Presents under the snow...

Hello Again!  Well, it's happened. . . for the first time since November, we officially have not a speck of snow anywhere in our yard.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but some miniature violas, tulips, and lupins with fairy mirrors!  

Spring is here!

It's really here!

And it arrived a little early inside the house, as the quince branches I brought in have now blossomed into pale pink beauties.  

I love them, but I'm still looking forward to that rich, reddish pink flower that comes off the branches.  Not that I'm complaining!

Also, the little tulip bulb that I planted in a pot ages and ages ago has finally blossomed into a mass of parrot-y goodness.  It never grew very tall, but it sure is pretty.  

I finally finished my piece for the Just for Fun show that the NSDCC show is doing this June.  And I scraped in just under the deadline for the jurying, mostly because they let me send it post-dated for the last day, as long as I sent it Xpressspost.  Yikes!  Anyway, we'll see if it gets juried into the show or not, I know those guys are very exacting, but I thought I would show it off here, at least.  The idea was to do something that you've never tried before.  So I used my woodburning pen and made a Jumping Jack, which is something I've been wanting to try for a while.  My version, of course, is a little cheeky.

Wish me luck!  

We got some more work done on the baby space (I still have trouble not calling it the closet.)  It's primed, but still not painted.  Hopefully we'll find some time this week, but we're both working a lot lately (kind of not the best timing for the Post Office to suddenly need someone, but I'm not going to turn them down.)  Anyway, we've both got long weekends coming up, so we should be able to get a lot done.  It's about time - not too long now!

We've had a lot of people dropping by the house to leave lightly used baby things with us.  Which is great, but will be a lot better when we actually have somewhere to put them.  I'm sure this is a sign of things to come, but we're starting to be taken over by baby things.  Of course, I am contributing to those things as industriously as I can.  This week, I made a diaper bag with eight pockets for us.  I modified a pattern off the Better Homes and Gardens web-site, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  My first bag!

Three pockets on each side of the outside, and two little pockets on the inside.  It's so much fun when these things actually come together.  I think it will be a nice size - big enough to hold all the essentials, but not so big that it will be a big heavy burden of a thing.  Now all we need is the diapers, which may come this week.  That will be fun (at least while they're all still clean and new!)  Speaking of poop, underneath all the snow, I found some evidence of a visitor.  

I'm not sure what kind, though.  They're a little big for bunny poo, but I've never seen a deer here in town.  Anyone have any ideas?