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.