The snow is melting, the birds are singing, and I'm starting the spring cleaning! Well, just barely starting that is. I picked up this and that, reorganized and rearranged a few things and then I got just a bit sidetracked...

You see, as I was cleaning up the books around my nightstand I began to wonder what had happened to some books of mine. I'd left them here at my parents house two years ago and I knew they were around somewhere. So, after rummaging around the upstairs for a bit and peering through the boxes in the basement for awhile, I found my books!

I'd forgotten how beautiful they were, just take a peek at these:

A lovely copy of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass"...

and yes, it has the original illustrations!

A brightly colored copy of "Gulliver's Travels"

And the tiniest little "Vanity Fair" in two volumes.

Aren't they gorgeous?! They really don't make books like that anymore *sigh*...and so that is why I search the old book stores, yard sales, estate sales and library sales looking for my literary favorites in some nice, old, hardcover book.

Alright, well I guess it's back to the spring cleaning for me and then later...well I just rediscovered my complete works of Thackeray...I think I have some reading to do tonight!

We're back and we had a wonderful trip to the San Francisco area!

We spent a hot, sunny, day seeing the sights of the city and (my personal favorite) riding the cable cars...

...and a day at the beach where, of course, Pookie just had to run into the ocean...

And lots of fun visiting with family and just soaking in the warm California sun!

So now, after a pleasant, warm, week in the bay area, we're back in cold, snowy, New England and sadly I'm battling one of those nasty colds you always seem to get when you travel. So here I sit, sick in bed, thinking of all those Easter things I want to make for the girls, but sleeping away my cold instead of crafting.

Hopefully I'll be better in just a few days...until then, I'm going to keep snoozing in bed and dreaming of warm sunny weather!

I finally managed to finish up my very last entry for the Softie Awards.

A bright pink little lady with a May flower corsage and a lovely curly do.

They're not the greatest pictures, but they're the best I could do what with Fig attacking me, the camera, and the bird.
And now I'm off to the San Francisco area for the next week! We're going to go visit with my husband's family and it promises to be a lot of fun. And oh! I can't wait because after braving negative twelve degree weather yesterday....I'm looking forward to the seventy degree weather we're supposed to have in San Francisco! Yippee!

Remember the girls' castle that we were working on? Well luckily we had a nice big snowfall and so more bricks were made, shaped, and stacked and here is the finished product!

My husband can take all the credit for this. He spent hours outdoors while big wet snowflakes fell on him finishing the castle.

The castle is so tall that Pookie can't see over the walls and I can't climb over them. There are little windows and a little door, but I don't fit through them. Hopefully Pookie won't go inside and decide to make it her permanent residence because I won't be able to go in and get her out.