Happy Covidtine's Day

Halloween pumpkin hanging in there,
appropriately masked for Valentine's Day

Celebrating Valentine's Day during a pandemic necessitates creative thinking. Going into a restaurant was not an option in our minds. We decided to make a nice dinner at the house, including brookies (a combination of brownies and chocolate chip cookies) for dessert. But first I had to decide what to do about a card for my husband and daughter, who has been working remotely at our house since mid-November.

Putting my new watercolor supplies to work, I made both of them a card. There are so many cute ideas online that it was easy to find inspiration and adapt the cards to my particular use.

watercolor Valentines for my loves

Jim surprised us with flowers, donuts and chocolate covered strawberries, which were a nice start to a rainy Valentine's Day. We added to that a nice omelet, and then played some games during the afternoon. Dinner consisted of Italian Beef served on rolls, oven roasted potatoes, salad and brookies. We ended the day by watching a couple episodes of Anne with an E, which we are trying to get through before Katie heads back to LA.

Overall it was a very nice, if unusual, Valentine's Day.

Memorial Day Weekend

The weekend was quite busy, beginning on Friday when I took my niece to Barnes for a scheduled procedure which was reported to involve 3-4 hours of time. After being prepped, we hung out in her "room" for a couple of hours. Part of the time was spent in the dark (literally!) as the power went off in the hospital. It took an inordinate amount of time for the generators to kick on, and even then the computers did not come back up for a bit. We were happy that she wasn't on the table when all this occurred. The test went fine, but the bottom line may be that she will need to have surgery done in the not too distant future. As these things go, it took a lot longer than expected, and I did not get home until 5:30.

Cardinals tea light

That night a friend came over and we did some painting together. I had purchased a tea light cake candle last year that I wanted to decorate, and she had a canvas that she was working on. She has a lot of paint colors that I don't have, as well as numerous brushes. It was fun to paint and catch up.

Saturday I played catch up with all the things I did not accomplish on Friday, and Sunday I met up with a photographer friend at the Galleria. From there we went to University City to photograph "Mannequins on the Loop." Store mannequins were decorated in recycled materials by local artists and placed along Delmar. They are quite clever, and were fun to see. The Loop is filled with so many interesting buildings, storefronts and bicycle racks that it is easy to quickly pass time taking pictures. Sunday night I squeezed in a game of pickleball. Due to the holiday weekend, it was not at all crowded so I got lots of playing time in.

Jim & Kirby at Confluence Point

On Monday Jim and I set off with the dog to go to Ted Jones Confluence Point State Park, where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers meet. Boy, did technology fail us! The car GPS kept taking us down roads that were closed, and not temporarily due to flood waters or anything. We finally got to the back side of it by taking a day pass road in the Audubon Center at Riverlands. There weren't many people there - gee, I wonder why?

From there we visited the National Great Rivers Research & Education Center across the river, and then stopped at the Confluence Tower. Jim had not been to either of those two places, and I had gone last year because each of them had one of the stl250 birthday cakes.

Confluence Tower

The flags at National Great Rivers Research & Education Center were flying at half mast, reminding us that Memorial Day is about remembering those who gave up their lives so that we can live ours freely. God bless all the fallen soldiers!

Memorial Day

High School Reunion Two

The down side of my husband and me graduating from high school the same year (but not the same place) is that we have to juggle two class reunions in the same summer. While I am fortunate in that Jim knows some people from my class either through marriage or college, I do not have the same luck with his classmates. I met a couple of the guys back in 1976 or so, and perhaps a couple came to our wedding. Nothing to carry on more than a few sentences worth of conversation, for sure. But one classmate was a fraternity brother of Jim, and we went to his wedding. His wife and I are friends on Facebook, and thank goodness they came to the reunion this year. Alicia and I were able to entertain each other for two nights.

My in-laws still live in the town where Jim grew up, so it was wonderful to be able to stay with them and have a nice visit. As usual, we ate way too much. Homemade cinnamon rolls and brownies - oh my! It was hard to climb back in the saddle with my personal trainer this week for sure.

As luck would have it, two of the St. Louis birthday cakes were on our way up to Iowa. We were able to get the brand new cake at the August Busch Conservation Area as well as the one at Woods Fort in Troy, Missouri. They are both really nice, and located in interesting settings.

August Busch Conservation Area

Woods Fort

The night before we left for Charles City, I went to a Wine and Canvas party that was put on by Genevieve Esson, the artist for 4 of the cakes. She provided the paint and the canvases, and we were each to bring a photo of our favorite cake to paint. In my case, I had to narrow it down to my favorite cake that I thought would be possible to paint. Nine cakers showed up for the party, and did we ever have fun! It was not easy, but Genevieve and another artist helped with any questions we had. I was able to finish my cake in the time allowed, except that I did not have time to add the stl250. That is something I might try to put on, as it is a big part of what this is all about, in my estimation.

My inspiration cake at the Alton Visitors Center, and the finished product

This Sunday a group of us from the Cakeway to the West Facebook page are gathering at the Malcolm Martin Park across the river for a photo shoot and light breakfast. After that, my friend Caren and I will head to Alton and north to get my remaining five cakes. The end is in sight - except rumor has it that more cakes are being added. It ain't over until the last cake is placed!

Almost There

This week I concentrated on getting the bedrooms back in order. The closets are all cleaned out and the furniture is all in place. We moved 2 pieces of furniture from our bedroom into the new guest room along with the bed from the smallest bedroom, and it all fits nicely. That room now just needs items on the wall and a new rug. I would love to make a quilt for the wall, but with the graduation quilt I'm working on I would not be able to get to a wall quilt until June. Maybe that's okay - we'll see. Our bedroom needs a new rug as well since we "re-purposed" the old one in the entry foyer as it would not go with the green walls I wanted in our room. We also need items for the walls in our bedroom, but there is no rush there.

Jim's office is all set up in the smallest bedroom, and it looks pretty good. We are debating on a rug in there, or just leaving the hardwood floors bare. He also doesn't want the framed antique paper dolls left on the walls. What's up with that? We will probably move 2 or 3 of those to the new guest room. Then I think we will simply take some of our landscape photos and have them enlarged to 8"x10" or maybe 11"x17" and put under glass for the walls in the office. We have some nice shots so we might as well use them.

In between all that I have managed to work a few hours on the graduation quilt. It has been very time consuming! I definitely need to carve out a couple of hours each day to work on it. Slowly but surely...