Sunday Shot of Color

On a cold day like today, I'll take warmth wherever I find it!



Stay warm!

My Hopes for 2011

More Love, Creativity, Adventure, Quality

Less struggle please.

All the best to all of you in 2011!!!

Organized Mittens

Sometimes in winter it doesn't take much to make me smile.


I love walking past our newly organized mittens and gloves.

Last year, our gloves were stored in two bins. I had to rummage around forever when I wanted a particular pair.



After some googling around, I found the Chain Gang Toy Organizer ($13 or so on Amazon). We got the primary colored hooks, but they sell all white or pastel too.


Immediately after hanging ours up, we started wondering what else we could organize this way.

Do you have any ideas?? The chain can hang vertically too. I keep thinking there's some genius way to use this in my studio.....

Good Influence

They say that people are influenced by whomever they surround themselves with.


These tomato plants are just a bit of evidence of how my blog buddies have influenced me.

After a 20 year hiatus from gardening, this year we planted 3 tomato plants (regular sized, cherry and Roma). And we're harvesting tomatoes daily.


We might be cheating a little by using the Topsy Turvy for two of the plants. So far, no signs of the heinous tomato hornworm...our nemesis last time we grew tomatoes!


Thanks to all of you gardeners out there who post about your gardening adventures, especially Colleen, Kelly, Leigh and Lynnette. (I know that as soon as I post this list, I'll think of 10 other bloggers with amazing and influential gardens!)

Help with a Caption, Please!!

Doesn't this photo cry out for a funny caption???

Make us laugh in the comments, please!!

Good Influence

Isn't it funny how we influence each other?

Susan at Thrums is in the beginning of a kitchen renovation. My SIL in California is almost finished with hers. A weaving friend at the Fuzz Fest was also talking about her kitchen remodel. (And let's not even talk about all of the amazing work Leigh has done on her new home!)


Paint colors from top to bottom: Valspar Ancient Olive, Aspiration, Sherwin Williams Sensible Huge, Valspar Glowing Green.

Somehow those conversations motivated us to tackle our kitchen. We need to repaint because our paint isn't washable or pretty any more.

Plus Jim has hated our current color for more than 10 years.

In the right side of the photo, you can see the cream colored thin curtain that separates our kitchen and sunroom from the rest of the house. These two rooms have their own heat zone, so we hang out here in the warmth and let the rest of the house get chilly.

That thin curtain makes a huge difference in how much energy we have to use for that scheme.


The reason I'm going on and on about the curtain is that on the way home from the Fuzz Fest, I stopped at Exeter Handkerchief Company.

I was looking for fabric for my rep tote project.

Instead, in the remnant room I found this beautiful fabric that will make an excellent room dividing curtain, for only $8 a yard. Score!!!

They told me that the fabric had just become a remnant that morning. Between when I first spotted it, took photos, drove home to get Jim and returned, 2 other people had purchased some.

I'm so happy to finally have that problem solved so easily and inexpensively. (OK, there will be some sewing!)


We couldn't get too excited about just painting, but at Lowe's we found this glass tile. (Cosmopolitan Glass Mosaic Tile in Green) There are two Lowe's near us and the price is 50% higher at one of the stores.

We thought about putting a backsplash under all the cabinets, but balked at the expense and the difficulty of making all the outlets and light switches look good. In magazines, the show kitchens never have outlets. We have lots of outlets and light switches. It seemed like the two most common solutions were white or stainless switchplates, and neither of them blend in with the glass tile that we love.

We decided to just put a glass tile backsplash behind the stove. I love this glass. It's a mixture of clear and frosted glass. We did visit a tile store, but the prices of glass tile there were crazily high. It made us like this Lowe's tile even more!


Paint colors from top to bottom: Valspar Ancient Olive, Aspiration, Glowing Green. The gray is Sherwin Williams Sensible Hue.

Don't you love how Jim accidentally painted a llama on the wall??

I swear, winter makes us do the strangest things sometimes.

Fingers crossed that we'll get the backsplash, paint, ceiling repair (old water damage) and curtain finished by spring!!

Great Birthday Gift!

A portable, personal-sized snowman!


So cute!!


Even though Jim didn't notice it at first, Bailey ran right up to it and knocked it over.

Fortunately it was easy to reconstruct!!

(This was one of my lame-o gifts to Jim on his birthday!!)

Decluttering: Film Cameras

Before Christmas, we needed more space for camera gear. We decided to bite the bullet and part with our ancient film cameras. We sold the cameras on Ebay.

We were pleasantly surprised that we got real money for our equipment. While it pales in comparison to how much we paid for it years ago, it frees up space in our lives, gives us some money in return, and the cameras will go to some one who will use them.


Since I'm a weaver, I did snag the cartridges from some ancient rolls of film that were kicking around. Filled with coins, washers or rocks, canisters make great weights for errant warp threads or floating selvedges.


Even if you're not a weaver, I encourage you free up some space in your home and your life and release your old film gear!!

************************
Follow-up from yesterday's post:

My camera is a Canon 40D, handed down from Jim. It's a great camera and takes great pictures. People often ask me camera advice, and my advice boils down to this very unhelpful suggestion: "Marry some one who is a better photographer than you are, and ask them all of your photography questions. Try to get them to give you their hand-me-down gear." Sorry that I'm so untechnical about why I have this camera and what other people should get.

There are occasional pics of my face on my blog....but that requires another photographer. I haven't figured out my tripod for taking pics of myself yet. (I want to be able to use that to show certain weaving things sometimes. Right now I think I'd get tangled up in yarn and hurt myself!!)

Things that Make Me Smile: 3 Weird Wintry Wonders

I love icicles! I get really excited when I see them - and drive Jim crazy by pointing them out when we're out and about.

I especially like giant icicles (sometimes found hanging off bridges) or long rows of icicles.

But even these three on our eaves make me happy.



Can you see the slight pattern in the snow? As the snow melts, sometimes you can see burrows made by voles. I love thinking about life below the snow that we don't get to see, even if furry little rodents don't make me smile!

The pattern of the burrows could inspire weaving, or knitting. (Similar to this Faux Bois knitting pattern inspired by wood grain.)


I love how sunny days make leaves on the snow start to melt down into it!

Are there any weird wintry things that make you smile??

Got Lists?

Get gubb!!!

Gubb is a free, online tool for creating lists.

You can make a bunch of lists, in different colors and have fun checking things off!



I've been using Gubb to organize my life since summer, and I love it!!

Doesn't this make you want to think of New Year's Resolutions? Or a grocery list? Or a list of cool weaving ideas to try?

If you like making lists, I really think you'll like this tool! (Not a list person - that's OK.....I'm married to a non-list person.....I understand and support that way of being. I am, however, a list maniac.)

That is all.....now back to our regularly scheduled Sunday.

Do We or Don't We?

I've been stumped by whether or not we have a Christmas tree. I keep telling people we don't, but then I think maybe we do.

I don't think of us as having a Christmas tree.

• We don't cut down or buy a tree.
• We put up only 18 ornaments.
• We don't put presents under the tree.
• We don't gather around the tree during any part of the holidays.
  

But, in the corner of our living room, we do have a Norfolk pine, that's present all year.

We do put our 18 subtle ornaments on it.

So maybe we do have a Christmas tree?


Details on the tree:

Age: 22 years since it was purchased from a plant store
Height: 72"
Watering: once a week
Temperatures: Our house gets down to 50 most winter nights, but stays over 70 most of the time in summer
Relative Humidity: Our winter humidity is very low - like a desert - and this plant is still OK.
Special care: Likes to take summer vacation on the porch or shaded in the woods
Light: Eastern & southern light
Diameter of pot: 14"

Lower Branches: If your Norfolk pine is losing its lower branches, move it or repot it or otherwise correct the situation. Once it lose branches along the trunk, it won't sprout new ones from the bottom - it will just keep getting taller and more spindly.

Too tall? I've never had to do this, but if the tree was growing too tall, it would be easy to just trim back the new growth at the top of the tree.

One of my friends with a green thumb has two very large indoor Norfolk pines that she decorates with lights and ornaments. She does water them more often than I water plants, and they're in very large pots. She also mists them. She says the key to success for her plants is their summer vacation outside.

Now that I've blogged about the tree, perhaps it's time to de-decorate!? Or rest and regroup after holiday festivities.....or weave....

Merry Christmas

From Portsmouth, NH, I want to send out a Merry Christmas to all of you!!

Christmas Decorations

Jennifer, of Finding the Real Me, posted a Christmas challenge.

Blog about Christmas decorations that are special to you.

I'm a Christmas minimalist. I do have boxes of family heirloom ornaments in the attic for the rare years when we get a Christmas tree.

Most years, I have a box on a high shelf that contains certain precious decorations. I grab the box and decorate.

Stained Glass Angel

I decorate the Norfolk pine in the living room with ornaments I bought at Tuttle's my first Christmas in NH. (I've had the pine since then too - I brought it with me from home to my very empty apartment!)


I found this wooden pine at the Collector's Eye in Stratham the first year we didn't decorate a big tree.

The wooden carved Santa was made by a carver and painter in Newfoundland. I brought it home, along with sock yarn, as a souvenir of our trip there in 2004.

German Christmas pyramid which I've had for many years

Isn't the tiny tree precious? It's about 1 inch tall.

Looking over the angel's shoulder, you can see she's singing Stille Nacht (Silent Night).

Matroyoshka from our visit to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1996

Christmas cactus putting on a show

Visit Jennifer's blog to see Christmas ornaments from around the world or to participate in the challenge yourself!!

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Solstice!!

Today is the winter solstice for the northern hemisphere.

We have 9 hours of daylight between sunrise and sunset where I live today.

By Jan. 21, we'll have another 45 minutes of daylight and by the summer solstice, a whopping hours 16 and 1/2 hours of sunlight.

Since I'm a little bit solar-powered, I look forward to more daylight!

(And I apologize to everyone north of me for ever thinking our days are short. 9 hours of daylight sounds pretty long to me.)



So the shortest day came,
And the year died
And everywhere down the centuries
Of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing
To drive the dark away
They lighted candles in the winder trees;
They hung their homes with evergreens;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
to keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
they shouted, revelling,
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
echoing behind us- Listen!
All the long echos sing the same delight
this shortest day
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks
and hope for peace
And so do we, here, now...
Welcome Yule!

- Susan Cooper (Excerpt from "The Shortest Day")

Autumn in the Garden

Jack-in-the-Pulpit Berries

Arisaema triphyllum

Remember when I noticed green berries, or when this plant was blooming?

Three sets of berries on one plant

I had no idea that Jack-in-the-Pulpits produced berries. The berries are not edible, and in fact can cause burning and itching (according that what I've read).

Autumn Joy Sedum & Asters

Much as I might try to believe it's still summer, chilly nights, crisp days, and autumn flowers are convincing me otherwise.

I have much to do to prepare for winter!

No Bad Dogs Here

Poor unfairly maligned Bailey


Back in July, we took him to a remedial dog training class to learn tactics to make him bark less often.


When we returned from vacation, I noticed this telltale evidence in the garden.

Our violet plants had been beheaded. From year's past, I suspected a groundhog.

If Bailey is barking to keep a critter at bay, and suddenly the week Bailey is gone, the critter is in our garden, I really can't consider Bailey's barking a nuisance.

Annoying perhaps....but Bailey was just doing his job, protecting the house.


I finally caught a glimpse of our fat furry friend.


According to The Joy of Cooking, groundhog (also called woodchuck) is edible.

Don't worry, I won't be cooking him any time soon. Several comments about other woodland finds have asked about whether something is edible. I thought I'd volunteer that info about our groundhog. There are also recipes for rabbit, porcupine, raccoon and opossum in that cookbook!

Bailey, hopefully you'll forgive us for taking you to anti-barking school when really you were telling us it was our responsibility to remove this varmint. Luckily Bailey doesn't hold grudges!

I suspect that winter will solve our groundhog situation for the year. By November, he'll be hibernating in a den he's used in the past. Sleep well little groundhog! You've already spent a few winters in our yard. You're welcome to stay again this year!

More about the photos in this post:

On a photographic note, this picture is what I pulled out of the camera. Through the power of Photoshop, I cropped, and enhanced to get the clearer pictures in this post. Post-processing can do a lot!

Usually I don't start with such dramatically bad pictures. I took this picture quickly out the window and through a screen so that I wouldn't disturb the groundhog. Bailey has him well-trained. As soon as we're up and about, the groundhog makes himself scarce for the day.

I know that Photoshop is expensive, and I find it difficult to learn. I use it because Jim bought it for his photographic adventures....so I'm just along for the ride.

Another, much less expensive alternative, is www.picnik.com. Jim has played around with it a bit and is very impressed by its capabilities. If you're looking for ways to improve your photos, you might want to check out picnik!! (I haven't played with it at all. Until our household migrates to new software, I'm sticking with what I know!)

Nice day for soup

We had a cool, rainy day today. Definitely a good day to be occupied with indoor pursuits.

We eat a lot of soup during the winter. I jumped the gun a little and made soup today.

What's a girl to do when she has farm fresh leeks in the fridge?

I followed Jane Brody's recipe for Potato Leek Soup

She includes parsley and cheddar cheese. I don't.

Yum!