Cleaning Blinds And Other Nonsense

We've had a bit of ice and a dab of snow and in Arkansas that means life comes to a halt.  We don't have the equipment to clean off the streets so other than a little sand and salt sprinkled here and there we simply sit and wait for the sun to come back out and the temperatures to go back up, which generally happens in an hour..or a day.  I've done a little stitching, most of which I can't show yet but here are a couple of cross stitch pieces I've completed and will soon make into something or use in some way...not sure what way yet.

You've seen this little Santa before on Madame Samm's blog, Sew We Stitch.  I know you don't recognize him because hers is gorgeous with a capital G.  I just couldn't get that beard right.  But since I didn't have a pattern and was simply stitching him from a photo I'm pretty pleased.  I added a few red beads in the holly leaves hoping your eye would go there instead of the beard.  I guess they might be a bit small to do that.  :)

I absolutely love this one.  It's so beautiful.  Really.  Right now, of course, it's like a newborn baby, all wrinkled and looking a little traumatized.  But when it's pressed and freshened up you're going to love it too.  I'd love to find a wooden box this would fit on the top of so I could keep all my scissors in it.  Hmmmm, wonder where I might find one of those.

My violets are happy in this cold weather.

Last week when my friend Connie was here she cleaned the blinds on one of my three windows in my bedroom.  She hates cleaning blinds so you know she's a good friend.  :)

Today I cleaned the other two, opened the windows and cleaned out the sills, then cleaned the glass on the inside.  I was wishing it wasn't so cold so I could do the outside.  Do you think I might be rushing spring?  Oh, and yes we really did have more snow than that but we waited an hour and most of it melted.  Tomorrow we might get some more.  They say "might" a lot here.