Arctic Blast

Well, that's what all the TV weather people are saying. All day long I've heard that phrase uttered over and over. It is also rather obvious if you step one foot out the door...or in the case of our house, two or three feet away from the wood-burning stove we use for heat. I won't be playing on the computer very long tonight. This room is located at least 10 feet from the stove and there is only a narrow doorway that lets the heat flow from the living room into this room. Promise to show a floor plan someday. The kitchen is totally off limits since the high temperature in there today was 53F! The little space heater strategically placed under the kitchen sink will (hopefully) keep the pipes from freezing. Outside it is currently 12F with the expected low of 3F. Ok, ok, I'm getting to sound too much like the TV now. We all know it's cold; now move on to something else.

In my case the "something else" was quilting . A sudden change of gears for me. For a while I have had a lovely book on making wooden furniture for the 18" playdolls that I make the clothing for. I am no woodworker, and Joe refuses to touch the stuff. On Thursday evening I gave the book to a co-worker who's father does lovely woodworking. Now we are plotting to sell our wares together next year at the various craft bazaar from September through December. I entered four such sales this past year, one each month, and did fairly well with my doll clothes, cross-stitch ornaments, wreaths and beautiful knitwear made my by mother. Now I will be adding hand-crafted doll furniture to my collection. As for the quilt, it is a doll-sized one. I have made quite a few full-sized quilts over the years but this hobby has fallen by the wayside in favor of doll clothes and cross-stitch in recent years. It was nice to get back to it and search through the bins of fabrics in the freezing cold attic room and this is what I came up with. This was started early Friday morning, with a break to go to work last night at the gym. Then I worked on it most of the day today. Here it hangs, displayed on a beautiful old dish cabinet that was my grandmothers. Right after these photos were snapped it slipped from under the jar of black soy beans and promptly fell into the cats' water bowl. Luckily no damage was done.

Sticking well to my Harmien-inspired New Years' resolution (it was you Harmien, wasn't it?) of not buying any new "stash" items for six months. I am even giving stuff away! I went through some magazines today and decided to give away the ones I know I will not use at all. Or if there is only one chart I like in the entire magazine, I scan it and save it and then give it away. The lucky recipient this time is my friend Larisa in Russia. She has next to nothing when it comes to even the most basic necessities of life, much less cross-stitch items. Watch your mailboxes my friends, there may be some mystery items heading your way in the near future. I do have several envelopes filled with various items to various friends, but "Winter Poverty" and the outrageous postal rates are preventing me from mailing anything else in the near future.

I will close tonight with a photo of the neighbors cat, "Twinsy". A very odd name, given to him by his young owners because he was chosen from a litter where there was another kitten who was his twin. Twinsy has been my neighbor for over 12 years. He is really lovely and I have tried over and over to approach him, to pet him, even to just photograph him. But nothing. Not so much as a look in my general direction. Then this past August he came running across the street and started rubbing on my legs and purring. He has been at our house 90% of the time ever since.