Our Little Princess

Miss Isabella

she will be 5 months old Friday

Ready for Spring

New Peonies

for our flower garden

Red Carpet

double red that does not fade

double row of petals around a fluffy center

Mrs. F. D. Roosevelt

fragrant soft seashell pink

with a rosebud center

General MacMahon

watermelon red blooms

bowl shaped and fragrant

We received our new 2011 catalog from Gilbert H. Wild & Son last week. Oh so many peonies to drool over and hard to decide. We finally settled on 3 new ones for now and got free shipping to boot. Can't wait for April to get here and get these babies in the ground.

Valentines

Our First Valentines with Isabella

my favorite outfit - love her hat

Her 1st Valentine Ornament

Tralala's Petite Chat Freebie

14 ct Hand Dyed Aida

DMC Floss 3685 & 99 Varigated

Weeks Dye Works 1091 Whitewash

1st Mini Bag

Buzzin' For You

Vee & Company Freebie

14 ct DMC Impressions with Light Pink Hearts

DMC Floss - Color Substitutions, Heart Buttons

Background Fabric is Inside Lining

Made by Mom

Bella's Valentine Tree

I thought I would start our tradition for her with an ornament each year and a perfume bottle along with her chocolate. She will also need a new bag every few years I'm sure since I just happen to have different size bags waiting to be accessorized.

Happy Valentine's Day

Cross Stitch

Finishes

Care Bear E Block

For Isabella's Quilt

For LDI

BJ the Bulldozer

by The Stichworks

14 ct White Aida, DMC Floss

Snow, Snow & More Snow

Snow, Snow Go Away

Come Again Another Year????

Father Winter decided to pay Northern Middle Tennessee another visit yesterday afternoon. I left work at 1:20 because Jennifer called and said our road was covered and slushy already. It was still raining at work.

The roads were fine until I reached the red light in Greenbrier and then the winter storm appeared. It was amazing that the road before the light was fine and after the light was not. Thank goodness we only live about 5 miles or so from the light and no one seemed to mind poking along at 20 miles an hour.

This is our road in front of the driveway leaving for work this morning. Nice and frozen. I walked out before leaving to see if the black part was really the road and it was - with a nice coating of ice of course.

another 3 inches to clean off the trucks

sticking to the trees again

so neat to watch

shade garden close to the house

wrought iron collects snow very well

good thing no birds in this house

accumulating on more trees

drifts really well with the wind we had

It would be so nice if Father Winter would pack up his bags and leave town. Unfortunately he is scheduled for another visit tomorrow afternoon. Mother Nature needs to kick him out of town since he apparently has no plans to leave on his own. Spring can't get here fast enough.

Real Snow This Time

Please join me in a tour of our winter garden as I shuffle around in Mom's new rubber boots. She found these on clearance at Ross' and they are wonderful. I've got to get me a pair.

Enter Our Winter Wonderland

our garden gate

the magnolia tree looked fabulous

bird cage by back patio

chubby robin waiting for Wild Cat to finish

so he could eat

chubby's friends weren't so confident

they chose to wait higher up

neighbor's barn at edge of our flower garden

butterfly house

basket hanging at back edge of garden

swing with a cold seat

bench with an even colder seat

little pond in garden

birdhouse in the reading corner of the garden

back patio swing

Last Wednesday we got snow, 3 inches of this gorgeous stuff and the roads were horrible. I took a vacation day, stayed home and played. By Wednesday afternoon the main roads were clear and the back roads were starting to slush up. By Thursday afternoon everything was back to normal. It seems like we have had more snow this year than ever before. They said this is our normal only we haven't had normal for the last several years. Here's hoping normal doesn't visit us again any time soon.

Our own state groundhog, Chattanooga Chuck, is predicting no early spring and lots more winter. What a major dud!