Brrrrr!

We woke up to a whooping 5 degrees this morning. The house was reasonably warm, my preparations from yesterday worked.
These are the windows in the mudroom, the ice is on the inside.

Floyd, the extra cat, spent the night inside but he insisted on being let out in the morning. Maybe he thinks he is a polar bear because he is white. His daughter seems to think the same, I found her between the blanket and the window and a few of her hairs got stuck in some ice. Silly furry monsters. ;-)

I am baking bread, the oven is on a low setting to help the dough rise and it is going well. I have cooked beans to add to the potato goulash I am making for dinner and there is some orange punch simmering in the crock pot.

The cats are either running around like crazy or snoozing on the bed and in the sun spot by the window. The car started up without any problems this morning, good old boy that he is.

I am set up to do some sewing but I can't find enough outlets to plug everything in I need. I don't want to blow a fuse. I'd like to watch a movie while sewing but that means I have to plug in the speakers, together with the power converter for the sewing machine and the Ott-Lite for my poor old eyes it may be just a bit too much, guess, I'll go without the movie.

Hope you are all keeping safe and warm. I leave you with a picture of Mr. Jackie, telling me that he absolutely needs more treats. See you all soon!

Monday

Well, my day did not go quite as planned. Instead I was preparing for the low temperatures we are expecting tonight and tomorrow. I hung blankets on the bedroom windows and a quilt in the doorway to the kitchen, the kitchen door went missing long before we moved into the house and normally it is not a big deal. But with the current cold it makes it difficult to keep the middle room, where most of our life seems to take place, warm. The kitchen gets warm enough from cooking and baking. There are extra blankets for the cats and for us and I made a new sleeping box for the extra cat that lives in our garden/basement. I will sleep a little better knowing he is inside tonight. I closed off the front room for the time being, it faces north and is the coldest of all the rooms. As always, once something becomes inaccessible for the cats it also becomes extremely interesting. ;-) They have calmed down now and are all snoozing on the bed, except Mr. Jackie who is with me. 
I hope tomorrow I will be able to go through with my plans for crafting, reading and just a bit of cleaning. I will also bake bread, which will definitely warm up the kitchen.
Wherever you are tonight, stay warm and take care of your pets. And check in on your neighbors, just in case.

More Yarn

Yes, I know, I have plenty already, but this is actually the second part of my Christmas present from Del and I have a specific project in mind for it. It was supposed to arrive before Christmas but the first package was lost.

Feline Friday

The first Feline Friday of 2014 is actually a look back at "Boxing Day" at our house. ;-)

I did not get their presents finished in time so I decided to give them something else to play with. They sure love boxes. Does anyone else have boxes full of boxes in their house or are we just weird?

Taking Stock

This is all the yarn I currently have in the house, except the sock yarn I am knitting with at the moment and some cotton yarn remnants. Some of it I will let go because I will never use it but I think I can come up with projects for the rest. If nothing else, my cats can always use more blankets.

New Years Day

The day was cold and sunny and we started it off with some shoo-fly pie for breakfast.

We had stuffed pepper soup for lunch, one of the best recipes I pulled off the internet last year, followed by more pie and coffee.

Spent the afternoon knitting and watching movies. We found out that Del is allergic to honeysuckle. He pulled some off the fence on Saturday because it was about ready to bring our rickety old fence down and by today he was covered in a red rash. A quick run to the pharmacy was in order, some antihistamine tablets should take care of it.

Some of my dishcloths were getting ratty and needed replacing, so here we go, new dishcloths for a new year.

Happy New Year!

May the new year bring you good health, happiness and everything you are hoping for.

From our house to yours:

Holidays

While 'cleaning' out my camera I found a few more holiday photos.

St. Nikolaus Day

Christmas Breakfast

Sunny Frankie

Presents

I totally forgot to show you the lovely Christmas gifts I received from my friend Coleen. The little bag is perfect for my new sock knitting project and I love the basket, so handy to keep all the little things I use for sewing and knitting close to me. Not in the picture are several bags of kitty treats that turned my little darlings into addicted monsters. ;-) Boy, they sure love those treats!

And from Santa Del I got new sock yarn. When I told him what color I wanted (pea green with orange and purple) his reaction was: 'Well, they are your socks.' Guess that means I don't have to knit any for him. :-)

Yuck!

This is not how I had planned to spend the end of the year. I caught a stomach bug and was out cold for 24 hours. I am feeling better but I am still sore all over and stiff from laying in bed for a whole day and two nights.
I hope this thing is going to leave me soon and pray that it will not take up residence in Del.
Legend has it that how you spend the time between the years will influence the way the new year will be going, I just hope it does not mean I will be sick on an off. I have not been sick for so long it really hit me hard.
I do plan to spend at least the last day of the old and the first day of the new year doing things I enjoy, hoping this will cancel out the bad things.

Feline Friday

Treats anyone?

Merry Christmas!

To all my dear readers, near and far:

Winter Solstice

Our celebration included:

Evergreens from the garden.

A 'sunny' lunch.

Followed by a 'sunny' dessert.

And plenty of Wassail.

We even managed to light candles after dark (not easy in a house full of cats).

Some 'people' in this house show no respect for my decorating efforts.

Old Faithful

I bought this Christmas cactus in November 2006 and it faithfully blooms every year.

Feline Friday

New Socks

I love knitting socks, almost instant gratification.

Vintage?

I am folding laundry and re-organizing the linen closet this morning and I came across this stack of hand towels that my grandmother(s) gave to me when I was in my teens, which makes them at least 35 years old. Does that qualify them as vintage? Then what does that make me, an antique?
Despite their age they are all in great shape, whereas I have some I bought not that long ago that are becoming rather threadbare and frayed now. I also have tea towels of the same age.
I am not even showing you all the "help" I am getting this morning, just let me tell you, I would be finished a lot faster without it. ;-) Just now another stack of towels hit the floor, thank you Leo!

The sun is shining today and the week ahead is supposed to be warmer, I hope the forecast is right, I am getting a bit blue from all the dark and dreary weather (hence the organizing bout).

Have a great week everyone!

Feline Friday

Another Finish

I finally got the wall hanging made from the "Leafing through the Year BOM" blocks finished. I am not completely happy with it because the stabilizer I used behind the stitchery is causing some wrinkles. Maybe I can try to iron them out.

Yarn Therapy

I finished a pair of fingerless gloves for myself. I am still feeling sad but as always, life goes on and I find comfort in doing what I love.

Miss Brownie

Our beautiful Miss Brownie passed away last night, suddenly and unexpected. We are shocked and heartbroken.

And so it begins

The waiting and watching, the quietest time of the year. At least that's what it should be, in our crazy world it sometimes becomes the complete opposite of that. I try every year to have at least calm and quiet Advent Sundays. We start with lighting the candle(s) at breakfast and some nice quiet Christmas music, my favorite CD is called "Celtic Harp: The Christmas Rose", and we played it this morning. And we usually have some nice treat in the late afternoon, today it will be mulled cider and cranberry orange bread.

Yesterday we brought the Christmas decorations down from the attic and I noticed that some of them are beginning to show their age. We gave most of our stuff away last year, including the big tree. With 8 cats in the house it would be way too stressful and dangerous to have it out (a few of them are obsessed with anything stringy). This year I hung all my Christmas wall hangings, our advent calendar, filled with chocolates, and I decorated the smallest of our remaining two trees with shatterproof ornaments. I also did a little decorating in the kitchen.

I wish you all a lovely first advent week.