Spring!

 

Hello, café friends! How was your Easter?

I'm back from a Lenten sabbatical, a time to unplug and slow down. And it's amazing how productive you can become when you eliminate certain tasks in your day, like Insta scrolling or FB feeds. I very intentionally chose to fill my time with good things.

We went to a Candlelight Concert in Detroit. It was lovely! We want to try to attend more in the future.

We spent a fun day at the Toledo Zoo.

I've been reading good books! I attended a big book sale at our local fair grounds, and it was amazing. They are coming back in August, and I am marking my calendar. This is a photo I took of the new Friends Book Sale room at our library. I'm going back to do some shopping this afternoon.

I got a new espresso maker! My 15 year old Cuisinart was not brewing very hot coffee anymore. This little slim model works great, and the frother makes such a good latte!

I went to a writer's conference at Sauder Historic Village in Archbold, Ohio. It was a fun adventure, and I learned a lot from the speakers. Very inspiring.

I attended two new music workshops to learn the penny whistle and the ukulele. I think I'm a natural for the penny whistle, but the uke may be a struggle for me.

I also attended a concert featuring a musical duo playing Irish jigs and reels. I went with some ladies from my dulcimer group, and we had a really good time.

Our Easter was simple and lovely. We went to church, enjoyed brunch with our congregation, and then went to a nature preserve called Crosswinds Marsh. We saw turtles, snakes, an eagle in flight, and an eagle perched on top of its giant nest. We had a simple dinner of steaks on the grill to cap off the day. Nice.

Spring is finally looking spring-like (we actually had a snowfall at the beginning of this month!). We spent our afternoon working in the garden yesterday...mowing the grass for the first time, cleaning out the garden beds and prepping them for spring planting. 

So, did I do any crafting? Yes, yes I did. And I will show you a few things soon, as well as some new products I found when I visited Paper and I in Marshall.

Tell me in the comments what you've been up to this spring!