color at the MoMA

frank lloyd wright

jackson pollock

helen frankenthaler (i love this painting!)

matisse

matisse

klimt

rousseau

van gogh

chagall

Saturday morning I took the bus into NYC to visit the Museum of Modern Art.

My intention was to see the new Jasper Johns and Gauguin shows,

neither of which allowed photographs.

It was a rainy afternoon and the museum was very crowded,

this made for some blurry photos as I was bumped around quite a bit.

I've been working so much lately it was a relief to spend some time 

with many beautiful paintings.

xo, j

Raggaknits

On Sunday I took a class at my LYS, Conversational Threads,

with Icelandic knitter Ragga from Raggaknits.

My dear yarn buddy Jenn and I had both started our days out

stressed and rushed only to leave the session very relaxed and very happy.

If you ever get a chance to meet Ragga, run don't walk!

She is smart, funny and such a genuinely nice woman

with a wild imagination…a fearless Viking knitter!

Although the last photo is blurry it's my favorite.

She taught me a lot about knitting but even more about just letting go.

Time to renew my passport and start saving up my pennies,

her next Icelandic knitting tour is in 2015 and we're going!

Thanks so much to Cindy for scheduling the classes at her amazing yarn shop,

to Jenn for taking the afternoon off to attend the class with me

and to Ragga for her spirit and smile.

xo, j

on not getting rid of books

"They chart my life.  I don't want to sound ponderous, but they

chart my intellectual life.  They chart everything that I've been interested in 

and thought about for the whole of my reading life.  So if they went  I would,

in a sense, lose a sense of identity.  They identify me…"

-Penelope Lively

This is an excerpt from an interview

 by Terry Gross on her NPR show Fresh Air

from March 17, 2014.

jacobsburg state park - high meadow trail

the march wind has returned

to wake the slumbering trees

quince&co and seeds

A mild weekend has helped to melt down some of the snow

and definitely lifted many spirits.

My color swatch cards arrived from Quince&co on Friday.

I've always wanted to try their yarn but needed to see the colors

before a decision could be made.

I secretly wish that I could work for a company like this!

Repotted my elder ficus and olive trees

and am trying to start some chamomile seeds.

I probably don't have enough light and they prefer to grow

 outside but I would so like to grow my own tea.

reading, reading, reading

xo, j

queen of the bed

"However little television you watch, watch less.  

Read.  Read for pleasure.

Read for happiness."

-David McCullough

And so I have.

Thoroughly absorbed in an 800 page tome

with a small stack waiting on my chair.

While wandering through my local greenhouse Saturday

I found a large palm plant in the discount section.

I have a weakness for wayward plants so now I wake 

under the sweeping green boughs each morning.

I hope it will get enough sun in that corner,

but better a chance with me than into the dust bin.

Cut veggies to be roasted for dinner

and Pantone color reference cards to try and spur

my reluctance to commit paint onto board.

It's snowing again...

but spring is just a couple of weeks away.

xo, j