It occurs to me that I should apologize for the quality of the photos here lately. It's either the camera, the photographer or the dreary days...




Dreary days require some warmth so I've been glad that I left some Christmas color around this January. I'm still celebrating winter though celebrating is much too strong a word; it's really more that I'm not anticipating spring yet. There's still this last week of January to live and I want to be like Teresa @ Plumwater Cottage who is working on being present.



The little snowman above is the direct result of visiting Dawn at The Feathered Nest and a blogger named Kerry whom she featured. *You must see Kerry's bottle,* if you've not already...such a good idea! I need to make a little quote for my snowman.

Last, I'm still playing with the centerpiece. This is where it is so far. Hope that it's done now, but I never know.

Oh good heavens! I now see that I am a total sham. Look at those roses! Nothing very January about those now is there?!

Have a great Tuesday, Dear Ones...

Playing along with Mary at Little Red House...

Have been experimenting with repeating pictures in mosaics. Perhaps I'm getting ready to move on to my next kick — quilt making.

Comments are off so that you may enjoy visiting without pressure. My next post will tell the rest of this story: plenty of pictures minus the mosaic.

Enjoy your day and thank you for your visit!

Don't you love a new calendar? I do. In fact, I'm so easily excited by calendars that I get a thrill out of flipping from one month to the next. Probably wouldn't if I were using the True Value calendar, but then I am using a new Lang received for Christmas. (My new one is from the paintings of Laura Berry.) Calendars make such nice gifts...more about that in a few.

Sooo, I've been making things and all because my family loved the little bird that I spoke of *here.* You'll find all the information you need for snagging the template from Miss Sandy on that post.



And I've been making stars, which is a Blogland story that connects to a real life one. My mom purchased a pocket calendar for my sister at our local gift shop and discovered a bit late that it was for 2009. That'll never do so she sent me back to the shop where it was cheerfully replaced for a 2010 one. It's a darling calendar from the paintings of Diane Knott. How thrilled I was to find her blog named Diane Knott's Musings while blog-hopping one evening just two days later.



That evening, her post was Starry, Starry Night and I was enchanted. My little copycat star is made from scrapbook papers that I really have never liked well enough to use; nevertheless, how well they worked for this star. And how darling would it be made from favorite Christmas cards or favorite wrapping paper as I did for some of the birds in my collage? It's good to think about these things as you pack away your Christmas stuff, if you haven't already. (Some fine day, I hope to be able to use glitter as beautifully as Diane does.) This is the *star template* I used. Anyway, that's my little find to share with you today.

A warm and loving thank you to each of my readers whether you comment or prefer to remain quiet. I appreciate all of you. May you enjoy God's richest blessings in the year to come!

I'm not all about creating pretty mosaics, just so you'll know. ;> But all is not lost as you can find some gorgeous ones at Mary's Mosaic Monday.

John worked all Saturday on our little window project and all he got for it was this homemade pizza for lunch. I used the recipe posted at Little Birdie Secrets.



A big thank you to Dawn at The Feathered Nest for all the beautiful images used to make this project and for the idea in the first place.

Enjoy a wonderful week!