Three-Day Weekend Shenanigans

Our son's birthday was this weekend so of course that meant I needed a birthday card.  So I did some experimenting with my Color Burst powders.  I think I have to do a lot more practicing with the sprinkling technique.  I had something very much different in mind, but this little piece was salvageable and with the addition of the three feathers and linen thread I was pretty pleased with it. I only regret we didn't get to deliver it in person.  

We had one of our Table 7 get-togethers planned so I wrapped up some of the Valentine marshmallows pretty simply to bring along for the ladies.  

We went to an "Escape Room" and became Time Travelers.  We didn't manage to escape in time but we really had a lot of fun solving puzzles and riddles and unlocking locks and finding hidden doors and clues.  We did come close to completing our mission, but probably would have needed another 10-15 minutes to do so.  We'll definitely be trying this again especially since they are going to be opening one that is much closer to where we live.  (And they knew they were holding their signs upside-down!)  After that adventure we went to one of the other couples' homes to make pizzas and shoot the breeze.  I haven't laughed so much in a long time.  

One of my projects for the weekend was enlarging a pattern for HWNSNBP to cut out of wood as a favor to one of our friends.  My part is done.  He's already cut it out and needs to sand it before delivery.  Sadly, the most fun part - the painting - was given to someone else to do.  So I probably won't even get to see it finished.  But I'm glad to get it behind us.  

We've had a little taste of spring with the weather and as I was inspecting these new plants that we put in in the fall it appears that they have buds.  They are Hellebores and should be pink when they bloom.  They are supposed to be deer resistant and I hope that the deer don't develop a taste for them. I also hope we don't get too low of temperatures to affect those blooms.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Monday, after our trip to Hobby Lobby (that place is overwhelmingly packed with so much to look at), we went to lunch at Olive Garden.  I had a gift card from Christmas that I wanted to use.  The lunch was light but I saw this "new" dessert on the menu and had to give it a try.  It's called a hazelnut "Baci" ball cake with a molten hazelnut filling and vanilla sauce.  

Very yummy!

And one last picture of the succulent garden from the previous weekend which I had, until today, neglected to take a picture of.  I had to put it on a table to take the picture, it's been on my counter since last weekend and I've gotten a lot of compliments on it.  And, it seems to be happy there because those long skinny stems you see were only about an inch long a week ago.