The Two Month Afternoon Project

So we did some work on the front yard landscaping. But then there was the little matter of the hose.  I saw this project on Pinterest that was all "just takes an afternoon" or whatever and I figured we could tack that onto our yard project.

But then we spent all weekend working on the yard and the hose holder just didn't get done.

Then one sunny afternoon, I decided to get started, but low and behold, our jigsaw was cutting all sideways.

After a few tries, I got some cuts I could use.

And I painted it white.

Aaaaaaannnnnddddd I added that bunny. I spray painted the hose holder white and installed it.

Here's the final product.

The pictures aren't great since I finished it just before the rain came, but I am glad that after two months I finally finished this easy afternoon project.

Cookies and Cakes

My friend Rachael bakes the best cookies.  She sent some to us one day and they are simply the most gorgeous and scrumptious decorated sugar cookies that have ever existed.

Just look at all those cute, yummy bunnies! When I tasted these cookies I immediately thought of my mom, who loves sugar cookies. This year for Christmas, Rachael was kind enough to send a beautiful batch of sugar cookies to my mom.

The cookies were such a hit that I wanted to send her a special thank you. Rachael loves baking and decorating cakes, so I thought this cake pattern from Bee in My Bonnet would be perfect. I cut the pieces awhile ago when my sewing machine was in the shop.

I started by decorating the cake.

Then there's the cake stand with a little bow.

Cake quilt!

I thought this one could use some extra special binding.

With ric-rac! Just look how cute!

Here it is all finished!

Almost good enough to eat! Thanks again to Rachael for the amazing cookies!

Japanniversary! Ninjin for the Usachan

Well, this will be the last of the Japanniversary posts and I thought we'd go out in style.  Team Sunshine Fuzzy Bunny style.  That is to say, we went to bunny island while we were in Japan!

This post is mostly going to be about TSFB plus actual Bs, so I am just going to shut up and let this happen.

Okay, I'll interrupt here and just say the smaller Japanese islands are really spectacular and peaceful.

Aaaaaaannnnnd back to the more bunnies.

So many bunnies!

Bye bye bunny island! See ya next time Japan!

Super Bowl Snowventures

Eddy's employer hosts an annual ski retreat in Tahoe and for some reason we can't remember anymore, we didn't make it last year.  This year, though, with Super Bowl 50 happening just a few miles from our house we thought it might be a good time to get the heck out of Dodge and enjoy some fun and sun in the snow.

The drive was predictably breathtaking.

The first order of business when we hit Tahoe was for Eddy to do some downhill skiing at North Star.

We learned last time that I have no aptitude for downhill skiing. What I do apparently have an aptitude for is reading the first volume of the Divergent Series while Eddy skis and becoming super obsessed with it so that on the day that we drove back we spent the entire day reading the whole first volume together and now we're both pretty into it. But I digress.

Day 2 we took a spectacular drive around Lake Tahoe to the Nevada side.

That's where we did our first ever snow shoeing!

Turns out, snow shoeing is my favorite winter activity! You get to get out in the sun and snow and there is very little risk of seriously injuring oneself. Also, when you get tired from hiking at 8,000 feet elevation, you just lay down in the soft, fluffy snow.

Bonus points for pretending that you're making a snow angel.

Japanniversary! Kyoto

Our last Japanniversary stop was Kyoto and even though we've been to Kyoto before, we saw some amazing new things this time around.

The most important thing was probably that we got more ice cream novelties.

Seriously though, we saw just tons of shrines and temples (it's kind of the thing to do in Kyoto.)

Mostly we were reverent and polite foreigners, but I've got to just 'fess up and say that I totally did this in front of some sake barrels at the Heian Shrine.

We also took a little day trip out to Arashiyama to visit a colony of macaques.

We got to hand feed them.

Oh, and did I mention it was atop a giant mountain that we had to hike? Eddy was pretty happy about the view.

I, on the other hand, feel strongly that hills are terrible.

But Eddy is right. Feeding the monkeys was kind of worth it.

Stay tuned for just one more blog post about Japan!