Saturday Serenity - January 21, 2017

Such a pretty day here and I'm so thankful............ 

When I can dream..... I feel serene...........

Things to come.........

My flowers.............. 

A few road trips.............

The beach.........

A crafting getaway to some sweet little cottage...........

An afternoon tea with a good friend...........

A road trip or two.............

Mountains in SW Washington......

The ranching country by Prineville, Oregon.............

My beloved Columbia River Gorge..........

I do feel serene today............ dreaming................  at this very moment, life is good.

 

Will it ever stop????

Here's some more snow pix.. I'm sure you're all tired of them by now! At least it's sunny today and will "only" get down to 4 degrees tonight! 

1. Our patio table - that's a 24 inch ruler.. and since I took the pix 2 days ago, it has snowed 5 more inches. 

2. Snow kitty - Our rescue kitty, Rudy, playing in the snow. He loves it! He totally buries himself, rolls around, and then jumps like a rabbit at some invisible critter! Funny boy.

3. By our back garage door... getting quite a pile there - 2 days ago. Now 5 more inches on top!

4. Trying to shovel along the back of the house, to keep the snow off of the siding... I only got half way. Now 5 more inches on top again.  Oh garden... oh garden... where art thou??

5. Nest in our neighbor's tree.  Quite big.. there are predators around here, owls and hawks.

6. What do you do when you have 2 feet of snow on the ground and are pretty much housebound? Bake of course! Yum yum. Getting my sugar fix. 

These cookies are sinfully delicious! Let me know if you want the recipe. Only 4 ingredients.

I'm working on another post..... quite ingenious if I do say so myself............  here's a hint... and no sewing!

Bye for now... I'm going to go sit by the heater in the kitchen... have one of those puffy cookies and read for awhile.....temp is dropping fast! Tonight maybe down to zero again........I'm envious of those blog posters talking about cleaning house in their shorts!

 

Old to new... some projects done... some not....

I can't seem to get my bloggoing mojo going again.... what with all the Christmas and New Year's activities.. and company... and last minute things to do.... so thought I'd just post some random things of "old to new" and what I got finished and what I didn't! Here goes:

FINISHED AND DONE WITH:

Christmas tablecloth on the table finally (by December 24th)!!! This was my mom's...... she made it herself and it always speaks CHRISTMAS MEMORIES to me. My dad worked in a shoe store in Portland and this fabric was one they used for their window displays.. then it would come home with him when the holiday was over. (Thom McAn shoes - does anyone remember them?)

The BEST EVER banana walnut raisin bread made (gluten free of course)... to give to neighbors and friends.  I made 7 loaves... we ended up eating one medium sized one and the big one!  I've got a recipe here on my blog somewhere, under recipes, but this was even better as I tweaked it somewhat, and added some maple extract. Boy was it good!

Made two batches of shortbread cookies and butter cookies... gave away most of them.

Got some Christmas pillowcases made for our bed.. finally done on New Year's Eve!

Found this RED CUDDLY BLANKET at our local Bi Mart store (kind of like a K Mart or discount store - got this in early December and put it on our bed.. and it screamed to me - "you need some Christmas pillows on here!"

I had so much gorgeous Christmas fabrics I've been  hoarding.. so thought why not use it for some pillowcases? The smaller pillows are one I covered with a washable cover, and the smallest one that looks like patchwork, I bought at a local thrift store for $1.00!

GORGEOUS fabrics!

See the little white birdhouse? I got that in early November in Astoria on our trip there. Love it!

I finished a cute little (4x6) wool felt "foxy" pillow for a Christmas gift and even got it mailed BEFORE Christmas!

Got a little bit of the house decorated, probably right on Christmas Day! I was a little slow this year:

Got presents wrapped for my sister and hubby who were coming on New Year's Day for our Christmas.... the kitties joined in.

Maddie, my year old (rescue) calico... is finally warming up to Rudy, our recent rescue kitty! A little "paw touch" saying "hey you're not so bad little Rudy!"

Rudy is pretty laid back.. he likes to be in the midst of everything! (Wrapping included).

FROM OLD TO NEW:

Change up the old calendars. I love love love this Susan Branch calendar.. I've used it for two years by whiting out the dates and changing them for the next year, but decided it's time to move on. This was a 2015 that I also used in 2016.

Now for the new 2017 calendar in my craft room:

WHAT I HAVEN'T FINISHED YET... THAT I WANTED TO GET FINISHED!

Little desktop calendar that I started making before Christmas... as a gift for my sister... but this is only my prototype and didn't get one done. These darling month printables can be found on Free Pretty Things for You.  Just darling!  I'll finish this pretty soon and show you the finished "real" one!

I had started a baby blanket for a friend of my son's new baby, but got about 5 large blocks done and decided I didn't like them... so tore them ALL out.. .rewound the yard... and decided to try this Virus Baby Blanket.... yup, that's the name!  You can find the pattern here on YouTube.

I was doing my squares in bright colors, but decided to do this one in only white, teal blue and a veriegated teal and gray and white. I've only finished two sets of 4 rows, and need to do at least three more sets of 4 rows.. but I think it will be really pretty. Will show you the finished product (hopefully) in the next couple of weeks.  It's hard to sit and crochet with a new kitten around!

Oh.... and we just got 4 more inches of new snow today! and more on the way..... plus a cold front with below zero temps by Wednesday.... and now they say another 9-15 inches!..... on top of the 6 inches still on the ground....... Oh no. Me no like that news.......

Good time to craft this week...............

Now onward into 2017...... we'll see what surprises it holds.


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