Down time

It's rare that I allow myself an afternoon of lazing, reading and general purposelessness but this has been one of them. This past work week was as intense as any have been in recent memory, though sometimes I think the sheer magnitude of possible consequences inherent in my daily profession is something that my brain compartmentalizes in order to keep moving forward, so who knows how many times I have forgotten days and weeks equally ferocious. Thus, I am here in front of this wood stove enjoying quiet and giving in to the languidness of a cloudy winter day.

Can't believe it's mid February and this is the first fire in the wood stove. There are a number of reasons for this:

• a sweet lame old dog who can't make it up and down the basement stairs well at all
• a new flat screen TV and streaming Roku box on the first floor
• a winter that has so far included more weekends crafting (yay!) than being lazy

As much as I like and appreciate the pellet stove, it lacks something when compared to this. Now that I've shared, I have to get back to being lazy.

Pics from a February Saturday morning

Cold, clear, and beautiful.

Frost on the bushes from overnight fog on the river.

The farmer's market building is behind these mounds.

The downside to all of this: shoveling roofs (hard to see the guy doing just that in this iPhone pic) and messy floors - this was in the post office where I had to stop to pick up the mail since our carrier can't (won't?) get up the snowy lane.

The Best Groundhog's Day Present Ever

A snow day!!!


What more could I ask for on this mid-winter holiday than lots of snow, an office shutdown, and a new sewing machine??? Oh yeah, electricity. Since moving to Maine I've come to appreciate ongoing electrical power during a storm having had multiple winter storms that have knocked out power for a couple of days. Sewing and music certainly would not be a part of this day if not for those wonderful electrons streaming through the lines to this house. There would be knitting and a woodstove though so all would not be lost, but I digress...


Started on Elizabeth Hartman's Crazy Nine Patch from Oh Fransson a couple of days ago but really got a chance to sink my pressor foot into it this morning. So fun but learned the hard way to pay attention. This pattern uses nine different squares and, if done correctly, each block should have one square of each fabric. First time around, that didn't quite happen. Second batch (out of three) of squares, I used my iPhone to take a pic of the top square before making the cut which helped out tremendously because by the time all nine squares are stitched and the seams are ironed, there are a number of ways one can get the stack out of order. Here's some of the squares in a rough configuration of the pattern (minus the carpet).

Did I mention that J. made corn pancakes for breakfast? They were so good! The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, a wonderful cooking blog. Obviously, not fresh corn season so she used frozen which worked just fine.

Here's what it looks like out front

and the pile on the garage roof (so far) as seen from my craft room.

Back to patches...

Foot in Mouth Disease

Without going into detail (in an effort to avoid further inadvertent humiliation), I will share that (for the second time this week) I have made a texting faux pas - sending a text to the wrong recipient. Oy vey! You'd think I'd learn. Don't think I'm to be trusted with social media.
Met a wonderful someone, boyfriend of my sweet, wonderful neighbor/friend, then texted a physical description that was (partially) less-than-complimentary  AND, instead of sending it to J.. sent it to my sweet, wonderful neighbor/friend. I only hope she reads and incorporates the parts wherein I said he was "very nice" and "cheerful". The fact is he is sweet and kind and seems quite sincere and makes her happy and I couldn't be happier for both of them. My tendencies to snarkiness need refining, to say the least. My intent was to give an initial impression in 3 words - admittedly, they should have been more complimentary because my overall impression was one of a sweet soul - to J. but instead, I put my foot (second degree burns and all) into my nasty mouth. So sorry, Rick!!!


Here are some pics from this cold, beautiful winter day before I humiliated myself. One of the reasons I love Maine so much is the drama of the seasons. Thanks for not disappointing this winter!!!


Hail the winter days ...

\

Deck furniture!

Canoes promise future adventures.

The promise of spring...

The reality of NOW...too beautiful to complain. 

Those who can, do and...

those who are intimidated by their new sewing machine and (an ever present) fear of failure, procrastinate by 

Making bread

and soup. But then I pulled out the Alexander Henry fabric I've had for a while intending to make a pillow for J's office and decided to "jump in". Earlier in the day I had read the Janome manual (while recovering from an unfortunate steaming-hot-coffee-grounds meets left foot accident - scary) and this project gave me the opportunity to try out a number of the mechanical exercises therein. Quite user friendly, this machine is. 
Have a lot to learn but the people at 

Mainely Sewing give unlimited instructions along with the purchase. 

Even though I am not thrilled with the way the cording turned out because I couldn't manage to get the needle close enough to the base of the cord (lesson please) despite using the zipper foot, I am relatively happy with how this turned out. No matter what, just LOVE this fabric!!