less than a month!

29 days until I leave for the Netherlands!

38 days until Colin graduates from KABK.

16 days until I'm done working in KC.

Photo of a giant golden Miffy/Nijntje from the Dick Bruna Museum when Colin and I visited Utrecht in March.

roses

Aren't these cottage roses gorgeous? 

They're from my grandparent's garden, a few blocks from my parents house here in KC. 

These roses haven't been especially well looked after since my gramma passed, but they come back every spring with big fluffy pink blossoms. 

I love them. The peonies (my favorite flower) have yet to bloom on the bush behind my parents house, or these roses might have some competition for the spotlight.

The  color of these flowers is an amazing a sort of fuschia-blush. 

Plus they are super blousy and ruffly and they smell divine.

Thanks for the flowers gramma!

graphic quilting

I was at the bookstore yesterday and I stumbled on all of these graphic quilt layouts in a book. 

There is currently a pretty hefty quilting project on my plate and these were really inspiring to look at while I'm working.

I love how bold they are in black and white.

The same book had some pretty colorful quilt tops made from these graphic patterns. 

All of the diagrams and pictures above came from this book, the Great American Log Cabin Quilt Book by Carol Ann Wien.

I also browsed through this amazing Hawaiian traditional quilting book. 

The book focuses on super intricate floral applique and bold color choices evocative of hawaiian quilting.

 

cupcakes

I've been craving fruity spring-time cupcakes lately... these are some recipes on my to bake soon list

 lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting by my baking addiction

 lime margarita cupcakes... it's a rachel ray recipe

image from cupcake blog

strawberry frosting from southern food... I would make this on plain angle food cupcakes

image from flickr

umm YUM