Friday night grateful moment

The sliding door to our bedroom deck is open, and I can smell recently quashed fires in the air. It is spring. No two ways about it. I'm practically too giddy to type! Why is it that spring feels so longed-for, even this year, when it's been arguably quite mild? Who knows. I'm just glad--and grateful--that it's here.

Let me count the ways...

*We went from coats to shirt sleeves, practically overnight. Meanwhile, Seth's new spring coat just arrived, and I'm thinking I'm glad we bought it a bit big, because very soon it will be a fall coat...

asparagus

*Aspargus in everything... soup to omelettes! Grateful for spring flavors.

*Getting up and into the day, even in this post-DST week, has been pretty easy. And those evenings? Heaven! So grateful for longer days.

wall

*Garden planning and plotting. Had lunch with a friend this week who shared a garden resource that we'll have to check out. Seeds! Tilling! And the trees got their seasonal trim this week too... things are looking (knock on wood) somewhat tidy, even. 

berries

*Green, green, everywhere. Doesn't hurt that it's St. Patrick's Day on Sunday, but spring IS green. And I got some fun new shoes in the mail this week, too:

*Family is coming to visit soon, and that always makes me happy and grateful. That always gives me a chance to do some fun cooking and baking, and crafting with the nieces. Can you say Easter glitter?!

pantone

*Maybe it's the time change (though that doesn't really make sense), but I am sleeping better lately... a cause for celebration, definitely. 

picnic

*Some weeks the planets just align a little better than others, you know? Grateful for weeks when it feels like progress is made, three steps forward even if one or two were back... momentum! 

*Grateful for my friends, in any season. Every season. Blessed.

cake

*Those guys I get to live with... I have a very thankful heart for both of them tonight. For Seth and his courage and character, and the same goes for husband, double on the character. That the two of them support each other and not just me? Blessed times a hundred.

*For technology, and all the things it makes possible. So I'm veering off the spring theme here, but my gratitude for technology is true and very on my list of things to be grateful for.

*I'm still really glad about my OLW for 2013: Light. I haven't spent a lot of time focusing on it here on the blog, but I have my little tag that I wear*:

and it reminds me:

travel

I hope wherever you are tonight, spring is near. Peace.

*I want you to know, dear reader, that I tried fifteen ways from Thursday to get that photo to turn rightways for you. I even retook the photo. Reuploaded it. Rotated it. Cursed. Did it all again. To not avail. So rather than continue cursing on a night when I should be grateful, I am letting it BE. Because I know you can make the leap.

Luck 'o the Irish!

May the blessings of each day
Be the blessings you need most.

-Irish Proverb

Remember this shamrock, from just last night?

Well, I'm sure you didn't have a hard time imagining what was underneath that green four-leaf clover...

Which made for a lovely mid-afternoon snack, but was rich enough that now we're all craving something NOT sweet!

 

Inspired, of course, by this cake at iambaker, there is no real recipe to share, other than: be prepared to part with a good portion of a bottle of green food coloring. And my other tip: be delicate in the adding of this food coloring. You can always go darker, but it's pretty impossible (without another cake mix) to lighten up.

Side note: I learned just yesterday that there are moms who make little Leprechan footprints around the house on St. Patrick's Day, and that little green treats are left by these Leprechauns... I had no idea I had fallen down so resoundingly in this world of "mythical characters are real." I had never even heard of doing that. It's well documented that I've never been big on Santa as a real guy, and I thought everyone knew the Easter Bunny is made up (I've since learned otherwise). I think the one little lie I went along with was the Tooth Fairy, for a while, but even that got me the sideways wary eye from Seth...  

Anyway, this cake is my nod to the Leprechaun dude and his compatriots! Anything for a little green, I say! (Although I've been told that I should be making an orange cake, what with being Protestant and all. But MY green cake is not affiliated with any religious or political ideologies, so there.)

I complained that I had no shoes 

Until I met a man who had no feet. 

-Irish saying

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!

My first Etsy treasury: For the love of green

tsy treasuries have been around for quite a while; I really don't know why I haven't played with making one before--whole sites/blogs have been dedicated to the curation of Etsy pretties around a theme. (Though, for the life of me, I cannot recall the name of the most famous one... it will come to me, maybe. See: my brain gratitude from yesterday... ha ha.)

I believe, in looking at the how-to information on the Etsy blog, it's gotten easier over time to fill in the template and save, so maybe it's good I waited so long? Regardless, I just got a bee in my bonnet and decided today is the day!

I named this first treasury after my Pinterest board with the same leanings: For the love of green. It's true that green and I still have a bit of a love affair after all these years. Maybe it's not as passionate as it once was, but the flame still burns... nothing says fresh and springy like a board of green!

Here's the link to find the treasury on Etsy.

Here's the link to my "For the love of green board" on Pinterest.

Here's a reality check: In the 32 minutes since I posted my treasury, 82 (EIGHTY TWO!) additional treasuries have been curated and posted, moving mine back 5 pages. By the time you see it, who knows!