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Winter Petals

January 26, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

Just a few short days since my last post this little hyacinth has really started to bloom. There is a small hint of its sweet scent if you’re close enough to it – I could smell it while I took pictures – but not enough to perfume the entire room. I think I have a love of photographing flowers because they fade so quickly. Too quickly, if you ask me. Sometimes I wish I lived in a warmer climate where I could have blooming flowers year-round, but I try to remind myself that the bitter, barren winter makes me appreciate little things such as this so much more.

Though the winter equinox is over a month behind us, the days still darken early. A dismal gray fog settled among the trees and fields today, contrasted by amber-shaded grass in the ditches. It was beautiful and eerie all at once. The image brought Sleepy Hollow to mind.

Candles glow on the dining room table, the kitchen, the bathroom, etc for extra light indoors. I still have my holiday tree up simply because I love the soft glow the lights give off despite the holidays being well over. My oil lanterns are nearly out of fuel. I spend my evenings trying to make up where Mother Nature left off.

The weekend

January 23, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

:: Breakfast Sunday, something I’m trying hard to make a habit now.

:: Lots of spinning while being holed up in the house from snow.

:: Pretty daylight on the indoor plants thanks to aforementioned snow.

:: A much more labor-intense painting project than anticipated resulting in just a single wall painted.

:: A little hyacinth growing ever-so-carefully on a window sill

I have a to-do list full of things to get done today. The weekend was pretty tame, as you can see. I spent a good part of it just relaxing and recuperating after not feeling well, so today has become the ‘catch up’ day to get back on track. So far the day seems to be slipping away from me faster than I’d like.

3 hours

January 20, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

Three hours to get a single wall taped, primed, and painted. And it really could use a 3rd coat, but I’m avoiding it at the moment. And hoping that maybe once things are put back together and the curtains are sewn and hung and the pictures are on the wall that no one will notice the fact that I suck at painting, or that the ‘edge lock’ painters tape failed and the trim has bits of paint on them.

On to walls 2-4.

Toasty toes

January 20, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

Strange – I’ve gone most of my cold winter hibernation not having the desire to really sit down and knit or spin. And then the other day it really hit me hard, so I finished this pair of socks I’ve been working on for what feels like forever. And I sat down at the wheel to spin, and now I’m 3/4ths of the way done with the plum fiber I was working on. And I ordered new fiber (not that I needed it).

We got a lovely snow yesterday, though the roads were awful, and they’re calling for more snow overnight tonight. I have a project to keep busy this weekend – painting our home office. I had a hard time picking out a color, and I finally decided on one called “Satin Weave” – but now I’m second-guessing myself because in the store the paint chip looked a lot more yellow than the off white/tan I wanted. But I did the whole “tape the chip to the wall in the room” thing to make sure it looked right throughout the day, and it did, so we’ll see. I have to tape and prime the walls first (paneling, not my favorite thing to paint over but I certainly have more than my fair share of experience with it). Hopefully, when all is said and done, I’ll come away with a really lovely new color for the office so I can sew and craft and work feeling more at home and less like I’m in a dark cave.

The perfect remedy for a bleak, cold, rainy day?

January 12, 2012 Marie 3 Comments

I loathe this time of year. It’s dark, dreary, and no amount of daylight ever feels like enough.

I picked up some fat quarters the other day. I fell in love with this fabric – the colors, the pattern, the flowers. It seemed like it would be a good remedy for days like this. We need some new cloth napkins, or at least that’s what I told my husband when I came home with these. (Though at this point I think he knows me enough to see through that and know what’s really going on!)

I haven’t decided, yet, if I want to edge them with a contrasting color bias tape (or maybe just a plain plum that matches them?) or if I just want to leave them with a plain hem. What do you think?