My true valentine

About an hour ago I had to kiss Jerome goodbye for another extended separation. He drove out here to the farm on Sunday after playing his church service, arriving in time for a splendid sunset. Anne, he, and I had a wonderful but all too brief 43 hours together. He brought us our favorite Valentines candy from Trader Joes, Lovey Gummy Tummies, and a bouquet of flowers. Trader Joes has the most beautiful flowers! While he was here we played a few rounds of Quiddler and Scattergories, ate marvelously both at home (thanks Anne) and out. Lunch yesterday at Ole and Lena's in Westby and dinner last night at the Driftless Cafe. OHHH, so good. We got both the farm girls' cars washed, long overdue. That was our first trip to an in town car wash and as Jerome said, "It was worth it just for the entertainment value." There's one step in the wash cycle that uses 3 pastel colors of foam! We visited a couple of our favorite antiques shops and I once again found a few things I couldn't do without: a solid oak picture frame that I'll use to frame one of our ancestors' photos for my planned family gallery, an oak framed mirror (the 3rd in a growing collection of oak framed mirrors purchased locally) and this antique brass nut cracker with carved handles. That was a steal for $5.00.

To help remember this visit, Jerome asked Anne to take some pictures of us, my favorite one is below.

Fortunately,  I have 2 trips to our city house planned for March, so this separation won't be as long as the last one, but it's still excruciating to say goodbye.

I've made progress on the two big projects in my studio. Today I finished the baby top I was crocheting! Over the years since I was 12 I've made more afghans than I can remember, hats, purses, doilies, flowers, scarves, pillows, baby blankets,  but never clothes from a pattern. I used a book from the public library called Sweet Baby Crochet.  I had some doubts about my ability to understand the instructions when I first started out, but Anne was very encouraging. Here are the photos I took of the work in progress and of the finished piece.

My camera doesn't always capture the colors accurately, but  the last photo's color is true. I used 2 antique buttons that I bought at a wonderful antique shop in LaCrosse for the closure. I had to borrow the correct crochet hook size from Anne (I can't believe I didn't have an E hook in my collection.) So that makes this little top, something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. A little bit of deja vu considering the mom of the little girl this is intended for was just a bride 18 months ago! I had such fun making it that I'm going to do another right away. This time I've decided to make 3 button holes instead of just the 2 the pattern calls for. I guess you might say I'm hooked.

The other project is of course the Sisterhood of the Traveling Triangles Exchange. I completed all of the units I'm sending for the exchange (420!!) and 2 additional sets to be donated to the Australian quilters who've been facing devastation by the floods there.

I have labeled all of them and they are now ready for packaging. (15 stacks of 28.)

As soon as my mailing envelopes arrive from the post office I can mail them off to Texas where they will await sorting until the due date April 1st. I won't be receiving my exchange package until after that, but I'll have lots of fun imagining and planning the project(s) til then.

This past Sunday was the 6 month anniversary of our closing on the farm. Much has happened here since that stormy Friday the 13th last August when Jerome could only get around with the help of crutches and an iron will and we spent that first night on an inflatable mattress on the living room floor with little more than a lamp, a card table and an electric fan. Since that day Jerome's ankle has healed, the world has revolved half way around its annual orbit, and I've grown to love this farm, deeply. And if it's possible, to love him more deeply still. Thank you Sweetheart-O-Mine.