Winter Whites

 

Today's weather reached a high of 40 degrees and this is what's left of the snow that blanketed our area a few days ago. 

Although right in the midst of clearing the first round, I'm not sure Henri was really enjoying himself.  

But today during our walk,  see,  the snow is almost all gone!

The day after the storm, sunny blue skies.

And everywhere you looked, a beautiful blanket of snow.   

This time of year, we have a habit of ending the day with a hot cup of cocoa. 

So tonight I just got through whirring up a little white fluff with my favorite kitchen machine. 

Home made marshmallows.   Here's the recipe.  They are so easy to make too.  Ready in a couple hours. 

Just in time for our New Year's Eve cup of cocoa tomorrow night.  And truth be known, that's as wild as we ever get on New Year's Eve.  I hope you enjoy yours too! 

Visions of Sugar Plums

We have freshly fallen snow here on the coast. 

And a few pretty sea urchins that I collected from the shore. 

 

I just added a little gold leaf to glam them up a bit. 

Stacked up in hues of sea washed greens and soft plums they are tiny gifts from the ocean.

 Inspired, I head into the kitchen to bake up a batch of cookies that I could perhaps decorate in the same colors.    Although laden with sprinkles, my freshly baked sugar cookies looked more like sea urchin wannabees, rather than the lovely vision of sea urchin confections still dancing in my head. 

However, they do pack quite a sugary punch and I like the way they sparkle. 

Yesterday's snow was an all day event. 

 

A mesmerizing, swirling pattern of motion.   

Contented to stay inside and wrap packages,  I made pom-poms out of white tissue paper and hand stamped birdies on plain manila tags. 

 

Simplicity became my mantra. 

And I enjoyed my day immensely.   

And just so you know, there are plum colored sprinkles all over my floors.  Merry Christmas y'all! 

A Bit of My Christmas Decor

Not sure if this is netting from a local fisherman, but it was set out for trash this past summer when I scooped it up and stapled it to the back of an empty old frame I had.  Then I found some winter inspired bits of jewelry to add to it. 

I found several boxes of recycled ornaments at the thrift store to make this wreath I had been wanting to make ever since I saw this gorgeous one on a post by Heather Bullard. 

 I just used one of those thin single wire wreath rings and snipped it apart at the top and started stringing my ornaments, alternating between sizes.

Then I got out a can of faux snow and did several bursts of spray to tone it down a bit. 

This is my favorite Christmas tree holder ever.  I found it a local closeout store and it actually has a place to hold your tree inside.  It's heavy and the finish is a beautiful aged pale chippy pink.  I added some aqua tulle over the top, and a hand stamped Merry Christmas tag. 

 Here's the tree I put inside, a small faux evergreen with pine cones. 

Here it is with the pale pink and clear garland I found to wrap it up with.  

Since I still had more ornaments I made another wreath. 

I had another tree that I wanted to add some snow to, but my snow spray was not thick enough.  I found out that I could make the thicker snow with Ivory soap. 

I just used an old grater and then added some warm water and some spray starch until I got a paste that I could paint on.

It was a bit messy, but it worked out.  It wasn't the look I was going for, I wanted it all to be white, but this works too. 

We had our first snow right after Thanksgiving, it was barely a dusting but I captured this little butterball eating leftovers. 

Here are some of all the others that kept Henri filling the bird feeders that day. 

And what is more beautiful than having a bit of live Christmas decor outside, courtesy of our  little feathered friends!