So me!

Tom, a friend of mine gave me this great piece of art for Christmas! It's painted on vintage fabric - he said that he bought it on Etsy. Isn't it fab? It's about 15" x 15" - I just need to have it framed. It has a place of honor in my studio, but it was just too dark to get a decent photo of it in there.


Well if you're wondering if I got it all done yesterday I didn't. I went outside about every half hour to shovel snow for about 15 minutes at a time - it was torture. Mr. OP went to work (his company didn't close) and with the guys living in different states than us that left it to me. "I'm strong like bull," she said in a manly voice:)

I did get the bed stripped, everything washed and put back on, the table moved, the bathroom cleaned and I of course squeezed in some blogging time. But the best part of the day? Falling into bed with everything smelling clean and fresh last night!


I'm joining Beverly for this week's Pink Saturday - be sure to pop on over and see what she has going on!

sNOw DaY

Woo Hoo - 16+ inches baby! You know what that means... I get to take a sNOw DaY. It's a real heavy snow too. Can you see how the branches are so heavy that they look flocked? You can hardly see the side door of the barn.



I shoveled the entire driveway yesterday after getting out of work at 3pm. Mr. OP didn't get home from work until 7pm last night and I wanted to give him a break. It took me until 6pm to finish it (I took 2 breaks). It stopped snowing around 2am today, so there's a lot more to do. But I have all day to get to it!!!

I plan on getting a lot done today: wash, dry and put the sheets and blankets back on our bed, take a table to the attic, clean and organize our spare room and get a little crafting and blogging in. Let's see how it goes...right now I'm off to take a couple of Motrin - my left shoulder and elbow are a little achy.

Stay warm!

Percolating

My SIL's and I try to have a "Sister's Breakfast" every few months to catch-up on the goings on in our lives. Although we all live fairly close, everyone has so much going on that it's the best that we can do. My SIL Amy hosted our Christmas breakfast the Saturday after Christmas.



We had such a good time...eating 'til we couldn't eat any more and gossiping til our jaws were tired (not really, we could go on forever). Last year we established that we weren't going to exchange Christmas gifts. We all have everything that we need or want and Christmas really means so much more than the presents.

Well it seems my SIL Heidi doesn't know how to follow the rules (according to Mr. OP she never did). She picked me up on her way to breakfast and when she dropped me off she pulled out a Christmas package. She apologized for getting me something, but when she saw it she said it just screamed my name. I came in the house and opened it immediately. She was right - I love it. It's a Paula Deen Stove top Percolator! I love the color - it's not as red as it looks in the photo it's more burgundy. The semi-white marks that you see is the light on the stove reflecting on it.





We haven't used it yet. I think it needs to be used on a Sunday or Saturday when we aren't rushing to get out the door. The coffee making will be a ritual. I've never made coffee in a pot like this, it came with directions which will be soo helpful. I'll tell you how it turns out.

And, speaking of Christmas today is the first Rudolph Day of the year. Did you do anything Christmassy today? I gave everyone at work a piece of Christmas breath (soft peppermint candy) and ran through my Christmas Card address book - updating it with new addresses from this year's cards.

Cold Hands. Warm heart

It is so darn cold here - 23 degrees. That monster in the basement hasn't stopped all day! But it's the weekend, I can snuggle under a warm blanket or afghan and read the day away if I want to.

We're starting to plan a 70th birthday party for my MIL (the end of March). Mr. OP is one of five, so there's bound to be disagreements. Right? Drama? You betcha! I'm catering it so that's my role. 50+ people so it won't be that much work. You know me, I'm actually looking forward to the cooking and baking.




I got this velvet candy box at our local thrift store when our Fireman was home. He and I stopped one day while we were out running around. This was my only find of the day, but I love it! Both of our guys have always loved to hunt for junk and great bargains. When they were small we dragged them from one yard sale to another and flea market to flea market. They loved it and actually bought things for themselves. Fly Boy shops Goodwill for his apartment all the time.

Stay warm my friends!

Studio Fun

Do you see my new work space? It's there, under all that stuff! Mr OP surprised me Christmas morning after opening all of our gifts, he told me to go look in our spare room. He bought me this antique drafting table in Adamstown, disassembled it, then brought it in piece by piece - hiding the pieces all over the house.



What a man! I tell you once again - we are soul mates. I couldn't wait til we put it together in my studio!!! Not sure if you remember, but my old work space was 17" x 11" ! When I wanted to make something I would do the first part of the project, then move something, do a little more, move something and repeat it all over again. Now? Look out baby!

Edit: That's a roll of paper toweling (for clean up) - not TP:)

We're supposed to get more snow tonight into tomorrow, but only about 4". I'll take that any day over the freezing rain and ice the we got on Tuesday. Wishing you all a wonderful rest of the week.

Fabulous!

Last month my sweet friend PEA had a little giveaway. You had to guess the amount of snowman poop in the jar. I guessed 347 just in case he wasn't "regular" - 365 days:) And don't you know that I won!!!



I wish that I had a taken a photo of the box when it first arrived but in all of the hub-bub I didn't have a chance too. Let me tell you the candy was just FABULOUS! This is what was left, when I remembered to snap a photo - but I'm sad to say that they are all gone now.


What do you think of my new chandy crystals? They were $1 at Target in the Christmas ornament section.I bought all that they had - wish there were more. It took Mr OP a week to notice them and then he thought that they were there all along - until he saw the fishing line that I used to hang them by. I love how they look.

Hope that you are having a fab weekend!

Father Christmas

When saving this batch of photos I saved them as "full size" instead of "best for web." Does anyone notice a difference? Don't you just love my new Father Christmas? My friend's Mother (she just passed away a few months ago) painted the original and the family decided to make it into their Christmas card this year. It's so lovely that I've decided to keep him out all year. What a treasure!


And, because Valentine's Day is just around the corner my white feather tree minus a few decorations is staying out too. Thank goodness today is Friday. Is anyone else having a time adjusting to this new year/new month? Don't get me wrong, I"m not complaining, but I'm having a time trying to fit "it" all in.


Now if you were to ask me specifically what "it" is, I'm not sure that I could really describe "it" for you. I need more me time I guess. Oh well, today is Friday and this weekend I plan on re-grouping. I might even make homemade ravioli and spaghetti this weekend - doing something in the kitchen always makes me feel grounded.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and a Happy Pink Saturday!

You're right, yesterday would have been a great day to stay home and have a snow day. But, the road crews were really great and had the roads cleared by the early am, so no excuses.
My future sister-in-law Marie painted this gorgeous Santa for us this Christmas. This was the first time that I've seen her work in person. The details are just wonderful! You know me and Santas - love at first sight.


Speaking of Santas... Mr OP (just learned that we may refer to our DH's as " Mr - initials of your blog here". Moving forward DH will be known as Mr OP), always buys me one new Santa every year. This year he got me this old gem. I'd been eyeing him up at the Kutztown Farmer's Market for over a year.

Some people, who will remain nameless, think he's ugly. They say he looks scared. I don't care, I just love him. I still have a few more Christmas goodies and tales to share so please indulge me. I'll try not to drag it out too much longer.

Thanks so much for your friendship. Enjoy your day!

Just for fun

Santa brought me a nice stack of reading material this Christmas - nothing too thought provoking. They are just for fun! I thought that I'd be half way through them by now, but I just haven't taken the time to sit down and read.


He also brought me this fab Calphalon skillet. Now that's been getting a work out! We use it almost every day! I just used it this morning to brown off some ground turkey. I put on a crock pot full of turkey chili this morning. It snowed about 6+ inches last night and I think that chili sounds wonderful after we get home from work tonight.

Gotta run, I have a little more shoveling to do and I have to clean the car off so that I can get to work. Enjoy your day!

Happy New Year

Hello my dear friends. I'm hoping that you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. Sorry that I've been missing in action this past week, but you might remember that our Fireman came home from Texas. He flew in Sunday night. After picking him up from the airport we stopped for a quick bite to eat, then headed home.



There were a lot of laughs and a quick exchange of Christmas gifts before going to see my parents. Not sure if you remember, but they live right up the street from us. The guys joked that they might as well take a boat because Grammy was going to cry a river for them to float home on.

Adam said that he had a wonderful visit, but it was waaay to short. He was exhausted from constantly going to see friends and family during the day, then he and our Fly Boy would stay up 'til all hours of the morning just talking and laughing. It was so great to hear them downstairs carrying on while we lay in bed, and even better to know that when we got up in the morning that they were both upstairs in bed safe and fast asleep. Hopefully next time My Jade will be able to come too.




Our Christmas decorations are slowly coming down. My goal is to get the tree down this weekend and have all the boxes tucked away in the attic. I'll leave the wreaths and fresh greens up outside for a little while longer, they look so pretty with the snow. Do you still have Christmas decorations up?

I hoping that you'll forgive me for just having a wee bit of Pink for Pink Saturday this week, but I just couldn't help sharing my men.