Late Winter Days and a Thrifty Re-do

Hello, Dear Friends, I hope that you are 

staying warm and cozy as we wait out

 these last few weeks of winter, here in the north.

The sun stays low and sends clandestine rays 

flickering inside, creating holograms and illuminating

  dust and cobwebs hiding in dark corners. 

Sunshine can be so fleeting this time of year, 

sometimes flashing for mere moments

as I grab my long-handled duster while opportunity strikes. 

Clouds, mist and fog create changing patterns of 

soft, gray light, sometimes catching a bit of color 

from the setting sun. 

But in winter, the true magic happens when we wake up very early. 

That is when the rising sun comes up in a blaze of glory. 

No matter how late we might be as we are getting ready for 

the day, we have to stop and witness this brand new beginning. 

We can't bring ourselves to turn away. 

And then, just like that, it's over, and we 

settle into another gray winter day. 

Sometimes, if we are very lucky, the clouds subside

and reveal Mt. Rainier. 

We even have a slogan here: "Live like the Mountain is out!"

When the sun shines, I drop everything to get outside! 

We had several days of warm, sunny weather, and I was 

able to get a head start on winter cleanup. 

We had strong wind recently, which brought down 

quite a bit of debris, and also created a surge, which fried our modem. 

We now have a new modem and a surge protector :)

So, if you are wondering where I have been, that is one of 

the reasons why I have been incognito. 

Another reason was a nasty cold. 

Both Ramblin' Man and I barely got up off the sofa

for a couple of weeks.

We still have a lingering cough, but finally have our energy back. 

I've been trying to build up our reserves with 

healthy smoothies and home-made soups. 

My smoothie recipe:

1 banana

1 cup yogurt

1 cup frozen blueberries

handful of baby spinach leaves

and a tsp. of ground turmeric

or cinnamon. 

Ramblin' Man presented me with these gorgeous 

roses for Valentine's Day. 

xx

And a big heart-shaped box of chocolates. 

I put them in the freezer to keep 

temptation at bay.....

I'm not a big fan of 'sweets', but I do like 

an occasional piece of chocolate. 

Ramblin' Man loves sweets, so I try to make 

healthier versions. His favorite; oatmeal raisin cookies. 

It was fun filling my new cookie jar :)

I made blueberry crisp for dessert on Valentine's, 

using these cute little dishes I found at Target. 

I love celebrating holidays in sweet and simple ways.

xx

Life can be so difficult sometimes. 

It's important to take time to celebrate whenever we can. 

I am also celebrating these early harbingers of spring! 

It's so amazing how resilient these seemingly delicate 

little beauties are. They started poking their heads

up in the middle of a February snowstorm. 

I guess they wanted to take a good look around! 

Hellebore and pansy are equally hardy. 

The purple alyssum have survived from 

the previous summer! 

We've had a relatively mild winter, although 

we have had snow and freezing weather earlier this month. 

When the wild Indian Plum blooms, the rufous 

hummingbirds return to join our year-round 

annas hummingbirds.

Oxalis with its tiny, nodding flowers. 

"Don't fill life with struggles - fill life with joy. 

A flower always struggles to survive, 

but it never forgets to bloom with joy."

- Debasish Mridha -

Taking a stroll with our little grandson and the dogs

on a rare sunny afternoon. 

We stopped to feel the soft moss on the tree. 

Grandpa and Grandson.

Opening the door to Grandpa's new workshop. 

Grandpa is looking forward to spending lots of time here 

with his four little grandsons, building birdhouses and planter 

boxes for Mommies and Grammie.

xx

His official retirement date is April 1st.

While I've been waiting for spring, I have 

been trying to get my creativity back. 

Do you ever just feel un-inspired? 

I've been in a funk lately. 

Fixing up a thrifty find always makes me 

happy, and when I found this old magazine holder, 

I knew it needed some love. It had such 'good bones'. 

I painted it robin's egg blue with some chalk paint 

I had tucked away for a rainy day. 

But I felt like it needed something more. 

A sponge-painted hydrangea!

I took two dampened kitchen sponges...

and cut leaf and petal shapes.

I used blue and green craft paints that I had on hand. 

Green for the leaf print and blue and green for the petals. 

Paper plates make great paint palettes.

I used a folded paper towel to blot the dipped sponges

to keep the paint from running.   

I dipped the petal sponge in blue, then a little green around the edges.

I overlapped the petals here and there to form a rounded shape. 

I used plain green for the leaves.  

I used a small paint brush to make the stem and a center line down 

each leaf, and used a bit of off-white paint to dot the centers of the 

blossoms. 

But it still looked too 'new'. 

So I used a darker shade of chalk paint, 

(Annie Sloane's 'Duck Egg') to antique it.

I used a dry-brush technique with a small, flat brush. 

I loaded the brush with paint, then blotted the excess paint to 

apply light brush marks, especially along the

edges and corners in areas of normal wear. 

 Much better! 

Sweet Cottage Style. 

xoxo

I've previously used this same technique on furniture. 

This vintage cabinet lives on my stair landing. 

It holds all of my photos. 

I do love flowers. 

xoxo

And the color blue. 

Soft robin's egg blue

and sea green. 

Another painted piece at the top of the stairs. 

This one holds all of my table linens. 

xoxo

Our beautiful, sunny weather ended with this 

dramatic scene at dusk. 

A swirling lenticular cloud, spun off from 

the atmosphere around Mt. Rainier. 

While I was viewing this from the deck... 

Ramblin' Man snapped this on his way home. 

Because we are tucked up into the foothills, 

the Cascade range allows us to see only the top 

of this majestic 14,411 ft. mountain. 

From a distance, the whole amazing view can be seen.  

Since then, Mt. Rainier has been hidden in the clouds, 

but that hasn't stopped us from living 'like the mountain is out'. 

xx

'The winter does not go without looking backwards'

- Finnish -

'In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me

an invincible summer'

- Albert Camus -

xx

Sharing with: Let's Add Sprinkles - Keep-in-Touch

xoxo