Sunday, December 27, 2020

2020's Last Post

I will not be sorry to see this year gone. Someone posted that at midnight on New Year's Eve open your door and let the old year out. 
Oh I will be doing that if I am still awake!

This Christmas was ok we didn't see our family and we miss them like crazy, and a few tears were shed, but.... It will all be ok in the end at least that is what I am telling myself to keep going.
Our 17 inches of snow we got a week ago...


Is gone! It was in the 50's and pouring rain all day Christmas! What a mess! That snow is white gold for this state. Skiing, snowmobiling, snow shoeing etc. People drive hours to play in our snow. Gone! and now the forecast is for the same weather New Year's Day. This year just keeps going.

I say if it is winter we should have snow! 
***
I you are not a beef eater you should look away...

I cooked my first prime rib Christmas day and it came out pretty dang good if I do say so myself.  We eat a lot of chicken and fish though out the year so this was a big treat.

I also finished my second Santa. I have a couple of tweaks (one eye is bigger than the other) but then I will bind it. I have another rug all set to get started on. It keeps my sanity to hook that is why I hook so much.

I will keep my Christmas decorations up until after the new year.
I put some paper whites in this hanging vase, they have not bloomed yet but they are growing a lot! 

Husband does puzzles to keep his sanity so we are a pair!
This he finished just in time for Christmas.                                               So I will end here.
I wish you good healthy and lots of laughter in the new year. I really have missed the laughter, real side splitting, until you cry laughter.
Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Santa!

Thursday we were suppose to get 4 to 6 inches we got ...

17 and that was low compared to other towns! Two towns over it was 48 inches!!! crazy amount of snow!!! Boy did they get it wrong.

So miss B and her mom decided to get a couple of runs in. she has new skis this year (they are longer) so it is a learning curve for her again and she did great!

My Santa is done! and crazy as it sounds I started another one. I will not get it done before Christmas but that is OK.

I watched a Gene Sheppard video on wool dying. A one pot method 
I tried it and was not happy with the first attempt so I did it again much better! It is really darker in person a great background. Which I have plans for. 

We give a Christmas goodies basket to some local hard working town employees. Today was cookie day I need to donate some of them to a charity but the rest will go in baskets for the workers.

When it comes to decorating cookies not so good but they taste good so that is all that matters.

All those cookies were from the butter cookie recipe from Susan Branch. What a wonderful recipe and it makes a big batch so you can divide the batch and make several cookies. 

The new pattern is from Old Tattered Flag it was a free gift on their Facebook page. So yes you can copy this but give credit to the Old Tattered Flag.

We have plenty of snow for Santa to make his way to our house.
But now they are forecasting rain for Christmas day ugg what a mess! 



We will be staying home for the holidays, I will miss family like crazy and need this whole covid mess to be over the sooner the better. 
Life is passing me by. 
**
I hope you are tucked in and counting your blessing for this odd season. We all have something to be thankful for and for now that has to do.
Don't forget to look for the Christmas star on the 21st when 2 planets come together and become very bright in the sky. The first time in hundreds of years! 
Merry Christmas my sweet blog friends


Sunday, December 13, 2020

Sweet B...

 
Because we are trying very hard to all stay healthy we met Sweet B
and family around the fire pit outside on a cold foggy day. We had hot chocolate with all the fixings. It was so nice to see them. We will not see them again until after Christmas which is so sad. How I miss them.

I made a wooly wreath last week and this week, I made a sweet little feather tree. 

And this is the finished product so sweet and husband was a big help drilling the holes and making the stand. All from stuff we had. 

And this is the Santa that I have been working on. No the black around his mustache is not staying. I have pulled out so much while working on this rug but I am happier with the results now.


My sweet friend sent me this Christmas gift. What a joy it is to get such carefully handmade things in the mail. I have it hanging by the fireplace so I can see it all the time.

On my walk today there were lots of turkeys in the field. I wonder if that foretells anything?
***
Christmas is quickly coming around, while it will be just husband and I this year we will try to make the best of it just like lots of you.
When that vaccine comes around I will be first in line I want my life back..! I didn't think I did that much but I really miss what I did do.
I hope you are all healthy and happy
Have a great week.


Friday, December 11, 2020

Christmas Around The House

This is a better picture of our sweet house all decorated for the holidays. The bright window on the left has the tree in it.

We have been walking at night but on Sat we get to go before complete darkness, this is on the way back to our house.

 
This is a corner of our kitchen counter. When I get up in the morning and everything is dark I am greeted with these sweet trees. The pine cone tree is from a friend, one of the ceramic trees I got from the recycling center aka the dump, and one from the Thrift store.

Years ago I was given this real feather tree top as the bottom was missing. I put it in an urn and good to decorated. (Also in the kitchen)

Blurry pictures but they are all small feather tree ornaments.

Really my favorite ornaments so sweet and delicate.

Why that bird is still in one piece I have no idea as it is so fragile.

This tree is made from a tobacco stick. I wish I had bought several more but now the store is out of business sigh... ,I guess I didn't need them.

It is filled with my little elves. I love their sweet little faces.

And they are doing all sorts of things.

Since we changed our rooms around and have our much too large TV over the fireplace now I can not decorate it like I use to but I have tucked some things in on the side just to make me feel better about it.

This little piece is hand carved, the reason for the season.

And this is my large feather tree, a real feather tree but a reproduction, I love it anyway. We are keeping things smaller this year not all my things are out so I decided to decorated this in just silver.

I found 3 boxes of these lights tucked in a box of stuff. Perfect for this tree!

Such sweet pieces and I love looking at it every night.

From the bottom to the top it is silver.

This cupboard is filled with snowbabies that were hand made by a woman who I met when I was in garden club. She was from England and did the most amazing work,they are some of my favorites. Because she made so many and donated to fund raisers I was finding them in thrift stores after she passed and was so happy to scoop them up. People have no appreciation of the work she put into each one, their faces are amazing.


 

Well that is the quick tour. I am in my messy hooking spot and husband has just made me a cup of sleepy tea in one of our Christmas cups. I will post again Sunday and show the progress of my Santa it has been slowing going. 
I hope you are all healthy and enjoying the season.


Tuesday, December 8, 2020

A Rug With A Story


I have made wooly trees but never a wreath. I am in love and I don't care who knows it. (can you tell we just watched Elf lol) So easy and I dried the oranges with cloves in the oven perfect.


We are trying to find things that are safe for us to do. We headed for the speedway and drove through the gift of lights just lovely!


I have decorated outside as much as I am going to this is on our porch so not much weather gets to it.

The side lights, I had these little snowshoes and needed to show them off this year again. (I am not sure to whom as it is just us and these can not be seen from the road)

I gathered a bunch of greens and stuck them in an old cooler with kids garden tools and a bird house done!
And I gathered greens to make roping to go around our lamp post.
Reminded me of when I worked for a florist. 

Now for the rug. I saw this pattern, very long story short it was by an artist that wooly fox used but the copyright ran out. I could not get it.
I found out the same pattern was a cross stitch pattern that was owned by leisure arts I had nothing to lose so I emailed them asking for permission to use that pattern for rug hooking.I would make it bigger and it would be a one time use for me. They emailed back yes I could and thank you for asking. I have printed out the email as I do not want to infringe on any copyright issues and would never copy a rug without express permission. Soooo anyway I have changed it to my liking. It is a giant work in progress as you can tell from his basket (both are NO)
This is just a sample of what I have pulled out of this pattern! 
I just could not make myself happy. and I am not a big outline person so I am changing that also in spots. Phew! more to come.


But my best find was my trip to the The woolen Pear/ Red Horse Rugs . This wool makes the perfect snow! It is much lighter than this picture and it gives it the right variation and not a pure white look. I have no idea what the wool is called but if you contact her tell her Cathy sent you (I need the brownie points lol) I just had her set another yard aside for me. 
***
Well I have lots more to say but I will save it for next time I hope to post again this week I need to fit it all in. 
Have a wonderful week and stay healthy!