Short Story Long

It snowed again this morning and I hear we may have more this week. The kids are away today, so I slept in a bit, and watched a movie, Miss Potter . What a lovely idea to retire to the country and draw, and raise sheep. Instead, here's what I'm working on: I see these chickens here and there, now and then, and I always think, "I could do that." And I finally did. They are so easy to whip together. If you can't figure it out and you want to make them, I'll post a tutorial. Next, amongst my other projects, I am working on a little doll for a little friend. I only have her face done, but I am sure she'll go together quickly. I think her face turned out pretty well considering I don't have much experience with embroidery. I saw her first on another blog but you can find more information on making one of your own here .

Two snow days in a row, and then the weekend! Sometimes we hear about cities closing schools for a couple of inches of snow. In Colorado, we're prepared for that, so we don't often have snow days, let alone two in a row! Yesterday, we all stayed inside while the wind and snow were blowing. Today, the sun is out and it's time to shovel before you get stuck with icy walks and driveways. We live on a nice street of neighbors; we have several young bucks like BFJ, and several elderly couples; the young guys all get out and shovel the walks so the old folks don't have to. Zoom also helped shovel for some of the older people. At one point, everyone in our family was outside in snow gear but the little people don't keep their mittens on so well. My favorite snow activities include napping, reading, eating, sewing, watching a movie, any of these in front of a fire. But my sister went and bought me some snow pants last year, and now I have no excuse to stay inside while eve...

Here we are, getting ready for Spring:

viola labradorica Isn't this a lovely plant? At least, it makes for a nice picture. Unfortunately, it falls into my definition of a weed. I have spent many hours on my hands and knees digging it up all over my yard, and then some! The elderly neighbor behind us has mentioned several times that she is trying to get rid of it, and as it spreads into our yard from hers, I dug up the strip of them that are hers. But this plant, it is voracious. The neighbor to the north of us is quite fond of his grass and has found a weed killer to combat this violet. He even gave us a bottle of it, I guess that's a hint! I am hesitant to use pesticides; I have read recently how this affects the honey bees . The only success I've had getting rid of this is digging deep and wide, but I just can't do that for the whole yard, and my husband would kill me. So what shall I do? I just may try the chemicals, and hope to completely eradicate this thing from the premises, so that I will never hav...

Last week, I had the pleasure of doing a photo shoot for Bijou Basin Ranch . I spent the day with a wonderful group of people, including Carl and Eileen, owners of Bijou Basin Ranch, as well as model Lynda, and designers Marly and Jill. I shot a few hundred pictures of their wonderful yarn, as well as some clothing item samples. Marly has more details on her site, as well as the Sweetheart Tunic she designed for this yarn. It was a lot of fun! I am looking forward to getting ahold of some of this yarn for myself. I should clarify, I did not take the pictures on their website, I just finished editing them. However, I did take the one in this post!

... more to come after school drop-off. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many hours later... I had an errand to run down in Denver. I always love driving through the city. There were many festive greens: planters, pants, green plywood over a walkway, ties, skirts, etc. BFJ is 1/4 Irish, and we do like St. Patrick's Day, but I don't have a lot of SPD decorations. We do have a big green living room wall! I am planning to make stew and soda bread for dinner. Hopefully it'll be a hit. I was hoping to celebrate today by potting up a bunch of seeds but I haven't gotten to that yet. Maybe by the end of the month. On the other hand, I was very surprised, and cautiously pleased, to find so much green on the outside of my house this past week. Cautiously pleased because we haven't had much snow; we still have two months before one can confidently plant for summer, and I hope my eager sprouts are not killed by a late frost. I hope that we have more snow, and the plants I see can withstand ...

... is almost here! I am disappointed it is starting like this.

It is NOT a coincidence that I get great pictures of the monkeys every time I visit the zoo with my husband. They see him coming, they know him. But I can't tell you any more about it; I don't want to have my membership revoked.

To a my brother and his wife, a great pair: may your love last forever.

Things are strange around here. It has been unseasonably warm. I knew that we'd have some warm days this spring, and I had in mind to touch up the paint on my shed, and some other non-plant garden and yard items when we had these days. However, I haven't been able to get to those things. We've had a lot of stuff going on at our house; primarily, my sister is moving in with us. She's single, still a bit more portable than the rest of us, and thought it would be a good time to take a break from rent while she looks for something to buy. She is going to be staying in what has been my craft room / guest room. I don't really have any good place to put all my stuff, but she deserves a room to herself, right? So I was forced to take a long look at all the projects I have started and not finished, as I took out one stack at a time. And they aren't all quilting projects; I have beads and scrapbooking stuff, painting, and so on. I am actually looking forward to getting i...

Do you have something you've been putting off? Or something you just haven't had the courage to jump into? Today's the day. MARCH FORTH! I'm alive and well, and I have more than luck. How about you?

This oxalis reminds me of St. Paddy's Day.