Winter Weekend in Chelmsford

It snowed again this weekend, and I took a walk to do a little grocery shopping (we were out of coffee, a huge tragedy in our house)...

Side street near our house.

Fishbones! Love this restaurant in the middle of Chelmsford.

One of the older buildings in town (1726-ish, IIRC) - it's offices for lawyers now.


Episcopal church a couple doors down from our house - I could hear the organ playing during the morning service as I walked by, very nice.

Our cozy little house. (Love my buddlea on the right of the frame. Very worried about the crab-apple tree in our front yard, it was very unhappy this year!)

Bella and I making the most of our little yard by cross-country skiing all around it (and into the front yard, too, our neighbors are probably thinking - there they go again, crazy people!). With all the new snow, we didn't make it up to Pat's to ski this weekend, so it was good to get Bella out on her little cross-country skis - and she had a blast!

Me, being goofy. I love winter!

That's all, nothing newsworthy, just a nice winter weekend in New England...

Merry Christmas to All

Kind of a dark photo, but you get the idea, right? We got about two FEET of snow over the weekend. Crazy.


The kids stayed in, for the most part (painting in the kitchen, here, Bella paints practically every day, but this was Conall's first time - so happy he didn't eat any of the paint!).

I decorate the mantel in our living room differently every year. This year, it's little origami trees - I made one and then couldn't stop. Kind of like chips. Or ski runs.

Carlos and I were up far too late last night wrapping presents... I still have to bake cookies and start crescent rolls for the trip to Ginga's (my Mum's) house, plus we're seeing the Nutcracker today at noon - I have a feeling I won't be sleeping much tonight, either. At least there are no complicated toys to assemble this year! (Best toy of the year, IMO - a Harrisville Easy Weaver loom for Ms. B. I even bought Liz Gipson's Weaving Made Easy for her.)

Merry Christmas to everybody! If you're somebody who normally gets a card from us and haven't gotten it, it's because I'm hopelessly lame and haven't sent them out, I'm sorry. I'm hoping to get some out for the New Year - but, in the meantime, I hope you have a lovely holiday!

Snow!

Well, I do believe we are going to have a White Christmas this year!



We got about 10 - 12" last night (still flurrying a little now), of fluffy white, nice snow. How pretty!



The kids are having fun, though Conall isn't too sure of the deep stuff.

Trying to get the driveway cleared out - we're thinking of doing some cross country skiing this afternoon, probably during Conall's nap (we have a big sled/poulk that Carlos made to pull the kids along behind whoever is skiing, but Conall doesn't want to sit in it, though he did last year).

I was thinking of dragging everybody up to Pat's Peak in New Hampshire tomorrow to get Bella's seasonal rental skis and maybe ski a little, but I've just heard that we're getting another storm tomorrow! And we're right where the weather changes in our region - Boston is supposed to just get maybe a couple inches, but we're just into the zone that is supposed to get anywhere from 5" - 10" *more* tomorrow. Crazy.

Hopefully the weather will hold on Wednesday... We're attempting the Nutcracker again, lol. We got completely stuck in a HUGE traffic jam on Thursday night trying to get in to Boston and Bella completely fell asleep, so we didn't actually see it. Argh! I managed to get more tickets for Christmas Eve, though, and it starts at noon, so no chance she'll fall asleep this time! (Learned my - VERY expensive - lesson!)

I love winter. I know I'm nuts, but I really love winter and snow....

Over the Holiday Rush?

I can't seem to relax this week. I'm shipping out my last custom order this morning...

(It's an Ms and os bamboo scarf in shades of brown - had a hard time photographing it, the weather has not been cooperating lately!) I've had a busy week on Etsy and at the studio (Open Studios for the last two weekends means that my house is a complete wreck), but I think things should calm down now for a couple weeks.

But I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something.

Oh yeah! The Christmas tree!

LOL. We're really late this year. But I figure that's one week or so less of keeping Conall from trying to pull it over. And house cleaning, Christmas cards, wrapping presents (which I actually have managed to buy, amazing), weaving a couple scarves for some nieces, the Nutcracker tonight (Bella's first trip to see the Boston Ballet), Conall's second birthday is just two weeks after Christmas...


So I'm working on spending a day doing not very much today. My Mum will arrive this afternoon to go to the Ballet with Bella and I, there's a big snow storm on the way for tomorrow, I'm making slow cooker beef stew for dinner, and I'm thinking of making some little origami Christmas trees to decorate the fireplace mantle. I hope everybody is having a similarly relaxing day!

Snow Day!

So, after a week or so of grey, rainy, yucky winter weather, we got a little snow this morning. Hooray! It looks all nice and pretty and white out again (though it's that really heavy, wet snow - great for snowballs, not so great to shovel).

Bella's preschool was cancelled today, so she's been outside playing:

Snow sculpture! How fun....

Fibery Fun

We are so far behind on Christmas this year it isn't even funny... Finally got the tree up and decorated last night (!). I still haven't finished shopping, yikes. I'm hoping to get some done this afternoon - I really *really* don't want to have to brave the toy stores over the weekend, it will be a madhouse.

In the meantime, I have some fun new fibery goodness.

Isn't that felted flower pin awesome?? It's from Liz of MadeInLowell - lovely (check out her etsy shop by clicking on that link!). The scarf is one of mine, that I took out of my Etsy shop to keep, for once, since it goes so nicely with the flower. I have another flower pin, too, that's a lovely combination of green/gold/rust, and a polymer clay barrette that I got for Ms. B. Liz makes gorgeous things!

We have also had some craazzzzy weather, making shopping for Christmas that much more complicated...



Bella's slide out there is nearly buried, too funny.

Three snowstorms in the past week - last Thursday we got about 10 inches, then on Saturday night/Sunday we got more snow plus rain/sleet/general yuckiness, which made a thick crust over all of it (looked like icing, kind of pretty, but rotten for kids - no fun to play in, though Bella sure has been trying!), and then it snowed all day yesterday, too, for another couple inches. Bella is outside right now playing on the deck, making snow castles with her summer sand-digging buckets/shovels, etc.

I haven't wrapped a single present. Or bought the turkey. AHHHHH!

On the bright side, my etsy shop is practically emptied out! My pink scarf sold too - my friend Jake, from college, bought it for his lovely wife for Christmas (hi Cara!!). I'm so happy that it's going to a good home - this is the first time that a friend of mine has bought something from me, and it is hugely flattering. I hope Cara likes it!

I've been weaving a couple of Christmas presents, but have new things in planning stages for the shop...

Snow!

Big ol' snowstorm today, first of the year, really, in the Northeast U.S. Fun! I took the kids out earlier - Ms. B had a great time running around with her shovel, Mr. C mostly looked confused as he watched us. Still not too sure about this snow stuff (though he did *really* want to go out in it).

There's been a line of cars on the road in front of our house since 1pm, it's been kind of funny. A mass exodus. Carlos works in one of the few tall buildings in our area and has good views of Route 3 and Route 495 (two big commuter roads) and says it has been funny to watch the traffic - both on those roads and everybody trying to get out of his building.

Later in the winter, people probably wouldn't even really notice this much snow (it's at about 4 inches now - still falling fast, though!).

This is where I really want to be:

Doing this:


These photos as from Stowe - and, no, that's not me or Carlos skiing, but I sure with it were! We're both tele skiers (and normal skiers, and snowboarders, and cross-country skiers - you name it, we do it, more or less)...

After not skiing AT ALL last year (pregnant, what can you do, had the monster baby in January) and only getting ONE DAY in the year before (this for a person who generally skis at least 30 days a year) I am completely chomping at the bit. My poor tele skis may never forgive me.

But maybe I can get over to Great Brook Farm State Park and use my cross country skis tomorrow morning before Carlos goes to work! Fun!

Hooray!!! A Very Happy Tuesday!

It's official - the Red Sox have signed Mike Lowell (3rd Base) for three more years!! (In case you missed it, he's my absolute favorite baseball player - and he won the World Series MVP this year! Whoo-hoo!)

Apart from his excellent playing, he just seems like such a class act, a real team guy. Doesn't crave the spotlight, quietly gets his job done, works hard, and is a wonderful liaison for the Spanish-speaking baseball players (he's Puerto Rican, just like my hubby and kidlets).

And, here's another reason to be happy:

Snow! And Stowe is open for skiing! (Man, I hope we can manage to move to Vermont sooner or later... Or at least build a little ski house/yurt up there.)

Oh, and I sold a scarf yesterday. :)