We started New Year's Day with our annual burn our regrets in our firepit tradtion. It was below -20C, but despite that, there was a lot of cheer and fun to be had:

We celebrated birthdays in January with family and friends:

And Chris, my Mom and I jetted off to Phoenix for a whirlwind trip to visit some family. On my actual birthday we met up with some friends from Edmonton, who happened to be there at the same time. We had a celebratory lunch at The Mission, a restaurant we had visited many, many years ago and had fond memories of, it did not disappoint.

That night, we went to my Uncle and Aunt's for a bbq dinner celebration. Here is my cousin, entertaining us by feeding her African Grey parrot, Floyd a hunk of steak, he's a savage that way!

The next day we went on a scenic drive to Tortilla Flats, an old mining town, about an hour outside of Phoenix. There are historical plaques, shops and a fun restaurant decortated on the inside with various cash bills. 

We ended the night at a restaurant called, "Different Point of View", which has a stunning viewpoint and is a great spot to visit at sunset.

One day, my Mom and I dropped Chris off at the MIM - Musical Instrument Museum. We had been there several years ago and Chris wanted to have a bit more time there, while Judy and I went for a nice stroll in a fancy park and then a little hike in a more wild spot, where we saw a ton of quails, a coyote and some bunnies. I love the landscape of the desert, it's so radically different to what we are familiar with up here.

My mom, Chris and I also went to Rita's Catina, at the Scottsdale Marriot for lunch. It is in a beautiful location, the food is so fresh and there's a Falconer who has a hawk that flies around scaring away other birds. It was fun to watch him chase and then come back to his handler for a reward.

Our last night, we had the whole family over to our airBnB, because it had a huge backyard with games and a nice bbq area:

Back home in February, we celebrated our new great niece, McKenna, who was born in January. And we celebrated our friend, Stacey's birthday:

Chris and I  celebrated our anniversary with a homecooked meal and Grand Marnier creme brulee for dessert.

We had a meatball workshop...

And a hot pot visit... there was definitely a foodie theme going on this February.

Chris and I are big fans of Canadian rocker, Joel Plaskett, and when we heard he was coming to town, we had to go, it was such a treat! We also saw some Edmonton musicians colaborate on an accoustic set at Dog Patch with friends.

We took a tour of "The Monolith", a brewery in town that makes lambic beer, which is different from most beers in that it is fermented through the exposure of airbourne yeast and bacteria. Might sound a little icky, but it's quite tasty. This is the "mothership" as they call it and there are windows all around that are open with screens so that the air can do its magic.  

Judy and I were in an art show at the Alberta Gallery of Art and both our paintings with beads sold!

I also started back up torching after an hiatus. This is some of the "stringer" I pulled to use in my new beads. Judy is currently making jewelry with them and we should have some up on the website soon.

March was filled with some special birthdays, including my Mom's. It was catered and we had Elvis show up to serenade her:

And our good buddy, Dave, had a special birthday too:


And my sweet nephew, Kane's birthday was celebrated. He got a Sonic costume from GiGi that he was thrilled to wear the whole time: 


In between celebrations and visits, I've been bead embroidering some of my Mom's paintings as well:

Boy do the months seem to fly by! But even though it's the end of March, it still feels very much like winter here. I am looking forward to warmer days ahead. Hope you are well. xo