day 5 : waiting

day 3 : emerging

First my photo for create-a-thing-a-day:
We have a little micro-climate on the south side of the house where these daffodils are planted. I also have some planted out in the middle of the yard, but we won't see those for weeks. So maybe this is cheating a bit, but I'm still so, so happy to see them.

And on the crafting front, I finished this the other day:

A hat for Brian. He picked out the yarn and the pattern. The yarn is Berroco's Ultra Alpaca and it's wonderfully soft and silky. I love this stuff. The pattern is the Jacques Cousteau Hat, which I found on ravelry and it's available for free here. I'm pretty sure he picked it only because of the name. :) But I love the pattern the decreases make:
It's a really easy pattern but I did have some issues with the sizing. I started with the men's size and bigger needles (he has a big head) but it was way too big. Even the larger size with the recommended needle size was too big. I finally tried the smaller women's size and it's a perfect fit. So I started this hat three times! I'm glad it's finished and he loves it.

day 1 : snow trail

Figures, day one of create-a-thing-a-day month and my camera battery dies! The above photo is the one and only photo I took today. ha! But I actually kind of like it so all is well. With all the snow we've gotten in the last month, the dogs have taken to using a few well-worn trails to get around the backyard, and this photo shows a small piece of one, with the sun and shadows highlighting it (I love shadows.. I love to watch them change throughout the day and throughout the seasons..).

It was such a beautiful day today, 38 degrees and sunny. I'm sure 38 seems really cold for some of you, but I don't think in the entire month of January it got above freezing so we were thrilled. We took the dogs for a walk and I even spotted six robins!!

and so it begins...

I read this a few days ago on Keri Smith's blog, the Wish Jar:

"There's a point where you can give up on winter--when temptation can enter your soul, prying its way in like cold air through the cracks in your cabin--around January sixteenth or so, and this can make you realize that February's coming, and beyond February, March.

See, I don't yet realize that March will be the hardest month. Early February's the coldest, and often the snowiest, but March, strange, silent March, will be the hardest.

The danger in yielding to thoughts of spring--green grass, hikes, bare feet, lakes, fly-fishing, rivers, and sun, hot sun--is that once these thoughts enter your mind, you can't get them out.

Love the winter. Don't betray it. Be loyal.

When the spring gets here, love it too--and then the summer.

But be loyal to the winter, all the way through--all the way, and with sincerity--or you'll find yourself high and dry, longing for a spring that's a long way off, and winter will have abandoned you, and in her place you'll have cabin fever, the worst.

The colder it gets, the more you've got to love it."

~Rick Bass fr. Winter -Notes from Montana

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I don't love winter. Not at all. But I try to... you know "live each season as it passes" and all that. I've actually been doing pretty good... more or less content to be inside by the fire, sewing or knitting or watching a movie.

But yesterday I got this in the mail:

And before I could stop myself I was reading and planning and dreaming about seeds and vegetables and the smell of the soil and the warmth of the sun and the wonderful tired feeling of a day spent working in the garden... and just like that, I was lost to spring.

But it's too bad that this is what my garden looks like right now! :) So I guess I'll be working on being loyal to winter.. I still have lots of time to practice...

out my window

Happy Inauguration Day!I've been watching these icicles forming outside my craft room window for a while now and the light was so pretty last night I decided it was time to photograph them. I love the upward branching of the trees in the background and the icicles reaching downward in the foreground.

monday morning

Out my backdoor.

I went to an estate sale over the weekend and found a couple things.. I'll share those tomorrow.

snowed in

No school, no work, lots of snow. I couldn't be happier.

loving the (finally) decorated tree.

Sewing up some fabric bags for gift packaging.

Working on gifts for little ones..

no napping for me today! :)

this morning

It snowed last night so we awoke to a beautiful fresh blanket of snow. We just had to go out and play.I don't think I've posted any photos of our dogs, which is weird because they're such a big part of our lives. So here they are, wrestling and romping in the snow. Lucy is the beagle on the left and Bobo (um, he came with the name) is the shepherd mix on the right.

This photo was taken right before he stole my glove off of my hand and ran around the yard like a lunatic with it. lol

Oh and would you like to be carbon neutral for a day? For free? Just click here (or check out the little badge to the right), type in your name and email address, and you and five friends can be carbon neutral for a day! Great right? (from Brighter Planet)