More color on white

I took this pic just a few minutes ago. It's my oldest amaryllis... 30 years old, in fact! Gorgeous, isn't it?

It has another flower, as you can see below, but it isn't completely open yet. The stalk and buds next to it are from my third amaryllis. Won't be long before those are open, too.

Just to give you size comparison so you realize how big this flower is, I took a pic with my hand it in... below. (My hand was also there to hold the stalk up, as it wanted to lean way over.)

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Yep, definitely brightens up a white day! Although the sun is out (second day in a row - woohoo!), so there's also some blue sky outside, thankfully!

Naptime(?) at Grandma's house

Oh, sooooo tired! Time to take a nap!

Poor little Courtney. It appears she has to nap in the bathtub!

Doesn't look like she minds it, though, does it?

This is a hot-footed little girl... she always takes her socks off when she naps.

Pretty fancy socks, too, aren't they? The beads made dents in her skin, though, if she sat cross-legged or something. She kinda worried about those little "owies" that didn't really hurt. :-)

Okay, so it's all pretend. Grandma doesn't REALLY make her take a nap in the bathtub. But it's sure a fun place to play while Grandma washes her own hair, etc. ;-)

The cat's out of the bag

So now I can show you the secret something that I think I mentioned I was working on a few weeks ago. It's my first-ever quilt block! It's for a special young friend's wedding quilt. (Not to mention any names, JHRME! ;-) ) It's a friendship quilt, with each block being made by a different friend of hers. Fun, huh? And each block is different. I've seen pics of most of the other blocks. Can't wait to see how they all come together in the finished quilt!

Soooo... did this get me inspired to start quilting? Ummm... not yet. There might be something perking there in the back of my mind, but it's not pressing at me to hurry up and get started yet. Maybe someday.

Now I'd better get back to my little ch... er... other project. With Courtney here for 12 hours yesterday and the Olympics last night, needless to say, I didn't get anything done on it yesterday.

WIP

Here's the work in progress:

A little bigger than you were thinking, perhaps? Any more guesses?

Not sure if I can get it finished today or not. If it weren't for those darned Olympics every night.... ;-)

Color in my white world

It's amaryllis time again! This one is always in a hurry to bloom. It was over a foot high before I remembered to take it out of our dark basement room. It didn't take long for the buds to mature and open up. Gorgeous, isn't it?

The other two are coming along nicely, too.

That's our snow-covered deck in the background.

I finally got a coral bloom on my hibiscus yesterday, too. It's really a deeper color than most of them have been. I was quite surprised. And I love it! Too bad hibiscus blooms only last a day. But there are more on the way.

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Below is some more 'color'. I've just started another sewing project. 20 pieces to sew together! Something new. Any guesses?

Nah, you'll never guess (but you can still try if you want!). You'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully it won't be too long!

A bit belated, but...

... I couldn't show them to you before Tuesday, because they might have ruined the surprise for Courtney. (And besides, I didn't finish them till Monday... heheh.) Anyway, I decided to try my hand at making these little hair clips for her for Valentine's Day. They were pretty easy, albeit quite putzy... just little felt covers over a regular metal hair clip.

Who better to show them off than our favorite little model after we washed her hair!

Yeah... dance yourself dizzy!

They did keep her hair out of her face better than her headband did. Maybe Grandma had an ulterior motive???

More snow pics

Hey, if I have to look at it, you do too! At least the sky is blue!

Notice the tracks to the right of the path. That's where we had to walk when the path was blown in solid before Nate got it blown out again yesterday. It was precarious walking, because you never knew if/when you were gonna sink!

That tree to the left of the "amphitheater" is nearly totally buried. Just the ends of a few branches are peeking out. That is not its top sticking out... it's the top of one behind it.

(Click any photo to enlarge and do a little more justice to the depth.)

Grandma's got Cooties!

Or at least she did while Courtney was here today.

We had fun. {:-Þ

Winter rages on

It keeps getting deeper. And the wind blew all night and all day today, making the drifts even higher. Remember how deep it was around our maple tree here? This is what it looks like today.

At least we can't see so many of the broken branches now, so in a way, it looks better.

And check out the "amphitheater" that's being formed around this evergreen tree below. That's a fairly tall tree... at least twice as tall as I am, so it's a pretty big "pit" around it.

(Click photos to enlarge.)

Here's a little of its formation process. I took this video early this morning.

Sometime when the wind slows down, I'll have to get out there and get some closer pics. Some that aren't taken through the plastic on the windows.

But as for now, the wind is still howling, and Grandpa says the roads are really badly drifted. When will it be SPRING???!!!

P.S. The oriole nest is still hanging up there!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I got flowers! Well, no... not from Grandpa. But I consider them a valentine just the same. :-) My hibiscus bloomed for the first time in several weeks. It's been affected by the lack of sunshine this winter, too. Usually it blooms all winter long. I thought it was quite timely today with its four beautiful flowers.

And it gave me just the red blooms. (For those of you who haven't been following the blog so long, it also produces coral blooms for some reason. Click the hibiscus link on the sidebar for more photos.)

It definitely added color to my cold, snow-blowy WHITE day!

I hope your Valentine's Day has had some special moments, too.

In case anybody wonders...

Anybody not from around here that is... yes, it's still white out. It got whiter still with some fog again overnight, so it's frosty as well as snowy. Here's the view from my kitchen window.

Remember the LP gas tank we have in our back yard? That's it at the base of the evergreen tree below. My clothesline poles are looking kinda short, too.

(Click either photo to enlarge.)

Such a WHITE view, including the sky. I usually have to squint when I look out the window, because it's so bright out there.

The snow amount just keeps creeping up, inch by inch. And it's doing more so as I type. There are a couple more inches of white fluff in the forecast for tonight, accompanied by wind, of course, to blow it around again. Joy.

Oh, and that's an icicle hanging down from the top of the second photo... just in case anybody wonders. :)

Daddy's little cowgirl

We found one of Daddy's old hats in the closet the other day. It just fit!

Well, sorta....

But it made for an awful cute barefoot cowgirl, if you ask me! :-)

Actually, I had a hard time getting pics of her wearing it. She wanted me to wear it... pretending to be "the man in the yellow hat" while she was Curious George going to the hospital to get a puzzle piece taken out of her tummy. :-) We had lotsa fun!

Willow's last hunt

About a month ago, Grandpa was playing one of his coyote hunting DVD's. Willow was quite interested.

Then she had to get up for a closer look.

That coyote seemed to be pretty well camouflaged. Can you see him below? Willow apparently didn't.

I wish I'd had the camera handy not long after that when she was sort of doing a tightrope walk across the top of the TV trying to catch some birds or something on the screen below her. What a crazy cat!

A couple weeks later, she was hunting different types of game.

She had no fear of the big stuff!

Unfortunately, that was her last hunt. I've known since last May that she had an incurable illness, PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease). Cats that have it are born with it. She was over 4 years old before it started bothering her last October or November, when I noticed she was starting to drink more water than usual. It was a slow decline from there, and finally I had to have her put down yesterday.

That was such a hard but necessary decision for me to make. My poor sweet Willow. She was the best cat I've ever had. She had such a FUN personality! I loved her so much, and I'll be missing her terribly. I could go on and on about all the neat things about her, but I won't bore you with that. I know you're not all cat lovers. Just indulge me in this last tribute to her of the photos below. Thanks.

(Click to enlarge.)

Finally.... COLOR

Well, only 6 weeks after Christmas, I finally got my paintings hung! I don't procrastinate, do I? It was mostly a problem of out-of-sight-out-of-mind. Since I haven't been doing any sewing lately, the only time I've been in that room is to exercise, and then I never had time to work on putting them up. But today I finally somehow remembered them and got them on the wall. Maybe it was because I'm sooo sick of looking at all the white outside! (And it continues to get whiter.)

These pics do not do the paintings justice at all. I had to use the flash, because with all the snow in front of the window, it's just too dark in there, so they look kind of washed out (especially the center one). Just imagine the colors a little bolder and brighter.

Not perfect, but not toooo bad a job of hanging them, since I did it by myself, and also considering that one of the hangers that came on them was slightly off-center. Good enough for me.

I love them. They really brighten up the room. Now I'm getting in the mood to sew again. Good thing, huh Cindy? ;-)

Courtney is THREE !!

(Click to enlarge the collage.)