Cold, windy, and wonderful...

I am sitting at my computer lovely the blustery wind outside. It is still dark, and the wind is making a soughing noise as it races between our houses and fills the awnings with air and then races on. The fortuitous placement of a heater vent right at my feet keeps my toes cozy and billows warm air up around me as the thermostat turns the heater on from time to time.

Rainy morning...

I love the rain in the morning. I had checeked the weather and was not expecting this storm to show up until later in the afternoon, so I was thrilled. We are all tucked inside...the dogs braided together in their little bed keeping each other warm, two cats downstairs, and Max sleeping under the big tree by the fireplace. I stepped into the pantry to listen to the rain.

Still loving Christmas....

 

This season has been unusually enjoyable for me. I loved taking out all my old ornaments and finding special places for them, and I was kind of amazed to see that I had so many. When we first moved to our house here, we had the usual collection of contemporary ornaments that we added to each year, but that changed the year we took the roof off.

Meet Max....

Those of you coming to the house for open studio and classes will no doubt be running into our newest Brookdale denizen, Max the cat. Max is a Maine Coon that seems to be moving into our house, inching his way into our hearts, and trying to keep a low profile with Sadie and Boo. He's adorable, and he's big. Don't be startled if he suddenly appears at your ankles...

Trail walk...

We passed this beautiful stand of hollyhocks on our way to the trail head....

Classes coming up on Brookdale!

Connie Freedman joins us for class this weekend to create this lovely 'pochette' from vintage velvet, chaining, gemstone beads and vintage Haskell pearls! See the class blog here to read about it and sign up!