Breaking News

Dear Mom,
My friend, Jeannie, has posted photos of the sweater she and another friend made from my design!
Love, Kim

Backyard Girlfriends

Dear Mom,
Meg and Marge are best friends. They have had a special bond from the moment they were introduced to each other. I think it is because Meg is the smallest hen and Marge is on the bottom of the "pecking order" of the three Buff Orpingtons. As a result, Meg and Marge pal around together and take care of each other. I love to watch their special relationship. I will see Marge cleaning off remnants of grass from Meg's beak, and Meg showing Marge the best patches of green grass to nibble on.

Here is my sweet little Meg. Her "Mille Fleur" D'uccle breed name means "millions of flowers" because of her many spots and speckles...

and here is Marge, with the crooked point on her comb, looking up at me. She is my social chicken...curious and interested in me and what I am doing. I knew she was special when she jumped up and sat on my knee one day in the coop...

and here they are, all together--Meg and the Buff Orpingtons (aka The Fat-Bottom Girls)--enjoying a rare afternoon of above-freezing temperatures to free-range in the backyard.
I am so looking forward to spring and summer, the first for these four ladies together in the backyard. I'm sure there will be many, many adventures and stories to tell!

Love, Bonnie Jo

Channeling my Inner Audrey Hepburn

Dear Mom,
I won't be sitting on the window sill, strumming my guitar and singing "Moon River" or anything, but I got my hair cut this morning and I am feeling very Audrey Hepburn-ish right now. The feeling carried me through the grocery store and I am hoping I can keep it up long enough to clean the bathrooms. Maybe I will do the housework with my sunglasses on.

My slightly out-of-focus self portrait is accidentally slightly out-of-focus, but goes a long way to "diminish fine lines and wrinkles" and makes the grays look like shimmering highlights. Which, of course, they are.
Love,
Kim

Ribbons

Dear Mom,

I love ribbons! My ribbons are a big jumbled mess which only adds to the excitment of digging into them.

I have a ribbon for every occasion. My BFF might need a gift wrapped in this argyle ribbon:After 40 years of knitting, Kim might suddenly forget how and she would need this: I have gift wrapped many baby gifts with these:

and birthday gifts, friend gifts, I-love-you-so-much gifts with these:

I have spools of ribbon that I have had for YEARS because there are yards and yards on the spool. I also have ribbon like this:

I can't bear to throw it away; I could use it on a handmade card or a handmade tag. Or in a hairbow. A gift for a fairy. Or something.

Someday I will be all Martha Stewart and organize my box of ribbons. But probably not because when my ribbons are all jumbled up, finding "new" ribbons is a treasure!

Love, Wendy