Winter Go Away

Well friends if this was March instead of January,

I would say it was going out like a lion.

For the next two days

we will be in the midst of a Polar Vortex.

Temps with windchill are expected to be

between -25 to -45 degrees.

Not fit for man or animals.

 I will be working from home the next few days.

Bob is home sick...

and I hope he does not share.

Some good news for those affected by the 

flooding and ice just to the North of us.

Although it is still jammed by us,

upriver has a little opening in the ice.

Driving home last night,

I saw the Winter ducks

(Redheads, Canvasbacks and those cute 

little black and white diving ducks,

called Buffleheads)

With the Winter ducks back in the river...

that means one thing to us.

The Bald Eagles are back.

I saw one of our magnificent ones

flying last night too!

It was an awesome sight!!! 

Today will be my last post of

my Winter decor.

Next month will be the month of

L O V E

This is my prim desk.

I placed it at an angle for the Winter.

This hooked chair mat fit perfectly on my stool.

I usually keep it on the kitchen table.

This was the corner where I kept

my Christmas tree up for Winter.

Night view.

Each year I put garland up around

 the doorways

that leads into the kitchen.

I do the same for the other side 

that also leads into our kitchen.

This view looks into the area

where I feature my monthly

CupboardScapes.

Nighttime view.

Well, I will finally be taking down the 

Winter trees and garland for next year.

Looking forward to featuring 

my dad's favorite color next.

R E D 

Are you looking forward to February?

I know I am.

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm.

Winter Go Away Blessings To All!

Janice

A Semi Finish Of Sorts

Sunday morning here in Michigan.

With the calm before the storm.

We are expecting 3 to 8 inches tomorrow.

If we get the high end,

unfortunately it will cause our river

to rise more....with more flooding.

The Coast Guard has been working

day and night to undo the ice jam,

with no success yet.

I hope they can free it soon.

Today I show you my second home.

This was the first one.

Then I made this.

Not yet sure what I will make out of it.

Any suggestions?

So now I have 2 semi finishes.

Both blue houses.

Will put these aside for a bit,

as today I am making

B U N N I E S 

My favorite!

What will you be doing on this last 

Sunday of January?

Chicken Noodle Soup 

will  also be warming us up today later on.

Stay warm and dry my friends!

Janice

A Winter Mantle

Hello all!

Hope everyone's week is going good.

Last Saturday we had 5 inches of snow.

Not a bad number considering

those of you who commented 

with 15 and 21 inches. Yikes I say.

The worst for us came in the form of ice.

Sunday night it came in with a vengeance.

The river ice which normally comes 

down from Lake Huron

usually comes in on waves at a time.

It does not jam up all in one evening.

Now with the winds that kicked up,

this caused a lot of flooding for folks

along our mighty river.

Thankfully we are ok.

This picture I took of the restaurant near us.

The ice was coming over the boardwalk

and water was everywhere in the parking lot.

This is our dock.

At the end the ice is covering it...

so not sure if we will have a dock left

once the ice is gone.

We had to replace the end of it last year as well.

The Coast Guard from the US and Canada

are trying to free it up.

Canada is across from us.

Now mind you the Coast Guard is working

without pay because of the Govt. shutdown...

and we are all thankful they still are.

Many local businesses are chipping in 

to provide these hard working folks

with food and a hand.
Liberty Tax will give them their refund
same day if they receive one.

I could not imagine working without pay...

could you?

Without them here in our neck of the woods,

our homes would be flooded.

Some already were before they got here.

We are still not out of the woods yet.

It was freezing rain and/or raining

all day yesterday 
which will raise the water level now.

So please say a wee prayer for both

our brave Coast Guard and those

 affected by the flooding of our big river.

So back to my post.

I wanted to bring a bit of Spring into my

Winter mantle.

So I added these white flowers to my cake crocks.

I also sprinkled some faux snow

on my topiaries.

Mr. Flakes as I call him towers above

smiling down at all his domain.

{our living room}

It's a humble domain,

but I think he likes being here.

LOL

Have a great day my friends.

Winter Mantle Blessings To All!

Janice

January CupboardScape

Happy Monday dear friends.
Today I bring you my first
CupboardScape
of 2019.

Later today Bob and I are off to an eye doctor visit.
We both need this checkup...long overdo.

So last week our hoarder house

that we went to,

was a real doozie.

No furniture and wall to wall boxes

of stuff.

We came home with a van full and hope 

to go back again.

No primitives,

but lots of stuff for our store.

This snowman holds a dear place
in my heart.
My dad made it for me.
Since he is passed now, it reminds me of him.
I bring him out each Winter.

Friday night it started snowing.

Bob and I went out to dinner,

then stayed at the store until 10:30

changing up our one window

for Valentine's.

We were not finished pricing,
so we went back early Saturday morning
to finish up.

It was about 1:00 when we were done.

Bob asked me to stay and then at 2:00

we would leave and close up...

since it had been snowing all morning.

By 2:00 customers started coming in.

I was quite surprised as I would not 

have ventured out if I did not have to.  

2:00 ended up being 5:30pm,

as folks kept coming.

We usually close at 6:00pm.

We stayed open until 5:50pm.

We have the best customers...

but they should have stayed home.

We ended up with 5 inches of snow.

It was our first snowstorm of the season.

The East coast had it much worse.

The ice is now started to come into the river.

Our big river runs 7 miles per hour.

Because of this the ferries are shutting

down this evening

that go between the mainland

and to the islands and Canada.

It is quite dangerous at night for them.

If you had any snow this weekend,

would love to know how much fell in your area.

Also just to let you know,

I do comment back to your comments,

directly on that post...

so if you like to go back, you can read my reply.

January Snowflake Blessings To All!

Janice

Let It Snow

TGIF FRIENDS!

So whilst I reveal my Christmas tree
turned into a Winter tree,
I have yet another story to tell.

Before I tell it though,
I wanted to let you know that this tree
was where I once again
used paper ornament, 
along with snowflakes and my bonnets. 

Now for the story.

In the rural county where my grandparents

lived there were iron bridges that were in place

to cross the Black River as it meandered through 

the county.

These bridges consisted

of long boards on each side,

enough board for one car

 to go over at a time.

Now you had to get you car tires

exactly on these boards

to drive over, else you were in trouble.

Big trouble.

Even I had to drive over them

before they were replaced...

and they were not fun.

Today's story happened in the 1940's.

My dad was born in 1929, 

so he was almost a teen.

 Grampa H finally purchased his first car.

No more horse and buggy for him...

or sleigh in the Winter.

One Winter day he decided to take his family

out for a drive and gramma

wanted to add some grave blankets

at the cemetery for her parents.

The cemetery was past the river

in a grove of trees.

Grampa took it slow and eased up to the bridge,

making sure the tires were on the boards.

The cemetery bridge was on a hill,

so grampa had to rev the engine

 a bit to cross over.

The family spent some time at the cemetery,

and once they were ready to go,

the temperature dropped & it began to snow.

Once again grampa approached

 the bridge slowly,

however this time he was going downhill.

Now you know what they say about bridges.

For those who don't live in the Snowbelt,

bridges ice up before the road does.

This was the case this time.

Grampa was halfway on that bridge

when the car hit the ice and there they were

sideways on that bridge.

Grampa managed to get out of the car

and told gramma to stay with the kids.

My dad said that was the scariest moment

in his life before going to the Korean War

.

Grampa walked to the nearest farm

and came back with the farmer and his tractor.

They used a chain to get the car back on the boards.

Then towed it off.

If they had ended up in the river,

I would not be here today to tell this story.

Yes, this is a true story.

My family has lived a very colorful life.

Many many stories were passed on.

Dear Sandy suggested that I should write

 a book and add my pictures.

Maybe when I am retired, I may do that.

For now, I just share them with you.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

We are going to get some snow.

Glad I do not have to cross

any iron bridges anymore.

Let It Snow Blessings To All!

Janice 

Working By Candle Light

It might be cold outside,
but it warms my heart 
with all of the sweet comments
you share with me.
You are the best friends one can have!
The majority of you 
liked my hooked house straight up.
It must be the artsy fartsy in me,
because I liked it on the angle.
Bob liked it straight up too.
I am the weird one. LOL

Today's story was one my dad often told me.

His parents...my gramma & grampa H
had a fine farmhouse.
They worked hard as dairy farmers.
When my dad was growing up though,
the farmhouse did not have electricity.

Dad and his siblings would have to do their
morning chores before school.
They actually did have to walk 
a mile each way to school and back.
The one room schoolhouse still stands today.
It was turned into a home now.

Any way, after nightly chores and dinner,
it was time for homework.

The kitchen was the heart of the farmhouse.

Dad and his siblings would gather around the table,

either by candlelight or lantern.

Dad blamed his bad eyes on doing

his homework at night.

I love my lit candle at night.
I do take for granted the convenience
of being able to have lights on.

Candle light is pure enjoyment,
not a necessity as it was for my dad.

Since my post on my shoes pertained to my mom,

so this story pertains to my dad.

This display is all that is school,

and doing homework,with a bit of Winter pulled in.

Now you might ask...

Janice what does this blue sock have to do

with your story.

Well it was another story my dad told me.

Gramma H always made a homemade

 cake for everyone on their birthday.

One year, one of my dad's brother's

wanted to bring the cake out to the table.

He had taken his shoes off but left

 his socks on.

Dad said he was being a showoff.

Uncle Ken came came out of the kitchen

rather ran out of the kitchen....

Do you know where this story is going?

Anyway Uncle Ken ran out of the kitchen

holding the birthday cake...

his birthday cake I have to add.

Holding it up in the air with one hand.

Of course he slipped and the cake 

ended up on him and the floor.

It seems funny now thinking about it...

but I know dad and the rest of the family

were not happy one bit.

Uncle Ken did not have a birthday cake that year.

It was one story my uncle could never live down.

For those new to my blog,

this portrait is of my dad's grandparents.

My paternal great grandparents 

Effie and Robert Wagner. 

Parents of my Gramma H.

Since today's stories were about my dad,
it was fitting to have this display
under my great grandparents portrait.

Oh yeah...the flowers you see I added
because gramma H was very fond of her flowers.

The jingle bells were just there because it reminded
me of the sleigh bells grampa H had in the barn.

In other news:
Today I took a personal day from work.
Bob and I are headed out on a pick.
A gentlemen called us to go through his mom's home.
We were told she was a hoarder.
The van is empty.
Hope to purchase some goodies for our store.

Candle Light Blessings To All!
Janice