Random Wintery Notes : Puttering Around and Shop at Home

rare [for the beach] cardinal, coming in closer for food?
He's been out there with his ladies all week.

Hi everyone! Happy February..."Oh the weather outside is frightful..." It really is pretty bad, 2015 is shaping up to be a nasty winter, isn't it? And as the ice-and-snow days keep coming, it gets hard to stay focused and accomplish all those things you put off last summer, when you thought, Something to do in February.

I have to pee out HERE?

Some tasks are so tiny, so tedious. LOL. Like I cleaned the threads off the roller thing on the big vacuum. Yay! I moved the large chests in the bedroom to sweep out the dust bunnies hiding by the baseboards. I prepped a quilt to be sent off to a new quilter, for custom quilting, finger crossed!

I sorted the herbs on my fridge door, washed their shelves. I found out I had two little jars of poppy seeds, of all things---plus a mix for lemon cake in the baking bin. Oh goody! A lemon poppy seed bundt sounded delicious.

I also found a can of Duff's cupcake frosting, hmmm. I think I will mix it with a few tablespoons of my Christmas Grand Marnier and drizzle it on my cake . Then I'll slice the cake and freeze it so I have a nice tea cake all ready if a friend stops in for a visit and a cup of tea. Surely with all the snow shovelling we've done we can have a sliver of cake?

Let's see what else? Oh I made chili again. I revised my recipe: use two large cans of tomato paste, not one plus a can  fireroasted tomatoes. They make the chili too watery.

And while I was hunting around for I think fabric dye (I keep my dyes on a high kitchen shelf where no one will accidentally mess with them) and I found this collection of adorable pastel McCoy pots. 

So sweet, so spring-y. I think maybe they once held my mom's African violet collection and/ or some were dump dug back in Illinois, by my dad.

I plan to fill them with tiny daffodils or primroses if I ever get to the flower store. Or maybe windowsill herbs?

Sadly I immediately fumbled and dropped the little pink pot! My fave! It just makes the collection so perfect, so I glued it back together. But I was sad. Maybe closet rummaging is a bad idea?

 I had fun shopping in my cupboards, finding the cute pots, a couple of big Mason jars, and a base for another pincushion. Despite the loss of pinky. [something to look for next spring at the flea]. Who knows what I'd find in the closets....

I am ordering a special heating pad for Mo's crib. He sleeps in his crate at night and when I get him up each morning his fur is so cold! I've upped the heat in that room to 65* for him, my usual is 55", but he still seems cold. This is a non-electric microwave warming pad. I hope he is warm and cozy with it. Snuggle-Safe

My paper whites, week 2:

And last note: remember how I said the cold air is invigorating? That it seems like it has extra oxygen. Well, who knew! It does.

''Cooler air is more dense than warmer air. Warm air can actually hold more moisture because molecules are farther apart, making more room for moisture. Cold air is dense and compact; it's "thicker," so when you breathe in you get more oxygen.''  Cold air DOES have more oxygen

So, get out and enjoy the good cold air, icy days excepted of course.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

below, snow encrusted dunes...I wish you could have seen them last night under the full moon. They glowed.