Happy New Year

 

 The sun is shining and it makes it feel a little bit warmer. It is only 44 degrees F. and snow continues to melt. I wore my winter coat to go get the mail and I was glad that I did. It is the eve of the New Year Day and people are home and not working today. I went for groceries yesterday and won't venture there today. Our grocery store got so busy right before Christmas that people couldn't find a place to park their cars. That is a lot of cars as I shop at a very large store  I have been there when they do an "all call" for workers to go out and get carts in for the customers. 

 The sled decor seems out of place without snow being on the ground. The wind sent this sled down the way making a lot of noise. It was extremely strong winds form the north west. 

 The sunlight makes the door wreath glow with all that sunlight. I converted this into a  inter wreath as the original form was pretty simple looking. 

 The fake bird on one of my sled wreaths is getting old but he is a nice spot of color on the greens.

 I am taking close care of the poinsettia as I want t to last a long time. They are hard to water from the top so I take it to the sink and lay it on its partial side. No big plans for the eve. We are snacking on crab dip and cheese with crackers for supper. I bought a half of apple pie and we will have to find a movie to watch. I will have to start remembering to change over to 2026. I was just getting use to the 25. I wish every one a happy new year. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

Chilly Day

 

 

 

 I call them my partying snowmen. I bought them through a fundraiser a long time ago. They are a happy bunch and also very laid back. We had some melting today but it was still cold. Just above freezing means one should wear their winter coat.  I went to get groceries and it was not pleasant as I got chilled being out there.  I had a birthday card that needed to get into the mail and I picked up some few things that we were getting low of and needed to be replenished. It was busy at the store and I am assuming people are buying for the New Year event. It is funny how all the party trays of snacks are up for sell right now and cookies and snack cakes too are everywhere.  The snow and water in the parking lot will freeze up quickly and it will be slick again. 

Thanks for checking in today.  

Too cold and Too Windy

 It is cold out there. It is so cold that your jeans feel like they are freezing to your legs when walk out to get the mail. 

 The view out my one winter shows the bird feeders and the snow. The tarp that is suppose to be on the grill is out there moving around with our strong winds. Eventually the tarp you see in the view ended up at the bottom of the stairs. With the ice covered stairs that tarp can just stay out there. The birds were not eating for awhile but this afternoon did come to eat. I walked out on the icey deck and filled up the self feeders.

 This view shows we really didn't get that much snow but it is still a covered with the frozen tundra. It was nice to see the sun and the strong 50 mph of the past 24 hours has finally stopped. 

 While at the front door, I turned to see this view of my wife's stuffed animal tree. It was good lighting so I had to take a shot.The wind flattened one of my snow sleds onto the ground taking with it my small Christmas tree. I retrieved all and moved the sled into a better location in case it starts blowing again. The front stoop sort of out of the wind but the wind was coming from a north west direction which meant it was directly into the stoop area.

 Downstairs the begonia is leaning out to the light. It keeps it alive even though it grows one sided all winter inside the house. 

 

Just like some people keep knitting or crocheting while watching tv, I keep making a few cranes each day. I make 5 to 7 of them each day. I am heading for 1,000 cranes and I am not far from that total. 

I have four different kinds of papers with their themed patterns. I keep moving one to another each night. I  tried to teach my grand kids and son and his wife how to make these. My grand daughter was so cute as we made it two or three steps in and she declared we needed to start over. She is six so it was to be expected. I worked with her and we did each step and everyone did complete one, but they said they would not try to do that again.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Snow Day

 We had squall warnings today with the snow and strong winds blowing snow and ice everywhere.  We are south of the heaviest snow. The wind will be the main event happening this afternoon. 

 The outdoor tree is back to being slung off balanced. It is wired to the railing but the wind wiggles the base out from under it. It makes it look like a Grinch tree. 

 I took some random shots of decorations. Some of them will be boxed up soon. This guy lost its tail and once all the container was emptied, I found it in packing paper. 

 

We have dropped to 18 degrees F. by this evening. I had to charge my computer so when I return to finish the post it is miserable outside with it still snowing. I see that a major part of the interstate from Ames to Clear Lake has been closed down. We are back into winter and will be home for a while. Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

Fish Stories

 I bought two small goldfish in the early spring. I had a barrel of water and put them in there as they could be seen easily looking down on them. They were sold as feeder fish but they grow up to be full sized fish. I hurriedly brought them in the fall and put them in one of my tropical fish tanks. They did not need heated water so I set up my spare tank with cold water. They aren't too happy with me because they could eat up the baby guppies in the tropical tank. That is probably why the grew so large so quickly.

 I resisted the other day at the pet store from buying one more different kind of comet fish to add the the even number of fish as I really don't want to expand my zoo.

 The angel fish is safely kept away from them as I don't think they would get along together. The angel fish also would eat guppies if they were small but I don't have any small ones in there with him.

 While snapping an angel photo I noticed the lamb it its arms. I didn't pay attention to the detail that is done on it.

 I noticed the small rabbit that was down at the skirt of the angel. The artist does a great job of making his work appear special. 

 The newest angel added this year is this one. The angel is holding a dog, puppy, that has a good smile on its face. This is the smaller size compared to the larger ones she has in the background..

 One last artwork that I am sharing is this button tree. We lost our friend Shari a few years ago and we inherited all of her different creations that she made with buttons. When she was first diagnosed with cancer she started a large cloth canvas of buttons making a garden scene. During the Christmas season she would creat these wonderful trees. This is created on a place mat. People in her apartment complex liked here work and would donate buttons to her or she would pick them up at thrift shops. 

We have had a cool, cloudy day all day. It is wet as the fog that hung on all morning dampened everything. It looks like it has rained but it hasn't.  We have had a quiet day and did not leave the house. I walked out to get the mail and resisted walking around the place as it's wet.  Tomorrow it will be a predicted rain or maybe some snow. We will just wait and see as the fronts seem to be unstable. Thanks for stopping by today. 

Angels Plus

 

The newest to the angel collection is the smaller angel that is holding a dog. It is the second from the top photo.  Notice that the dog has a smile on while being held by the angel.We are taking the day off and yet both of us have been busy with things. I have been putting some things away from gift wrapping and also I am messing with my aquariums. Moving some fish around, I am trying to get the gold fish away from the guppies. I know they are eating guppies so they now will get their own tank to live in without causing me  grief. Fish just like chickens do have a pecking order. The biggest fish of coursed eats the smaller one. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 
 

Christmas Day

 The animals all gather for the manger scene. It reminds me of the childhood farm animals that I played with along with my barn. Arranging them into a scene surrounding the manger and child.

 We were around people who road camels while we visited in Israel. We were suggested that we could ride a golf cart to the location that we were aiming for as they thought we were too old to ride. The one  younger man shared that it was a scary ride as the camels were careless as they walked along the cliffs and rocks. He thought he was a unsafe. The were in a hurry as they wanted to ditch their load. 

 

I counted them up and we have six camels. Some are carved from wood and two are ceramic. The one above is actually plastic.  

 My wife knows I am into the red trucks that carry around green evergreen trees. She surprised me this year with special wrapping paper with this woodie red car carrying home its tree. We are having a quiet day at home with lots of presents in the morning and roast cooking ready for supper. We have been foggy all day with the weather being around the upper forties most of the day. It even rained a bit this morning. We have be watching Christmas movies and watched one again for the second time because we liked it so much. Both of ours sons called us to check in on the folks. The one in Maine was having heavy snowfall and the other was just cold with snow on the ground. We warmed up enough that we don't have snow. That's good as we will get snow again eventually.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

 

Christmas Red

 

The official  plant for the season has been brought into the house. It is such a pure red and a enjoyed by all.

 

 This is a card from a dear blogger friend from last year. The stamped cut design is such a wonderful design. Stockings and snowflakes are so great to see in the design.

 Some year I want to hire a crew to put lights on this Unfortunately there is no snow decorating it this year.

Behind the tree the last of the tree stump was removed. Two days later the crew came in and filled it the hole with real dirt. 

We went to a Christmas eve service this afternoon and are ready to spend the eve at home. We have tons of Christmas movies so we will probably watch one for sure. 

Thanks for stopping in today.
 

Dashing

 A new book of paper that ended up to be a mistake. The paper is too heavy for origami. I make it work anyway but it takes a lot of patience. 

 The front two are of the heavy paper. I am puzzled as to what the purpose for the paper is but maybe it is for scrap bookers. 

 We still have a few places with snow but in the most part there is now snow.

 

The pile from my unloading the snow on the deck is all showing still. It will be gone soon though.
 Thanks for stopping by today. I have to dash, on my way out of the house.

Warm Weather

 A lot of our ornaments have distinct memories. My sister-in-law Linda, passed a couple of years ago. She gave thoughtful gifts as she knew I collected the glass blown ornaments. The Italian cook comes with a mustache and a bag of bread. His shirt is striped and his nose is a carrot because he is a snow man.  Oh yest the bottle of wine is in his right hand. 

 My wife's friend Karen who also has passed, made a tree full of these ornaments. She would talk to my wife on the phone with hare glue gun in hand gluing ribbons and then beads to here glass ball.

 This is a new shiny brite ornament. I bought it a couple of years ago before the prices shot through the roof. I saw a box of twelve for $47. Any ornaments of similar kind are costing the same price. I can see that a box of the small glass blown ornaments of different shapes are selling for $74 a box. This was the kind that I bought for years at "after Christmas sales" for three or four dollars. 

 

I guess this tree of ornaments is worth a lot of money. It was like investing in the stock market when prices were low.

The warm up is helping everybody doing well with outside jobs. The company returned today and removed the stump in our backyard.  Across the yard the neighbor's are having their siding replaced. I don't think they will be done before Christmas but they are going to have most of it done. They started work in the extreme cold weather but one of the workers toay was wearing shorts. Our high today was 53 degrees F.

Thanks for stopping by today.