2021 Has Begun & New Brunswick Is In A Code Orange

 This virus has our numbers the highest since it started last year. I think everyone was just getting used to the isolation but with Christmas & New Year's, that changed & so did our infected numbers. Time to get back on track as the vaccine is slowly rolled out.

With the lockdown through the virus, Bill & I had fun with 'the first snowman' that we ever built together!

It was a fun day Dec 23rd with the snow we had that day. Bill took me into our woods for a walk too. 

I had the makings for this snowman for years. It was a snowman in a bag, just add the snowman!

It came from Regal back in the 1990s & I would use the bag of snowman accessories for decoration every winter. I had given several bags out as gifts years back & held on to the last one, sure glad I did after this fun day!

Bill added his hat for the photoshoot!

We were so proud of our first snowman, after 35 years together we had time to play!

Bridget with her stick & Baxter out playing along with us too!

Bill with our snowman, it looked bigger with me next to it! He was the one that started rolling the snow & brought the snowman to life! I added the wooden accessories to him! What a fun Christmas Eve!!

As that famous saying goes...this too will pass & by Christmas morning this was our snowman.

It has been a very unusual year of warm weather here on the northeast coast of the Atlantic.

The snowman's bits were gathered up & placed in the cotton bag that they came out in. And as our granddaughter, Madison told me "Frosty never dies Grammie". Until next year.

By lunchtime, it was just a wonderful memory of yesterday! And Christmas Day had arrived.

On Christmas Eve Bill & the Boston's hung all the bird trees out for their Christmas morning treat.

I had made 11 cookie cutter shaped bird treats & Santa, candy canes, trees, bell-shaped cutters, eleven in all, were hung.

I'm glad I took these photos because all but one of the cutters have disappeared! Bill thought they were under the tree but only found one! Those squirrels have 'squirrelled' them?!

Chickadees are so plentiful here & friendly, they will eat out of your outstretched hand if you are quiet & still. They enjoy the Bostons being around as the Blue Jays, which are very plentiful, don't like the dogs & fly away leaving all the feeders for the Chickadees to feast upon.

The birds & squirrels that this wooden feeder that is a few years old now. The artesian that made it had a mishap & sawed several of his fingers off & with them reattached he said it is really unsafe now, he felt with no feeling through them & has stopped making his wooden crafts. I treasure the ones that I have purchased from him through the years. I'm still looking through boxes for the 'Richardson' sleigh that he made me. Has Bill has said, "It's in a box" we have so many boxes & this year it has been so much fun finding things. He has found my 2004 quilt called Twelve Days & he also found my Grinch with the posable body! Yes, they were all in a box!

 

Bridget wore her Santa collar as an ear band. lol

Rexton is sitting on my lap for a pat & Bridget is so jealous, the two will scrap with Bridget licking Rexton's face with her long tongue & Rexton will swat & bite Bridget until they both leave!

Jingle Bells! Santa Paws was good to Bridget & Baxter with new outside balls for Bill to play with them. Some get thrown into the tall evergreens but after windstorms, they are released to the ground once more to be thrown again.

Bill has been playing with his router & made Luna Lapin a new poster bed from some scraps of wood & broken table legs from an old nesting table set. I added the headboard detail from Home Depot's wood accessories.

Rexton the Manx sees it as her kitty bed. lol

I'm trying to get a measurement for the mattress in the black/white ticking, she does not want to move!

I made the mattress & Bill painted the bed in white chalk paint, I love it! It is a perfect size for Luna!

I made her a little colourful granny square throw for the bed.

The headboard looks great & the whole bed came together with the bits that we had at hand.

Alfie got new slippers from the pattern from the gnome's foot pattern, I just modified it a little.

A quilt will be custom made to fit around the post bed, I'm still thinking of the colour & design & will post the finished project.

Our New Year's Eve was spent with family!

We could not be with our family this year so we came up with the idea of having a family puzzle made so they too could be with family! So the puzzles were all shipped out to them as a surprise & memory of the last time we were all together on this blessed event last October 11,2020!

My friends & family also received a photo of this happy event that made our year!

Bill & I had it put together that evening & it's still together on the dining room table. We plan on being together in May this year, flights have been booked, fingers crossed it will happen!

Bill moved the St John antique fireplace into my sewing room last week, I love it!

The cat's tower had to be moved out to the dining room & she is liking it there too.

It was love at first sight when I saw this mantel in the High Wheeler Antique store...it was to convince Bill that it belonged in our home! my dad always said ' You could sell an Eskimo a refrigerator.'.

I feel so good every time I walk into my sewing room & see the brightness in the mirror from the backyard view of the water!

I've not been able to sew due to the sciatic episode & right now having two chiro trips a week but I am on the road to recovery & feel a bit better each day. Sitting is done with ice for 20 minutes - nothing for 20 - then heat for 20 mins. That is how this post got done! 

Bill ordered a new sewing chair for me & will assemble it so I can give it a try but that time will be very limited too. Sitting is so painful right now.

It has been a month of pain now, I just want my life back the way it was & this too will pass & I will slowly start to work out again & gain my core strength to help my back issues. 

For now it slow & easy with walks up & down the laneway on nice days, I happy with just being able to walk upright. Last month this time it was unbearable. So it begins in 2021!

Happy New Year to wherever you are starting this year!

Keep wearing your mask & social distance when you can, the vaccine has arrived & soon this too will pass & we will be together with loved ones again. 

Thank you for stopping by on the first post of the year! Winter & cozy times with the firebox are here as we are isolated into code orange. Stay safe, stay healthy.

Cynthia