Cold days of February

Another week gone by...  I have to look at my bullet journal and my phone photo album to see if anything was going on...

I am happy to report that yesterday I sewed on the binding to the Plaidish quilt and hopefully in a couple of days that will get sewn on and maybe even a label made.  It has been a long season of hand quilting because I ended up doing much more than I'd planned on.  The most hand quilting I've done in a long time!  Even though I used an Aunt Becky thimble on my left hand, when I take the quilt out of the hoop I just use my fingers and I sure got pricked a lot!

We had a major snowfall this week and it was SO cold!!!  Of course I don't do any of the snow shoveling but Tetsu had a full two days of it... which he seems to enjoy though he is exhausted afterwards.  He believes in staying ahead of the snow even when it is still coming down around him.  I guess he knows since as he always points out he grew up in snow country!

We had construction work being done in front of our house and most days there is a road worker whose sole job is to wave people onto a detour road and to move his red sign when when the trucks come through.  He also waves us in to our driveway when we come home from somewhere.  He takes a rest on the tree stump and even eats his rice balls there.  

We've talked to him quite a lot (I even gave him my piping hot handwarmers after I'd used them at the crosswalk) and he says he is 80 years old and ready for retirment!  I guess so!  All day standing out in the cold!  I'm done in after an hour at the crosswalk!

I splurged and bought myself an apron that I've had my eye on.  It says something when a "splurge" is so ulitarian but I really liked this apron because it is asymetrical and had this pretty Japanese pattern.  My thinking is that with a new apron I might be inspired to do more housework or cooking.

I keep joining Skillshare classes and I took a class with Barbara Luel on painting rooms in a house.  Though the class finished with three rooms of your choice, I am continuing the project until I get tired of it.  

My front door ready for Valentine's Day.

The entryway which got a bit too confusing while painting it.

The kitchen.

The dining room.

The livingroom.

The former Japanese room.

Oh my gosh!  Can you believe I even painted the bathroom!  Bathrooms in Japan consist of a toilet room, a tub room, and a sink and laundry room, so I squeezed all three rooms onto one page.

Today is Valentine's Day and so I went out and bought Tetsu chocolate, coffee, a cute cat coffee sweetener and nuts.  Valentine's Day in Japan is strictly from women to men...  In March there will be a reciprocal day called White Day when the men buy things for women.

And at the crosswalk today a little girl handed me some homemade chocolate cookies.  "For the traffic guard lady."