A House Wren And Roses In Winter

   I found this perky little wren up on Amy's desk yesterday. She said I could take his picture knowing full well he would come to live on this blog. His warm, brown aspect on a sunny, cold January day pleases me. 
   I would frame a collection of drawings done by the talented folks in my family and create a wall collage of them. This is definitely on my bucket list for the next ten years. It will be part of the wall decor in the front room library. Another proof that homemaking can be an art. 
   Jenny, how is your leaf framing coming along? Do one for this collection while you're at it. 

     For those of you who keep fussing that the pictures on this blog are too small. Please, click on the picture and it will get big enough to see. Please let me know in the comments if this works, okay?
   The desk is Brad's quick creation at Amy's demand of rough sawed boards and bracing. It took maybe an hour. Now she has everything laid out, ready when she is inspired. Her desk chair is a backless kitchen chair that Francis refinished one day when she was looking for beauty and function for a chair for her home made desk. 

 

 Roses from Wal-mart. When Amy and I shop together at Wal-mart for the family needs we can't seem to walk past the flowers without seeing if there's anything for us. The roses were in pretty good shape this time. These had firm, promising centers and the whole bunch was less than ten dollars. We brought them home and trimmed the stems so that fresh water would wick up easily to open these beauties up. 
    Lately, I have been noticing that a few of our kitchen tools are in bad shape. This week I bought new measuring cups and spoons of brushed stainless steel. Is that what you call it? They're beautiful! Yes, I threw the old into the trash. Don't ask. They're gone for good. I wouldn't "bless" anyone else with such worn out things. I have memories of making do after our house fire a few months after we were married. All of our new and nice was destroyed. We couldn't afford to replace it. Everyone was generous and meant well and we were grateful and still are; but we lived with worn out tools and furniture for many years at this house. I learned something from that. Give of your best to those in need, not your worn out that you've stopped using. 
    I suppose that experience also taught us to enjoy re-purposing and making the old and shabby, beautiful and homey. 

 Oh wow! There's the screen we removed so that the camera could stop picking up the screen instead of the birds. Better go take care of that! Jake Coblentz made that screen for our dining room window many years ago. He made a few other screens, too. I was half frustrated at the time. I had big plans for new windows soon. Am I ever glad that didn't happen. We would have certainly installed cheap non grid windows if we could have. Now, we know better. The only kind of window to put in this old house would be custom made windows that swing in on hinges just like the ones we have. I think I am smart enough now to leave well enough alone till then. 

 A walk on a very cold winter day back when we had our one cold snap so far this winter.
   It was so cold the smoke from the chimneys froze in the air and wouldn't blow away. And if you would throw a glass of water up in the air it would freeze and tinkle on the way down. Or some such nonsense. Does it ever get that cold? We love our winter days.