around my house today

 I'm finally feeling human today and can actually breathe though my nose!

I still have a lot of head congestion and coughing, but it's slowwly getting better.

I got out today for the first time since this past weekend. We needed cat food

and some groceries. I got home just as it was starting to snow heavily, and good thing I did ~

we're now under a severe winter weather warning with up to 6-9" of snow expected.

Worse yet, it's a wet, heavy snow. What they call "heart attack" snow.

I'm so thankful that I have my husband and son here to do the shoveling.

I took this picture out the office window about an hour ago, so I apologize for

the window and screen shot ~ but I'm not going back outside!

 I got a lot of comments on my living room arrangement the other day.

I had wondered about a smaller, round rug by the window to soften things up and

a reader asked why not an area rug? Well, in the photo below you can see that I already have an

area rug. It's in the sitting area of the living room, directly across from the window.

Late last night (I'm a night owl), I moved a few things again. I put the two round leather ottomans

 in front of the fireplace. You can see from this picture that my living room poses some design

difficulties. For one, you walk right into the room - there is no foyer or entryway.

The only window is close to the front door. And the fireplace is on an angled wall.

I also put the black table and chair in front of the window. I like this arrangement better.

However...I just received another comment suggesting that I take the sideboard that's under

the gold mirror, and putting it under the window. And to put the black table (I could probably

fit the black chair, too) under the mirror! Genius! Guess I'll be doing some more furniture

rearranging tonight!

Tim found this antique paddle in an old, abandoned house a couple of years ago.

He had gone into the house to take photos and brought this paddle home.

It's just been sitting around in his room all this time. I've always wanted to do something

with it, but wasn't sure how to display it. I put it on top of the window frame

and really like it up there.

Another night owl activity I did last night that was inspired by Pinterest browsing

was to make a heart picture. I simply used a large heart punch to cut out some hearts

from scrapbook paper and used the little, round 3D dots to raise the hearts on the paper.

I really like how this turned out on a whim. Now I just need to get up to Michaels 

or Hobby Lobby and get a mat and frame.

 The three kitties were the smart ones this afternoon, all curled up together in Tim's bed.

Zippo is the darker, striped cat on the right, Clementine is curled up next to him on the left,

and Monkey is hiding under the covers in the background. :-)

 Brian's on his way home from work now (very slowly and cautiously) and I'm getting

off the computer now and heading into the kitchen to make dinner. We have a big

container of leftover chili in the refrigerator, so I'm going to spread it into a baking pan,

make homemade cornbread and spread that dough on top of the chili, then bake. Think

I'll serve that with a green salad. Happy Thursday, everyone ~ stay warm and safe!