Chirped by Cass and Tina
Oh February! Even though it had an extra day this year, it still seemed to fly by. The weather didn’t help, being very mild, warm and wet here in PA – hurrying us along towards spring. Our shortest month did, however, yield some efficient days of crafting, blogging and catching up. We squeezed a lot in! Here are our top ten favorites from this productive month…
Favorite Books
February’s choices for both book clubs had mixed reviews from our members. Cass’s book club read Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood. It describes a mother in the ’70s trying to save her daughter (born with Downs Syndrome) from a cruel institution and manipulative in-laws. The novel is based loosely on a 1971 exposé of horrific care inside a Massachusetts “school for the feeble-minded”. A guest speaker came to talk about her adult son, who has severe autism. The writing was good, the discussion interesting. Some of us were dubious about how quickly Lucy adapted and rebounded from her first two neglected years. But hey, kids are resilient, right?
Tina’s club read The Tenth of December, by George Saunders. This book is a collection of unsettling short stories that plop you right in the middle of the action and make you scramble to catch up. The audio book is read by the author, and while Tina thought Saunders was great, other club members found him annoying. The stories are mostly glimpses into the interior monologues of a variety of narrators, from fanciful teens to suicidal elders. The settings vary from awkward charity bachelor auctions to futuristic human drug trial laboratories. Themes range from depressing, to dark, to very dark – but often darkly funny and always thought-provoking. Tina gives it a thumbs up!
Favorite Local Restaurant
February was Cass’s birthday month, so the girls went out to celebrate at Los Sarapes Mexican restaurant in Chalfont, PA. That night featured a flight of margaritas: original, strawberry/peach and raspberry. To our disappointment, they no longer offer frozen margaritas. If you decide to try the flight, be forewarned that they are nearly full size tumblers for your tasting pleasure… happy birthday to me! 😀 The rest of the meal was amazing, including an array of yummy desserts.
Favorite Bracelets
Continuing with the birthday theme, Cass received not one but two bracelets as gifts this year. The first was a moon charm bracelet from a girlfriend that depicts a picture of the moon phase from the day you were born. Apparently she was born under a new moon, which suggests that she is always trying new things… and if you know Cass, you would agree that this is indeed one of her stronger character traits!
It’s extra special when your newly “grownup” kids from far away remember your birthday with a thoughtful gift. At first glance, Cass’s second birthday bracelet was a simple gold bangle. But if you look closely, it has “Mama Bear” engraved on it, along with a silhouette of a bear and two little cubs. ♥
More Local Treasures
We recently enjoyed a double date night with our spouses that began at another favorite restaurant: Northbound in Souderton, PA. They offer a delicious new crab and kiwi appetizer! Their menus incorporate many ingredients from local farms, and the bar draws entirely from Pennsylvania distilleries, breweries and wineries.
We then headed to the Montgomery Theater for an entertaining performance of “Crimes of the Heart”. Even though it is a small local theater, MT hires talented members of Actors Equity and always puts on a great show. Plus, its cozy size means there isn’t a bad seat in the house!
Crafting for a Cause Update
Tina sent out 88 crowns to Shriner’s Hospital for Children this week on behalf of the Upper Bucks Fiber Arts Collective. Some of these busy crocheters have been hard at “work” for a while now, creating these colorful crowns for kids receiving treatment at Shriner’s. Other members have teamed up with a local chapter of the Masons to knit baby blankets. The blankets will be added to care packages for an upcoming group baby shower for expectant military families. Both projects are great ways to share our crafting gifts to benefit a good cause!
More Beautiful Knitwear!
Tina’s talented aunt keeps sending her new hats, scarves and mittens! (She must be worried about our cold Pennsylvania winters?) Last month Tina started sporting a new purple scarf to match the cozy hat that arrived in a previous package. While the temperatures are definitely starting to warm up, the wind chill has made it a welcome addition! (Nonetheless, it might be time to switch back to crocheting some more Crowns for Kids – we need to collect another batch for the next Shriner’s delivery – hint, hint! (-; XOXO)
Winter into Spring
Speaking of warming up, the crocuses have decided that winter is over, no matter what the calendar says. The daffodils are preparing to bloom, and Tina’s willow tree is beginning to radiate a distinctly yellow glow from its still bare branches. We had a particularly mild winter here in PA, but we’re still excited to welcome the next season!
Discovering QR Codes
Tina has been working on digital albums for several recent vacations and taking notes on the pluses and minuses of different photo processing websites as she goes along. (Bird’s Eye Review coming later this year!) Most recently she’s been using Shutterfly to document her trip to Florida. As an experiment, she’s adding QR codes to some of her album pages, to link them to short YouTube videos she uploaded from her trip. The idea comes from this blog post by LovePaperCrafts. You should be able to see some diving pelican videos if you hold your smart phone’s camera or QR Reader over the little black and white square pictured here. It’s not a perfect solution for her ongoing quest to elegantly incorporate videos into her paper albums, but it’s a start!
“Branching Out” With Our Blog
We have been busy working behind the scenes, polishing our blog site and even expanding to new social media platforms. We’re trying to post more regularly to our Instagram page and Pinterest boards as well. The latest news is that we’ve added a Facebook fan page! Search @TwoFlew on Facebook and “Like” our page to keep up to date on our latest posts and photos. We also designed a blog business card to pass out to friends, neighbors, and random people on the street who might be interested in checking us out! (-; Very exciting stuff!
Bored Puppies
Our furry friends are not happy with the weather, since we have had many rainy days. They are ready for spring, long walks, hikes, and chasing balls in the back yard. Until then, they’re sticking close to us… like Velcro. 
Favorite pastimes include laying on the clothes pile as we try to load the washer, and sitting on our laps (when clearly they aren’t lap dogs) while we watch TV or try to blog!
Short but sweet, February was a busy and fun-filled month for us. And March is already off to a great start! We hope that spring, with all its potential and inspiration, is headed to your neck of the woods soon, too!
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Thanks for reading!
Love your business cards.
Thanks!