Mondays in February

This winter so far has been kind of a bust.  I love this season.  I don't mind the cold, can appreciate the stark landscape and – being a bit of a homebody – I welcome the occasion of being snowed in.  This winter we haven't had any real snow to speak of.  It's been warm-ish.  And we had record breaking rainfall in December.  And the wind... today it's like the lake effect in downtown Chicago. Brutal. It's the kind of thing that makes me scurry from back door to the garage and then silently curse having to get out of the warm car and make the trek into the office from the salty, windy tundra that is the parking lot.  There are tiny snow flurries blowing around out there, but so far, not much is sticking. Fingers crossed that today is our day for some legitimate snow.

Fondant experiment. Turned out
pretty well.

To stay warm and cozy, we've been drinking lots of coffee and tea.  Throwing birthday parties and making thinks like crazy.  We made the small fry a gi cake, for her karate-themed birthday party, and she asked that the party favors be peppermint bark.  We made those less Christmas-y by adding a little pink food coloring and sprinkles instead of crushed candy canes.  They were delicious.  And we've got our handmade birthday thank you notes out the door.  This is the first year that she is writing her own notes.  They are perfect in all their barely decipherable phonetic spelling.  I love them.  I was tempted to keep one for myself.

Party Favor Assembly Line

Valentines day is fast approaching.  This is the first year we've be given the chance to make a valentines box for school.  And I am so excited!  (I'm keeping myself in check though, this is the small fry's project, not mine.)  And 24 valentines to make too. 

Valentine's and the beginnings
of the Valentine box.

I have such fond memories of school Valentine's day parties. My favorite valentine was always from my best friend Kristen, whose Valentine always included one of those cherry vanilla Life Saver swirl lollipops on it.  Do you remember those? I haven't seen them in years.  Anywho, we'll see what we come up with... we have until Friday.

My finished sweater... which fits SO well.

In other making news, I've finished my sweater, it is blocking now.  And I've picked up another half finished project that is coming along nicely.  It's a McDreamy jumper in the softest fingering weight single that wanders from green to blue to purple and back again.  It's knitting up as a 2T, but I have a strong suspicion that our resident 2T is already too big for it.  ho hum.  It will make a good gift for some worthy recipient.

In progress

In the meantime, stay warm while dodging from one toasty place to the next.
XO
F-