~~~Gratitude~~~ winter makings

This is how it looks out my window this morning.  Not very spring like!  March came in like a lion and is going out like a mule!  A slow melt may not be so bad.  It is...I...afterall, that always gets anxious when winter has nearly come to an end and I haven't gotten to all my winter projects.  I have, finally, accepted I will never be caught up!  That is an illusion because, for me, ideas beget ideas.  So here are some the ideas that have been hatched this winter and have actually been completed!

March is when I enlist the assistance of my DH for sewing machine maintenance.  I lug all the machines to the dining room table and DH brings in his compressor and blows all the lint out my machines.  Then we oil and grease.  My newest fancy machine only requires one drop of oil.  But the rest have detailed oiling diagrams.  The little Singer Featherweight I found at church sale years ago, paying only $10!  I haven't been using it...the sewing room is pretty crowded. Since it just got oiled I thought I should run it through it's paces.  Well, folks, I think I am in love!  It works so sweetly and is perfect for puppet making!  There IS room for one more machine in my space and heart!

This winter I came up with a new product!  I call them Pillow Puppet Pocket Pals.  First came the Bunny then I made some Piggies!  Working on a Panda pattern right now ideas are begetting ideas!

Bunny

Piggy!

I had some fun with my prototype bunny!  Bunny has a dot of velcro on it's paws for fun positionings and goofy poses!  Like this one reacting to another snowstorm!

Hanging in there with some goofy fun!

Peaceful contemplation of the winter beauty...

Here are a few more of my winter creations!

Black-eyed Susan

See no Evil * Speak no Evil * Hear no Evil

Goldie Fish

....and today's sewing...Bachelor Buttons!

 I am grateful for the lingering winter that is extending my creative ideas beget ideas without the distractions of spring.  And the time, the room, in my life to make them come true!

~~~~~~~~~~~My Lively Life~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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"Be Joyful because it is humanly possible"~~~Wendell Berry

~~~Gratitude~~~ Winter Weary...but...still grateful

~~~Gratitude~~~ Health

As of today, I have been home for 15 day without leaving!  My record is 16 days and it looks like I will beat that this week.  I try to go to town once a week to swim at the Y, do errands, and be with other people.  But everyday that I could leave lately, I have either been bound here by a snow storm or by the lack of a plowed driveway.  I am not complaining, just sharing an interesting fact about my existence.  I do not feel cabin fever at all.  I have been quite busy. I also, I maintain my sanity by getting outside each and everyday.  

My chosen fun activity is snowshoeing, as you know if you follow this blog.  You will also be aware of the fact that we have quite a bit of snow.  A few days ago I blogged about my snowshoes here: http://injoyemporium.blogspot.com/2015/01/snow-snow-snowshoes-x3.html  I talked about our old gut snowshoes that have been on the wall for years.  Well, folks they are off the wall!  The snow is too deep for my lightweight modern shorties.  So I have been packing trails with the old gut ones.  I have been packing down a bit every other day and using the light ones on the off days.  It is a pretty good workout!  These snowshoes are 60 inches long...yes 5 feet!  I am 5 feet 8 inches.  Each step includes a bit of snow lifting.  I have to say it is fun to be using them again!  They are quiet and beautiful.  I feel connected with days gone by~~~

We purchased these snowshoes December 1979 at Ed's Surplus, Lynnwood, Washington for $39.99 each.  At the time it was a pretty good chunk of change for us.  We had just returned from a hitch hiking trip around Alaska and the Yukon.  We had made vows of relationship commitment while we were there and these were "wedding" gifts to our Selves.  

Here are some scenes from todays snowshoe....

Unbroken Trail

Turning Around with these Shoes is an Interesting Side Step Dance!

After Turning I Go back and Re-Pack

A Nice bit of Trail....Until the Next Storm!

I Am GRATEFUL for my Healthy Body that Allows me to Snowshoe!
Today I know my heart is healthy...
I nearly stepped on a Ruffed Grouse that exploded into the air out of the snow!!!

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your moments of Gratitude. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~

~~~Gratitude~~~ Well Weathered Weather

blinding wild snow

blows, whirls & drifts about me...

in this world alone

Chora

This was what my world looked like before I went to sleep.  Quite beautiful if you ask me.  I am very grateful we never lost power.  It was nice to have a day home with my DH.  We tend to work a lot but this storm made us "lazy" and we took advantage of the time to putter and just hang out together. 

I did manage to get in a bit of weaving.  I am trying to use up yarn that I have by weaving scarves.  This one I am using some handspun for the weft that I am not particularly fond of.  I got the roving at a spin-in as part of a Yankee Swap.  I gotta say though it doesn't look half bad woven into this multi colored warp...what do you think?

In other weaving news:::> I am grateful to say I sold my Baby Wolf Loom this week right before the storm.  It leaves a nice blank spot in the house and my life.  I just have too many things on my plate.  I will always weave but, hopefully, now I will have more time to play with my little looms...& finish to some very, very, old UFOs (unfinished objects)!

You can find some of my Handwoven Items that are FINISHED here....

So Grateful for:::

Weathering the the Blizzard Well

Snow Beauty

Time with my Best Friend! <3

A little time at a loom

Electricity

Time

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your moments of Gratitude. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~

~~~Gratitude~~~ Quiet

 In the small hours after midnight

when things are still and calm

dreams float in the meadow

and the moon drifts o'er the farm

A. Curran

 This quote came to me via a greeting card years ago.  I keep it in my bedroom and especially enjoy it  in the late (early) dark hours of winter.  Winter is not my time to hibernate.  I tend to stay up later and later until it becomes early during this season of darkness.  I need less sleep now that I don't hit the pillow exhausted from my garden work.  More time to read, create, and be.  Just BEing in the quiet is my favorite thing to "do".  Like looking out the window into the world of dark & light or having time to really be aware of the contrasts of the cold outside and warmth by the fire.  Winter is my time of rejuvenation.  I am like an child waiting for Santa to arrive but, my gift is simply winter.   

This reluctant shopper has finally decided to buy her new computer this week.  No more research, thinking, hoping for the sale of the century, procrastinating  because I don't like to spend.  Time to accept that this computer has reached its end....nothing last forever...especially Winter...the best time for me to become comfortable with a new machine.  THEN I hope to be back to regular blogging.  I have new ideas and new directions in mind.  Until ~ SOON!

Hope you are finding time to enjoy this season simply because it is.  

Well wishes of relaxation!

 

~~~

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your moments of Gratitude. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~

~~~Gratitude~~~ Many Things

This Morning

I know I have been absent, lately.  I am still having equipment issues.  My 2007 Vista with 2MB of RAM computer and my 2011 IPad 2 with IOS 8 (I recommend Not updating an older IPad...too late for me) are not quite up to "speed" with todays computer requirement.  Any day, now, I should be upgrading to the Mac Mini...when I finally decide what I want and face the fact that Apple really doesn't have sales...of course, then this long time PC user of a certain age will be on a little learning curve~~~  That said I will start my list of gratefulness with the fact that I am grateful I am in a position to purchase a new computer!

Winter seems to be here!  What a week!  Last Tuesday the temps reached nearly 60 F!  I was able to clean out the duck house with ease.  I was able to dig my last carrots too!  Carrots that have been in the gound through a few freezes are indescribably delicious!  They are a favorite of one young man I know, who happened to be coming home from college for Thanksgiving!

 I left a few carrots in the ground.  It was a bit of a gamble since the only mulch was their carrot tops and plenty of hunger mice and voles are in the area.  But, each day on my walk I would have Runa patrol the carrot area to hunt for these little subterranean carrot eaters.  "Pay Dirt" on Tuesday!

The last time my hands will be covered with earth in 2014!  I am so grateful for my garden bounty!

I did not need my fork to pull the carrots.  The soil was loose and wonderful from all the fall rains!  But winter is here now.  A sure sign of winter are the nap location chosen by Runa and Vern!

I am so happy to have winter.  Yesterday, I enjoyed my first snowshoe of the season with a couple of gal pals. On the day before Thanksgiving I made a lovely dinner enjoyed by the 3 of us + one good friend of our sons who has been in our life since the kindergarten days.  A real Eagle Scout who honored me and DH with Mentor Pins this fall!  I have warm house, plenty of firewood, a bursting pantry...I live surrounded by beauty and love.  I am very grateful!  I really want for nothing! (well except for the computer up grade...my machine has frozen 5 times while typing this :p )

I will be back to regular blogging.  I really enjoy the process and sharing.  I appreciate your patience...I am learning another level of patience with the current computer configurations.  In the meantime I wish you and yours all the very best!

~~~

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your moments of Gratitude. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~