January CupboardScape

 Today I feature my first

cupboardscape of the year.

Hello Friends!

When I was thinking about what to display

for January, I immediately thought

of my snowy excursions on my

maternal and paternal grandparents farms.

This antique sled reminded me of the times

we would sled down gramma H's hill.

Her farm was situated on top 

of a pretty good sized hill.

It was tough riding up it in the Summer

on our bikes.

However in Winter, we loved sledding down it.

Gramma B would always tell us to take

our wet boots and socks off right away.

She would then hang them on the clothesline

she had in her living room above the wood stove.

Along with our socks, she also hung our mittens and scarfs.

Yes she had a clothesline in her living room.

Only in the Winter months though.

She strung it from hooks on the wall above

her woodstove.

She did not have a furnace.

At home we would lay our wet socks and mittens

on the furnace vents.

Speaking of home,

every Autumn my dad would mound up a portion

of the garden into an ice rink for us.

He would fill it with water and once it froze,

we would ice skate outside at our house.

The skates shown here are antique ones. 

I did not have any clothesline to add to my display,

so I added these socks to my dolly washer.

Can you imagine skating at night

 using one of these antique lanterns.

How romantic it would have been.

When we came back inside from having fun,

gramma B always had hot soup broth ready for us.

She always used enamelware,

so she would put broth in a cup like these

for us to warm up with.

Over at gramma H's house,

us cousins always made snowmen and snow forts.

Gramma would provide us with a carrot,

pipe and scarf for our creation.

Now even though there were sugar maples on

gramma B's farm, she never tapped them.

The white bucket here is a firkin or as other

folks call them a sugar bucket.

I added this faux tree only because gramma B

had lots of pines on her farm.

We use to cut down one each year for

our own Christmas tree.

I should say my dad cut it down.

More socks and a pair of mittens hang from

my tobacco rack.

I always look at the back of quilts I purchase.

This one I really love because of the

cream and blue stripes.  

The pattern on this enamel cup

is called snow on the mountain.

This pattern is getting harder to find.

That does it for my first cupboardscape of 2022.

Hope you enjoyed it.

In other news, the ice has come down the river

fast and furious.

Our ferry to the island has already shut down

twice this past week.

Two freighters also got stuck,

with two Canadian Coast Guard cutters

cutting the ice to free them.

Which now caused a flood watch for our

coastal area because the ice shifts more to land

when they do this.

This had caused damage to our dock

two years in a row and hoping not a third time.

Please send your thoughts and prayers to 

our friends or even family that are bring

affected with the Nor'easter this weekend.

I heard up to 3 feet of snow 

with winds up to 70 MPH. 

UGH

Bob and I enjoyed a Lebenese dinner made by my FIL.

He made Kousa which is stuffed squash.

It is similar to stuffed cabbage,

however you need a special utensil to hollow

out the squash and the tomato sauce has allspice in it.

I also made a Lebenese salad and we had pita bread.

What are your weekend plans?

January Snow Blessings To All!

Janice

Snow Mittens

 Hello friends!

So last October I picked up my hook.

Have not picked it up since then.

I decided to hook a few mittens

which were for sale at the gift shop for Christmas.

I only hooked 6 and each was a different

color combination of

gray, olive tan and blue.

I dont remember which ones sold,

but I do know Sandy purchased my favorite.

I wanted to use non traditional colors,

so that if someone wanted to keep

it up, you could do so for the Winter

and not just Christmas.

They are backed with wool,

so you could add white tallow berries

or just greens inside and hang from a cabinet door.

Or even from a door knob.

Each of them had a wool piece stitched 

at the top for hanging.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pics

of all of them completed,

but you get the gist of what they looked like.

Another update on my daughter's progress.

Sunday we talked and it was the first time

she was able to sit and cross her legs 

since the first surgery back in Nov. 

She does not want to jinx herself,

but feels she is getting better.

I continue to pray that another infection

does not creep in as her surgeon

said there is still a 20% chance it could

happen again.

Thank you again for keeping her in 

your thoughts and prayers.

You are all the

BEST!!!

Snow Mitten Blessings To All!

Janice

Winter In Full Gear

 Hello dear friends.

As we wind down the month of January,

I wanted to show you our

gift shop window display.

On Christmas day we changed the entire

Christmas displays out to Winter.

This is a portion of the window display.

I created the white trees using white cardboard.

We moved most of the trees here and just 

changed out to all white lights.

We have a pretty big window,

yet it was full.

Full of snowmen, trees and penguins.

These vintage like white lit trees came

in the week of Christmas.

I guess better late than never.

We are still having supply issues,

however according to our government this

has been solved.

Guess not in our state.

Just love the white lights reflecting on 

the white chenille I used to mimic snow.

Finally this is the display that greets you

when you walk through the door.

Now for those local who want to come

see this in person...

well we already changed it out.

We kept it up for 3 weeks and decided

we needed to have the big window changed

for Valentine's Day now.

Our side window still does have some 

of the snowman displays.

In other news,

my daughter is feeling much better.

However her appointment the other day,

her doctor stressed that there is still a 20% chance

another infection could happen,

and she would have to endure another surgery.

Am praying she is the 80% now.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Tundra and I will be doing tax stuff

and possible making some more Easter goodies.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Wintertime Blessings To All!

Janice

Hare Of Hearts

Good morning friends!

Hope this posts finds you well. 

My daughter is finally home now.

A nurse will be coming 3 days a week to check

in on her.

Bob and I treated her and the grands

to take out Mexican on Saturday night.

We took Tundra with us and he and her

Aussie played tug o war with the rope.

Even though Zoey is younger than Tundra,

she is much stronger at pulling on that rope.

He always gave up and tried again.

The ice came in like a fury Saturday morning.

By Sunday morning the ferry to the island

was shut down because of the ice.

Cannot wait to see the Eagles come back now.

They follow the Winter ducks when the ice comes in.

I started bringing out some Valentine decor.

I so like mixing in some greens 

with the pops of red.

Today's post is a OOAK

{one of a kind}

hare I created for Valentine's.

He is  painted a whitish gray color

made from muslin.

I named him 

Hare Of Hearts.

Once again I used red and black fabric

for my Winter/Valentine theme.

A red wool heart is on wire which was 

then blanket stitched in black.

I think he turned out cute.

I realized his neck ruffle was a little cockeyed,

so I had to fix it when I got back to the store. LOL

This tin sign which is also for sale,

was the inspiration for my hare.

The Alice In Wonderland Rabbit.

A few more hearts.

This one with a tag I made which reads,

Wrapped In Love.

My version of a sprinkle heart cookie.

Close up of the glass beads I used.

The silver ones are not glass.

Plus a few others.

I had more of the striped ones, but already sold.

The blue ones were already spoken for before

I could take a pic.

Do you ever look at something around you

that draws inspiration for you?

Hare Of Heart Blessings To All!

Janice

A Winter Mantle

Good morning friends! 

This mantle display was really my Christmas one.

However with all of the greenery and fruit,

just decided to keep it up a bit longer for Winter. 

Each side has boxwood in an urn, 

a glass candlestick with red candle

and some stone fruit.

I also added a bottle brush tree to 

each of the glass candlestick globes.

Cedar garland underneath.

Looks good for Winter too,

don't ya think?

The stocking is more Christmas themed,

however sine my mom made this for me,

it makes me smile when I look at it.

So it stays too. :-)

I like to do displays for Winter after Christmas.

With the long dark cold nights,

it makes it more cheerier inside

with greens and snowmen throughout.

Do any of you decorate for Winter?

In other news.

We lost my neighbor the other day.

She passed in her sleep at 57. So young.

Then a family member of Bob's passed yesterday.

Am hoping our year gets better.

My daughter thought she was having a stroke.

Her fingers started tingling.

Her lips froze, and then the left side of her

face went numb.

They ruled out the stoke, but then told her it

might be a brain infection.

Hearing that news I lost it.

I cried all night and into the morning.

It wasn't until she called back and said

the MRI found nothing, that they

realized she might be allergic to her meds...

which she was.

Thankfully now she came home last night.

Hopefully now she can heal.

Thank you again for all of your thoughts & prayers.

Winter Mantle Blessings To All!

Janice

From Heart To Finish

Er,  I should say from Start to Finish

on how I made this heart.

Start with 2 pieces of muslin.

Placed together.

I hand sew all of my projects.

I always try to hide my slit 

when I want to stuff a creation. 

You can see the slit better once 

the piece was turned over.

I lightly stuffed and then sewed the slit closed.

 

Next I cut out another heart

from red wool.

Silver beads were attached all around.

I then took and added another smaller

muslin heart.

Attached red glass beads.

I then attached the beaded piece 

to the stuffed heart.

Packaged in a cello bag.

Tied with a black and white check ribbon.

I chose this color ribbon,

because my theme for our Winter/ Valentine

 back room at the gift shop

is red and black. 

Only have 2 left.

Guess I should have made more,

but I am on Easter now.

Now I always save my fabric remnants.

I use these when I make pillows.

I like the feel of fabric instead of

the morning glory stuffing I use for

everything else.

Waste not I say.

I did decide to take the red wool out.

This may be used for making wool pennies

at some point.

Thank you again for all your 

thoughts & prayers for my daughter.

This week she had to have a blood transfusion.

Her blood pressure crashed & heart rate

went through the roof.

Her hemoglobin was really low,

thus the reason for the transfusion.

I also spent some time taking care 

of my grands this past week.

Looks like she will still be in the hospital

yet another week.

I know she is getting antsy to get home.

Am hoping she is through the worst of it now.

Yesterday I took our kitty Ace to the vet

or his annual checkup.

Once I placed him in his carrier,

the entire way there and home

he kept saying

Get MEOW-out of here.

He would not stop meowing. LOL

Once back home he was fine.

Well of to get Tundra his Timbit,

and my bagel.

Heart To Finish Blessings To All!

Janice

 

A Christmas Bath

 

Happy New Year Friends!

      Cannot believe a new year

is here already.

We both were in bed by 10:00pm

New Year's Eve. LOL

Here is what's been happening in my world.

Right after Christmas 

we lost a friend's wife to covid.

Bob fell off a chair in our storage room

and almost broke his neck.

He was inches away from hitting his head

on a cement statue he put in there on the floor.

His back is still pretty bruised.

My daughter ended up in ER the other day.

She has still been in pain and the surgeons

kept saying she had to work through it.

She went to her normal doctor and then

back to ER at his advise.

This time surgery to scrape an infection

which occurred near her bone.

She thought something was wrong.

She needs to get another doctor in my opinion.

Prayers for her on getting better.

This was her 3rd surgery now since

a week before Thanksgiving.

We spent Christmas Eve night

and Christmas day changing the gift store

from Christmas to Winter and Valentine's.

{more to come on that in upcoming posts}

I started creating bunnies for Spring.

{yes I have to be ahead of the seasons}

We got our first major snowstorm

with 6 inches of the white stuff.

Not a lot for those in Wisconsin though.

But a lot for us in one storm.

My nephews wife in North Carolina

got her wish for snow.

Not here in Michigan when they came up for Christmas,

but at home in North Carolina. LOL 

I had to already order my Christmas decor

for this year...or I would not get it by Christmas.

My themes will be more gingerbread,

red/green and a Nordic Christmas.

 

I hope you are not tired of Christmas,

because I wanted to share a few pics

of our bathroom.

Tied a bit of red velvet to my oil lamp.

Placed my lil Noel pillow

in with some rusty bells and  real chestnuts.

I picked these off the ground in my mom's town

one year when we went to breakfast.

They still look good after many years.

Another display on the other side of our sink.

My newest vintage Santa in here.

We sold these fun signs at the gift store,

So I took one home for myself.

The cabinet above our toilet.

I so love vintage Christmas boxes.

Back in the day you really did not need wrapping paper

with these festive boxes.

I created these peppermint candy sticks many years ago.

Kept one for myself.

I even made the wrapper and aged it 

with a stain spray.

.

Another festive display.

Added another piece of velvet ribbon

with my cross stitch pillow in the basket.

Now originally I had my poinsettia bush

here in another basket.

When Bob fell, he dented in this 

vintage like pail.

Unable to sell it now,

no one was the wiser with me placing

my poinsettia in it.

It will stay home now with me.

Just glad Bob is ok.

While I am sure most of you have taken down

your Christmas decor, I plan on keeping

mine up until mid January.

Always have, always will.

Will then keep my greens up for Winter,

and add some snowmen.

Do you decorate for Winter?

Post Christmas Bath Blessings To All!

Janice