My Little Stone Cottage

I want to run away and live in this little cottage. Well, maybe not run away, because I like my life, lucky me, but vacation, a nice long vacation sounds wonderful, doesn't it? ;-) I have finally recovered enough to be interested in what's around me again. The weather is supposed to be sort of warm this weekend and we are finally going to be painting some of the walls in our house. Yeah!!!

Dreaming of Spring and warmth......

As the snowflakes tumble down outside my window, the snowdrops are blooming in Switzerland and at this moment I wish we could switch places. February always gets me in its grip and right now I am completely under the weather with the flu and dreaming of warm temperatures. This picture from a Czech children's book reminds me of the warm, yummy bread my mom bakes--it seemed like everyday when she had three of us kids at home still and the toasty little black wood stove with its deep, penetrating heat. I would love to be sitting near it today when I have no energy for anything but blinking. After much rest and recupe, I'll be back...... /:-}

New Year Decorations

Emily and I made these signs yesterday for our Chinese New Year's dinner and taped them up in the dining room. I wish I could say that my walls were turquoise like in the picture but alas no, that happened when I used auto-fix and I like it. :-) We made the signs from a one dollar plastic tablecloth that I cut into strips. I used a black sharpie to hand letter the words and when we taped them up we happily found that they clung to the wall thru static cling.

We have been getting lots and lots of snow lately and I took this shot near Meg's school.
I am so glad that someone invented the snow blower--I know they are noisy but they sure are nice when the snow is coming down, down, down. (I just looked and I guess a Canadian named Sicard is credited with it, way back in the late 1800's) Em showed me a website where you can make virtual snowflakes right here. You can save them online or off or even email them to someone.

Year of the Rat

Very cute illustration found here for the Chinese New Year which starts today. Fifteen days from now is the Lantern Festival which marks the end of festivities. I love the idea of bringing flowering plants into your house for good luck-tradition of the Chinese New Year. We are having a Chinese chicken dinner tonight and then it's on to watching the newest Survivor-Fans -v- Favorites. I am a total sucker for this show--love the bickering and "suffering" and eating all those unusual foods is so fun to watch. :-)

Here are some wee fish that have found a home with us. :-)

Mary & Grace among others

Here are the other wooden dolls that I painted. The pictures include the first ones that I painted and I'm sorry that they are a touch blurry. Emily has named the two dolls with little dresses, Mary and Grace (the newer one in blue)....very Little House on the Prairie, which was one of my very favorite shows as a kid. :-)

The Post

Isn't this the coolest postbox. Mail, oh it is a Beautiful thing! But you know what is just as great? Getting a comment on this blog! Makes me smile at the sweetness. It is great to smile! Thank you very, very much, Felicia, Lola, Delphine, and Jackie for sending me some mail. :-) One question that came up was where did I get the wooden bases for the dolls that I painted. The doll with the dress is found just as is at Michaels and the little Asian doll is made from a wooden bead base glued to a wooden ball for her head. I have painted a couple more but I can't upload the pictures yet because Meg is on the computer I use for uploads. :-) I have made a little progress in the basement--a whole trash can full of old papers. Yikes! I don't think I need to keep Meg's old school papers from elementary school.
Have a good weekend everyone--great in fact! :-)