Trillium Stained Glass Suncatcher

Since taking the class to learn the copper foil technique for making stained glass, and making my ladyslipper window, I was excited to try this technique on my own and make another window.   Since this technique allows for a more detailed and realistic representation than the other technique I have used before (lead came), I thought it would be fun to make another flower to go with the ladyslipper - plus, I have a total soft spot for wildflowers and loved the idea of having a pair of wildflower windows.  After making the ladyslipper, I immediately thought that a trillium would be a good subject for a second window, since they grow in similar habitats (eastern forests) and both flower in the spring.   I drew the pattern myself, with inspiration from several sources, including this beautiful window, and these patterns.

I love having this pair of cheerful wildflowers in the window in our study/my sewing room to look at while I work on my projects!  I am excited to make more windows - I would love to make a quilt-block inspired one, and possibly more wildflowers.  Plus I have a number of gift ideas.  I'm hoping the weather cools down next week as predicted since I do my stained glass outside and it was ridiculously hot when I was working on this earlier this week (and has since gotten hotter)!

Spring in DC

 

[Reminder - today is the last day to enter the Japan relief raffle of baby items - I will keep it open until ~9 pm Eastern time]

Spring is one of my favorite times in DC, with generally nice weather and a beautiful sucession of flowering trees, bulbs, and other plants.  Earlier this week, when it was a bit warmer out, I took a stroll around town with my camera to appreciate it all.   I walked by the Capitol, where the magnolias were starting to bloom, or in the case of the white magnolia below, in full bloom.

This weeping cherry was also right by the capitol:

I wandered through the small but well-landscaped gardens at the nearby U.S. Botanical garden where I saw some of my favorite plants.  I have a real soft spot for interesting plants that you don't see all the time, and which may not be as colorful or splashy as some others, but which have a subtle beauty that you really have to get up close to appreciate.  I guess it may be related to my love for wildflowers (which I actually used to study in college, but that is another story).

Hellebore (Lenten Rose)

Frittilaria

Japanese Andromeda

Not sure what this is - do you know?

I also saw lots of great bulbs and other flowers growing in people's gardens on my walk.

Daffodils and Narcissus

Creeping Phlox - one of my favorites

And we have a few things in bloom in our front yard, too!  A year or two ago my mom sent me some sweet bulbs, so I have the standard jonquil daffodils that I had before and a few other more interesting things too.

Jonquils and Scilla

Chinodoxa

Meanwhile, it is supposed to snow tomorrow in DC, and we are actually in New Hampshire this weekend (this post brought to you by the magic of pre-scheduled posting).  Hopefully spring will be back in DC soon, and whereever you are too!

What are your favorite spring flowers?  Are things in bloom for you too or not yet?

Trip to Atlanta

We went down to Atlanta to visit friends for the long weekend and had a great time, despite my losing my wallet right when we arrived.  Our friends made us delicious meals which we meant to photodocument to put up on the blog... but we were too busy relaxing and catching up.  They made us super delicious pizza with carmelized onions, yellow squash, mushrooms and a blend of special cheeses.  Another night they made homemade Indian cheese, paneer, for Palak Paneer and homemade samosas for a delicious Indian dinner.  I definitely need to try making paneer sometime, it sounds like it is similar to making mozzarella cheese (as I have done before) but you don't use any rennet and you basically just drain and press the curds.  Which also reminds me that I have been wanting to make mozzarella again soon, too.

I had never been to Atlanta before and our friends were kind enough to show us the sights.  We visited the MLK center which was very moving, I highly recommend it if you are visiting Atlanta.  We went to the Cyclorama, which is a ginormous painting/diorama depicting the civil war battle of Atlanta.  We also went to the Atlanta Botanical Garden which had a fantastic orchid display going on - which I did manage to take some pictures of (albiet with my iPhone, so they are not the best quality).  They had some really funky and weird orchids, and some which were really beautiful; here are some highlights, mostly of the weirder ones.

I like how this one sticks way out (and the flowers are cool too)

Check out the ruffles on these!

We thought these looked like spiders

They had tons of these - isn't the mottling cool?

Love the frilliness on this one!

We of course also fit in some time to explore local crafty spots... I did some fun browsing at the local craft coop/store the beehive, which is kind of like getting to visit a collection of cool Etsy shops in person.  I was also super excited to visit Whipstitch Fabrics and check out their beautiful fabrics in person, and we of course brought some home.  I have been checking out Kate Spain's new line, Central Park, on line and loved it even more in person, so I am very excited to get to make some fun projects with it!  I mostly got prints in the orange/yellow/green colorways but I also picked out a few favorite purple ones (not shown here) and some other fun things while we were there.

What fun places have you visited lately?  Do you make sure to visit craft stores when you travel too?