A Snowy Day in Bellingham, WA

I know it has been snowing like crazy around our country. But for us here in Bellingham, Washington it's the first real snow storm in two years. I love the snow. I get so excited. I'm like a kid. 

Snow transforms our town from it's usual green and grey to bright white.

The trees look like Japanese paintings.

The harbor has no defined edge it looks as though you could sail off the end of the earth .

Colors pop cheerfully out of the white.

This just isn't fair.

You look at the world with new eyes. 

As I shoveled our sidewalks there were lots of  Robins flying from one branch to another it looked like they were playing musical chairs. 

This one was obviously the winner.

I hope for all of you who have had much too much snow that spring comes quickly for you this year.

Olympic Fun

                                 This shows how good hearted people can be.

Photo Contest

When my husband and I were in Vancouver BC last weekend. We spent a lot of time just walking. We were both taking photos when we decided we should have a photo contest. If you're willing please pick one from each category and leave your votes in the comment box below. I will let you know which of us won. I will also be putting the photos up on Facebook. 

Cityscape 1A

Cityscape 1B

Landscape  2A

Landscape 2B

Wild Card 1A

Wild Card 2B

                                                              Thanks for being a judge.

These Always make Me Smile

These Flash Dances bring me so much joy. The smiles on the participants' faces alone are enough to make them wonderful to watch. But, then to think about all the work the kids put into learning the dance. Then to see all the joy they are getting from doing the actual performance, it just makes me smile from ear to ear.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is my favorite day of the year. I love love!  If I had to choose only one thing to live for it would be love. It's addicting, it brings so much happiness when you receive it and even more when you give it. I'll concede Valentine's Day is commercialized, but it's the one day of the year that a lot of people take the time to think about what love means to them. I'm all for that.

Art by, LaVera

It can be scary to open your heart to love because it can be lost at any moment for any uncontrollable reason. But, even if you have it for a short time it's worth the pain. Closing down to love, which sometimes seems easier to do, is a loss of  an unknown potential. 

                Happy Valentine's Day to all my Blog follower's. May you have lots of love in your life!

Valentine's Day Surprise

Do you have people in your family that are just impossible to buy for either because they have everything or they can afford to buy anything they want. Well we do. So this is what my husband and I decided to do for them. The family I'm talking about loves Dachshunds.  They have four.

While we were walking around Vancouver BC last weekend we found this funny stuffed Dachshund and decided to buy it for them. Then we thought how can we make it special and personalized. 

This is what we came up with: we decided to make a story up. So we pretended that the little dog was a stray that had started to follow us. We took photos of my husband with the dog through out our day. The funniest part of this was how many people laughed, commented and wanted to join us in the picture taking. 

My Husband is planning on writing a story to go along with the photos and I made the dog a little Valentine  coat and we will send the whole package to them for Valentine's Day. 

Valentine Free Clip Art

This post card was sent from a ten year old girl on October 9,1912. It's cute to read because the same message could be sent today but probably by text.

This Valentine was sent February 14, 1918.  What I like about it is the question mark.

If you read the card above the question mark has a lot of meaning. Did Miss. P Gates know who sent it?

Did she except this sweet offer of his heart in exchange?

Valentine Craft

Every year I make my husband and two boys a special Valentine. I have made everything from music boxes to pillows. This year I’m making “gift balls.” (They're balls I made out of crepe streamers that have treats in them.)

Valentine Gift Idea

Here’s how I made them.

Supplies you’ll need:

Crepe Streamers

Black thick Sharpie

Tape

Wrapped candy, small charms or toys

Ribbon

Decorative paper

Glue

Glitter

Hot glue gun or white glue

1) Unwind you streamer and write on it with your black sharpie words describing what you love about the person you’re making it for. Do this for about five yards or as many words as you can think of. Leave two yards at the end just pink.

Words Describing the Person You Love

2) Start at the end of the streamer where you began your words, roll the first candy into it. Once this candy is covered roll the next candy into it (at the same time you are rolling the streamer as if you are making a ball of yarn). Repeat this process over and over again placing the candy on each side making sure your ball stays balanced.

Treats to Insert into Your Ball 

3) When your words run out don’t add anymore treats just finish it off by wrapping it with more of the streamer so your words are hidden and the ball is a solid color then tape the end down. (You can shape it a bit more with your hands if it’s not perfectly round).

Winding your Ball

    4) Now wrap a ribbon around the center and glue the ends in place.

Gift Ball

5) Make the paper ribbon by folding a 1/2”X 8” piece of decorative paper into an accordion. Cut a small circle out and write your words on it. (I printed mine) Glue them all together then glue them onto your ribbon.

Ribbon for Gift Ball

I like this Valentine because both of my boys are in college and my husband is working very hard, and the word unwind has two fun meanings. 

Finished Gift Ball