Well, now that my large projects of the last few weeks are basically wrapped up, and I'm pretty much ready for tomorrow's shop update, I am looking at my little world with an urge to put order and beauty into places that have too long been neglected.
I just love the Carolina jasmine at this time of year. As you can see in the photo, we had two plants on this trellis, but the lower one has died and needs to be cut out. All of the flower beds and the garden desperately need tidying up. The pitiful geraniums in the window box are actually leftovers from last year. I was inspired by this post of Dawn's to make a list of all the outdoor chores that need tackling. What a beautiful list, Dawn!
Spring, for us, marks the return of picnic season! I cannot wait to try out the cutlery roll project from Romantic Home Sewing. It's made from a dish towel! Right now we keep the picnic basket silverware in a cloth drawstring bag, but this is so much nicer. I want to do a "picnic post" soon and share some of our thoughts and ideas on this wonderful tradition. 
After reading Jennifer's comment on the post about the Whole Grain Baking book, I popped in for a visit to her lovely blog. I so enjoyed this post about her daughter learning to cook! While closely examining the last photo of her daughter with the freshly baked loaf of bread, I noticed that we have the same breadmaker and wheat grinder. This, naturally, inspired me to go start a batch of bread right away. :-) Yum!
Bread baking always reminds me of the book pictured above. Hearth & Home
The photo above is again from Romantic Home Sewing. I love the idea of sewing a small pocket to a pillow case just the right size to tuck one of Amelia's little lavender pillows in. We have been simply dropping them inside the pillow case, but this seems so much better!
