Happy Winter!!!!

My dearest friend, Marlene, has inspired me again!!  She was commenting on the APP forum that we love, and made an off-handed greeting to us of "Happy Winter" on December 21, the first day of winter.....and all of a sudden I thought of how wonderful that sounded -- in the midst of the speedy, fast-paced Christmas holiday, a wonderful Winter reminder! :-D  And it got me thinking.....why don't I continue some of my favorite flourishes-embellishments-trimmings-adornments in celebration of winter -- the things that aren't just about Christmas?  Like my sparkling little kitchen tree?  And I could finish my gingerbread men garland and leave my gingerbread sled out!  And I could keep some pine boughs and red berries around!!

There are lots of fun "Winter-ish" things I could focus on and play with that would keep that celebratory feeling around my home!! :-D  So that's what I'm going to try to do!  I'll be sure to post my HAPPY WINTER flourishes, too!  THANK YOU, Marlene! ;-)

I've been a little distracted around here since Christmas and My Floor because I've had Brian home ALL WEEK!  Yay!!!!  His work shuts down for Christmas week AND tomorrow and New Year's Day too!!  Oh, it's been SO fun to just be with him all this time! :-D  We keep looking at the floor and talking about how much we love it and what we can do with our bathroom when it's time (years away!)!!  We really wanted to do some of the trim this week too, but money has really just run out! LOL  We will have to wait a few weeks to let our finances catch up!  That's ok, I have lots of fun things to do around here while I wait.....I've been thinking of moving some things around in my kitchen -- I still have most of the stuff that goes in there sitting in the library room, so I can easily put it all anywhere I want to!!  And I still need to paint my island.....! :-D

I did get to buy a few fun things yesterday......

Look at these candles I found at Walmart!!!  The tapers were 22 cents each, and the pillar and glass candles were $1.50 each!!  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but it's going to be something! :-D

And, of course, I had to get some more WOOL.....

The top picture is wool clothing I bought about a month ago, but I got the two jackets and the sweater in the last two pictures just yesterday, they were $1.50 each!!!  Yay! :-D  I picked them apart last night and felted them today......

BUT, the most exciting thing is that I coffee stained some of the pieces!!
I picked the red and some of the grayish-brown above.....

I put about 1/2 cup of ground coffee in each pot with the water, and I added a little over 1/2 cup of white vinegar, which is important to get the color to penetrate the wool (thanks, Cee, for your advice! ;-D).....then I stirred in the pieces and brought the water to a boil, then shut the heat off and let the wool sit in there for about an hour.
Then I rinsed the pieces in the sink.....

And threw them in the washing machine to rinse (with hot water) and spin, and then the dryer on high, and here's how they turned out.....

PRETTY GOOD, right?!!! :-D  I love it, especially the browns in the bottom picture!  Now to find something to use them in......! LOL

So I guess it will be a little while before I can get to work on the wood for my living room floor, or the trim for the kitchen.....which IS disappointing!  But I have plenty of little jobs and projects around here that I can work on while I wait.  And I'm going to be posting pictures of my "Happy Winter" embellishments, don't forget!  Let's see what I can come up with for that.....!! ^-^