Art in Bloom

The last of winter melted away yesterday with a visit to the MIA.  My friend, Lynne, and I spent the rainy day at the museum taking in the Titian exhibit before it goes away and it was also cool to watch the floral artists set up for the Art in Bloom exhibit all over the museum.  Florists chose works of art as inspiration and arranged flowers to display along side the art.  Lovely colors, textures, and smells!

A nod to Alenander Calder

This is the painting to the left of...

Hortense! 

Renoir is to her right.

This one was so beautiful and captured the light and color of the painting.

Ahhh, Monet...

This was a clever and very Americana interpretation
of Grant Wood's work.

Chagall needed no flowers!

Lynne's friend did this arrangement beside the monkey.

The art teacher at CRHS made her vase and arrangement.

This was one of my favorites--simple and elegant.

The Quant is finished!

I finally got photos of the dreaded headband.  I like the Great Adirondack yarn much better than the Noro for the project.  I used the pattern modification to make both ends the same.  The left sleeve of the Aranmor is almost finished and I started the cuff of the right sleeve.  Light at the end of the tunnel--at last!  The weather is still dreary today, which is fine--I do not have class until later.  I hope the rain stays away during the baseball game, as Jim and some colleagues from work took the train into the city to see the Twins play.

I like the pattern modification to make the ends match

A sleeve and a cuff

I have a lot of catching up to do.  I lost a few days with being miserable.  Bronchitis = ugh!  We received some "medicine" in the mail the other day from Bernd and Angelika--Ritter Sports and Milka chocolate bars, a chocolate bunny, and Milka eggs with little purple spoons for scooping out the cream centers of the eggs!  That will make me feel better really quickly!  Danke!

Excelsior and chocolate

What a lovely weekend! On Friday it was cool enough to wear my new sweater and it was perfect. Ben's gainfully employed this summer and we'll still be able to see him, as he won't be too far away. On the way home, we saw this lovely sunset.

On Saturday Kim, Kris, Joanne, and I took a little road trip to Excelsior to visit Coldwater Collaborative, a yarn shop. The town is charming. There was an art fair going on, lots of folks were at the lake anyway because of the gorgeous weather, and it was wall-to-wall people. The shop was so nice. It's in an old house, so the atmosphere was cozy. I found a couple of booklets on sale--I didn't need any more yarn--more about that later...
I took photos of some of the flowers outside the shops and restaurants. The colors in the bright sunlight were very intense. Kim and I had rustic pizzas with bacon, apple, Gorgonzola, feta, and walnuts. With unlimited organic iced tea--the perfect summer lunch!
As we drove into town, we noticed a huge sign on a hill that read CHOCOLATE. We made sure to hit that on the way out of town. I got some English toffee, dark chocolate almond bark, one peanut butter cup, and one dark chocolate Grand Manier truffle. As you can see, we're all smiles! There was a Caribou Coffee around the corner, so we got iced tea for the ride home. It was a fun day.
Today started my summer class hours. Kim and I met before class and sat outside the coffee shop.

RETREAT

Today's the retreat! I have to finish packing. The clothing's easy. I have to be sure to have Louie Louet and the fiber I want to spin. Yes, Joanne, I'm taking the gray!

It's been a busy week. The weather is very dreary today and it will be perfect for staying inside with knitting and spinning and food and wine! I'm going up early with Carol and Cheryl so I can help them prep for the crowd.
I finished another Shape It Scarf with some yarn similar to Koigu I found at Depth of Field in Minneapolis.
Hershey and the Lamb are enjoying their spring chocolates. We played a game of one for you and one for me. Much to Lamb's disappointment, there were fewer sheep-themed chocolates. Hershey thought there were too many ducks.