March 20, 2025

This and That, First Day of Spring | March 20

Nicole this and that 4 Comments

Happy First Day of Spring, dear Readers! I have found signs of life outside in the flowerbed- those are peonies starting to come up! Lately I have been…

Making:

I have been sewing some more baby bonnets and hats again- there are so many babies on the way in our church! The blue polka dot bonnet is this pattern from Farmhouse on Boone. The sizing runs large on this pattern, but it is a very quick one to make. The little stretchy hat is this pattern from Coral and Co. which is also very easy and quick…and so cute!

The other project I have been working away at for the past few months, which has almost reached completion, is compiling my photos and scrapbooks into chronological order. I started scrapbooking in 2004, and you would think that I would have assembled the pages in order by year, but that is not what I did. I also didn’t date half of the pages. (That is probably the most important information to put on a photo album, but alas I did not have that forethought!) So, I have been going through and reassembling the albums, adding pages of photos which were missing etc. There are a LOT of pages, as I used to make scrapbook pages with only 1 photo for an entire 12×12 layout. While those pages are not the most efficient use of space they were an artistic expression of the time, so I have kept most of them.

Watching:

I absolutely loved this door makeover Ariel Bisset did in her old house. It’s so sweet and perfectly matches her decorating style.

Finding:

Inspiration for a summer dress. I would like to sew up some sage green eyelet fabric into a dress, but the question is, which one? Asymmetrical? Wrap? With a ruffle? Buttons? Maybe too many ideas are swirling around as of now, and I haven’t settled on a idea yet, but here are some of the inspiration images I have found.

Reading:

I read this book, The Girl in the Wall by Ruth E. Hampton over 10 years ago (it was in my church library at the time). I’d thought about it off and on throughout the years, but it wasn’t in the library system and I’d never come across it secondhand. The other day, on a whim, I searched and found a copy on Etsy, so I bought it and then read it the same day I got it in the mail. It was a lot spookier than I remembered, but I really liked it. Sometimes when you read a book that you loved years ago, it isn’t as good as you remembered it being, but I did enjoy this one the second time around! Also, the seller included this nice bookmark as a little bonus.

Loving:

Victoria magazine paired with a cup of tea, as always! I have been enjoying Cream of Earl Grey lately, sometimes adding a splash of milk and sugar. I picked up the March/April issue yesterday and I took a picture of it, but haven’t even opened it yet! Paging through is how I am going to celebrate the First Day of Spring; there might still be lots of snow outside, but I can escape through the beautiful photos in the magazine, dreaming of warmer days to come!

How are you celebrating the arrival of Spring? What have you been enjoying or working on lately?