Sock Kitties

 Well it is now almost mid February.

Getting closer to Spring.

WOOHOO!

However we had a bit more snow today

This black blob is the makings of my sock kitty.

When I was stitching these,

I was reminded that my dad always wore

black dress socks to church on Sundays.

How I know is because one of my chores

was to fold clothes at home.

I used the same material that actual socks 

are made from to make these sock kitties.

I only had time to create 5 of these.

Each kitty has a different personality.

If you look closely at the above pic,

you can see my seam.

It would be hidden with the kitty's scarf.

These three pink ones have newer buttons

The 2 black ones have vintage button eyes.

I just simply love how these turned out!

Depending on the amount of stuffing added

to each one makes tilt to either 

the left or right.

They are available now at the gift shop.

Just in time for Valentine's.

Bob and I decided to shut down 

the gift shop on Monday's for now.

It is Winter and not much traffic this day.

Will be changing over to Spring tonight

at the store.

Well what I can that is.

Hopefully the rest of  my Spring inventory

 will arrive in time.

Especially when you have to purchase

months in advance.

But there is no supply shortage....

yeah right.

In other news around the homestead.

I have seen a total of 4 eagles now.

One in the tree,

while the others were on the ice.

A freighter got so badly stuck in the ice,

that it ended up sideways in the river.

One of the coast guard cutters had to tow it

back inside the break line they made in the ice.

I wish I could have seen it in person.

Was working the store at the time.

Several customers told me about it.

My daughter is doing a bit better.

The pick line may come out next week,

which is used for her meds to stop infection.

However they still want to do a MRA

to once again make sure she does not 

have a brain infection. UGH

Bob and I worked on our front windows later

this afternoon into the evening.

My theme is black and gold in the front one,

with somewhat of a garden one on the side.

Hopefully all is well in your neck of the woods.

Have a marvelous weekend my friends!

Sock Kitty Blessings To All!

Janice

 
 

A Snowy Splendor Inside

Hello all!

Hope your weekend is a good one.

I am not a Winter fan anymore

like I was when I was a kid.

Neither is Bob.

So we spend most of our Winter evenings

in our living room because that

is where our fireplace is.

I always leave the lights up around

the two entryways into our kitchen.

(that is a green light at the bottom)

When my lights went out, all I could find 

was a green replacement for the burnt out bulb. LOL

It just makes sitting in the living room

at night even more cozier.

I usually take them down mid February.  

I also bring in my snowman displays

after I take down the Christmas ones.

This year however, I only did one.

Adding in a snowman pillow with

a blue & white quilt.

Its hard to see in this pic,

but there are three rye baskets.

This snowman was made by one of my friends.

She made him using a Bemis feedsack.

I kept up my small snow flocked tree.

minus the red leaves coverlet piece, 

stocking over picture and Santa.

Christmas pics.

See how color can change the look 

of a display.

The same rye baskets & firkin were there

all of the time. 

Tree still in the same place.

Bowls underneath still there.

Green in pipe box also remain on he wall.

A simple display to keep the

Winter blues at bay.

Well thank goodness the storm the other day

brought only 6 inches of snow.

Speaking of snow, our dog Tundra is loving it!

We have a hard time getting him in now. LOL

Even at the store he just wants to lay in it.

Crazy snow dog.

Yesterday I saw my first bald eagle for the season.

He was perched high in a tree looking majestic.

The ice has now jammed up

and is once again wrecking havoc to certain

homes in the area.

It is because the coast guard cuts the ice for

a freighter and then that ice pushes 

higher to the shoreline causing water to

push on land.

Because the river is higher than it use to be in years,

is why we are having this issue now.

Just wish the freighters would stop sailing

in the Winter like they use to.

Snowy Splendor Blessings To All!

Janice

One Bowl

 Three Valentine displays.

My head spins at times with all of the ideas

I think of. So much that at times I cannot fall asleep.

This time I had three ideas,

so I thought I would share with you all.

Taking one of my wood bowls.

I took these wood spools from my spare room.

I then wrapped 3 of them using 

vintage white & cream lace.

The other 2 were wrapped in red wool worms.

The bright red one was a vintage thread spool

 I already had.

Voila...instant display for Valentine's,

just using the colors of red and white.

Next up, I just placed a bit of faux greens

and red berries and placed this antique

Valentine card on top.

Lastly, I took these antique & vintage buttons

I had in a jar....

added them to the bowl and placed 

a velvet heart on top.

I also thought these displays would have

looked good in a white ironstone bowl

instead of a wood bowl.

How pretty it would be.

Alas I dont own any ironstone bowls.

(maybe I need to be on the hunt for one}

Would look good in my bathroom.

Hope you enjoyed my displays.

Do you have any valentine displays 

you would like to share?

In other news, looks like we are in for a doozy

of a snowstorm.

Models are showing 10-14 inches.

Bob brought in more wood just in case we

lose power today.

We did lose power for 4 hours this morning.

It was in the wee hours,

so we were still in our cozy bed.

For my friends who are also in the path

of this snowstorm, please stay safe and well.

Welcome to February!

One Bowl Blessings To All!

Janice 

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