Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It's 4 below zero out right now, I'm not sure how that comes up in celcius, but it means it's cold!
The upside to this cold weather means I can defrost my freezers, put the stuff outside, in the frigid cold, in laundry baskets and not have to worry about it thawing. And I have freezers that need to be thawed.

I decided to splurg I turned the heat up in the house to about 65 ! Normally I don't like it so warm in here but when that mercury dipped below -6F last night I decided it was too cold, John was happy with the decision. I tend to be a lot warmer than he is.

I really need to get caught up on laundry, our winter clothes, which I still haven't drug out of storage, needs to be washed, and the summer/fall clothes put back away. I need to thin out our clothing selections as well, we both have a lot of stuff we are not wearing anymore. I will do that right after I get my orders filled and out the door.

If your cold and are looking for a really warm shirt I suggest the Alaska Shirt by Woolrich. It's a thick heavy dense wool shirt worthy of crawling up into and just melting away. Since we went to the local outdoor supply store and they supply warm clothing for the skinny aneorexic types I'm suggesting the Alaska shirt for those who are more svelt in stature. I don't need to look cute or sexy, just like I'm planning on keeping all of my appendages!

Hair

I had my hair cut today, as a perk I had Andrea curl my hair, it's really cute. My hair is getting pretty long, it hangs down the middle of my back now. It'd been over a year since I had had it cut. The last person who cut it cut off three inches, when I specified only one inch. Andrea took off a little over an inch but it's still really long, I needed the dead ends cut off anyway. Too bad it's such a hassle to curl my hair as I'd do it and more often but I just can never seem to get the back evenly curled, as in all of the hair on the back.

Today has been one of those days, where I'm one person screaming at me away from moving to the bowels of Alaska. Salmon and Seal fat sound really appealing right now, there's Baffin Island too and hey lots of lichens to do reasearch on.

My webstore is a nightmare. Actaully my current webhosts are a nightmare. So I'm changing hosts and am in the process of building a new webstore. I bought my own shopping cart this time, with my very own security certificate. Needless to say I had not planned to do this kind of work at this point in my life, yet here I am rebuilding the store. John's comment to me was "look at how fast you will become at building your own store". You know it's not like attempting to set a land record, this was not one of those things I wanted to become good at, ever.

Meanwhile my kitchen looks like a garbage dump exploded in there.

Another View

More Paint

I put on two layers of metallic paint, Jacquard Lumirie Paints. I blotted some of it off so you can still sorta see the base coat. I am almost done, need to finish lining the rest of the box with paper, and get the minature book done.

Another Layer of Paint

More paint, more paper, more glue, more sanding, and maybe some more paint and paper. Eventually the box will be done!

Cigar Box Swap

Here are some in progress pics of my cigar box for the swap I'm in, it was due last week. Needless to say I probably won't have it done until Monday - for mailing that is.

On Surviving Winter

Well unless you live in a cave somewhere with absolutely no contact what so ever with the outside world then you know that heating costs are going to go up this winter. So the question begs to be anwsered how do I keep warm. It's very simple:

Wear lots of clothes!

I keep our house at 58 F. That's right I keep it at 58 degrees F! In the morning I get up, around 6ish, to fix hubbys lunch make the coffee and let the dogs out to do their chores. In the winter I turn the heat up to 62 F and let it run one full cycle. I then turn it back down to 58 F and don't turn it back up until 5 or 6 in the evening. I let it run one full cycle again and turn it down. Sometimes we will turn it up before we go to bed one more time. I personally cna't sleep if it's warmer than 62 F in the house. My house is heavily insulated with woolrock, an insulation material that was used around the turn of the previous century. Woolrock maintains it's temperatures beautifully. I can go several days, w/o running the furnace before the house temp hits 50 F, ask me how I know and it wasn't our choice either.

So by now you either think I'm nuts, full of it, or both. I'm only nuts. I'm also cheap (frugal). And I really hate getting sick, warm buildings in the winter breed disease.

So how do you keep warm Kimberly - we have to ask???

Wool, wool is our best friend. We both wear turtle necks or long sleeve tee shirts, wool shirts or wool sweaters. When it's warmer out we wear cotton long sleeve shirts, flannel or heavy cotton twill, over our tees. We wear lots of wool socks, and I've been known to wear a wool hat indoors on occassion. My head is usually cold but the rest of me is hot. I wear wool socks starting now until spring thaw, I buy them and I also knit them myself.

As for staying warm at night, flannel sheets, wool blankets, thick heavy comforters - get the picture. If you wanna stay warm then cover up!

I heard one source state that the recommeneded lowering of the furnace temp be to 68 F, that's sweltering! Personally I don't take that as a serious drop that would amount to any type of savings in fuel oil and natural gas. 62 F is a serious drop and should create a serious savings. But hey I don't make the rules so what do I know right! I can say this it's only been in the last 50 years or so that we've had these ridiculously high indoor temps during the winter. Prior to that people froze their arses off in the winter.

Old towel

Here's an old towel, that I bought in a box with some old linens, and now that I think about it I should go through that box, I think there's some aprons in there too. The box had old lace, linen napkins and lots of damask table clothes and dinner napkins.

I really like the chicken tracks red stitching around the edge of this towel. It has a lot of stains, foxing, and rust spots on the piece. Overall the stitching is quite fine on a piece that is designated to the kitchen.

Those are silk ladies hankies you see off to the side.

Pink Apron

I"m not sure which style this apron falls under but I bought it because it just screamed "adorable". The pink umbrella just spoke to me I guess. I've been looking for the rest of my aprons, I have lots of them, just not sure where I put them. One of htem, that I shredded, is still hanging in the closet. I should take a picture of that one. It's one of those impossible sheer numbers. I suppose an apron such as that would have been worn on New Years Eve or on ones anniversary.

Aprons

I'll have to post some pics of my collection later, but I secretly love aprons. I even love making them. So the question has to be anwsered why don't I wear aprons? Well for one thing when your shaped like an apple they don't stay on well. I have having those things around my neck as well, though I've made several of them that are incredibly frilly. I wrote all sorts of things on them, some not so pretty, you know about the average house wives arch nemisis - June Cleaver.

I really love collecting the older ones, they are often sheer and decorative. I have one of my grandmothers aprons, she passed in November, I'm sure the really well worn ones have been pitched by now - the kind I would love to have. These aprons tell a story. Nanna always wore an apron, she made her own, and she always wore a housedress that she made herself. In fact I may have a pic of her in one said outfit. Cotton, very simple, very comfy, my kind of clothing.

What not to do

I've only been married a little of four years now. Being married to me has probably been a shock and exciting for my husband. I'm a dyer, an natural dyer to be exact. And if what I'm cooking doesn't smell like a cow barn then it probably smells like dinner.

Poor guy.

I have my own dye kitchen now, and have had one for almost 4 years. Lesson, if one is dyeing yarns and fabrics in ones regular kitchen do so well before hubby comes home from work, or at least wait until AFTER he has been fed. It can be torture for a guy to come home, after a long days work, to smell something wonderful, pots bubbling away on the stove, thinking he's going to get dinner. Only to hear you say "where are we going for dinner"? What go out? You mean that's not dinner? Well not any dinner I'd ever want to eat anyway.

Such tactics however will garner you lots of suggestions on where to put your dyes and dye pots, and it's NOT in the kitchen.

Pretty

Everyone should have a pretty table right??? So I have a pumpkin as decoration, well a couple, hows about that for decorating. I took the pics of these beauties on my studio table, so don't worry my kitchen table doesn't look like this.

Survival Kitchen

This blog is not as insideous as it sounds, unless you are like me of course and your just trying to survive your kitchen. I'll have to post some pics later of my kitchen floor, that I'm hoping to get the rest of the asbestos flooring removed and several coats of poly something or another onto before I have to close the house up for the winter.

This blog is also about cooking, in addition to cleaning, and on keeping a pantry. Keeping a pantry is in vogue again, I'd love to have a larger pantry but one can only have what one has the space to store.

And also what does one do with all of those gadgets and appliances anyway?

And are my dishes breeding in the middle of the night or something because I swear there are more dirty dishes in my kitchen now than there were when I went to bed!