Fighting Those Ol' Winter Time Blues

This has been a brutal winter. and its really only just begun with another big snow storm due to slam into us tonight and tomorrow. Big plans for cooking up a pot of spaghetti sauce at our house this weekend. If we're going to be snowed in - we're going to eat well. always. It's a rule.

All this has had me thinking back to last winter and what I did to help fight the blues, and found a post here about going to see Willie Nelson in February. Yep. Willie can help fight the blues, for real. He puts on a terrific show and he was just what the doctor ordered.



This year though, Willie's not gonna make it to Boone.

More's the pity.

'Course, even if he did, we're spending so much time being snowed in - or iced in - getting into town to see him might be iffy.





For the most part, we've been able to make it in to work - some days a little later than our normal start time, but we've been there. There were a couple days that we didn't make it, and even a day or two that the University actually closed (VERY unusual). Most of our major problems - including the big power outage that lasted for several days - have been caused by ice.

Feather Photo by Jill Smith
http://jillsmithdesign.blogspot.com/

So. Since Willie isn't planning a trip to Boone this winter, I had to find another way to chase away those Ol' Winter Time Blues.

It started small.

I decided that the prints I bought last May while we were at Topsail Island had languished around the house long enough. Time for a trip to the frameshop. There's some tired old stuff hanging on our walls and it's past time for them to be retired and replaced with some color. These wonderful prints by North Carolina artist Ivey Hayes will be just the thing.
















They'll will come home from the framer's next week with pretty new red wooden frames.

You know what's coming next, don't you? You know how you can not do one thing around the house like this without it leading to something else . . .

And many of you are aware of my love of red. It's all about adding a little red to my life.

Maybe I have cabin fever, but I'm not really sure that's what it is. I'm the original hermit, and could stay in our little house for days and days and days on end without leaving and be perfectly fine with that. It's not at all unusual for me to come home on a Friday after work and not leave again till Monday morning. I love that. As long as Donald and Harley are around. And my books. And if I have email and the internet, I am truly fine. And a phone to check in with my mom. Sadly, I cannot talk the woman into computers and email. Ain't gonna happen.

But the living room started looking as tired and as old as the things hanging on the wall that I'm retiring.

Time for a change!

This chair has been restuffed, reupholstered and re-slip covered more times than I remember. It started out in our apartment in Cambridge when I was a kid. I still love the classic lines, but am over the blue stripes. We had it cleaned not long ago, but it's still kinda dingy. Think it has anything to do with the fact that two cats (George and Martha Ann) once loved and practically lived in it, and now Harley has laid claim to it?





The new look?

Ta DA - - --

here's the fabric I ordered -





And next the loveseat. Gotta go.

It's in pretty good shape, actually, but I'm ready for a change. AND, obviously, in need of some of that red in my life. (Too much red, says Donald. If he's right {as he so often is}, one of these pieces will just have to move to a different room.).




Here's the new loveseat fabric -



So.

What do you think?

I think it'll all look terrific with this chair we bought last year. You can be sure this chair can bear some of the burden of this "Out With The Old!" phase I'm going through 'cause I've been over the moon about it since the day it found its way to our house. It makes me smile, and hopefully, when the other two pieces are re-done they'll all get along famously and I'll be the one smiling like a lunatic.



And next . . . .

hmmmmm . . .

This tired old braided rug will just have to go . . . .

Stay tuned, everyone!