Life Lately: Snow and Spring

I don't know about you, but in the last couple weeks I have been getting a bit of cabin fever.  The warmer weather (compared to the teens and twenties we had for a while) turned my mind to thoughts of flowered dresses and planting gardens.  Although I know that these things are months away, it was like a part of me was itchy to be outside and ready for spring.  Yet at the same time, I absolutely love snow and have been jealous of all the fluffy white stuff the rest of the country has been getting.  In northwestern Washington, we seem to either have dry below freezing temperatures or wet and windy but never wet and cold at the same time.  This week it was in the 40s with wind warnings but then it snowed this morning! All this to explain my conflicted state of mind. Here is a little bit of snow and spring:

Last weekend, my mom came up to visit and we spent some time poking around my favorite bookstore where I found this gem for $3

 I might use it for a project one day, but for now I just love to look at it. I wish I had more space to grow flowers. Right now all I have it my porch, so I have to be as economical as possible.  I discovered a great online tool for doing just that. The site is called Smart Gardener and it allows you to digitally lay out the space of your garden, including telling you what plants will grow well in  your climate and creating to-do lists for the season.  I can't wait to plant my garden, but I will need some more containers first.

Day two of my mom's visit we went cross country skiing at White Salmon Road on Mt. Baker.

When we reached the top of the ridge, there was too much cloud cover to see much of the view but the you get the general idea.  It snowed the whole time, and as we started back, the wind kicked up making visibility difficult.  I'm glad we turned back when we did.

I had a bit of a second Christmas because my mom brought up with her a box of fabric given to me by our friend Kim.  Thanks Kim! Here are some of my favorites:

In other news, my office recently moved to a new location where I have more desk space than I could ever need.  I'm thinking that I should definitely get some houseplants for one end.  Anyone have any favorites that are hard to kill?

Always,