We had snow on February 19th, not a lot, but enough that it was sticking to the roads.  I love snow when it comes for a bit and then goes away, no shoveling needed. 

My favorite photo:

A couple of weeks ago, my black hen escaped from the chicken pen and Luna found her, leaving me with just two hens (the Welsummers I got last year) so Cindy and I were talking about either getting eggs and incubating them (running the risk of getting roosters), getting checks (already sexed) and raising them, or buying full grown chicks (getting eggs that much faster).  We decided to go with chicks when the rancher that has Araucana hens wanted $100 for three of them.   Cindy had seen some Sapphire Gem chicks at Tractor Supply which sparked her interest, and we chatted briefly about getting chicks at dinner Thursday night, and she was going to start watching for chicks to come in.  Fast forward to Friday afternoon while I was walking the dogs - she was at Tractor Supply and which chicks did I want?  We got 6 chicks in total, 4 for me and 2 for her (she has a larger flock than I do now).  Here are the breeds we got:

1 Mystic Onyx

3 Sapphire gems

1 Starlight Green Egger

1 Easter Egger 

Cindy is keeping two of the Sapphire Gems, the rest are mine.  I forgot how cute chicks are - just little fluff balls!!

Here are the three colors - the black one is the Mystic Onyx, the light grey one is one of the Sapphire Gems, and the light brown one is one of the Eggers.

 

And I have a watch cat on duty.....

 

I spent the last weekend (plus a few more days) in Phoenix, visiting Pat and Debbie.  I had a hard time getting my suitcase to close though.  Jessie though she would fit in my bathroom case. 

If not that, maybe my carry on?

James just said forget that - I get dibs on the suitcase! 

I got a Valentine's gift!  Alli's program gifted me one of the art projects that they made (not Alli's class, one of the more advanced groups).  (And yes, James photo bombed my picture...good thing she's cute!) 

 

These photos were taken before the rains blew in.  I know we need the rain (or more accurately, the mountains need the snow due to the melt from the unseasonably warm weather we had) I, for one, am ready for Spring! 

Just in time for the next pattern to be dropped, I finished Block 4 in the RBD quilt.  This was a fun one - the blocks are a bit more complex looking, but still not too complicated to do, if you read the instructions, that is.  I had to re-cut a few pieces for this one after I put them together wrong (not the instruction's fault!) 

Since I finished the potholders, I made up a few "mug rugs" - quilted coasters.  Pretty cute, if I say so myself! I think I need to get back to quilting before I bury myself in these.

Ripley looks so sweet, sleeping with her toy.  She makes me smile. 

What I did with my Saturday.....I should have been cleaning the house, cleaning up more leaves in the yard,etc., but instead, I made hot pads. 

I wanted to make up a few to have on hand, and got carried away with them.

I refreshed my perm this week - it has been 6 months, and my hair grows fast, so it had grown out a lot.  The before and after:

One quilt project that's been on my mind for well over a year (the magazine is from the spring of 2024) is a cat quilt.  Move over chickens, it's time for a kitten quilt!  The original quilt had cats in one color, but....I'm going to try making all the colors cat's come in.  Maybe not a white one, as the background is white, but well see what I can come up with.  Here's my orange tabby sample that I did. It's not too obvious from just the one block, but the cats are sitting on books, honest!  There are 14 cats in all, and I'll add cats as I run out of other things to make, so it could be a while before this one is done.  I could also decide halfway through that they should be all one color and start over.  Always a work in progress around here!

I got my Island Hopping Mystery Five-0 quilt sandwiched yesterday - never my favorite part of quilting, but James is always there to help me out, holding the fabric down for me, removing the tape for me (though it would be more helpful if she'd wait until I was done with it before she removed the tape...) and just generally being a nuisance, aka helper kitty. 

 

Done!  The Aloha Spirit (AKA Aloha Mystery Five-O) is done.  I didn't get much else done yesterday, but that's okay by me.  I did a dump run of green waste on Saturday and filled up my green waste container with another load (all the leaves in the garden area out out!) so my home chores were done, time to sew!