Snow and Cold and Sun

 I made this same quilt a few months ago for my niece.

Hello! And how are you doing this frosty day? This week we were blanketed with at least 3 inches of fluffy, beautiful,snow.  Schools were closed for three days and the streets were so icy that a curfew was actually issued.  Three days of cozy fires, family all around me and a big pot of chili to get us through. These are just the very best days! Our weather has been crazy this fall and winter - summer temperatures lasted well into November, then in early December -  BAM! Winter arrived with ferocious abandon! We have rarely been above freezing (surprising for us), had many low's in the teens, and a big, beautiful snow fall in early December. I am one happy camper!

Do you sew? I do...  ahem, perhaps I should say I play at sewing. Seriously, I've been sewing for 35 years. I've made clothes, and crafts and I especially love making quilts. I'm just finishing up one for my daughter. This small lap quilt cost not only the fabric, but every needle I put in my machine. But hey, it only took me 4 brand new needles to realize I needed to remove the safety pins at the edge of the quilt. And , somewhere deep in my sewing machine is a dull needle that I was replacing with a new one (four). It slipped out of my fingers when I was changing it out and fell straight through the little hole. Once I made a pair of pants that ended up looking like the one's MC  Hammer wore. When I modeled them for Don, he rolled on the floor laughing. I made a beautiful maternity dress once. While sitting at my desk at work  I was admiring how pretty the wrong side of the fabric was....then I realized I had sewn the dress with the wrong side out. Geesh! Maybe I should take up paint-by-numbers!

Anyhoo - I'm going to be sewing the binding on the quilt and tying it today. The snow is mostly gone and things are getting back to normal around here. Work Monday, all these days off has made me think of retiring. I promised by boss I would work 2 more years (after this school year),  but I'm really looking forward to it.

That last picture is of a huge animal paw print in the snow. I can't imagine what made it. As far as I know the largest animal we have is deer and it doesn't look like one of their prints. Kind of freaky.

Keep warm and enjoy your day.

January Doings

 Bluebird of happiness...except kitty isn't happy.

Happy New Year! Can you still say that even though January is half over? January, the quiet month. Oh how I love January. Pearl gray skies, bare limbs swaying, hundreds of little chirpy visitors, cozy fires.

 It takes me a while to get back into the groove after the  holidays. So much stuff that needs to find a home, so many flat spaces (tops of every flat piece of furniture) mounded with who knows what. Whee, no wonder I was feeling so tired, ha.  Now I have a 3 day weekend and am humming along quite nicely with my to-do list.

I've been thinking a lot about my daddy. He passed away in September. He was fun and funny. He made up all these "Weir" secret activities. We had a Weir Shuffle (walking and making a rhythm with your heels, we had a Weir Handshake (I'd have to kill you if I showed it to you, lol). There was a Weir Hand-capade where you made a certain rhythm with slapping the tops of your hands then your legs, over and over. We had a Weir Song (Don't Ya Just Know It   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQM7c1h9Slw). When we were older we sang this at every get together. It was even sung at my niece's  wedding reception, all us Weirs singing off key as loud as we could. Poignantly, it's the last thing we did at daddy's memorial wake, a tender and loud memory. All of us singing with tears clouding our vision. Lovely, lovely memories.

I hope January is being good to you! We're having wonderful, sustained cold weather. My garden is sooooo happy, and so am I!