All the hearts!

I prefer decorations to parties. One involves fun crafting. The other involves people. These are two of my favorite ways to decorate for holidays. I made cute little egg tic-tac-toe for a birthday party and I'm just reusing the grape vine, twine, and hot glue grid again. Hearts are a pretty easy shape. The eggs were easier to cut out though. The hearts are all painted with fountain pen ink that are very richly saturated with pretty pigments. I used Bristol paper for the heart garland too. The hearts are hot glued to the string and then I needed to add a little extra to the bottoms of the hearts to keep them from flipping up. All in all, pretty easy and they will pack up small. I'm thinking  a string of clovers for St. Patrick's Day?

Originally Posted February 11, 2007

Surprise: A day of rest - 0 miles

Once again Sunday is our day of rest. The Hinkel's home is a warm home full of good chats and wonderful hospitality. It is also part of Sun City Grand. The grass is gravel and it never needs to be mowed. The plants don't really seem like plants and they all died when it got cold. It actually rained today. I thought it was exciting. Everyone else seemed somewhat afraid. Myrna and Larry took us to the neighborhood Valentine's brunch. The mimosa fountain seemed to have a leak, but it wasn't anything that a cookie sheet couldn't fix. There was also a chocolate fountain, but it never seemed to flow. Great conversations. Everyone seemed to really be enamored with the Alaskan and the Australian biking across the country. Then Larry drove us all to REI. Over the last week Jon and I have been telling each other what we need to remember to get. When we actually made it there it took a moment or two for it all to come back. The most exciting for me were some gel padded gloves and extra handlebar tape. Hopefully, I can still fight the numbness in my hands. On the way back through the maze of houses that look all the same, we glanced at green patches of grass and streets named for desert plants. Century Plant looks a bit like Agave. I'm probably spelling this wrong. Lori and her husband Ken came from Las Vegas for dinner. These cousins don't actually live in Las Vegas. They live in Anthem, but were out there for a show. More good conversation and pork spare ribs led me to remember that I needed to look into accomodations for the next few days. After a few calls, we have warmshowers for the next two nights. I chatted with Grandpa and I plan to stop by on Tuesday. His lady friend is sick, so he wouldn't recommend that we stay there. The warmshowers isn't too far away from him. Finally the project of uploading photos is done and I can relax or put the tape on my handlebars. I think the grammy's or something are on.