Quiet Again

Those of you who have followed me for any length of time know that I often go quiet...go missing.

I go without explaining myself and no one knows how long I will be gone...

...least of all me.

The quiet times are never planned or premeditated but sometimes there's an "aura" (in the sense of a warning/sensation preceding a medicinal episode such as a migraine or seizure) or a foreboding. 

Such was the case when I went to the lake two-ish weeks ago to meet with someone about the fireplace. What was to have been a short two-day (at the most) trip, turned into a week of horrors.

(For context, you should know that I had just (as within in the last 6-9 mos.) finished with the remodeling of the lower level of the house: new flooring (wood and carpet), completely new stairs and railing, new doors, new walls, new trim, new baseboards, new ceilings, new bath fixtures, new EVERYTHING.

I had not even yet gotten to post about it, but I was so happy with how it turned out:)

When I arrived, however, there was a small lake surrounding the house (not to be confused with the large lake surrounding the property). We had gotten a great deal of snow and then the temperatures warmed quickly (for a few days) resulting in a quick thaw and all that "melt" went straight down the sloped driveway to the house.

When I went inside, my worst fears were confirmed.

This was what I saw:

I immediately threw down the tarp and towels, but that was a waste of time. The water deepened and spread before I could even catch my breath.

I called my insurance agent who, in turn, called a cleanup/restoration company and the nightmare began in earnest.

The company came and took up residence.

They said they would bring pickaxes to chop some of the ice that was melting to remove it and bring sub pumps. They did bring pickaxes the following day but chipped at the ice for 10 minutes at the most and then gave up and dumped ice melt on the ice...which, wouldn't you know? melted the ice and made MORE water that ALSO seeped into the house. 

They also brought sub pumps each day; but, each day, they brought ones that were too large or didn't work.

 They ripped up, removed, (and broke) flooring, tore off baseboard, trim, removed doors, vanity, toilet, put up plastic sheeting and brought over a dozen industrial machines in (water extractors, dehumidifiers, air purifiers, etc.) that ran (and made a deafening noise) 24/7.

The cats freaked and yowled at high pitch adding to the cacophony.

On Day 6, I told them to leave and take their machines with them.

(Another point of context: On Day 2, my insurance agent informed me that absolutely none of this would be covered by insurance. It was “ground water incursion” and that is an excluded event.)

I will have to start all over: New flooring, new baseboard, new trim, new dry wall in areas, new paint, new plumbing work.

There's more to the story about the new wool area rugs, pads, etc. that were shoved - along with other dry, undamaged items - into the small shower and left to moulder with the door closed, but I don't want to relive things by repeating them in written words.

In any event, it was, thankfully, at least quiet again.

I am back in Nod and have spent the last week rescheduling appointments that were canceled as a result of the unexpected lengthy stay at the lake and attempting to line up contractors and such...again.

I had hoped not to have to worry about the "root cause" of the melting/flooding issue until the ground was thoroughly unthawed but...winter has returned with a vengeance.

Thursday night into yesterday, we were hit with a nasty storm. The prediction was for 3-5". 

 We received 13".

We had a brief reprieve today, but we are now under a blizzard warning. 

"Mega Snow." 

That's one way of describing it.

I think it will be "quiet again."

Happy St. Valentine's Day 2026

 

{Adaptation of one of the designs in the Primitive Trio of Hearts Reproduction Motif Pillow Tucks" pattern by Jenny Hoffman ("Country Rustic Primitives"). I believe it is stitched on 40-ct Raw Wichelt linen, but it might not be. 😶}

I hope you found some small joys in the day.

Pieces of January...

 

Yes, I know it's February...but I'm still picking up pieces of January (and, actually, several other months if truth be told.)

This winter - this year so far - has been bumpy. Extreme cold, frozen plans...and pieces that just fell apart. Most days, "Plan A" never stood a chance, so I moved on to Plan B, and, right about now, I think I'm pretty firmly entrenched in Plan D.

I'm far too far behind to make a pretense of catching up, so I'm just jumping in here and sharing some of my "puzzle pieces" from the past month and hoping things start to fit together at some point.

I am not entirely certain what happened the first few weeks of the month. I know what didn't happen (like getting Christmas put away...Lauren, I'm sure, is loath to have a twin like me) so we're going to skip that part, k?

But mid-month I remember both what I did and did not do, so we'll start with that.

The past several years I've spent mid-January at Cathy Stephan's (Red Barn Rugs') rug hooking workshop. For various reasons, this year's January workshop was cancelled. Instead, Cathy and a couple other hooky friends from the January group joined me at the lake for a few days of hooking.

Our friend, Marilyn Becker, who passed away the end of October, had been part of our January workshop group so we decided it would be a fitting opportunity to celebrate her, her friendship, and her amazing hooking artistry.

It was snowy and cold, but we enjoyed the few days we had together.

We took turns making meals, some hooked more than others (ahem!), we watched a few movies and, one day, we ventured out to do a bit of antiquing/junking.

A few of the things that caught my eye:

{Only one of the above items followed me home....}

And what about the hooking projects?

Well, yeah, I was a bit preoccupied with trying to remember how to be a hostess so failed quite miserably not only in that department but also in getting photos of the projects being worked on by the others. 

Here are the few I managed to get:

Marilyn ("Bad" Marilyn...not "Good" Marilyn who we were celebrating) was working

on a piece based on a photo she had taken of a Guatemalan woman and her child. She has already redone the woman's skirt at least twice and plans on redoing it again with totally different wool. She is also going to re-do her face. (Like Good Marilyn, Bad Marilyn is a fine-cut hooker, meaning she hooks with wool strips the width of dental floss.)

Below is the actual photo from which she is working:

Cathy, ever the over-achiever, was working on several things at once. This is the only one I got a photo of:

This rug is HUGE. It is shown below with my 20-lb cat for size reference.

(I believe she said the rug's name is "Hazel" and measures 48" x 60"??)

I tried to convince her to leave the rug for Rajah and me, but she declined.

Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of our friend, Kim's, rug. :-(

I'd like to leave the following part out, but I know there is at least one person out there who would be asking what I worked on.

It's little, it's pathetic...and I got pathetically little accomplished on it, but here ya go MD:

Each of us were also gifted a rug/mat that had been hooked by Good Marilyn.

This is the one I received:

I stayed on a day and a half after everyone left to clean things up, pack things up, etc. (i.e., to catch up on sleep??)

The end of the month? Well, I remember most of that as well - the good, the bad and the ugly.

First the good:  The night after I got home from the lake, I was drawn outside by a lightening of the sky.  Some of the strangest Northern Lights I've witnessed - not so much colorful as BRIGHT - especially against the white of the snow.

There are no streetlights (or any kind of lights) out where I am and I had no porch or yard lights on, yet it was so clear it seemed like early evening. The photo info is shown below. It was 9:59 p.m.

Then there was the bad:

I know many of you were inundated with snow and we, thankfully, escaped that...but we were plunged into bitter, bitter, cold. -30° actual temps with -50° windchills...and guess who came home to heating issues, AGAIN???!

Thankfully, it was in the shop, not the house but, in many ways, it was just as bad since the shop has an in-floor heating system and if it stops working, the entire system and floor can be ruined if it gets cold enough...and it certainly was cold "enough."

On top of that good news, I was unable to even get into the shop because the door had frozen shut.

I finally managed to break in after 2 days so I could get the heating company out in...only to be told that the company that manufactured the heating system had gone out of business, so replacement parts were no longer available.

Seriously??!! If you recall, I just replaced that entire system shortly after my husband passed away so, less than two years ago.

GAH!

They did manage to get it working again, but they had to bypass the auto-shut off function so should it stop working again and drop below freezing, it's done and gone.

Did I say "GAH!"?

And then the ugly:

I came down with a bad case of the flu.

Let's just leave it at that.

I'm on the mend but certainly haven't kicked it completely.

And there you have it...my January in bits and pieces. There's more, actually, but this is more than enough for now, I think.

*****

Oh...and one last thing for the person who asked....

{pssst....and soon there will be two....💗}

The Long Season

 

{The first full moon of 2026: A rare "Wolf" supermoon. It was very overcast here in Nod but it still lit up the night. Believe it or not, this was around 10 p.m.}

{Awful photo but, unbelievably, Jupiter was visible!!}

{"Winter 1839" design by Jenny Hoffman of Country Rustic Primitives}

Happy New Year

 

May the new year bring you a clear mind, a calm heart and a peaceful soul.

Happy 2026.

What a Couple of Weeks it has Been

 

Although Christmas is merely days away, it seems like this month has been 36 weeks long already. Or is it just me?

And with that many weeks in a month, one would think I'd have managed to post before now.

One would think...but one would think wrong, as you already know.

Let me explain (as briefly as I can as that is not what this post is intended to be about):

Just so far this month (which, I would point out, is not yet over) several things have gone awry. These are just a few of the most-recent "highlights:"

~My knee completely gave out resulting in a few days of crutches and requiring a steroid injection;

~An attempt to save a kitten on the way to an out-of-town specialist appointment (more on that later) left me drenched in coffee, scratched and swelling, and smelling of ugly smells by the time I arrived (despite best efforts, sadly, kitten didn't make it);

~A (very) bad reaction to my initial infusion of Reclast (for osteoporosis) left me unexpectedly incapacitated,

~My order for the bed and nightstand for the lake finally completely blew up. It started deteriorating months ago but I still had some, albeit frustrated, hope. All for naught... I could write a book about all that went wrong. (PS..NEVER, EVER, purchase furniture online from Perigold (or its affiliated companies - i.e., Joss and Main, Wayfair, etc.),

~The outdoor Christmas lights I had put up once again went out after less than 2 weeks (after years of this, it doesn't come as a surprise, but it still comes as a disappointment),

~Every gift I ordered online within the last month except one has been delayed and now won't arrive until sometime in January, and

~Months after they were to be installed, the overhead garage doors (note, doors as in plural) were installed at the lakehouse earlier this week. They are not the right ones (and no resolution/remediation in sight).

And these are just the things that stand out.

Anyway...moving right along.

Christmas!!

I took a different approach to decorating this year. Instead of rushing to pull everything out and get it up in a few days, I decided I was going to take out a few things at a time and truly appreciate and enjoy them for themselves and the memories they bear before moving on.

I found I like doing it this way. I might not get everything out by Christmas, but I don't care. It's only me who will see them anyway.  

I feel like I get to appreciate each piece - or collection - fully before moving on to the next. Kinda of like spending time with old friends I haven't seen since last Christmas.

But my new methodology means I won't be able to show you things as I hoped I would - certainly not the curated home tour version like Janice @ Prims by the Water, or

the perfectly gathered collections like Lauren @ Rugs and Pugs.

What you get instead is a very un-curated and very random bunch of photos.

No rhyme, no reason although I tried to avoid views and things I've showed previously.

Most are dark because...well, it's been very dark in Nod of late.

I'll shut up now.

On to the photos.

{Entry sidetable - Putz, old bibles, flower frog tree and crooked lampshade 😉)

An old clockface serves as a star atop the flower frog tree:

{Handmade spun cotton snowman candy container (hat removes) on top of vintage cash register rolls on top of vintage tape tin}

{Old desk in the bedroom}

Close-up of desk:

{Some of my Santa chocolate molds. The photo is terrible, but they look wonderful at night with the little white lights reflecting off their metal and the mercury bead garland.}

{Vintage Santa mugs...the more stained and crazed the better...and, yeah...there's more...I'll spare you.}

The fellas in red:

{Papier mache and pulp/pressed paper Santas, etc.)

Not to play favorites or anything, but the fella second from the right with his original pipe is pretty special:

...as is the little putz deer sitting between the two Santas in the center:

The boys in blue:

{Vintage saltglaze Santas....difficult to photograph no matter the time of day due to the windows...but this is where they hang out.}

{Very old candy box from Montgomery Ward & Co. I have a special connection to it as I worked on the initial phases of the class action lawsuit against the company when it shut down all its franchises.}

{Vintage bottle brush trees, papier mache Santa boots and cast/pot metal deer atop the spice cabinet in the kitchen}

{Vintage bottle brush trees in pounce pots/sanders}

Christmas of a different than most of yours I'm sure but Christmas nonetheless...and someone is on high alert for Santa. 

May you all find some quiet moments of anticipation and be touched, in some measure, by the spirit of the season in these precious days before Christmas.