Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Tracking snow into the house is so much more fun when my boots make cool snowflake shapes!

We definitely had a white Christmas this year, thanks to a blizzard and over 13 inches of new snow. Because of the wind, the snow drifted in huge piles. When those piles are in the road, it makes for some crazy driving.

Thankfully, we were able to safely make it to see all our family.

...

Now that Christmas is over I'm in full baby nesting mode – I can't believe I'm just a few days away from starting the third trimester! Yikes!

Stay tuned for projects and photos.

The leaves have fallen.

Happy Autumn!

Happy Halloween!

Pretty green colors

My chive plant bush is getting ready to bloom. I know I'm supposed to cut the flowers off if I don't want chives overrunning my garden, but they look too pretty to chop off. The combination of the greens and pink/purple is surprisingly lovely.

When I moved into this house, I planted a little plum tree. For the past four years, I've been wishin' for plums. This is the first year my plum tree is growing what look like the beginnings of plums. Now if only the birds will leave them alone, we might have plums this summer. I'll be sure to update my plum status again soon.

My grandma gave me a whole stack of hand-me-down canvasses, with the deal that I paint her one. So here it is - in the works. I'm making it for my grandparent's cantina (fancy garage on the river). I think it will eventually have the look of turquoise ocean meets sky. I sprinkled Kosher salt on the wet paint to give it some texture. And hey, it's supposed to have the "beachy" look, so why not add some salt?!

I've painted two layers of color so far. I think I'll add one more before making it look like something.

A change of seasons

Last week I took this photo near Fox Island, in Bismarck, ND. I was amazed at how much has changed with the season. Just over two moths ago, this was all underwater and the homes in the area were flooded. But now this area is lush and beautiful.

The photo was taken on Thursday - it was a beautiful spring day with perfect little puffy clouds.

This is our weather forecast ... today we have a chance of rain ... and snow. SNOW?! It's June!

This weekend we're trying to keep ourselves busy indoors. I'm wondering when I'm going to get to wear my new swimming suit.

For the time being, I think quilting is in order. And then maybe some pinochle.

The 28th of May and some random ancestry rambling

Today is the 28th of May. June begins on Monday.

Right about this time of year I forget what -40°F temperatures feel like. I think it might be a midwestern thing (or I suppose anywhere that has a distinctive and severe winter season) ... in the summer, we live in the moment.

I think it's what gets us through the long winter. Kind of like a working long stressful hours Monday through Friday for the grand prize of having two days of weekend.

Anyway, this year I'm attempting to not live so in the moment and save my skin from the dangerous rays of the sun. I'm naturally quite pale pasty. I burn very easily. I know that tanning (or in my case, burning) is not good for my skin. So this year I'm going for the light look.

I blame my paleness pastyness on my German and Dutch ancestors. Thanks folks.

So that photo up top there ... you know, the one of my pale pasty ankles? I had to "antique" it so that it didn't blind you all. You're very welcome.

In other news ...

This is a peony. In my yard. I have a few peony plants but this one is particularly special - it's a growth (split by dividing the roots) from my great grandma's peony plant ... I think. Grandma Katy, if you are reading this let me know if I have that right.

Edited 5/29/09 to add: This peony was originally growing at my Grandma Katy's house when she moved in, in 1962, in Redfield, SD. Divided prices are/were also growing at my Great Grandma's former house in Whitefish, MT, at my Great Great Grandma Hattie's house in South Dakota, and at my Grandma Katy's former house in Mandan, ND, and her current house in Kalispell, MT. So this plant has had quite a long life so far. I hope I can continue the tradition for many years to come.

I'm just fascinated with the process of taking a cutting and making another plant from it. Right now I'm working on basil and honeysuckle.

I decided that with my newly acquired aprons, I now have enough for a little display. I strung up a piece of yarn on one of my sewing room walls. Then I attached my apron collection with clothes pins (yes, this is a high class display). All in all, I have seven vintage aprons. All seven are on the line but not all of them made it in the photos. Oops.

The apron on the far left (blue gingham) and the yellow/blue crocheted apron belonged to my Great Grandma Dolly. She was Dutch to the core - born a Van Beek, she later married a Dutch fellow (my great grandpa), named Hannes Garrett Vander Vorst. They both grew up in the Dutch town of Westfield, ND. I figured it was only right to place my new pink Dutch girl apron between Grandma Dolly's two. Also between Grandma Dolly's aprons is one of seven of the days of the week dish towels I embroidered with her old patterns.

This is a pretty special wall.

So now that I've talked all about them, here is a photo of my Great Grandma Dolly, my Great Grandpa 'Van' and my Grandpa 'Dar' ... aren't they a cute bunch? This is one of my favorite photos.

Sun and thunder

Here it is - my finished Barcelona skirt! (never-mind my hand in this photo ... the camera was on self timer mode and I was not ready)

I think it's a good springtime skirt.

Speaking of springtime, our yard is in full spring mode. This is our plum tree that has never produced a plum.

Mister plum tree again.

bleeding heart bush

tulips

...

We have our first severe thunderstorm warning tonight. Yep, it's officially spring.

Happy anniversary to my grandparents - Darwin and Irene - 53 years!

Gone. And a winner!

The snow is gone.

Every last pile, ball and flake. All gone.

There are even little blades of green grass starting to grow.

It's been a fast journey and fun game. 

I'm actually surprised that it only took 16 days for our mountains of snow to melt away.

Nobody picked today ... or yesterday ... or tomorrow. But, my Grandma Katy's friend, Cricket picked Monday, April 20 - so I made the executive decision that she is the winner! Congratulations!

Another day

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning. Beautiful, that is, if I was inside. Safe and warm. The frigid temperatures quickly ruined any beauty once I stepped outside to take this photo. It was -13°F and -33°F with windchill. It was darn cold. Especially for mid-March. I was lucky though, I only had to go outside twice today - first to get to work and secondly, to get home. 

I though for sure that there would be some fabulous sun dogs out today. But nope. No such luck.

Today after work, at work, I had my first session of yoga. A woman I work with was kind enough to share her knowledge of yoga with a few of us gals in the department. It was so much fun. I was happy to learn that I didn't have to twist my body into any crazy pretzel shapes ... or at least not yet. We'll be meeting every week through April. Once the weather gets nice enough to venture out of central heating, we may switch to some sort of activity outside. 'Till then, I'll be working on perfecting my lotus.

I'm out of creative titles.

It's still winter. 

Still snowing. 

Still cold. 

Still windy. 

Matthew and Maria (my bonus brother and sister) had ANOTHER snow day today.

Even my slippers are ready for spring.

I'm sick of writing about the weather. I should be thankful that our weather, although cold and blustery, is not as bad as it could be. I just saw that Okalhoma had a tornado! How's that for crazy? A tornado in February.

Locally, the Interstate is closed from Mandan, ND (immediately west of Bismarck), west 100 miles because of all the ice and snow on the road. I'm happy to report that Corey and I are both home, safe and sound for the evening.

As promised, here's a project photo:

An embroidered dish towel. The pattern is from the one and only, Sublime Stitching. This is my first project using Sublime Stitching's iron-on designs. I really like the designs and the style but I do have to say that the lines on the iron-on turned out a bit too wide for my liking. I embroider with three strands of thread, so maybe if I used all six they'd be covered better? 

Well that's all the time I have for today, I've got to get back to watching the weather.

heat wave.

It was 24°F today! It felt so warm I actually decided to leave my coat, and mittens, and hat, and scarf, and snow boots in the car this afternoon and go into work after lunch without the "keep me warm" extra clothing. It was awesome. It felt so warm. Almost hot. When did 24° become warm?! So, lets see ... that means that from the low yesterday to the high today, we had a temperature swing of nearly 70° - only in North Dakota.

Speaking of the weather yesterday ... I did more research and I'm 99 percent sure that the various areas in North Dakota (most had temps around -44°F) yesterday were the coldest temperatures in the United States — by a lot. Yes, this is including all of Alaska. Wowzers. That's impressive. I feel empowered and brave all of a sudden.

For those of you who enjoyed my fun facts about 40 below temperatures, you might like this article (and video) from the Bismarck Tribune. The video is especially amusing - check out what bubbles, balloons and hot coffee do at 30-40 below.

I'm in the process of trying to document sun dogs. Check out that link - or wait for my report on them if you'd like my perspective. I've gotten so interested in the wonders of extreme cold weather I'm beginning to think I may be in the wrong career. Not really. Well maybe. Anyway, sun dogs are one of those things that you see all the time ... until you want to take a photo ... then you can't find them. I heard they were awesome yesterday but, (go figure) I was too wussy to go outside.

Tomorrow I'm driving 45 miles south to Linton, ND, to teach Corey's grandpa, 'Grandpa Andy' how to use a computer. It'll be a learning experience for both of us, I'm sure. I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe I'll even be lucky enough to catch some sun dogs on my drive.

40 below

Bismarck set another weather record today. And NO, this is not a weather blog, it's just that weather is the most blog-worthy thing going on around here lately, especially today. 

So ... drum roll ... the record ... coldest temperature on record for today's date - negative 44. That's -44°F air temperature, not counting wind chill. That's darn cold. 

I did a bit of research about the significance of a temperature of 40 below zero. 

To my surprise there is a tourist attraction in Alaska (Fairbanks and Denali) called Alaska At 40 Below. They take visitors into a glorified cooler at -40°F and teach about how to dress for the weather, how animals adapt and send folks home with certificates, welcoming them into the "40 Below Club." No fair! I want one!

More fun facts:

40 degrees below zero is the only temperature where Celsius and Fahrenheit are the same. wow. amazing.

Water will vaporize at 40 below. I so should have tried this! Just throw a cup of water in the air and watch - nothing will hit the ground.

Helicopters stop working. Airplanes have trouble running. Gas pumps freeze up and stop working. Car radios don't work right. Mercury freezes - that means most thermometers don't work. Skin freezes almost instantly (I can vouch for this one). 

The folks up at work today all made a point to go out and start their cars over lunch break so that they would warm up for a while. Just so that the cars had a better chance of starting at the end of the day. (mine did just fine)

Even though it is darn cold. I do love it here. We joke that the cold keeps out the riff raff. It's so true.

Anyway, here are some photos I snapped today from my car window because it was too cold to go 'out' and take them.

This guy won't be going anywhere any time soon. The snow plow totally plowed him in. bummer.

The driveway to our church parking lot has the snow piled so high that it almost touches the street signs.

This is our mailbox. Our neighborhood is nice to the mail people - this box has the mailboxes for 12 homes. Since it's in front of our house, we're responsible for keeping a path to it when the snow gets too high and the snowplow drops huge mountains in front of it. (notice the nice little snow cave that's carved to it).

This is some of my 40 below entertainment. 

85 and sunny

... or the exact opposite.

Another crazy winter day here in Bismarck, ND.

We've received at least six more inches (probably more now that I think of it) of snow today. It's hard to tell exactly how much we got because it blew around and piled up awkwardly.

Because of the drifts of snow and wind blowing the snow into the air (causing very limited visibility) we got to leave work early today - yay for snow afternoons. But that's where the fun ends. It is still snowing. When will it stop?!? We've already made national news for the last few days in-a-row. I've heard of people that have to shovel off the roof of their house for fear it will collapse. Good thing the snow seems to just blow right off our roof. I doubt Corey or I would ever dare to shovel our roof off. yeah. nope.

I think I'm about to lose my mind.

Do you know what cabin fever is? I'm pretty sure I'm on the verge of having a very serious case of it.

Not the scary demented "Shining" kind of cabin fever ... the restless, sleepy, funny, goofy kind. (for the record). ha.

... as proof of my serious "condition" ... I just accidently posted this entry in my Bison Girl Cooks blog ... woopsie daisy :)

---- UPDATE ---- 

Bismarck received over five inches of snow today for a total of over 53 inches this season. Also on the news, a story on winter depression and the risk of drinking at home, alone (death). Seriously, people, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. Winter here this year is out of this world.

Sunday snow update

Bismarck received 6.1 inches of snow in January (so far). 

Since December 1, over 39 inches of snow has fallen in Bismarck. For December, that is the most snow to fall in Bismarck for that month.

That's all nice and dandy, but yowzer all that snow shoveling will give you a backache.

... another few inches of snow forecasted tonight.

Message to snow: Stay up there, we don't need any more!

My paper white bulbs and I are amazed at all the snow we have. We got another five inches of snow last night and another few inches this morning. Maria and Matthew, my bonus sister and brother have a snow day off school today - yahoo! They live 2 1/2 hours north of here and got over a foot of snow yesterday. 

At out house, we have snow piles over four feet high lining our driveway. It's crazy.

All the more reason to stay inside and quilt! ... I finished this quit top. No back yet and it still need to be quilted. It's probably the most girly quilt I've ever made.

and my second quilt of 2009 ...

I started an improv-pieced quilt. Basically this just means that I don't use a pattern - I just randomly sew pieces together to create a quilt. There is a Flickr group dedicated to this project. Check it out - just click the link. There are about 115 of us that are participating. The quilt I decided to make will represent my journey through RCIA – yes, I'm becoming Catholic! The quilt will be a wall hanging of six squares (crosses). 

Depending on how it turns out, I might submit it in the Artists Celebrating Christ Art Show. So far I think the quilt is looking pretty good - especially considering it's made of all batik scraps. Thanks to my Aunt Kristen for donating a bag of scraps recently – they came in very handy with this project. The squares have an amazing stained glass look which I am really enjoying. I will border each of the squares with white fabric (for a total size of about 10 inches square), then sew the six squares together, and then I will quilt it. 

It's winter in North Dakota

Right about this time of the year, the rest of the nation gets geared up for the longer days, warmer sun, greener grass, and blooming flowers that spring brings. Well, here in North Dakota we're still deep in the belly of winter ... for another three to four months.

My boss sent this little poem to me last week. It made me giggle. 

I really do love North Dakota. I also love the fact my nose is frozen shut.

---

It's winter in North Dakota

And the gentle breezes blow

Seventy miles an hour

At twenty-five below

Oh, how I love North Dakota

When the snow's up to your butt

You take a breath of winter

And your nose gets frozen shut

Yes, the weather here is wonderful

So I guess I'll hang around

I could never leave North Dakota

'Cause I'm frozen to the ground

---

If you are in the mood for more North Dakota fun ... check out this song. Just click play to hear "If You're Gonna' Play in Fargo (You Better Have a Shovel in the Van)." 

Haha hoo he ha.

... So funny I think I just defrosted my frozen nose.

Hope you all are enjoying your weather wherever you are.

*Sorry about the recycled photo. It's too darn cold to go outside to take a new one.

More snow and new fabric.

Yesterday Joann's fabric store marked down their (already reduced) clearance fabric by 50 percent. Which means that the fabric I was looking at that was normally $8-9 per yard was now only $1.50 per yard. For someone who is a fabric junkie, this is a big deal. Not saying I am or anything. That's beside the point. 

So I happened to be in the store ... and figured I'd browse the racks. Wow did I find a lot nice fabric. I piled my cart high and headed to the cutting table. I think I got the best cutter in the store. I bought no less than 1/2 yard of most of the fabric and 1 yard of the ones I really liked. The fabric cutter lady (my hero) noticed that many of the bolts of fabric were almost gone, so if there was less that one yard remaining after my cut, she gave it to me for an additional 50 percent off (that would be 75 cents per yard!!!). Yes, that deserved three exclamation points.

So here is my pile of new fabric - all for under 35 bucks (including one new spool of thread). Awesome. Also in the photo are a few of my Christmas gifts - a new 24x36 inch rotary cutting board, Quilts of Gee's Bend book, and Retro Stitching embroidery pattern book. Time to get sewing!

I should also mention that I do prefer quilt shop fabric over Joann's Fabric and Craft store fabric, but I just couldn't pass up this deal. The fabric is not quilt shop quality but I was impressed with it's softness and color. I think it will hold up quite nicely.

I've been trying to not write too much about the weather, but I just have to. We got another 5 inches of snow last night. We woke up to the soft hum of snow blowers this morning. We don't own one and our neighbors know that, so they offered to clear our driveway and sidewalks for us. how fortunate we are to have such kind neighbors. 

Since snow blowers are made for large, straight, flat areas, Corey shoveled off our porch and walk way to the porch. Much more manageable than the drive way!

With the new snowfall, we're thinking today would be a great day for sledding.