Only in North Carolina...

...can you have a snow day (no school!!) on Wednesday followed by a weekend full of sunshine & temps in the 70s! What a crazy thing, but we are not complaining! It has been the best of both worlds over the last week & we have enjoyed equal parts the snow & the sun!

Yesterday the girls enjoyed a fun lunch outside, barefoot in February! Synchronized eating! Then they enjoyed some sister time playing in the yard.Even though we had been in the middle of making Valentine's for their classmates over the weekend...and the kitchen table looked like this...

The weather was just too nice to stay inside, so the outdoor fun continued when Jack came home from school.Scraps:

For Valentine's Day, I wanted to so something special for the gals at my table in my Mom's group...instead of going the usual route with candy, I decided to think a bit outside the box. I have been into paper cutting & collaging lately...I guess that's what you would call it? I just love all of the beautiful scrapbook papers available out there & somehow they always end up coming home with me! But, sadly, I never get time to scrapbook...so I had been wanting to think of a way to put the pretty papers to use. For Christmas, I had the idea to make large canvas "art-work" for my nieces. So I cut some of my fancy papers & used ModPodge to decoupage them to stretched canvas to make a pretty picture. I added a little super fine glitter on top for extra sparkle...Here is how they turned out... So for Valentine's Day, I decided to do the same thing on a smaller scale for each gal at my table. I went with a nature or woodland theme & did birds, flowers, insects, etc...sometimes I'll sketch the outline of, say, a bird & then cut it out, but I mostly just cut the paper & keep cutting & cutting 'til I get it right...Because I was Penny Procrastinator, I ran out of time & didn't get to glue pretty ribbon around them to trim them out...but I think they turned out pretty cute anyway! Here they are...
I look forward to making more of these to use around the house & for seasonal decorating! I was also thinking they might make cute baby shower gifts...with a baby theme or monogram...And just because...another belly picture of moi! The baby seems to be growing by leaps & bounds these days...hopefully it IS the baby & not just me!