Snow Day

My calendar tells me that tomorrow is the first day of Spring,

but my eyes tell me otherwise!

10 inches of snow accumulated last night and throughout this day.

Here's my car, midway through it's clean-up!

I shoveled quite a bit this morning, until I heard about a snow plow operator

who could finish the last and worst part of the driveway (to the tune of $50),

so I made a path to the front door, did the front stairs and went inside with an aching back!

Meanwhile, Rosie had found my daughter's childhood afghan

 and completely made it her own for the day!

Can't wait for my husband to return from his business trip!

Oh, and by the way, I apologize to my readers for having to install

word verification for comments. I've had a deluge of spam comments lately 

and felt it was necessary.

Hope you've had a great day!!

Doing What Needs to Be Done

I wish, I wish...

that I could once and for all get my sewing room cleaned and organized!!

I've been working hard for days, going through boxes and boxes of fabric and

craft stuff, making decisions, discarding, making bags to donate and recycle. 

Creativity has been stifled as I go through this process,

but I'll be back soon, with a clear mind and some new work.

Coach Irma is prodding me along,

and soon I'll have my work space back to looking like this -

as it looked after my last big clean-out several years ago.

See you soon!!

Making a Paper Rose Wreath

Last night I took a class in making a paper rose wreath at the wonderful Silver Clay Gifts.

The class was taught by AnnMarie Gallivan, who makes all sorts of beautiful things with paper.

I was there with my friend Barbara and only one other student, so we had individualized attention!

AnnMarie had these scalloped spirals all cut out for us. We started rolling the spiral from the long end around a thin wooden stick, loosened the roll a bit and hot glued the rose at the bottom.

Here's Angus today investigating one of my leftover roses.

We arranged the roses and some precut leaves on a cardboard base and hot glued them down.

Here's the back view, shown with the hanging ribbon.

All in all, it was easy and a lot of fun - we had a great time.

Today it has been snowing steadily and we've accumulated about 10 inches.

I just shoveled part of the driveway and am about to crash - I know Bill will do the rest with the snow blower when he gets home from work. I'm starting to wonder whether winter will ever end!!

Hope you're having a great day!

Blooms and Blossoms

Outside it is snowing lightly, 

and inside...

my Christmas cactus blooms prettily.

Come spring, I will definitely give it a bigger pot!

Rosie is cuddled in her bed near the heat register...

and Angus chooses the camouflage of his black fleece cushion.

Tonight I'll be taking a class in making this beautiful paper rose wreath!

I'm really looking forward to it, and will show my results tomorrow!

Hope you're having a great day!

An Exchange Between Friends

This is an Artist Trading Card I received in January from my friend Janice.

The words are printed on a transparent overlay and the last verse reads,

In January

when there's snow

we get our sleds

and away we go.

Love it!!

I'm playing catch-up, since we had agreed to trade cards back in January, and I hadn't made any until now. There's something about this relatively tiny size that intimidates me! But last weekend I set out with scrapbook paper, scissors, xacto knife, glue and other supplies and spent the afternoon creating.

January

February

March  

(Janice has a German Shepherd)

I'm promising myself that I'll keep on top of my monthly 'tiny art challenge' from now on!

Can you guess that my theme for 2013 is 'Windows'?

Hope you're having a wonderful day!!

Dear Daughter...

Today is your birthday and I want to tell you

how clever, smart, inventive, funny and wonderful you are.

When you sent me this photo of you making a 'math hat' 

modeled on the Hilbert space filling curve,

 I wasn't even surprised -

 after all, you are the co-creator of an electronic device 

that enables plants to make phone calls or twitter 

when they need to be watered, 

and the creator of many inventions and pieces of wearable technology. 

Hats? You've made quite a few!

You make me laugh, floor me with your success, 

and make me so proud to be your mom.

Happy Birthday to my lovely and talented daughter and friend.

Have a wonderful day!

Heartfelt February ~ Day 28

Ah, my last heart of the month, completed just before midnight!!

This has been a lot of fun, and I thank everyone who contributed hearts

and left comments throughout the month!

I have a thing about sunshine, or maybe it's the color yellow that I like.

You can see some of the sunny images I've collected on my Sunshine Pinterest Board.

I hope everyone has a very good first day of March!