Beating the Winter Blues...with Color!

Last week was pretty lovely. Most of the snow melted, the sun came out, the sky was blue, and things were looking up.

This morning was pretty dreary. The sun was gone, the warmth was gone, and in its place was cold and rain. This afternoon the snow started. Thankfully I made it home safely through the frozen ice pellets, freezing rain, and finally snow - despite the treacherous roadways that looked suspiciously unsalted!

Now, after about 4 hours of snow, here is what is staring at me out the window (besides the snow plow that barrells through every hour or so):

So peaceful, so quiet...yet so threatening! So colorless, too! So despite the work it takes to keep my plants alive, they are just a little source of happiness as I water them everyday (or as much as I remember!) ...

This is the longest surviving plant I currently have - a Christmas Cactus. After I presumed it dead last year and was going to throw it out, my mom nursed it back to health and it has been blooming several times this Christmas!

Silly as it may sound, I've actually wanted a legit cactus for a long time. One of Robbie's students gave him this as a present this year, so now I have at least one thing I really can't kill!

We didn't buy a poinsettia this year because we were out of town for the holidays (even though we did put up a tree!), but after Christmas my grandparents brought it over to keep while they headed south for the winter!

Another strong plant, this one was killed once after it bloomed in the summer, but is making a nice mid-winter comeback in my front window where it gets lots of sun!

And finally, the newest edition to the plants in my house, this primrose is very particular. One day I came in to find all the flowers drooping like they were dead, but with a little water and a couple hours, they were back up and back to normal (as long as I remember to water daily) !

Feeling the winter blues? Find yourself a little piece of life and color to perk up those blah winter days!

You know you're bored when... :-)

I really have no reason to be bored...I really have no time to be bored! It's not like I'm sitting here, doing nothing, but at the moment I do not have a focused task that has to be completed tonight, and I'm pretty drained from an intense day of teaching, but silly me still needs to feel productive, so in between laundry loads, what's a girl to do?

(Those of you who are wondering, why not just relax on the couch? need to realize that in my messed up head, being productive around the house is relaxing --- to a certain extent. I definitely take a break on Friday nights and crash on the couch with a movie if I can, but hey - it's only Tuesday!)

So the clue to me that I'm really bored (or just plain procrastinating on everything else!) is that I think it's a good time to pull out the cross-stitch.   ..."Cross-stitch!?" you say, "What's that?" You know, that thing most all women used to do 'a hundred years ago' in their spare time, that involves a creative type of sewing for fun.

This project was actually supposed to be in a plant (the pieces should be wired together and stuck on a plant stake - not sure why I or anyone else thought that would be a good idea!)

This activity is just perfect for the high-strung person like me who needs to feel productive while sitting still. Usually it comes out on long car rides or when I know I'm going somewhere there isn't internet (hmm...that doesn't happen anymore for us Blackberry people!). This also may be why I have actually finished very few projects ;-) .

One of Four napkin rings (this is the only one that got started!)

All the projects have been abandoned (for the most part) since before I was able to drive. However, one project in particular I have been working on off and on since then. It is also the largest project I undertook, consisting of the cartoon character Tigger jumping on Winnie the Pooh. You can see where I am right now below!

The way I see it, I'll be very lucky to have this project completed by the time we have kids to appreciate it! Haha - I guess that's a step better than my mom, who finally gave my sister her cross-stitched birth announcement when she graduated from high school! (The thing to understand here is that my sister really thought she was getting second fiddle because I had one and she didn't...)

So, now that I've shared my own little boredom idiosyncrasy(!), I want to know what yours is! What do you do when you're really bored? How do you know you've reached the ultimate in boredness? ;-)
Can't wait to find out!

A Nicer Light to the Outside World - Windows!

Some of you may have noticed from the initial pictures of our house, or perhaps if you have visited our house, that the windows (like everything else) were original to the house, and some of them in quite a state of disrepair (i.e. picture below).

This one was my (least) favorite. Both bedrooms were equipped with window air conditioners permanently, such that there was no window pane to put back in the window if you took them out. This one was not even sealed very well, so soon after moving into the house we decided to make the best of it by duct taping all around the window and A/C unit in hopes to reduce the amount of air escaping or coming in. Still, the rooms didn't cool or heat very well, and we knew we needed to replace them soon.

So we decided to take the plunge and replace a few really bad windows this fall, and wait on the rest until spring. Well, with the kitchen taking so long and us not entirely having our act together, we didn't get the windows ordered until November. It shouldn't have been a problem to get them installed before the end of the year, as we usually have fairly good weather through December, but not this year!

We were hoping to take advantage of the little we had left to claim on the energy rebates / tax credits, but when we left for Ireland on Christmas day, we had little hope that it would happen. BUT, thanks to a last minute heat wave and our SUPER window installer, we were able to get them in on Dec. 30 & 31! Whew - that was close!  :)

This window lives in our family room on the first floor, which is still "under construction"

 So now we have 5 nice new beautiful windows, and it really is funny how much a difference it makes (to me) looking outside! They are a lot cleaner than the old ones obviously, but I also like the crisp white instead of the dull aluminum gray.

This window resides in the "purple room" or my office :)

Now we can't wait to get the rest of the windows done, especially since we have only one new window on the front of the house (looks a little silly, but oh well - it will hopefully be fixed in a few months).