Colored Ice Balls

I saw this fabulous picture of balloon ice balls on pinterest. Sounded easy enough to do, so I tried it. 

Pinterest ice balls:

Fran's ice balls:

Don't you think I nailed it?!?!
There must have been a step they forgot to write into the directions. Mine didn't have that sparkly shine to them. They had cracks in all of them, and one of them broke completely in half. 

Pink Slip Lounge

The National Rural Electric Association had its Annual Meeting in Nashville this year. John and I flew down on Friday night (Feb 28th). It turned out to be a great time. We stayed at the Preston Hotel by the airport, and it was quite the trendy place! Each evening there was live entertainment in the Pink Slip Lounge -- of course it was jazz and country music.

An interesting piece of art was this "Pink Slip". A local artist makes sculptures out of crayons, and was commissioned to make this pink slip for the hotel. It is quite interesting to look at because it is made entirely from pink crayons with yellow wrappers on the crayons.

The pink bust part of the slip is unwrapped crayons with the pointy end out.  

I think this is very unique and I would have loved to see other sculptures this artist made!

Monday Visitors

It was a surprise to see these gems waddling around the estate last Monday. They are such an awkward looking bird, but very fun to watch. 

 This one looks like he is trying to practice his skills at riding the rail!

I thought the one below was the brave one. 

He almost made it to the front door to ring my doorbell, but got scared and ran away when he saw my camera flash!

Alfred Hitchcock

I woke up to an Alfred Hitchcock kind of day. It looked like the fog was rising out of the ground in a very eerie kind of way. I tried to capture it with camera, but it's a little hard to see! Sure reminds me of the good old movies that were a little suspenseful but not too scary. 

A Few More Completions (Almost)

I was able to find some time to sew this past week. First to get completed are a couple pillowcases for grandsons Joshua & Ethan. They are in love with the different characters. So here's to Batman and Spiderman! 

Then I focused on another stack of fabric that has been sitting around for a while. Here is another almost finished quilt. It needs a wide border before it's really done. I'm not sure what to use for it, so I just might have to go shopping! It's always a fun trip when a quilt shop is involved. 

I also cut out hexagons for another quilt. This will be revealed later, but I will give you a teaser. It has about 180 flower petals to be sewn onto the quilt. I've cut them all out, so let the fun begin!!

Love Tree

The tree has changed again and is showing a lot of LOVE! I'm enjoying it and so far I'm glad it is still a light in my life. Picked up some gold hearts, but may have to change their color to white or pink, or some of each! (I don't know why my picture is sideways, can't get it to change. Sorry!)

My sweetie brought me some lovely roses. This picture doesn't do them justice. They sure smell wonderful. We avoided the crowds on Friday and went out for dinner on Saturday afternoon. Acapulco served up some mean burritos for us. 

My first Valentine from John was a heart shaped box of chocolates that he mailed to me from Ricks College. I knew then he was a keeper! Sure do love that man!!

My Changing Tree

I love my Christmas tree. Many people comment on how lovely it is, even though it is artificial. Keeping my tree up through the end of January brings light and happiness to an otherwise dark and dreary Minnesota January.

It's a lot of work to assemble this tree one branch at a time, and to string the lights so they are scattered throughout the tree and not just on the outer rim of the branches. Putting up this tree is probably the worst part of Christmas (next to shopping)! Soooooo...... I've decided to keep my tree up year round. I know some people think I'm cray cray, but that's okay. At my age you can be forgiven for a lot of things!

With the frigid temperatures outside yesterday, I stayed inside with my wool socks and hot chocolate and decorated the house with snowmen. My tree became a nesting place for several snowmen I already had.

I think this tree can use a few more decorations, so it will be fun to look for anything related to snow.... snowmen, snowballs, snowshoes, snowhats, snowmittens.... you get the idea.

Of course I will also be looking for hearts (Valentines), bunnies and eggs (Easter), red white & blue (summer), pumpkins & scarecrows & pilgrims (Fall). It should be a fun year to see my tree change for the holidays!!!