Stashy Saturday: Colouring Books

Tama over at Stitching Daze has been participating in a feature called 'Stashy Saturday', where you feature some of your craft stash items.  This is my first time doing Stashy, and I've decided to feature the colouring books I have yet to start and/or complete. I have promised myself not to buy any more colouring books, no matter how cool the design, till I make a good dent in these.  The only exception I made was that 'Secret Garden' one I got a couple of months ago.  Almost all of the rest were bought before I even left Washington.  

I'm about 5 pages into 'Out of This World'.  It's very detailed.

Victorian Houses is going to be a little harder to do, I think, because a lot of the houses are renderings of actual Victorian style buildings, and therefore, I want to make sure they get coloured correctly. That will mean having a google image picture of the house on my computer so that I can match the colours.  Oh, the SF book is also new.  Again, this one will require accuracy.  Can't really have a purple GGB now can we?!

These should be fun!

Gargoyles & Medieval Monsters.  I ended up sending this to my future stepdaughter-in-law earlier this week.

I also have that black velvet poster that Russell bought me last summer that I haven't started just yet.

My crafting muse has gone on an extended vacation so it's allowed me the opportunity to start colouring again. Back before I had a laptop and was online all the time, I got WAY more colouring done.  I'd like to get back to that again.

Icebergs In The Canal

I'm not sure that the Canal has ever completely frozen over as the currents/tides run fast, and it's sea level, but every now and then in winter there will be ice chunks.  I headed over to Sandwich around 10 AM and the water was totally clear of ice, even small pieces.  It was dead low tide on the Bay.  By the time I crossed back over at 1:30, the ice was so thick you could barely see any blue water at all.  

I went home, grabbed my camera and headed back out.  I thought I could get some good 'aerial' views from the vista points on Scenic Highway, but all the snow piles were pushed to the end of the parking lot and I was not about to risk my life scaling them....not with a sheer drop on the other side.  So I ended up at the Herring Run parking lot, where I still had to climb up a snow bank to see over to the water.  I only got 3 pictures at that place.  

Looking west

Looking east at Sagamore Bridge

So I drove back to Buzzards Bay and tried to get access to the Canal from the park.  It was a very cold and icy walk from the parking lot to the service road, and I had to very slowly and gingerly pick my way across the icy walkway and hope to god I didn't fall.  Looking east at Bourne Bridge.

This really blew my mind.  Never, ever have I seen this.

There's a channel of water out there in the center.

Brrrrrrrr

One last look at the Bourne Bridge and I was in a hurry to get to my car.  It was 14* and my ears were frozen.  I was probably minutes away from frostbite because they really hurt and burned after I got back in the car and turned the heat on!

Well I always wanted to see the icebergs in Newfoundland, but this will suffice for now!

The Neverending Winter

Winter continues to hammer us nonstop with subzero temps and snow.  Oh the snow.  The media has been winding everyone up about collapsing roofs and ice dams.  I do know of some people who are experiencing leaks from the ice build up on the gutters which sucks, but so far our place is OK.  It rained a little bit and was 34 yesterday but it didn't seem to help my roof as much as I'd hoped.  The ice is still solid on top of the gutters.

I will say that the icicles do look pretty cool.

Snow on the rail trying hard to melt.

The weather has been hard on me mentally, and hard on the truck too.  My car makes weird noises when it's this cold. It's hard to not be completely lethargic all day long, eyes sliding in and out of focus on the TV or computer screen, hours slipping by as you mindlessly play Bejeweled Blitz.  

I had hubs home for a week after the last blizzard and we did what we could to get out a few times for breakfast & errands, or grab some takeout Chinese for lunch on Chinese New Year.  He helped me grocery shop for the house and also for my mom.  He's been really into wanting homemade soups lately so I've been lovingly preparing lots of new recipes, so that I can bask in the ultimate compliment, 'This is yummy, babe. Thanks!'

So with him home last week, and with my back virtually destroyed from all the shoveling, I cross stitched in my recliner with the heating pad on my back.  As is my usual MO with beaded cross stitch, once I get going and the design emerges, I obsess to the point of waking up in the middle of the night to think about where I want to pick up in the morning.  So I cranked out the stitched part and then was finally ready to add the beads which is, of course, the best part.

The beads make these projects really pop.  I beaded in two marathon sessions that lasted hours.  I didn't even stop to shower and kept saying, 'just one more thread's worth....just one more colour....'

And then these happened.....banana chocolate chip cookies with vanilla frosting.  Cause I woke up and it was snowing....AGAIN.....and dammit, I wanted cookies.  Hey anything to beat the winter doldrums at this point.

It's February 23rd.....last time I saw my yard was January 25th.  Can't believe we've endured a month of this crap.

Valentines Day Card & Surprises for the Pups

Did everyone have a nice Valentines Day?  Ours was quiet.  Hubby took me out to our fave brekky joint, The Breakfast Nook, in Wareham.  I made him a card using some of the little Valentines that I got last year at Build-A-Bear.  

Of course I blocked out what I wrote to him, but this is the inside.  I meant to take pics of the card after it was completed but I went and wrote it out and sealed it up before I remembered!

The day before, we were surprised to receive a package in the mail to Pepper & Sagan from Buddy Gourmet in Iowa.  It contained some biscuits and a squeaky toy.  Because a donation had also been made to a malamute rescue, I immediately knew that my dear friends Heather & Travis, and their adorable malamute StellaBellaBurgerBear were behind the surprise!  I should've taken pics of the biscuits but those got scarfed down right away.  And of course Sagan stole the purple turtle toy.

Pepper was getting mad.  "But Ai wanna pway wiff Purkle Turkle!"

"Mama! Make him share!"

"Stoopid dumhead. It's MAI turn."

So I dug out Piggly Wiggly for her but she was having none of it.  Sagan stole him away too!

"NO MAMA! IZ MINE!"

We Are Most Definitely NOT Amused......

Literally running out of places to shovel this white crap.  This was taken at about 10:00 AM yesterday as winter storm 'Neptune' was slamming into us.  For some reason, they are naming winter storms now.  The one we had in late January was called 'Juno'.  

By 2:00 pm, the snow had stopped falling but it was windy and the temps were plummeting.  It was 26 when I shot the first pics, and 18 by afternoon.  Our plow guy showed up to clear the driveway and OMG I really don't know what's going to happen when this mess finally starts to melt.  The pictures really don't do it justice.  Those plow piles are over 5' tall.

Very worried about the roof and how to get the snow off it. There no yard access and I know Russell won't want me on a step ladder.

I'm also worried about the weight of the snow on this deck.  I can't possible shovel it.  It's at least 3' or more high.

At least this was a short blizzard, unlike the 36 hour one in January.

I've pretty much given up hope that this is ever gonna stop.

Red Sky At Morning, Sailors Take Warning

Taken at 6:30 AM from my driveway, the morning before we got more snow.  

Would love to have gotten the unobstructed view from my back yard but alas, still not accessible.

Cold, Grey Bucket of Suck

We continue to have snow dumped on us in vast quantities on an almost daily basis.  Still no access to the deck except that square in front of the door and what I walked on to try and get the snow off the roof.  I have an ice dam up there that will not budge. 

I really miss covered parking and so does my poor car.  The wiper blades are up because it's just easier to clean the windshield after storms when they aren't frozen to it.  We are getting storm after storm, every other day.  It's soul-sucking, it really is.

No access to the front yard either.  Dogs have no choice but to go in the driveway, which is turning a gross shade of yellow and brown, even though I shovel the brown out of the way.

Snow piled against the pole and my neighbour's house.  They used to come down on weekends but they haven't been around since before the blizzard a few weeks ago.

The town of Bourne seems to find it amusing to come along after driveways have been plowed and bury the end of your driveway again.  The DPW got an earful from me after the blizzard.  Luckily we have a reliable plow guy who will come by and clear the end after Bourne buries it.  This is looking down to the end of the street.  So much yuck.

Have to keep the path to the shed clear in case the power goes out.  My back, neck, shoulders and arms are in so much pain....I don't think they'll ever feel better again.  I manage to get out to get errands done about once a week, but backing into the drive has proved difficult.  I got my car good and stuck in a snowbank on Sunday.  I sat in it and cried and cried before crawling out the passenger side and digging the wheels out.  We also try to get groceries for my mom between storms too, since she's completely snowbound.  Her driveway is a skating rink.

Since I'm housebound, I'm trying to do what I can to stave off despair.  I'd bought a bunch of candles before the blizzard.  Fortunately we didn't lose power.  We've continued to have high winds with the snow storms so I decided why not decorate some of them.  If we're gonna lose power, at least I can make it pretty.  

This is a confetti ball project I saw on Pinterest and then checked out the Crafty Chica tutorial HERE. I found it a lot more time consuming than the artist showed.  First of all, I used white glue, as she recommended.  I usually use clear floor wax to make stuff stick on the inside, but I tried that first and the sequins didn't stick well with it.  Cleaned out the ball and poured the glue in and started sprinkling sequins, multicoloured mylar confetti and glitter for filler.  The glue was clearly going to need some help to dry, so I baked it in the oven on 200 for 45 minutes.  Didn't work. I set it in the sunny south facing window for hours (which still gets warm sun even in the cold) every day that we had sun.  It's been 3 weeks and the bottom still hasn't completely dried. 

It also took a really long time to find a picture that looked good on the ball too.  I cut out pics of butterflies and flowers, and none of them looked good at all.  I opted for this angel that I mod podged onto the ball.  Then used glitter puff paint and clear rhinestones around the edge.  See how the glue is still white down the bottom?

My friend Fernanda asked me if I could stitch a kit she bought.  I said sure, so she sent me the kit, cloth and floss.  I started it but with my back hurting, I've had to put it aside b/c I can't hunch over the craft table.  There are a lot of colour changes and mixed threads that require a solid surface rather than my recliner arms.

This one's much easier to do while sitting with the heating pad.  Well till I get to the beads anyway.

The weather has also been quite conducive to comfort food.  I made a quinoa cheesy bread and a broccoli, mushroom, onion and 3-cheese quiche.  DELISH!

Finally got around to getting a bundt pan.  It's been my intent to make Russell a pineapple upside down bundt cake for his bday, and it occurred to me that it's coming up a bit fast.  So I wanted to give it a whirl.  I used a cinnamon swirl recipe found HERE.  I was afraid that the cake would come out of the pan in pieces but it came out pretty good!

It cooled for a couple hours before I made the glaze.

The only thing I'd do different is increase the cinnamon sugar in the center.  Other than that, it's wicked good!

I really hope this snowy nightmare ends soon.