Snow Day and Poof

I am currently snowed in from our first snow of the season. We got 4 inches of snow. Ok Northerners, before you laugh. Yes, it was only 4 inches of snow but there is 2 inches of ice underneath it and another layer of ice on top from the 5 hours of sleet and freezing rain we had after the snow. 
When we say “snowed in”, it means we do not want to attempt the hazardous roads. People around here are not used to driving in ice or snow, so we aint that good at it. But, we can actually drive or walk to the grocery store half a mile away if we needed to. 

I have been wanting to crochet a poof ( foot stool). The other day I went to my local craft store and right in the center of the isle were bins full with the type of yarn I needed to create such a project. It was on sale at half price so I grabbed four skeins of blanket weight yarn. I wasn’t sure how many I actually needed. Yellow was the only color I could find with four of the same color. 

I followed THIS PATTERN
I only needed two skeins so I will be returning the other two. 


I worked on this poof a couple nights while watching some of my favorite shows. Today since I wanted to stay in from the winter storm, I cozied up in my recliner and finished crocheting my poof. 


This was also great way to get rid of some old raggedy blankets I had stashed away. They were some old ugly crocheted blankets from Nicks grandmother. They did not hold much value to him but I felt bad to throw them away. They worked great to stuff my poof. This saved me from the expense of polly fill stuffing and I was able to do some decluttering. 


I like the way if turned out though I have no idea where to use it. I just wanted the challenge of making one. I suppose I could use it in the camper or just let it take up some space in my room. It is sorta cute sitting in the corner of the bedroom. 

I also found the bottom of my laundry basket and dyed my hair.

What is the weather like where you are? Are you experiencing cold or warm temperatures? 

Honey Bear

How is everyones New Year coming along? Mine is starting off slow. My daughter caught the covid bug two days before New Years Day and I haven’t seen her since Christmas. She’s fine now but I still miss her. She fought it off like a champ and It was killing me not to be there for her. But I would have sacrificed my health to go help her if she had needed me too. Me and Nick have still been able to dodge it…Knock on wood.  
Also, have been trying to lose some weight by eating better and, well, nothing happening there. Even thought I have cut back a little, looks like I will need to cut back a little more because I have lost one, maybe two, pounds so far. Those two pounds can show back up anytime of the week. It is discouraging. I have been doing a little exercise each day but I need to up that too. I am just so darn tired when I get up in the mornings and even more tired when I get home from work. I love my job but when I get home, I just want to crash. 

Once the days start getting longer, me and Nick will be able to get back to walking. 
Speaking of walking. When we go on our walks, we will usually find a penny or two. Sometimes a nickel or dime. The most we have ever found was a twenty dollar bill. 
I follow “Life is Good” blog. Karen is an avid walker, rain, snow or ice, nothing can stop her. Each day she blogs about her day, shares recipes, scriptures and crafts. Her posts usually include her walks and how much change she finds. I had commented on one of her post and mentioned how I plan to get a jar and collect only the change we find on our walks to see how much we can collect in a year. 
 
Nick was following our mail on his mail app and it was showing I had a package on the way. I kept assuring him that I had not made anymore purchases and had no idea what was coming. Then a few days later, I found a package on my porch. I brought it in and immediately cut it open. To my surprise, I pulled out the cutest little honey bear jar from Karen.



It had a little note attached saying she thought I might enjoy using it to collect my walking change in. She remembered my comment. I was so surprised and now I am excited to start filling it up. I love getting happy mail. It really did cheer me up. Again, Karen, if your reading this, thank you again. 

How has your New Years been going so far? I hope everyone is well and blessed. 

2022

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all ready to start a new year with new plans and goals. 

New years eve is always a mess for me and Nick. We laugh about it. We never have any parties to attend so we just go out for a nice dinner somewhere.
We always wait to late to make reservations and that always leaves us scrambling to get into a restaurant and end up just going whereever we can find a seat. This time we planned ahead and made reservations at a place in my old hometown of Belmont called the “Old Stone Steak House”. We were excited and relieved that we did not have to go searching for a place to go. We had already searched the menu online and picked out what we each were gonna order. We were excited. We like to eat dinner around five or six but our reservations were for 7:30 and that was fine.

We were both off work on New Years Eve and enjoyed our day together relaxing. We started getting dressed for dinner and left the house a little early just in case there was a problem with parking or getting in the door. We found a parking spot in front of the door and walked right in. The hostess was nice and took us to our table. There at the table she handed us a menu and went to get our drinks.

There was a problem here. The menu was a special four course New Years dinner with limited options. First the price was 55.00 per person and that did not include drinks or tip. Second, there was nothing on this particular menu that we wanted. I asked the waitress if we could order off of the regular menu and she said “No, not tonight” . We apologized and left. No way would we pay 110 plus dollars on something we did not want. We simply don’t spend that way. We expected to spend around 70.00 for the special occasion but by ordering what we wanted. 

We ended up walking down the street to another place in town called “The Lodge Tavern and Tap”. Not our idea of a place but it was getting late and we were mad and hungry. I guess you could say we were “Hangry”. There was no wait and they took us to our table. There we ended up ordering the Ribeye Steaks with two sides. For appetizers we order fried pickles. My favorite! 




The food was ok but we were still disappointed that our original date plans did not work out.
We had plenty left over and that’s what we ate for New Years Lunch. 

Speaking of New Years lunch. This is the first time in at least 10 years that we have not prepared a big traditional New Years Dinner. We always make enough for 12 to 15 people and the meat prices are outrageous. We also struggle to find enough collards. It was stressing me out this time so we decided to give it a break this year. I think we made a good choice because we have some family members battling colds. It feels weird and I miss it. Hopefully we can get back to doing it next year. 

I hope you all have a wonderful 2022! What are some of your goals? Mine is to get a new car in the Spring or Summer. I also hope to lose my weight again.