Yesterday, I came home to find my birthday present from Rusty... exactly 5 months to-the-day later!! Pre-ordered back in late October, I have been patiently awaiting -- and recently stalking via USPS Tracking -- the arrival of Alabama Studio Sewing Patterns!!

Natalie Chanin will be giving a lecture + book signing later this month at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and I've been trying to figure out a way to go! At 6 p.m. on a Tuesday night, it pretty much means an extra day off of work and an overnighter. So tempted...

Also in yesterday's mail was my first-ever order from Three Irish Girls -- I fell hard last month for A Hundred Thousand Welcomes. No plan yet.

I was at the coffee shop this morning, as I am every morning, when my phone rang. The upshot of that call is that I had an extra hour before needing to be at work, so I took a seat at the back and had a nice hour of knitting and listening to the hubbub. The mostly all-male kaffeklatsch/welcoming committee that occupies the front everyday had a lot to say to each other about basketball this morning! And, indeed, it's a bittersweet morning. The Wisconsin Badgers didn't win the NCAA title this year, but they had an amazing run and even I (not a basketball fan) have been riveted by them during March Madness.