I think I found my niche!

Last Tuesday was another cold, rainy day, so we did something a little different. I'd bought a set of paints at a second-hand toy store when we were in Chicago last year, and this is the first time I'd gotten it out. My hesitation? A slight fear of messiness, perhaps? But mainly that we'd always had plenty of other things to do and didn't need something new.

Anyway, Courtney and I went to this site and chose and printed some pages to color. I used the laser printer to make sure we didn't have smeary lines when they got wet.

When I asked her if she wanted to paint the pictures instead of color them with markers, she got very excited! She didn't know Grandma had paints stashed away. ;) She was eager to get to work!

I could tell she was an experienced painter (daycare and Kindergarten Connection). She was VERY NEAT, and did a great job!

She was also thrilled with the number of paint colors there were. "I wish we had this many colors at school." They were such nice colors, too... and yes, washable. :)

She insisted I paint a picture, too, so I did. I loved it! It just felt good to be putting those pretty, bright colors down. Then I insisted she let me do another one. ;) We had so much fun.

She obviously is more modern in her color choices and combinations. I kinda stuck to the "old-fashioned" way of painting. I think mine look kind of boring compared to hers. Have a look... and click the collage to enlarge it!

I foresee a lot more painting in our future. But I'll try not to use up all the paints when she's not here. ;)

"Peeps"!

This is what I made for Courtney for Easter... marshmallow bunny "peeps":

Okay, so they're actually 'plushies'. And they contain no marshmallow. :) They're made of fleece and stuffed with polyester. I found this cute pattern and tutorial here, and I just couldn't resist making some. They were very easy and so fun to make. Thanks, Amanda!

They're pretty big... about 8" tall... almost didn't fit in my basket! :)

I did manage to squeeze in a little chocolate, too, though... and that basket was all set!

It was love at first sight! She was VERY thrilled with them! Which of course made ME happy, too! :)

And we thought WE had snow!

Are you sick of snow pics yet? Well, for any of you from around here, these should make you feel better... because they're NOT our snow! They're pics of California snow, believe it or not!

My friend Mark, whose comments you've probably read fairly often, is part owner of some lake cabins they rent out every summer. Here's what it looked like up there just this last Friday:

Note the street sign below:

(Can you guess which one is Mark? Hint: Vikings stocking cap!)

Yep, there ARE cabins under all that white stuff!

And as Mark says, the cabin below is "being scooped out California style."

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Says Mark: "They have to scoop the snow away from the side of the house so when the snow on the roof warms up and slides off it has someplace to go. Otherwise the weight sliding off is so heavy it caves the walls and for sure the windows in and then the cabin collapses."

For more info, plus a picture of the view without the snow, see Mark's wife Cindy's blog here.

New life

Spring is here. AAANNDD... the SUN is shining!!

This next one's better enlarged... click on it to see the tiny dew (melted frost?) drops!

It was a lovely sight to see the cats out sunning themselves early this morning. I'm sure they were delighted with the sunshine, too!

(Click to enlarge.)

Lots of new life in that photo, as all three of the calicos are expecting kittens before long. Poor Mama (lower left) looks a bit uncomfortable, doesn't she? Courtney and I will have our work cut out for us, finding, taming and naming all those babies. ;)

The best new life of all, though, is what we celebrate today... New Life in Jesus! Wishing a blessed Easter to you all!

Update: (Monday morning) Mama kitty had her babies overnight! Of course I have no idea how many or where.

And we have SUNSHINE again! That makes TWO days in a row! WOOHOO!! :) (We won't even think about the forecast for tonight and tomorrow.)

More color!

Jess's new fabrics are now printed and available for purchase. They're called Outside Oslo and are available in two colorways. These are my favorites, from the Dawn colorway:

(Image blatantly stolen from Jess's blog.)

Don't they just look like spring? (Oh, how I need spring!!)

They're available for purchase from The Needle Shop. Check out Jess's blog for the Dusk colorway and more information.

Yep, you can expect to see things I've sewn from these fabrics in the future! It'll be a while, though, as I don't have the fabrics in my possession yet. :)

Daddy's little farmhand

Look what Courtney brought to Grandma's on Tuesday!

It's hers! Just like Daddy's.... well, sorta. ;)

She had fun giving rides on it. Josie had fun watching.

(Click to enlarge.)

Here's a little clip of it in action. Turn up the volume so you can hear its sounds.

When Daddy was little, he had to make his own tractor sounds. Y'know, kinda "pbrrpbrrpbrr"... or something like that (how DO you type tractor sounds???).

There. More colorful, as promised. And the good news is... the ground was not even white this morning (except for a bit of frost). The better news is... I SAW THE SUN LAST EVENING! It still exists! 'Course it was gone again by this morning. The forecasters are promising sunshine for Easter Sunday. I don't trust 'em. I'll believe it when I see it.

Good mourning.

Ya gotta love Minnesota. I can't remember why, but ya just gotta. "Land of Eternal Winter", was that it? Something like that.

Here's what I woke up to today:

(Those vertical lines are from taking the pic through a screen.) It's still coming down. Let's just hope it's all melted by noon, like yesterday.

Did you notice the bird in the tree? Look closer:

It's a mourning dove. With its head tucked under its wing. Probably mourning the lost spring.

Here's a mourning robin, too:

Later I came back to see if the mourning dove was still there. This is what I saw:

Sweet, huh? Mourning together.

Poor birds. They've all been working so hard to build their nests lately. I hope they hold off on laying their eggs awhile, though. It's too cold!

Okay, enough of that. I hope. Anyway, I promise more colorful pictures next time!!

Let's pretend it's spring

Another sighting of the deer, taken shortly after Saturday's robin pics:

The other one was there, too, hidden behind the evergreen tree. I was a little too slow at getting the camera to capture him, too. They've been around here quite often. No doubt waiting for me to get something good growing in the garden.That snow he's standing in was all melted by mid-afternoon that day. Yay!

BUT.... it came back. Boo! This morning looks like this. (Sorry, I've got nothing better to take pics of right now. And I know at least one person will enjoy them.... right, Mark? ;) )

No, it wasn't enough snow to make drifts, as it looks like below. That's still what's left from winter. In fact, it's down to just that little bit now. Yay!

Notice the green beneath the evergreens:

Yes, we really DO have GREEN GRASS!

But the way the forecast sounds, Courtney won't be doing any playing in the sandbox tomorrow.

Still cold, with a couple more inches of white tomorrow, and another couple inches of accumulation tomorrow night. Boo! BUT IT CAN'T LAST LONG, RIGHT?!?!

View from the sewing room window... today

*SIGH*

(If I have to look at it, you do, too!) ;-)

View from the sewing room window

LOOK! The snowbank is gone! ENTIRELY gone!! Much better view, if you ask me! The grass is even getting green. WOOHOO!

This robin was good enough to pose for me. I was hoping to catch him pulling up a big, fat worm, but it was not to be. (Maybe for the best, Cindy?) Probably too cold for the poor worms today, at only 36°. :(

Then along came this flicker. I had a terrible time getting a good shot of him... he just kept hopping all over the place (probably trying to stay warm ;) ). But this one turned out pretty good:

Later, from the living room windows, I saw this robin. Such a PALE breast! Especially compared to the other one.

The snow is not all melted yet. There's still some in the evergreen trees. It's been melting pretty fast (especially with the 73° we had on Tuesday). But we could get some new stuff Friday night. Yuck. At least it's a little easier to accept at this time of year, because IT CAN'T LAST LONG!

Wardrobe latest addition

For Courtney's baby, that is. Here's a little top I made out of some fabric leftovers from a T-shirt I'd made for Jess when she was about Courtney's age.

And an overall to go with it.....

The rick-rack trim was in my stash (contributed, I think, by Great Grandma at some point), and Courtney saw it one day and thought it was so pretty... so I found a place for it.

Here's the outfit on the baby:

Yes, she still has her tights on. They live up to their name and are rather hard for Courtney to get on and off... so they stay on. :)

Courtney was again taking pictures with her own camera (seriously, I think she's going to be a great photographer someday... she's already very good!). Our "assistant", however, seemed to have better ideas of what the blanket should be for.

She did this by herself. Can't even see her, can you? Courtney thought it was quite funny. :)

And of course here's our little modeling "mommy" with her fashionista baby.

Her smiles have changed recently... not so "cheese"-y anymore. When I asked her to smile, this is what I got:

Here's the one I like best, though:

The headband ornament is another pretty ponytail holder made by Auntie Kris. Nice that it works to decorate a headband, too! And she brushed her own hair, Mommy! :)