Mmmm~ Winter

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Positively my favorite weather ever.

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Why, if I could just make a pot of hot chocolate, and grab a crochet hook and stay inside while the snow came down like this for a week, I’d be happy.  Mind you, I don’t have to drive in it much, and so that gives me the liberty to sit back and revel in the toasty indoors, while Jack Frost does his beautiful thing outside.

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And at last, I have a new coat and fluffy warm boots this year too. That’s a first in quite a few years, I’m afraid. All the better to love the snow with…wouldn’t you say? For when I do have to go out, I mean. But for now, I’ll just sit here and look at it from my rocking chair…with my crochet hook…and a few new Christmas projects on my lap, perfectly happy to be right here, right now, this winter.

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Bubble Wrap Window Insulation

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Because we live in a house with single paned windows– unless we want to crank the heat up to ridiculous– it can get a bit nippy in some of the basement rooms, especially at night…especially in the Bald Kid’s room. Since he’s still hanging out on the other side of the earth, I figured this would be as good a time as any to toast the room up a bit. I do wish that I’d found this idea last November, instead of now…when it’s getting warmer. But you can’t know what you don’t know until you know it. Right?

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I saw a guy on YouTube insulate his windows with Bubble Wrap and so I thought I’d try it. Seemed to make sense and if it didn’t work, I could still play with all that bubble wrap in the end. :} Staples had much smaller packages than this but it was either $12 for 50 ft. or $17 for the mother load 175 ft.

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 I guess you can see what I did. A bus load of Bubble wrap for EVERYONE!!

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First measure your windows from the top to bottom and cut out the bubble wrap to fit.

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I got really good at this part and started cutting several out at one time.

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Next, either spray your windows down with a squirter bottle or just get them all soppy with a wash cloth.

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Now, taking the wrap, place it bubble side to the window and just gently press it up there. I swear it’s like magic and just sticks.

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Repeat with enough wrap to cover the whole window.

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I just went straight over the middle latch section…

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and it worked just fine.

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More…and more. The room was getting warmer as I worked.

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Lastly, I just tucked the end of the piece right into the side of the window frame.

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The guy on YouTube said that this will usually stay in place for about 3 weeks and all you have to do to replace it is spray the windows again and stick it back up.

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Two windows took exactly 22 minutes to insulate from start to finish and cost about $1 per window. When the really warmer weather comes, just peel it off and save it till fall. Oh, and of course, there’s no sticky tape leftovers to deal with either.
Feeling pretty darn clever right this minute.

And warmer too.  :}

The Owl and the Pussycat

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If you look very closely, you’ll see that besides the weekend’s deer visit, we’ve also had a wandering bird of some kind traipsing through the yard by night.

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He strolled right across the driveway and around the corner of the house, like he knew just where he was going. And pardon me, but those are actually pretty darn big birdie feet–if you ask me. What IS that, a seagull or pheasant or something? I thought they left for the winter.

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Oh, now look. Don’t you just love the footprints of friends meeting up at midnight for a little stroll and chat?

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Hmmmm….yeah. I hope that went well.

:s

Late Last Night~

in our front yard…

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I was called to the window to see…

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this sweet thing.

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We were stunned.

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This has never happened before because we live just off the main drag and a good 2 miles from the mountains.

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Not to mention the big lighted car lot that this pretty thing had to cross to nibble our grass…

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or crab apples…

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or pine cones…

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or whatever it was.

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But she left while we were watching and then–from the footprints, we could tell she came back again before morning.

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We loved it.

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Felt kinda magical.

:}

Our Silly Snow

It may not look like all so much to you, but I’m pretty proud of this particular storm.

It came and stayed for about 3 days snowing first and sticking for a while, and then, raining and melting just in time to start all over again.

But in the end, it was very brave snow and just fell and hung on like it wanted to show us…

that no matter what that silly groundhog said, it is, in fact, winter still–with a mind of it’s own.

If you know me at all, you know that I don’t mind one little bit.

In fact, if I woke up tomorrow to 3 feet of the white stuff, I’d be happy as a lark.

And so, with the little that we have, I’m wishing for the frost fairies to make a couple more passes by the place…

or five or six.

I’m mean really, think of how much I could get done if we were snowed in…for real!

Heh, heh, heh.