I reserve the right to change my mind on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello ... well we got our first real snowfall on Friday...about 2 inches... and if the weather forecast holds it will be history by Monday or Tuesday... frigid cold the last couple of days... single digits... from Monday on, highs in the 40s and even low 50's... and some rain... I will take it!!!

Last week things got jumbled up... my son had the flu over his 3 day weekend so no birthday celebration...hoping to do it today.  I ended up at the ortho urgent care last weekend... my left knee which has had many steroid shots and was doing fine (I thought) decided  it no longer wished to be load bearing... darn that hurts... got another steriod shot and have an appointment to move onto the gel shot this week. Right now it feels pretty good and I hope the gel shot will be long lasting... fingers crossed... there is knee replacement surgery in my future but I'm going to put it off as long as I can.

To celebrate the first snow of the season I thought I'd share some more snowman decor...this is a small display in the kitchen ... not easy to get a good pic because it always seems that it is either too dark or too bright.

Out in the living room I have this tier table... picked it up at a  junk store and painted it yellow... these little guys are my collection of small snowmen, primarily from  the Hallmark store.

I remember back in the 90's we had this great gift shop/card shop/Hallmark store in the little strip mall by my house. I got the cutest stuff there to decorate with... it eventually closed up and now is the location of a local "adult" book store... ewwwww... TMI...sorry

Here's the small display shelf....

Up top  is one of my favorite snowman cookie jars, a gift from my younger son and  Lizzie Kate's Winter Alphabet... I've stitched all 4 of these seasonal alphabets and I LOVE all of them!

Lots of snow related knickknacks... I like this little stand up sled for a display piece... don't remember where I got it... 

Below I have a WTN&T snowman that is one of the Holiday Hoopla series, the Welcome Winter by The Drawn Thread and the little guy is Alfred from Heart in Hand.... I stitched him because he's cute and my Dad's middle name was Alfred.

Oops cut off the right side...  the little guy is Alfred from Heart in Hand.... I stitched him because he's cute and my Dad's middle name was Alfred.Now I love that snowman head snowglobe... got it at the gift shop at Cracker Barrel a couple of years ago... pretty to watch but it makes a gurgling  whirring sound that gets on my nerves after a while... 

below I have my collection of snowmen heads... just their heads... which continues my collection theme of Santa heads and bunny heads... just picked up a new small bunny head the other day at Micheals...and the collections grow...LOL

I did go out in the cold and do a bit of shopping...mostly because I'm teased by shopping youtube videos... I love Auntie Coo Coo... she went to Hobby Lobby last week and I saw some cute stuff on her video but not in my store yet... and since Michaels is around the corner and I had a "reward" I popped in there... picked up a nice sized wooden yellow tulip, the aforementioned bunny head and these adorable cabbages... insert squeal!!

I LOVE them and I think they will be so cute to add to my Spring display when it is decked out in bunnies...

I know some people have commented that it seems early for the stores to do Easter stuff, but Easter is early this year... Ash Wednesday is February 14... bummer of a coincidence.

As for cross stitching, here's where I am on the Prairie Schooler Christmas ABCs... the end is in sight!

And I spent some time thinking about what I want to work on next (after getting that Pinker n Punkin house done... sheesh ... it will only take about 30 minutes more)... I got out the charts for the WTN&T Summer Schoolhouse series and I'm going to have to do some finagling to make it work for me. Every version I've seen of it done in one long piece is slightly different. They all start with the first chart and that one isn't altered but all the rest of them are... which is fine... but I want to start from the end of the alphabet and work my way over to the first chart. I stitch in hand and if I start on the right then I'm only wadding up the unstitched part of my linen as I go along.  I'm not going to totally rechart the pieces. My current plan of attack will be to guesstimate how many stitches this will be ... then add a bunch more too that and cut the linen big... I found a piece in my stash that is almost a yard in length so I can whack it and either dye or paint it. 

However another shiny object came into my world... do you subscribe to Teresa Kogut's Patreon?  I just found out about it a couple of months ago. Depending on the level of subscription you get exclusive charts every month. Well I was signed up for level 3 but she showed a chart on a video that was level 4 and then there is a SAL too that was exclusive to level 4 and the next thing you know I upgraded... and I'm happy about it.... here's a link to a post Judy  at Patchworks Times did about the Teresa Kogut Patreon and it explains it very well.  I went and picked up the flosses for the SAL... it is going to be over 2 years so I don't know if I'll get started right now but I did download the charts and printed them out... just in case. And I just realized (I'm not too sharp lately) that Judy has been getting me into lots of trouble... the Blessing sampler, the Summer Schoolhouse Leap Year SAL, Teresa Kogut... yep this is all her fault...LOL!!

And then I spied a basket of projects I have already started... and I looked through them... and I still want to stitch most of them.... soooooo I think when I finish the PS Christmas ABC's I'm going to devote some time to stuff I've already started... unless something else shiny comes along... then I reserve the right to change my mind...again and again and again and again and again... LOL

Oh I got my Teresa Kogut Remember Me Sampler back from the framer and I'm very pleased... brace yourself lot of pictures!!

this frame is PERFECT!!  it picks up the greens and the flecks of coppery peach and I like the rustic style... this baby is BIG ... 17 " x 19.5"... not sure where I'm going to hang it... I need to redo my sampler wall in the green room...

start over and hang stuff into the left corner and get things closer... and a have another small wall in the living room that could also be re-configured... quite a bit of space to work with here...

but in both cases I think I want to have a couple more samplers before I do that as it will have to get out my drill to hang anything... 

So I again reserve the right to change my mind...LOL

Well I'm looking forward to the warm up this week... I know it will just give false hope about Winter waning but I'll take it... we still have a long way to go before I can be buying petunias!

Not too much on my calendar for the next week or so... I like that... I'm definitely in a stay parked in my stitching chair mood and I have plenty of things to stitch.

Hope you have a good week ahead... l'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and check out what is going on over there!

happy stitching-

carol fun

PS: as in post script, not Prairie Schooler...  this is the 3rd Sunday in January  in a row I've posted... and counting back it is 7 Sundays in a row...  unbelievable!!  Don't know what's gotten into me but I'll keep it up as long as I can... and pat myself on the back every chance I get...LOL