Valentine’s Day

 This is not an easy day for me.  

Memories of past Valentine’s Days with my sweet hubby are flooding my mind.  

Several cries already.  

So lonely for him.

My niece and her sweetheart greeted me with chocolate chip pancakes this morning.  They are are a joy to me and so much comfort.  

I sliced fresh strawberries last night and piled them on my pancakes this morning.

And a good friend dropped off a Valentine’s gift yesterday.

It’s the first Valentine’s gift I’ve had since my hubby passed.

 It was such an unexpected surprise and touched me so much with her thoughtfulness and generosity. 

 I’m sure she doesn’t even realize what it meant to me.

I’m typing here with romance music playing on my Echo.

I’ve washed and changed the sheets on my bed and laundry is almost done.

I’ve made frosted brownies for a treat today.

We have two rounds of snow forecasted..one after midnight and another coming Tuesday morning. 

Three to six inches.

Three fourths of my driveway is icy.  The weather been too cold to melt it.

Usually I’m in Florida at my cousin’s on Valentine’s Day.

My sister-in-law sister’s took this beautiful photo of a lovely deer couple.  

She’s quite an accomplished photographer!

Enjoy your day!

Row By Row “Bits ‘n Pieces”

 Another very cold day here in NE Ohio.  It’s in the teens (17 degrees feels like 8 degrees).  Snow is on the ground.  I tried applying de-icer the other day but it’s so cold out it’s not working.  My garage doors face north and are always in the shade and get icy very easily.  

Here’s another quilting project.

The Cath Kidston buttons were brought in the UK during our tour there in 2013.

I used string for the threading the needle.

In 2017 I received this cute “row by row” wall hanging kit as a gift.  It’s called “Bits ‘n Pieces”.  I don’t believe it is available anymore.  I loved the black sewing machine on it.  I machine embroidered the Janome name and the Horizon name on it.  It’s pieced together.  I used little clips for hanging the tiny quilts.

My niece pointed out I forgot to add the doorknob button.

I still have not gotten around to it.

One of these days I will.

Keep safe and warm wherever you are!

Finally a Sunny Day

 Yippee!  The sun is shining today.  It’s all white outside after our snow fall yesterday.  The wind even blew snow onto my screened in porch.  I woke up feeling refreshed this morning.  It’s good to have a decent night’s sleep.  I managed to clean my bathroom but I’m still enjoying my Winter Tree!  

As many of you know who have followed my blog through the years, my hubby and I loved to travel in our various RVs.  We collected patches and pins with the thought to sew the patches on jackets and attach the pins to hats.  I never got around to it though until last year.  I made a wall hanging of black cotton and sewed all the patches from our travels throughout the USA and abroad.  I pinned all the pins on it too.  

I hung it in our downstairs media room.  I love looking at it and remembering all the wonderful times we had together.

Our rescue puppy, Lucky, continues to bring us joy.  He is a delight and just loves all his toys.

His big sister, Jewels, will take his toys away but Lucky doesn’t care.  He just grabs another one.  

They like to sleep a lot too!

My niece and her boyfriend had to cut Lucky’s nails last week.  Unfortunately while trimming one, Lucky moved and they cut the quick on one nail and blood went everywhere.  See the white cover Lucky is laying on.  They ordered a new cover but I took the old one and said I could get the blood out.  I tried using the Carbona Blood remover but when I used up two of the little bottles, I knew I had to find a better solution  So, I googled it and found out vinegar was recommended.  I had a big bottle of vinegar and it worked amazingly!  Quick too!  So, now they have a spare cover to use when trimming his nails.  

I should start working on my income taxes.  But I don’t think I have all the forms yet I need.  I was so spoiled because my hubby did the taxes our whole married life.  This will be the sixth year I have had to do the taxes since I was single.  Well, I don’t “do” the taxes.  I just gather all the documents and give them to my tax guy.  My hubby use to run the taxes himself just to check the results of our tax accountant.  He caught a few minor mistakes over the years.  Only two constants in this world...taxes and death.

Well, that’s all for today.

A Quiet Snowy Day & My Fall Panel

 

Since yesterday was such a busy day for me I’ve been taking it easy today.  My plans of taking down my Winter Tree and cleaning my bathroom have been put aside.  It’s 31 degrees here and we have about two inches of snow with more coming today.  The little gingham red and white table cloth shown below in my hearth room was bought in Innsbruck when we went on a tour in northern Italy in 2014.  It fits this little table nicely.  And is my favorite color..RED!

I slept in this morning (don’t sleep as well at night) so mornings are my catch up sleep.  I have my orange juice followed by coffee while sitting in my hearth room with the fireplace going.  Currently I am reading an Allen Hunter novel, “Gently Floating”.  This is my fourth Gently novel.  Mr. Hunter wrote 46 of them.  I so enjoyed watching the Inspector Gently series streaming that I had to read his books.  Normally I am in Florida this time of year staying with my cousin but with COVID 19 I’m staying home this winter.

I thought I would share another project with you that I stitched up late last year.  I have several fabric panels I purchased over the last few years and this was one of them.  It’s a fall themed one with golden leaves falling and a bicycle under the tree.   It has pieced maple leafs in the corners...my first ones ever.  

I misplaced the instructions for this panel so I had to go to my expert quilter cousin to learn how to do the maple pieced blocks.  Since quilting this one, I purchased new free motion quilting gloves that I like.  One’s fingers are free and the palm of the gloves grip the fabric nicely.  

I still have several fabric panels projects.  I liked this Santa Claus panel and ordered two.  Needless to say it was much larger than I realized.  I’m not even sure how to cut it out and add borders.

I think I will make a large lap throw out of it.  I have a year to get it done.  LOL!

I’m streaming a new “Sherlock Holmes” series made in Russia in 2013 with subtitles.  It’s an interesting take on this famous detective although a bit strange in a foreign language taking place in London.  I was sad to learn that the actor who played Dr. Watson died in 2013.  

I find I’m streaming more shows than watching cable these days.  I went from four cable boxes down to just one and have four Amazon Fire Sticks to stream around the house.  I hate commercials so streaming is better than cable.    I’m not ready to cut the cable cord yet but I’m getting closer.  Do you like to stream shows?  

I’m fighting the urge to do something positive today.  Maybe I can count this posting.  LOL!  Enjoy your day and thanks for visiting this little old lady in Ohio.