spring came in with a bang! (picture heavy)

Well I have to admit, it is true that where I live, you just never know what to expect with the weather... Last week we had great weather, plus temperatures, sunshine etc. though not all the snow was melted, at least all the driveways, roads (for the most part) and sidewalks were all clear, as well as most of the lawns in places. Even yesterday we had wonderful weather, +13C and sunshine... then the weather warning came... a winter snow storm was headed our way and overnight our neighbourhood turned back into a winter wonderland:

This is what we woke up to this morning, as you can see the tape measures shows 8 inches (20 cm) of freshly fallen snow:

Then after brunch hubby and I decided to tackle it and shovel the driveway... as anyone who has been to our house knows, we have a large driveway, so we only did about 1/2 as well as the sidewalk and a path on the other side by the parked jeep and truck. I will admit, I was/am tired from the shoveling... it looks fluffy enough but once you dig into it, its heavy and wet, but oh so pretty! The sun was out and as you can tell the snow was already melting off the jeep.

Sorry I haven't been around lately, I've been reading blogs, just not posting. I sort of lost my stitching mojo as well as my blogging and emailing mojo but it seems that they are are back! So great big aplogies to those who I owe emails to, I haven't forgotten you, and I've been thinking about you alot. Emails will be on their way soon!

I have been stitching but not alot, so the birthday gifts and the swap gift that I needed to get done have been very slow going. But they are done! I can't show them all to you yet, as they haven't yet reached their desitinations, but once they do I will show you. Here are a couple of things I can show, as one has been recieved, and I know my nieces don't read my blog.

This one is for one of my friends who's birthday was back in February, but as is usual for me, she got the gift a little belated...

and then the whole package together

Here is what I made my nieces. The same little pincushion/ornament as above, just different beads around the edges. I still need to get their packages together and mail them off. I know it won't get there in time for one nieces' birthday but if it gets to them before the second birthday then all will be good. Its going to be strange this year, as we are normally in Hungary with them celebrating. This year due to many factors, we've decided to postpone our trip and hopefully go in the summer time.

I also have a little happy dance to share, in that I've finished off another one of the letters in my alphabet blocks. I finished the letter "i" and I'm already half way through the letter "j", so I should have another little dance in a couple of days.

And last but not least a little freebie to share from Kissy-Cross's blog A little cup of something to keep us warm with all that snow outside.

click picture for the pattern