Valentines gifts

Instead of sending candy for Valentines Day, Matt and I decided that a handmade gift would be better. So, I made some barrettes for the girls and "trinket keepers" for the boys.


You can see the back side of the bags here (though the order has changed from the earlier picture).



The tutorial for the Rose Barrettes came from "the purl bee". The tutorial for the Trinket Keepers came from "amazing mae".

PS: I didn't use wool felt...just the normal stuff. And I also made one for Caroline - purple rose, pink base. Nathan got a bag as well, but his has a piece of Thomas the train fabric on the back instead of the painted object.

a family picture

It was requested that I put a full sized picture of us from Christmas. I thought I had put it somewhere, but I didn't see it just now. So, Liz, here it is. :)

more yard work

This weekend, Matt and I finally got around to a big job that's been waiting to be done - cutting down trees and cleaning out a bunch of junk growth in our yard. Matt borrowed a chainsaw and cut down a bunch of dogwood trees that were half (or more) dead. They were really looking bad. Here are the before and after pictures of that area.



We also cleaned up a ton of stuff along the side fence. Here's the whole view. Of course, you can't see much past the gigantic pampas grass.



Here's a closer look past the pampas grass. There were a bunch of trees that were all growing near the shed. We left the largest oak tree. We also left a decent sized on near the pampas grass.



And here are my favorite before and after pictures. This is the area nearest the shed. As you can see, there was so much junk in there that you couldn't hardly see the shed. And after, there's a TON of room. Now, I just need to figure out what to do with this space. There's probably about 8 feet between the fence and the camellias. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.