe two, so spring still feels tentative, but it’s clear we will not see any more snow, at least.

Here are the daffodils my father planted in the early 1970s, still coming up at Mom’s house:

I took that photo in the twilight so I ended up with flash, and the yellow is sort of over-exposed. Still, I delight in the big standard yellow daffodils and the big standard red tulips that return each year, more than 30 years after my father died. What a gift these are!

Here is a view in the neighborhood behind our house:

What a view! Look at all the colors on the trees and bushes, all at one time. Wonderful.

And two views of a bush I have never noticed before. Actually, it seems I’ve seen these as small decorative bushes, but this one is as tall as me and in front of a victorian brick house in Old Town. Does anyone out there know what this bush is? It is absolutely beautiful and I think I’m in love… (unfortunately, our yard is very small and I don’t think there is room for a bush as tall as me, but I can dream)

Here is a detail. The flowers turn lacy and white at the edges when they start to fade and wither. This actually makes them more beautiful, if you ask me:

I think all that knitting and other creative work we have done on behalf of the spring’s arrival, may just be starting to work!

Paulette came to me not two months ago. She had a dream, to knit socks. First she had purchased a hat pattern, and I showed you that project two weeks ago. She finished that first hat, did a second, and started in with toe-up socks.

I present to you the foot portion of Paulette’s debut sock:

At this point she needs to knit ribbing for the leg as long as she wants to do so, and bind off loosely, and she will have a wearable sock.

I have never seen an adult starter knitter progress so quickly. I don’t expect this but she’s a determined person who is plowing through the learning curve with lightning speed. Go, Paulette!

In other news, I taught my Polymer Clay Translucents & Foils class at Yarn Garden in Charlotte last weekend. Lindsay, who has owned that shop for one year now, filled that room with 8 happy participants. One was her grandma. Grandma had this gorgeous wound “cake” of Noro wool/angora yarn and wanted buttons to go with it. Even though I confess I’m not a neutral person, have never been known for subtlety (I go for contrast every time), I helped her figure out how to make what *she* wanted for *her own project.* Just look at how nice those buttons are for the yarn!

Of course, the web is just not good at displaying subtleties in color but trust me when I say that she was pleased, I was pleased, and the whole group agreed that she got the buttons she had been working for.

Bonnie in Illinois (blcknits on Ravelry) has posted a few projects which were her spring-inducing projects this year. She has given gracious consent to sharing the photos here with you. Thanks, Bonnie!

First she posts a Breabag by Norah Gaughan (I believe it’s a Berrocco pattern). This was a gift for her 18 yr old. She lined it and made a wonderful handle complete with beads:

She also made two-color footies (socks without legs) in colors I love for spring. These were for her 17 yr old. I tell you what, if she has teenaged girls liking her knitting, she is doing something right!!! (I sure wish I’d made those footies for me…):

Our friend Ben Hassenger is playing a musical gig with hubby Brian this Friday. I’ve been to a few concerts in the last few weeks where Ben played (one where Brian played, too). Ben wrote to ask me if I had a photo of the two of them next to one another, for promo purposes.

I had a few photos of the concert they both played, but they were not near one another. In fact, I was photographing from one side so Ben looked bigger in his photos than Brian in his. Here is what I found.

Photo of Brian:

Photo of Ben:

I made Ben’s photo smaller and cropped Brian. Then I changed the color balance on both of them so that the colors looked right together.

I overlapped the two photographs and then I had a problem with the microphone sort of being cut off in thin air. And Brian’s shoulder being totally cut off vertically behind the microphone. The background was easy to airbrush/rubberstamp so that it was seamless, the other bits were harder. I literally had to airbrush the background away from behind a microphone and superimpose it on top of the seam between the photographs. I also had to use a rubberstamp tool to paint in what looks something like Brian’s shoulder behind it.

In the end, here’s what I came up with:

Whew! It worked. you look at the faces, and it’s easy to ignore the imperfections of the seam in the middle.

I ran into Cyndi on Saturday at Threadbear as I was finishing up a class. She had to show me her finished SportZig. I was thrilled, of course.

Then she continued to flatter me (I eat it up). She had taken this project on a ski weekend (early March) and knit it in one day. In the end, she was able to get two bagz out of the yarn she purchased for one.

Way cool!

Here is a photo of my SportZig and hers. Guess which is whose? (Hint… purple is my neutral, or as Brian says, it’s my beige. Never mind I like turquoise, wild hot colors and rainbows… Cyndi looks wonderful in red. Hers looks more like cinnabar in person than in this photo, I just could not get the colors true. You can see the bags turned out well.

…but at Elderly Instruments, there is a divider in the CD department/ukulele section which reads “The Fabulous Heftones.” (That would be me… and Brian.) Next to us? Jake Shimabukuro, Janet Klein, James Hill.

Pardon me while I get giddy for a moment. That is serious company and I’m allowed to enjoy it.

Cathy wrote me a few weeks ago to say she had photos of her ZigBag progress, on her blog. I just love seeing everyone’s color choices. Hers looks like a spring garden, fresh and lovely.

Cathy, thanks for writing. You make my day.

Mary’s bag is beautiful, too. I have photos if I can only get time to put them on my laptop and develop them. One day at a time, right?

I really try to keep you guys up to date and not leave you waiting for posts… I’ve been crazy-busy so have fallen behind.

• We have been singing a bunch this week. Brian and I played for a private party on Friday and we have another private party next Thursday. All good.
• I have had a number of classes to teach, both computer and knitting. Saturday I teach polymer clay and Needlefelted Embellishments.
• The weather is springlike. This year it was not “April Showers bring May flowers.” This year we had flowers at the end of April, we still have them. But the last few days we have had rain. Friday it was coming down “in buckets” so to speak.
• I am knitting a baby outfit from my yarn and Knitting at Knoon’s pattern. More details and photos later.
• Brian bought me seeds for an herb garden. I have done well some years and not so well others, we will hope this year is a good one.
• I have been cooking and baking. Food is such a comfort and a joy at times!
• And I can never say enough about my beloved. How I got this lucky in life, I do not know. We play music together, we eat together, we go for walks together, we laugh and laugh. It is a good life.

Back when I can write a real column… for now it’s bits and pieces. I’m well, I’m happy… I’m busy. Hugs!