Cozy Inside

Hello friends. 

As most of you know for the month of January,

I like to transition from Christmas to Winter decor.

I kept most of the greens up on the fireplace.

Removed the reindeer and added this child's pic.

One evening Bob and I were talking about

moving the living room couch so we could 

enjoy our fireplace for the Winter months.

Well I told him not to do anything until

after Christmas.

When I got home from work the next day...

he moved everything around.

this table no longer fit in the living room

where I had it, so it went into the bedroom...

until  after Christmas.

Decided it would look nice in front of 

the keeping room fireplace.

Added a wintery display.

Am calling it done. 

It makes the room seem even more cozier inside.

We are now cozy in both rooms.

The following posts are more of my

Winter displays for this year.

****WARNING***

Oodles of pics.

Hope you enjoyed this year's 

Winter displays.

Now onto Valentine's Day.

In other news,

 when I head outside will determine

if I am driving to work or working 

from home today.

The weather folks keep changing the forecast.

Not sure if we will be getting the ice storm,

or the snow.

If it is the ice, will be staying home.

Last night there were two Canadian 

Coast Guard cutters escorting 

two Canadian freighters through

our ice jammed river.

Wish I could take pics,

but the majority of the river road

has no place to park on the side...

and no parking signs are posted

every so many feet.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

What are your plans for the weekend?

I will be getting out my Valentine's decor.

Stay Cozy Blessings To All!

Janice 

Sunday Starts

 Hello my friends!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Today my first Sunday start

is  Mademoiselle Viola Martini 1876

by Gigi R.

I chose this one for my heritage wall

in homage of my great grandmothers. 

Since I stitched my great grandfathers in blue,

I thought this red would be a perfect color

for my great grandmothers.

Did not want to do in pink.

Stitching on 36 ct Legacy Lugana linen,

For the sampler letters using 

 Gentle Arts Cranberry floss.

The motifs will be completed with all 

of the called for flosses.

My next start is a pattern from 

Crocette a gogo.

I was drawn to this pattern for

both the snowmen and the hearts.

Did not want a lot of pink,

so opted for this teal blue for this snowman.

I also will change up the white letters 

in the alphabet.

Don't want that much white.

My goal for February is to stitch

mostly Valentine items,

however will continue my

sampler Sunday and work on my

heritage sampler this day.

I started this sampler yesterday.

It will not be a homage to any family member.

I chose it because of the saying.

Will stitch this entirely like is.

Oh Lord my God forsake me not

Be thou not far from me

Make haste to help me gracious God

My safety and my stay

This saying is from Psalm 38:21-22 

in which the words

were re-arranged somewhat.

My wee little start.

I decided I will work on night a week on this.

The vine has three different floss colors.

The flowers have two.

The big blotch of red will be a star once finished.

Am using all the called for flosses.

Stitching on 36 ct Buttermilk.

In other news,

Today is Groundhog Day.

Did you know this day started February 2, 1877,

by a group calling themselves the 

Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

Punxsutawney Phil became the official

groundhog for the day.

Nowadays, this group calls themselves

the Inner Circle.

They speak Pennsylvania Dutch

  at Gobbler's Knob

while getting Phil's prediction.

Thus far Phil has only been 40% correct

on his predictions.

Let's hope he gives us some good news today.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store

and driving back home spotted

another eagle on the ice.

Also saw some cardinals in our back yard

and a woodpecker in the distance.

He flew to tree and started pecking away.

Well have to clean house,

do laundry and maybe make something

using fabric. Will see.

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie 

will be our dinner tonight.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

Groundhog Blessings To All!

Janice

 

Whippy Wednesday

My first whippy Wednesday of 2025.

Let's start with Mary Jane Kerr 1876.

This sampler will be a homage to my grandmothers.

I will be changing up the motifs in the middle 

just a bit to reflect more of my memories

of my grandmothers.

This is what I started with.

The border had a cool color

with a warm color...and then

two warm colors for the first set of letters.

The artist in me had to make a change here. 

I changed the gold to a tan for that row.

Am now done with the alphabets.

Now onto the motifs...

which as I stated before will change up.

Left side.

Right side. 

I did add in the numbers 202

for the year...started that in 2024...

so will need to add in the number 5 now

for this year.

In front of the year is my initials.

The pattern just had initials in it,

so this was changed a bit as well.

Below these motifs I will add 

my grandmother's names.

Speaking of motifs, here is the first one.

The pattern of the morning glory was in red.

These color of morning glories were on

both of my grandparents farms...so of course 

I had to change the color.

The second motif I kept because 

both of my grammas had dogs.

I just chose my own floss colors.

The third motif will be different altogether.

I thought I had the floss for this one...

but had to order it. UGH

I don't have an LNS (local needlework store)

store close to me...

wish I did.

Hopefully it will come in before Sunday,

as I like to work on my sampler this day.

Could not do it last week.

Then I picked up Cupid's Sampler.

This is a Brenda Gervais design.

I actually started this back last April.

I only got this far, then put it away.

I am a seasonal stitcher,

so not sure why I even started this in April.

Oh well.

During my vacation I worked on this

for 2 days and cupid is finished now.

Also finished two rows of the alphabet.

The letter "C" for Cupid was a specialty stitch.

Am not a fan of specialty stitches because 

they take longer to stitch,

but I did it anyway.

This one was a Smyrna cross stitch.

Then I realized that each row of the alphabet

has one letter that had the four sided stitch. 

I could have just done these letters 

in plain cross stitch...but took the time to do them.

Am glad I did now as I actually like the look.

Finally I picked up Little Pear Pinkeep.

I was disappointed in myself

that this was not finished by 

Christmas last year.

Hopefully it will be this year.

Am almost finished now.

I just love how cute this lil bird is on the right...

holding its own little pear.

I did change the hearts from blue to orange

to compliment my un-traditional colors

for my Keeping room Christmas tree.

They look the same color as the pears, but are orange.

In other news,

I saw my first bald eagle Monday afternoon.

We only get to see them when there is ice.

They follow their food source into the river

this time of the year since the lake near us

gets frozen.

Last year we had no ice though

...therefore no ducks...

which in turn no eagles.

They are such an awesome bird.

Majestic for sure.

The ice remains in the river.

The Canadian ferry has shut down now.

The island ferry runs only during the daytime.

Plus the Polar Vortex is gone now....

however we may have a mixed storm

come in on Friday with snow, sleet, rain...

who knows??? 

Well have to get to work.

Hopefully the drive wont be bad.

Mid Week Blessings To All!

Janice

  

 

January CupboardScape

Today is my first CupboardScape of 2025.

Cannot believe this month is almost over already.

Just hoping Spring comes early this year.

When I was a kid I enjoyed sled rides.

I never wanted to come inside.

While at my gramma's though she would

always have soup to warm ourselves up 

when we did come in.

Decided to add in some floral to this display.

These flowers are a bluish gray.

Antique Skater's Lamp.

My mom made me this pillow eons ago.

Will cherish it forever...

and it comes out each Winter.

Red Mittens.

I myself choose to wear gloves now...

but as a kid my mom had mittens on us,

with those thingies that attached to our coat.

Forgot what they were called.

A faux tree at an angle on purpose.

Just liked the look of a falling tree.

There you have it folks.

A nice mixture of reds and blues,

which compliment each other.

In other news,

Mr. February has arrived.

I was unaware Bob entered Tundra as 

a candidate for this calendar.

When he was selected and I first saw the pic...

I did say to Bob that we have 

better pics of Tundra though.

Well Mr. February as we call him now,

is being his usual self.

The celebrity status has not gone 

to his head too much. LOL

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend,

whatever your plans are.

Warmer January Blessings To All!

Janice 

 

First 2025 Winter Display

When I take my Christmas down,

its time to do a bit of Winter decor. 

I have always liked to mix greens with 

the color blue in these displays.

I placed greens inside this rye basket.

Topped it with an antique pierced tin lantern.

I love these new candle lights.

They run on one AAA battery.

They stay on for six hours and then turn off

for 6 hours and repeat.

Best of all they move at the top to mimic a flame.

I left my one Christmas tree up.

In the place of the other tree now resides

my snowman that my friend made.

I finally found his broom.

It is a vintage child's broom.

Could not find it for years until I saw it in

the garage this Summer.

Bob had it thinking he could use it.

Oh Bob.

My snowman lost his wool hat over the years,

so I recently crocheted him a brown cap.

I so love keeping the lights up for January.

It makes the long Winter nights more bearable.

Even better when Bob

 puts a fire in our fireplace.

In other news,

you know it is cold when a Samoyed 

goes outside just to do his business

then wants to come in.

Speaking of Mr. February;

still waiting for the calendar to arrive.

Checking the tracking it arrived 

in Michigan Jan. 17th. which by all account

the next stop should have been our

local post office and then out for delivery....

but no... its now headed for 

Indianapolis, Indiana. UGH

The Polar vortex has arrived though.

Monday's morning temp was 5.

The high was 13. 

This morning (Tuesday) it is 4 right now.

Fingers crossed our furnace makes it.

We continue to make a fire

in the fireplace daily. 

We saw a flock of Robins yesterday.

I know they usually come back 

to Michigan in February, so seeing them

now was quite a surprise.

Also a surprise was seeing 2 deer without

their winter coats....

does this mean Spring will come early?

One can only hope...but animals usually

know more than we do.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Warm Winter Blessings To All!

Janice