Impulse Buy at the Bazaar

It's a cedar screen. It smells WONDERful. I'm still not 100% sure where it is going to go in our house...






So I went to the bazaar today looking to buy china to match my china back in the states and this is what I ended up with instead....

Lilia laughs and scoots

Ignore me. Please. Mother's will do anything for a smile from their child.

Another Video for Daddy

Lilia's Hair!

Lilia had a bath and while her hair was wet it came up on the sides like little wings! The most surprising thing was that it stayed that way after it dried!

Conversations with a Lilia

She's Crafty...

For the Young Womens' activity the other night Annette and I wanted to show our love and appreciation for these wonderful girls. We organized and planned the activity, lesson, prayers, snacks, in short - everything. We wanted to thank them for all that they do for our branch and the community. We asked the Branch presidency and the Relief Society and Primary presidencies to write individual notes to each girl and we did this as well. Annette put together a wonderful spread of snacks and I made Valentine cookies. I also thought that it would be nice to give these girls a little gift to show our appreciation so I arranged teacup bouquets for each of them! I used mugs instead of teacups, but the idea was the same. I was able to get the mugs at the 100 yen store and the flowers at the open market that I love to go to. I really had a lot of fun putting these together and I think they turned out great! The girls really loved them and I think they had fun at the activity.
I love working with flowers and although I have a long way to go before I open my own floral shop... ha! I really do enjoy arranging different colors and textures.
A couple of close-ups!

It's funny... when I was younger I hated carnations and thought that they looked cheap. Now I LOVE them! I thought they looked so great with the roses and honestly. who cares if they are cheap? That's a reason TO like them now that I am older! More bang for your buck!

For the letters/ notes that I wrote to each girl
Homemade note cards.
Name tags
Flowers with name tags attached and note cards
I have also started scrap-booking again. A little...
And painting again too... but don't get too excited. This all takes place when Lilia is either napping or in bed for the night and we all know how well she naps....
That said, I'm glad to be DOING something with my art and creativity again. Keeps me busy while Cliff is gone!

Snow Festival (Day 3)

Here is Sapporo's sister city Portland! I actually thought their sculpture was a little boring, but the guys did stop to take let me take a picture for Cliff.


More from the world competition
Singapore
Indonesia
Thailand
Hawaii (are you noticing a rather tropical trend here??)


Finland, I think?

Lilia on the drive home
Mt. Fuji on the drive home as seen through Yokohama

Snow Festival (Day 2) Morning

We got a pretty early start on Saturday morning. Lilia woke up early and she pretty much set our schedule. Fortunately the hotel had a free breakfast and it wasn't half bad for being Japanese. (The Japanese often eat fish for breakfast...) So we had plenty of fuel for the day and lots of sunshine to get us going.

Off to breakfast in the hotel!
Lilia had some craaaazy hair this particular morning.
Getting ready to head out!

Up!
Lilia all bundled up! It was soooo cold. It's a good thing she was facing into me because the wind was awful and the temperature was downright frosty the entire day.




Can you see all of the detail? There were flowers carved into the roof!







International competition in progress



Anpanman!!!



Russian Dolls in the international competition venue
The international competition was still in progress while we were there. We didn't get to see the finished products as we had to return to Tokyo, but we did get to see the sculptures in progress!