Spring is in the air...

After a not so pleasant Saturday (why does the bad weather always show up for the weekend?), we got some beautiful weather today. After church we headed out to hike up to Kolb Farm that we had attempted to hike to last weekend but got distracted by another trail. After receiving some not so great directions from a sweatsuit-clad couple that I predict misdirected us on purpose, we found our way. It was a great hike. Kolb Farm ended up being a bit of a disappointment but it's more about the journey than the destination anyway right? Unfortunately we learned that our little pup Frankie is only good for about 5.5 miles. Beau had to put her in our pack for the last half mile which got quite a reaction from the other hikers.

Along the way we saw some signs that spring is on it's way including this grouping of daffodils.
I also got a little crafty this weekend and made some earrings. One pair for me and one pair for a friend whose birthday is coming up. I'd been wanting to try this style for awhile and the rainy Saturday made for perfect timing.

Valentine part 2

Forgive my camera...I think it's on it's last leg.

So I couldn't stand the fact that I gave Beau his Valentine early. I decided to make him a couple felt fortune cookies. I'd been planning on trying this pattern out that I found online and I did mostly follow it. I chose to stitch by hand rather than machine stitch which is basically more out of laziness in busting the sewing machine out than anything else. I finished them off with a cute little hand-written fortune but then got so excited about them that I went ahead and gave them to him anyway.

Looks like Valentines Day will include no presents whatsoever as Beau caught the bug and gave me my V-day present early too. He painted me a beautiful landscape called "The long and winding road that leads to your door".

Beau's Christmas gift this year was an intro to drawing and painting class and some art supplies. So far so good. For a first time painter he's doing an amazing job but also enjoying himself. His teacher gave him a compliment the other day that I totally agree with. He told Beau that he is not only artistic but also creative. There is a difference...think about it.

Standing on the moon...

Check out Rob Ryan's blog. Rob does papercutting and has some amazing pieces. I've once bought a book "The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly simply because of the amazing art on the book jacket. As I found out a few days ago it's Rob Ryan's work. I discovered him several months ago but was recently reintroduced when looking for a Valentine idea for my hubby.

We decided at the beginning of our relationship to make our own Valentine gifts every year. I think it will be so cute one day when we are old and wrinkled to look back at all the paintings, shadow boxes, earrings, etc.

I decided to make Beau a papercut for Valentine's this year after happening across Rob's blog again. Word to the wise it is 100 times harder than it looks, especially since I have limited sketching ability but I worked my way through it and created a papercut based on the song from our first dance at our wedding: "Standing on the Moon". I think it turned out pretty well for a first attempt. Still a couple of adjustments I want to make.

By the way, the Grateful Dead version is not the one we used at our reception. We used an arrangement that Beau's dad and best friend performed. Absolutely one of the highlights of the night!