snow

Our Texas New Year's Eve was too snowy and icy to go anywhere so I took a few photos to mark the occasion.

How to make Sock Craft Snow People

While the little grands are visiting we decided to make some crafty sock people.  The 6 year old was able to make hers entirely by herself and the three year old did all the stuffing and gave directions on how he wanted his decorated. 

Orange Sugar Cookie Snowflakes

By now, if you’ve seen my blog very much, you recognize I really love sugar cookies.  I prefer them soft and chewy, and I like to vary the flavor by changing the extracts.  I always use the same basic recipe you can find here.  We are heading over to a neighborhood gathering this afternoon so I made these snowflake shaped sugar cookies using an orange extract instead of vanilla.  The icing is a simple powdered sugar one with a tiny bit of merengue powder to make it stay in place.  My biggest tip in making sugar cookies is not to over cook them.  They aren’t suppose to be brown, just done.  Stick to the recommended cooking time and if you aren’t sure they are done, just use a spatula to lift one off the cookie sheet and see if the bottom is slightly brown.  Ice after they are completely cool and for that extra sparkle you see on the snowflakes, sprinkle some crystal sugar you can buy in the cake decorating section of your store.   They aren’t almost home made, but they are so easy you will be making them all the time.

DIY Refrigerator Snowman

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!  The fridge was cleaned for the holiday (you can use my how to and cleaning solution here) and ready to be decorated.  Snowmen are a fun decoration for the holiday because they are good through January.  And they are easy to craft with kids and grownups too!  This morning I put up a really quick snowman on the fridge.  He has a hat made from 2 bright greet lunch bags, eyes from a dollar store magnetic Halloween ghost kit, construction paper nose, magnet strips mouth and a twisted sheet of dark green tissue paper for his scarf...oh and some magnetic dots for buttons.   All things I had on hand.

Go ahead and put one up, or better yet, let the kids create him from stuff you have.  Now, show me what you made!

Joy in this moment

This moment

catching snow flakes

feeling the cold on your tongue

the reward

for waiting 

Sometimes linking at these parties

Happy Valentines!

It's OK


To eat my Valentine chocolates before "the day" got here!

To stand still on the back porch with a cup of hot tea

breath deep

and relish the love of family.

It's OK, really, it is okay.

Snow fridge.

Well, techinically it is a refrigerator, but say snow fridge out loud with a musical lilt...it's funny.  While photographing my living room for the open house blog, a glaring white fridge in the back ground was not what I wanted to see.  So, a quick make over and tah-da... decor.  Literally, in less than 5 minutes he appeared there.  It helps that I had a stash of round and strip magnets on the side out of view.  A piece of orange construction paper, a strip of red tissue paper and a couple of green buttons attop peel and stick magnets make this a welcome guest.

My Holiday House tour 2012.

Let it snow and enjoy nature.

The snowman vignette.  Those snowballs...just styrofoam, no crafting required! 

I'm decorating in two houses this year,  mine and mom's.  I'm spending a lot more time with her because  I can and want to. She's having total hip replacement in January and another in about March.  Several of my blogs recently have stemmed from some great quality time there.  If you still have your parents, I encourage you to take advantage of your time and share it with them.

Mantel

Pecans waiting to be shelled on the hearth.

A vintage decorative box, recycled vanilla bottle,
styrofoam "snow"ball on a vintage doily.

Break time happens here :-)

Fresh greenery and crepe myrtle branches from the yard in our ash bucket
with a few more snow balls.

The kitchen is where the holidays begin, those decorations can be seen here.

At mom's house:  You can see how we changed the old, way too big, fake tree into an adorable table top masterpiece here. the door DIY sock wreath  I made for mom here and check out the cinnamon/applesauce garland here.  If you're interested in seeing the fabulous west Texas sunsets or other things I found cool, check out my Instagram site here. You can find soup recipes that were adapted for the two of us that are heart healthy and diabetic friendly here and here.

Snowman play

Last winter my 4 yr old grand was here during a light snow.  The snow wasn't the good snowman making kind, but we managed to make a few little fellows grouped together on the patio table.  She thought they looked like they were waiting for birds to come have a picnic.  So I gave her some plates and plastic utensils to set the bird picnic up.  She put a handful of birdseed on the plates and we delighted together as birds came to eat.  Later as we sat in my home office she asked for another snowman on the window sill.  So we opened the window and made a little fellow that fell against the window as we closed it.  She played most of the afternoon setting up different scenes on the window sill.  My favorite was the little battery operated candle that gave the appearance he was tying to get warm through the window pane.  That's the one I posted on 4/10 Cold- photo a day. Here are a couple of others from that day.

I have bird friends and we'd like to come in to warm up?

We put out a bird feast, just waiting for the party to start!

Would you like to play?

Awe, you're cute!