Laowai

I’m enjoying February but at the same time looking forward to more and more sunshine and the thought of spring – it’s in the back of all of our minds isn’t it.

Thanks Lisa and Aunt Sandy for your quilt votes. Bea decided on her favorite configuration and I was nearly done sewing the blocks together when my trusty sewing machine seized up. So I need to take it to be repaired and that project is on hold again. Bummer.

This week we made Valentines for the girls to take to their school parties. I prefer non-candy and non-food gifts for school parties, but Claire got all excited about this Swiss Miss hot chocolate  with colored marshmallows. So we came up with an idea to fit a pack of hot chocolate in each valentine. I made a mug shaped card and then we tried this cool method for marbling. You use shaving cream and drizzle paint on top and after you press the paper onto the paint the shaving cream comes off easily with a squeegee. I was so impressed with our results. Claire loved swirling the paint around.

She’s known as Claire C. at preschool because there is another Claire in her class.

I helped Bea make these penguin (of course) cards. She used some stamps that she made for the inside.

Tulips from my neighbor for inviting her boys to hang out at our house when they forgot their house key. Completely unnecessary, but so nice.

I made a last ditch effort to make this dress appealing to Claire. I also needed to sit down and sooth myself with some embroidering after we had a couple tough mornings. Here’s the before:

And after (the jury is still out – will she wear it or not?):

Also, it’s hard to believe but the tiling has started in our bathroom. I finally got ahold of a contractor that I like. I have my fingers crossed that this will really truly go smoothly to the end. The contractor is a really likable guy who appreciates our old house and listens to what I want and his price was reasonable. He spent so much time stopping over and checking the details before he even gave me a quote. I thought, he’s either planning to murder me or he really is a genuine guy interested in doing a quality job. Yeah – my mind wanders when I watch Masterpiece Mysteries and Brian is traveling. Anyway – fingers crossed – I hope to show you a finished bathroom by the end of next week.

I’ll leave you with a couple photos of two girls enjoying some deep snow.