The birds have already feathered their nests

Have you? It's definitely spring here in Western PA (I saw some House Sparrows doing-the-do this morning so I know it's true) and we're all coming out of hibernation and greeting the new season. A few Spring Cleaning items: last weekend was Craftin' Outlaws in lovely Columbus, OH. Thanks to Megan and everyone for putting on another great show. I will be at the Mt Lebanon Earth Day event this Saturday to celebrate. Stop by my booth to say hi and feed some mealworms to my hens. It goes from 11-3 at Main Park. I will be adding some new pieces from my tin series to my etsy shop later today. This one is already there: Lastly - I designed and printed a 5x7 piece featuring a Great Horned Owl. I am going to be selling the print and a portion of the proceeds from each sale will go to Wildbird Recovery Center. Details to come in the next post. Onward. 

And then this!

 I just posted about Spring possibly, maybe, thinking about finding its way and look what I found in the hen house just now! I believe it's a sure sign.

Before + After: Back of House

It is a slow process, this current renovation. If I'm being honest with myself I will admit that we'll never actually be "done" and that's fine. What would we do with ourselves if we finished? Start over somewhere else, I guess. And I'm not remotely interested in moving again so I plan to draw out this renovation for our eternity. Today happens to be a gorgeous one so I thought it was high time to show a before + after of what we've done to the back of the manse.Way back in the olden days:Step one was to remove the crazy arborvitae that was glomming onto the house.Step two: blow a big hole in the back of the house.Step Three: Have Bradley and Bradley Jr from Decks Decks Decks come out and work their magic.Step Four: make a margarita and then another and then another.And just like that (2.5 years later) we have a great space to live in and hang out and watch the hens doing their thing in the yard below.Happy Spring!

Spring has sprung

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wall of ideas and inspiration

and I like it. No, I love it. Every year I wonder, do I love Spring or Fall better? I think the winner is Fall but I am in love with Spring right now. Everything is a riot of life. Life finds a way, no matter what. The frozen ground still begets tiny, bright green shoots that will eventually be amazing, strong things that take over our yard. Unreal. I'm feeling excited to make some new pieces and I have stacks of bare boxes and piles of scraps and bits of things to make make make. I am currently working on a series of alphabet cards for a new product for L2 - stay tuned for more details on that. We're heading to NYC in May for the National Stationery Show so now begins the flurry of pre-show activity for us. Here are some pics in honor of Spring and honeybees and hopefulness.