Bead Candy Eggs

Cath Thomas has a wonderful modification of her bolas tutorial to make beaded stripey Easter eggs. So of course I made a bunch (you can't stop at one!), playing around with colors and sizes: 

 I've got decades of experience in mentally flipping stitching instructions from left to right, because I'm a lefty in a world of righties. But this tutorial defeated me; there was no way I could figure out the join until I finally turned my beadwork inside out to force it to match the images in the tutorial.  The zipping up, though, is the best part 😍.

Spring!

 Cherry blossoms are beautiful and I wanted to make a little hoop of them:

I free-styled a branch with snippets of brown wool felt, then cut little flowers out of pale and very pale pink wool-blend felt and stitched them down with dark pink stitches. As soon as I find a wooden 5-inch hoop I will rehoop it, and maybe iron the cotton fabric, haha.

I work on this little hoop every spring, choosing a couple of the blooming trees and bushes in my neighborhood to represent:

Most recently I stitched the cherry blossoms and large yellow flowers at the bottom, above the pink knots. 

I'm lucky to live in such a pretty neighborhood.

Book Round-up

The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi: This was an interesting novel -- a mathematician devises seven necessary conditions for a mystery and writes seven short stories to illustrate them before disappearing from the public eye. Eventually a young editor seeks him out to get his permission for a reissue, and the novel consists of the seven stories alternating with their conversations about them. There are, of course, twists to be had and secrets to be revealed. It serves as a minimalist contrast to the maximalist Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone, which elaborated the (technically unnecessary) tropes that populate most mysteries.

The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George: an unexpected treat mailed to me by an acquaintance. That it was a sweet paean to good books and a simple life was a given; that it was also wise and funny was not. It's magical realism, too, so of course this was perfect for me.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: my next (out of order) purchase to replace my tattered paperbacks. As an adult I have a newfound appreciation for both Montgomery's characterizations and her sense of humor.

The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman: I didn't love these as much as the earlier ones; too much time spent with the bad guys and not enough for Bernadette Manuelito to do. I did enjoy it, though.