The week ahead...

Every time I write these posts I think of the Carol King lyrics,
Looking out on the morning rays...
Welcome to this week's Happy Homemaker post.

The Weather
First the good news, it's sunny. Clear skies. This weekend we woke to heavy gray skies, and the wind nearly blew us sideways on our morning walk. I asked DH who has his mental finger on the weather at all times, is snow predicted. Nope he said! It was bitterly cold and serious winds, and here on the high desert you could see far in the distance that someone was getting snow storms. Milo had no sooner returned from his playdate with Gracie, but big fat flakes made for near white out conditions.

A pop-up storm! We got about 2" from all afternoon of heavy snow so we just stayed in the rest of the day. It snowed again overnight.  It's been in single digits with strong winds, 10F as I write this, a 6 boot walk is happening at this moment, and I'm still drinking my first cup of coffee.
But it's sunny.

Wearing
If I ever get dressed I'll put on snuggly cuddle duds fleece leggings, long 'wears and a long cuddly sweater. The plan, or hope is to do some house chores and then work in the studio today. My cuddle duds have been the star this winter.

View from my perch

well, I wanted a bigger house, but now there's a lot of real estate to clean. I love the house though.

To Do
I still need to go over the table tops with a duster, and to mop again.
Water all the house plants
organize the library books, I've gotten a lot of them lately
make more vege soup as we both loved being able to have some as a starter every day
Try to contact a puppy owner to set up a play date as Milo and the spaniel seem to love each other at the fence
Wonder if this could be the week the Christmas boxes get moved back to the basement???

Reading
finished the tea house mystery and requested the next in series already. Was listening to the Aviator's Wife... but stopped. It was fascinating til the baby was abducted, and I remembered it's a true story. I just can't take any extreme sadness at the moment, and the writer pulled me into the lives of the Lindbergs so much it's like it's happening right now.

I felt the pull of Ann Morrow Lindberg's struggle to do what was socially accepted of a woman in 1920's... be quiet and good, support your man and deny your needs, but what do you do with the strong need to be yourself, to achieve your own goals, to write your books, to think your thoughts?
It was challenging for women, may still be, to be seen as people by a lot of men.
There is a resurgence in that kind of thinking again... it's not good.

Lessons learned
I watched an Oprah interview of Melinda Gates. It was wonderful, just wonderful to hear how she and her husband are trying to give back to the world. Oprah asked, "how do you limit spending for your children? You can't say you can't afford something" and Ms Gates answered thoughtfully, "just because you can doesn't mean you should" They are trying to figure out the best way to share their wealth and decided health care helps the most people. She said, every life matters, and we are all responsible to take care of each other. It's a nice respite from the profit driven people in power at the moment... line your own pockets and let people grab what they can if there is anything left.

Reading
Anyway, so I stopped listening to Aviator. I got a view of the American icon Charles Lindberg that reminded me I don't like men like that, who demand their way first, who are ego driven. I moved on to the Orchard. There are about 4 actors reading the book to me as I sew, a story about pioneers in Ohio, making a living in swampy land and raising lots of kids. The wife is very very unlikable, and although the husband seems to try to do the right things, he beats her and whips the kids that survived (lost 5, had 5 more) because that's what you did then. I think I'll be looking around for another book on disc.
At night I'm reading a mystery series Diann at littlepenguins told us about on the I Like Thursday posts. It is well written and engaging or was til I fell asleep holding it!

Watching
Doc Martin is back! Victoria continues, and the BBC show Delicious with it's cast of quirky characters and intriguing plot lines has a new season available now on ACORN. Yea! Survivor and When calls the heart and Project Runway start this week I think!

did you see the adopted dog show on Hallmark??? It's on again tonight, with categories like best tummy rub, best smile, best senior dog adoption. Love. It's funny too!

Tips and tricks
I have a lovely red tablecloth of damask. My pen leaked turquoise ink all over a section!!! I noticed when I spilled morning coffee all over it this weekend! I put a paper towel under the ink stains, and poured rubbing alcohol on it and the color started to bleed out... yea! I did that many times but the ink was so saturated and stain so big, I got heady from the alcohol. I took it outside and dipped it in a bucket of water to soak.
Now I was worried the coffee would dry while the ink soaked. We noticed the water was turning blue... oh... so we changed it out, and soaked a while longer, then put the whole kit and caboodle into the wash and both stains disappeared!

Eating
trying to be healthy but losing the battle. We seem to need comfort food. At least we eat fresh vegetables, salads, and fruit too. We're just both tired of the whole survival struggle and want food to be easy. The tangerines are good right now, and we had some terrific brussel sprouts the other night. We live in a time when you can get produce from other places not coated in snow, so that's nice.
I've noticed if I get really into an art project I eat less, and that's the case right now.

Making
woohoo! I finished the Valentine quilt and will do a post on Wed sharing what I learned making it, showing pics of the flowers, feathers, and vines I quilted into in with golden thread. I went ahead and quilted the tiny painted woman above, from January, too.

I'm doing three sets of blocks using my yellow scraps for Rainbow Scrap challenge online. The flowering snowballs are just challenging enough and easy enough to make me want to make lots of them! Currently I am making yellow gemstones though, so the studio is full of topaz, amber and yellow diamonds.. stay tuned for that post on Saturday!
I bead, knit, paint and write, but sewing has been a life long passion of mine.
Writing is it's equal, and I did fictional stories the last two Sundays, if you're interested.

Appreciation
speaking of writing, I love those of you who read my words... it's refreshing to know I have a group who want to keep up with what other women are doing around the world this week... and thankful for the link party so we could find each other at https://familycorner.blogspot.com/

Inspiration
I couldn't find the whole interview of Oprah and Melinda Gates but it's worth seeking out ondemand. I did find this one little bit of it... please enjoy
https://www.facebook.com/melindagates/videos/249321682681105/

I am not on FB, by choice, but this is available to even me, worth a look and again, please seek out the show (Supersoul Sunday) on your streaming devices as each person was very interesting and worth hearing! this is a review
http://www.tvweeklynow.com/news-blogs/news-blogs-RicksPicks/oprahs-supersoul-converation-opens-with-michael-b-jordan-bradley-cooper-beto-orourke-melinda-gates-and-lisa-borders.htm

Milo's week ahead

When Mama tipped out my toybox this weekend, in a futile effort to keep me occupied, I realized I have to go through this and decide if there are any I'm done with. They get pretty chewed up in play time.

I'll leave you with a little beauty provided by DH for V-day

I loved all of them especially the purple shimmery fabric around them! Good choice my darling!

Linking to these parties
ruby tuesdays