Winter is upon us

It looks like winter is finally upon us. We got snow that actually stuck to the ground. It didn't last long but it was enough to remind me that there are some long cold winter days and nights ahead.
This is what I woke up to last Saturday morning. I know some of you have already gotten worse than this but this was bad enough for me, and I know worse is yet to come.
This is the road in front of my house. 

The birds play ground

Squirrely didn't seam to mind the snow so much

If at first you don't succeed

A couple of weeks ago I was looking out the window and spotted a new bird at the tree in front yard. I ran for my camera, turned it on, pointed and it was gone. I waited and I watched but it didn't come back. Why of why don't I leave the camera by the window?
Well he came back this week and I got a little luckier this time.

I have to use my old camera to zoom in enough on them and I have to shoot through the window. They aren't the best pictures but they are good enough that you can tell what he is. I was so excited when I got these I couldn't wait to share them with you.

Shuffle off to Buffalo

Wade headed off to Buffalo this morning for the Pittsburgh/Buffalo football game. One of the local bars put a package deal together so 41 of them went to sit and freeze and watch the football game. Me? I'm not that in to football and I'm totally against freezing if I don't have to so I stayed home.
I thought about lounging on the couch watching movies all day. I thought about spending the day doing crafts. I decided on laundry and painting.

 Now that the dining room is done it's time to finish painting the kitchen. I have the whole thing almost done. You can see on the right hand side of the picture, just behind the stove, what the old color was. I still have to pull out the stove and paint behind that and a few little touch up spots here and there but it looks so much nicer now.
While I was busy working all morning long, Duke laid on the back of the couch and supervised.

He was staying nice and warm in his sweater thinking about Dad freezing his butt off. You can't see out the window but we did have a little snow on the ground. By afternoon it was all melted but I know more is coming.

Stylish blogger

To my delight and surprise I received the stylish blogger award from Barbara at Barbara's World of Whimcees. I just recently discovered Barbara's blog and I must say I just love it. She makes the cutest things. Every time I stop by and see one of her creations I want to pull out the paper and glue and make my own. If you've never been there you really should stop by and check it out.
So on with the award

Accepting this award, I am asked to do the following:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded me this award.

2. Share 8 things about myself.

3. Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that I have recently discovered.

4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards.

I just shared 7 things about myself not too long ago so this time I'm going to tell you 8 things about Duke instead
1. Duke loves his toys. He loves to chase them, shake them and chew them. No stuffie shall ever retain it's stuffing if it's going to be one of Duke's toys.
2. I didn't figure Duke as a picky eater until I recently changed dog foods on him and he's been turning his nose up at it.
3. Duke goes back and forth between being a momma's boy and a daddy's boy. He spends more time with me but sometimes just wants to hang out and be one of the guys.
4. He loves to lay on clothes. If I leave a laundry basket sitting out I'll find him snoozing in it on top of the clean laundry. If I leave a jacket or sweater hanging on a chair he'll pull it down on the floor so he can lay on it.
5. Duke is the reason for the new dining room floor. He had a bad habit that resulted in a very disgusting looking spot on the carpet. All efforts to clean the spot were hopeless and the sun beating in through the door and heating that spot up on a daily basis only made things worse.
6. Duke doesn't know how small he is. He thinks that he is our big ferocious and fearless protector. (please don't break the news to him)
7. Duke is a talker. You can't always understand what he's saying but he'll help you figure it out. If I don't know what he's barking about I'll say "show me" (sometimes this needs to be said more than once) He'll then either go sit next to his water dish and bark again, or he'll go to the snack cupboard and put his nose to it then bark.
8. Duke loves to be vacuumed. He's the only dog I've ever had who doesn't head for the hills when the vacuum cleaner comes out. He sits there and watches and waits for me to pull the hose off of it so that he can have his turn.

Now who shall I pass this on to. I haven't really discovered many new blogs lately so I can't come up with 8
My choices are
Cheryl at Cards by Cheryl
Debbie at Designs by Debbie and Dixie too
Helen at Let's Create
Robert at Lost in the Frame of Life
Sandra at MadSnapper
Asma Ahmad at Simple Rhyme

Well I got close to 8 any way. Thank you again Barbara for sharing that wonderful award with me.

Progress

How is everyone on this wonderful Black Friday? I'm happy to be done with the days work and ready to start my weekend.
I thought I would give you a little bit of a peak at our progress with the work around here.
The dining room before we ate Thanksgiving dinner. Wade got the second coat of paint on while I was cooking. You would think that it would have smelled horrible but it wasn't bad and once it dried you couldn't smell it at all. It dried really fast also.

 While Wade was painting and I was cooking, Duke took the time to visit with his human brother.

 After we ate, got everything cleaned up and finished visiting with Brad we tore out the carpet and started cleaning up the floor. Today while I was at work Wade was busy doing this.

 The lighting is bad in this picture, the floor might not be quite as dark as it looks here. We aren't completely done yet. We still need to replace the trim and the register. I believe that plant will be moving too. I really love the way it looks.

Again bad light but I just liked the way this picture came out. I left it just the way it was.

Happy Thanksgiving

An early post today and then tomorrow back to our regular schedule.

Just a few shots from last Thanksgiving

Wishing all of you here in the United States a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving. And for all of you, wherever you may live, I am thankful for your friendship. I do indeed treasure each and every one of you.

Done but only for the day

I'm running late with the post tonight since, with the exception of a short break here and there, I've been painting since I got home from work. The ceiling is done and my walls have one coat of antique white on them. Did you know, according to my daughter Amanda, that antique white makes for boring walls? I've always had color. My living room has been a very light blue and gray with some sponge painting on the blue walls. The kitchen was green and I rag rolled those walls. I'm tired of it though. I want white. Not bright white but my lovely antique white. And so, that is what I shall have.
The walls still need another coat of paint in the dining room. The kitchen needs a first coat and so does the living room. For tonight though, I am finished. Tomorrow we shall be serving our Thanksgiving turkey on a drop cloth.
And now, I leave you with Duke.

What are we thinking?

We must be crazy but we are in the middle of doing some slight home improvement projects right now. Yes I do realize that Thanksgiving is just two days away. I just hope that I can at least semi clean the mess up before the bird comes out of the oven on Thursday.

Picture my kitchen floor covered with a drop cloth, my dining room with paint cans and assorted paint related items. Then picture my living room with everything pushed into it. Yes it's a huge mess. I may get a little behind on visiting all of you until we get this project finished. So if you don't hear from me for a couple of days you'll know that I'm buried in the mess somewhere.

Feeding the fish

What do you feed to a fish? That would depend on what kind of fish you are feeding. In this case I'm feeding a FishHawk and there is only one thing I can think of for that.

If none of that makes sense to you, let me explain. One of Duke's biggest fans is Jerry or better known as FishHawk. During Duke's long absence from the blog we received several comments requesting his presence from good old Fish. His last one requested a picture a day of Duke. I can't promise one every single day but I'm hoping that by posting this one today it will buy me some time.
I really need a day to devote to getting a bunch of posts together and scheduling them. I've been pulling these things out at the last minute for a couple of weeks now and it's getting pretty tough.

Post it

Today I thought I would do a post about post it's. More specifically a project I did for a post it note holder. I found several different tutorials on line for these and each seemed to have different measurements but not exactly what I was looking for. In the end I came up with my own design for it.

With the little frosty fellow adorning the cover of these you could call them snotes (snow notes) or not. I used my cricut to cut out the snowmen and the scalloped circles. I used my cuttlebug to emboss the white scallop circle with the snowflakes. Added a little glitter, but I may have had more on me than on the snowflakes.
Now I'm trying to decide what my next project will be. So many choices.

Don't blame the mom

Hey everyone I know you've all been missing me but please don't blame my mom for my poor attendance on the blog lately.
Mom has been trying to take pictures of me but I give her a lot of poses like this one.

Besides that, it's been cold, rainy and rather dreary lately and I've just been in the mood to take lots of naps.

But I'm awake now. Do you know what happens when a little white westie gets up from a nap? His belly growls, that's what happens. I need a snack and I think I know just where to find one.

Mom can have her coffee and peanut butter cups but I want those combos.I don't think she'll mind if I just take a couple. Do you?
I really will try to help mom out a little more with the blogging but until next time I'm sending you all White Westie Wishes.

Something old

Don't you just love antique shops? I know I do. I couldn't resist browsing through the antique shop in Volant.

Check out this camera. I have no idea what kind it is or how much it was. I just  knew I had to take a picture of it though.

Doesn't this look like a cozy little corner

Can you imagine typing your family Christmas letter on this thing?

This was my favorite. Just look at this old Singer sewing machine. It doesn't have all the stitches on it that mine does but I would love to have this

Well I guess this wraps it up for my Volant trip. I still have quite a few pictures from the day but I'm sure your all getting tired of hearing about it by now. Now I need to come up with something else. YIKES!!!!

These were a few of my favorite things.

Today I have a few more things from Volant. I think I've got one more post out of this and then I'm done. Or, if I ever manage to take pictures of the few little things I bought I could have two.
My friend Debbie likes things with pine cones on them and this would be perfect in her house. It would fit right in.

I loved these felt Christmas trees but at $7.99 each I knew that I could probably make one myself.

They had another version that was made with fabric pieces and leaves. Love the red buttons on this one.

Tomorrow, scenes from the antique shop.

Back to Volant

In the upstairs of the Volant Mills Barn they had old machinery that I thought would make for some interesting pictures.
A few of them that I found.

I didn't think to do it on all of them but this one I did take a picture of the description of what it was. Do you know what this is?

Maybe tomorrow I'll have something a little better for you

Like mother like daughter

I still have more pictures of Volant to show you but I'm taking a break from it today to bring you something else courtesy of my daughter Amanda.

The other day I get a text message from her that says
 "oh oh oh I have an idea for your blog"
So I ask what is that?
Her response is
"because I'm conceited :) and because I'm crafty like my  mother you should take the pictures from my facebook  of all the wreaths I've made and post them on your blog. You can call it " like mother like daughter"

So that's what I'm doing today. If I've given nothing else to my daughter at least I have passed on the love of crafting.
Here are some of the wreaths that she's been making

I suggested she start her own blog but she didn't go for that idea. I'll work on her :)

Volant part 2

Today we'll take a walk down Main Street in Volant
First stop, the Volant Mill Winery. Actually we decided to stop here last rather than carry any bottles around with us all day long. In the end we didn't even buy any.

Such an inviting little shop

With a name like Attic Treasures, there's got to be some great things in here

Santa had just arrived a half hour before you reached this place and it was packed. We did find some neat ideas and cool treasures in here though.

I just loved the decorations in the front of this shop. Especially that  bucket.

What a neat way to display some candles.

And there is still so much more to see but this is all for today.

Volant part one

I took quite a few pictures while my friend Debbie and I were at Volant yesterday so I'm going to break this down in to more than one post. I don't know exactly how long I'll stretch this out but since I don't have very many ideas at the moment I plan of  milking it for all it's worth.
So here was our first stop. I can't remember the name of it but shall we go inside?

This place was just loaded with wonderful treasures. They had a lot of Amish made furniture and I fell in love with so much of it. I saw a living room set up that I wanted to take home with me. But alas, the budget wouldn't allow for that. I wish I would have taken a picture of it. I didn't start snapping until we moved upstairs.

I thought that some of these might make good pictures for Christmas cards and may end up using them for that.
Tomorrow we'll take a look down Main Street.