Almost Easter!

This Lent has flown by.  Many blessings.  I made a big change last week.  After vowing I would NEVER cut OR color my hair - I did both.  Here is the before and after:

 

 

Anyway, this is a big change for me.  Wow is it easier.  Really seems to help with the hot flashes too.
I do miss my white hair a bit too, but I can grow it back sometime (may have to wear a hat for a few months to do it :)). Here is my lovely girl in a top she bought herself with babysitting money:

 

Anyway, my big project, stitching the Country Cottage Needlworks Cottages of the Month was completed last night.  I really loved stitching this and it makes me so happy.  I can't stop looking at it!  I started it in June 2012 and stitched on it everyday since then, excepting for a couple of days here and there.  It is done on 14 count white aida cloth with DMC floss. 

Whew.  This is very special for me for many reasons, and my absolute favorite part is that my darling girl agreed (even though she is definately not a stitcher) to make one stitch in this for me.  She did the top of the "r" in December - my birth month.  Thanks sweetie!  I also love that in April, Robin's birth month, the birds have been changed to Robins.  Now I'm already on to my next project, started within minutes of finishing this one!  Photos to follow, of course. 
Here's one last view - who greeted me on my way in to work yesterday morning.  A very friendly crow.  We had a lovely exchange of morning wishes!  Same to you, friends!  Wishing you a blessed Holy Week. 

 

The Non-existant Ground Hog Day Brunch

We finally have a computer at home again!  Yay!  Lots of catching up to do.  New Year's Eve was so fun - as usual we got to go to the home of our dear friends Jackie and Laurel.  They have the best parties ever, best games, best food, best company.  Robin and I are so grateful to be included in their gathering, we thought it would be really fun to have them over to our house.  Robin saw the cutest ground hog day pancakes on Pinterest and we hatched a plan for a Ground Hog Day brunch.  Skip to the punch line, we hadn't heard back on a definitive answer so we thought it was off. I really should have called the night before, but I didn't.  Then I forgot.  Ground Hog Day - sleeping in for the first time in many days...2 days worth of dirty dishes in the sink (that does happen, not a lot, but it does), the living room floor covered with bones, toys, and dog hair, the couch cover askew, no food in the fridge.  Ding Dong.  Best friends we are in awe of and want to impress are at the door.  Oops.  We all messed up.  Being the sweeties they are, they forgave us.  I'll laugh about this someday!
The culprit:

Work has been busy, we have been busy with college applications, and I have been squeezing in stitching whenever possible.  I joined a Stitch-a-long blog to cross stitch a Christmas ornament each month (every other month is my choice, then there is a schedule of topics).  For January, I had a little kit for a pineapple that I got in Colonial Williamsburg a few years ago and still had it.  Here it is finished:

For February, the suggestion was for a reindeer, so I made this one by Lizzie Kate, just left the words off.  I used rick rack to trim the edges, matching the color of the reindeer's scarf:

Another little project I made was a little lamb from a kit from the JustAnotherButtonCompany called Eugenia Tuffet.  I think she turned out pretty cute:

My darling girl has been very creative lately with her art, and surprised me a few days ago when I looked over and this is what I saw:

This girl definately has a sense of humor!