(see below for the winners of the Temperature Giveaway)

February is my month to be Queen Bee, a phrase I picked up from hanging-out-across-the-ocean with Susan of Patchwork and Play (she lives in Melbourne).  I’ve gone through about a million different permutations, but in the end, I’m playing it safe and asking my beemates to build me a series of little houses, like the ones I saw as a teenager in the Daly City area, near San Francisco.

We’d drive up the newly built 280 freeway, look out through gaps in the trees and see the houses like zippers in the landscape.

There are lots of houses also in Dolores Heights.

But the USA doesn’t have a lock on houses crammed together: the first photo with the red house was from one of the villages in Cinque Terre, and the one just above is Porto Venere, Italy.

Dubrovnik, Croatia.

We’ll see what my beemates come up with.  I’ve mailed them all the pattern, and look forward to seeing their creations!

 

Thank you to all who entered the Giveaway for coldest and for hottest place you’ve ever been.  I started out by reading all the coldest, then had to go and put on another sweater; so many referenced the brutal cold the Midwest is experiencing.  Our hearts go out to you.

Although I was shivering by the time I finished Celia’s story of walking in the snow in ballet flats, the winner of the coldest packet is Susan Shaw, with her story of sledding with her brothers:

I used to live in Wisconsin, and one summer we moved to Texas.  The A/C broke and my children and I sweltered in 100+ hea for week.  We’d gone from wearing our winter coats to the 4th of July parade to two weeks later, melting in the home.

So many of you had great “hottest” stories, but I totally related to Beth, who had to endure no A/C with all her little children:

I hope you all stay warm…or cool, whatever the case may be!  I’ll be in touch via email to notify the winners.  Thank you all for entering!