Thursday, February 19, 2015

on weather, wine corks and little indulgences

 This is ice on the inside of my bedroom window this morning, you guys. (We say "you
guys" here in the Midwest in reference to "everyone".) I know the house needs new windows,
but c'mon. It was -12F this morning  ~ almost -30F with the wind chill factor. Needless to say,
 I'm plenty tired of winter. I also noticed from this photograph that the view out this window is
mostly houses. When we first moved into this house almost 25 years ago, there were 
no houses beside us or in back of us. It was all wooded land. I used to watch the deer and
 fat groundhogs come out of the woods from this window. I really miss that. 


Thanks for all the suggestions on fillers for my lamp base. I decided to try the wine corks
for now. I had a bowl filled with corks next to the wine rack in the family room, so I 
dumped them into the lamp base. I obviously need a lot more. So, I either need to up my 
vino consumption, or ask friends and family to start saving wine corks for me. 


Do you ever buy yourself presents? Not the usual clothes or things for the house, but
maybe a little something that makes you smile or that you "just had to have"? A couple
of weeks ago, I came across this Buzzfeed article:


I loved just about every one of those mugs. And since I'm a cat lover as well,
I decided to treat myself to this mug. I think it's rather groovy and delightful.
This is one side; the other side advertises The Strand.


  If you're not familiar with this bookstore, The Strand (which I wasn't until I heard about it
 from Claudia at Mockingbird Hill Cottage), it's "18 miles of new, used and rare books"
 in New York City. I would love to visit this bookstore in person someday. 
(Note to self: make a Bucket List.)


 How's the weather where you live? 
Have you bought yourself any little goodies lately?


25 comments:

  1. Have nor been shopping. But love your cat mug.
    Rosezeetya.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Strand is fantastic and definitely worth a visit!! It was not far from my office when I worked in NYC :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, it must be cold to have ice on the inside of your windows. It's been unusually cold for us too, but I think a warming trend into the 30's is coming soon.
    Love the mugs!
    Mary Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was 31 degrees yesterday and it felt positively balmy, lol. It's back down into single digit temps again today and going below zero again tonight. *sigh*

      Delete
  4. Like your mugs. I never bought myself anything for so many years when the kids were little. I do every so often. Most end up being gifts but sometimes I keep them.
    We have the freezing cold and snow here. Not as bad as the East but bad enough. The weatherman said next week will be the same. Then we will all have heart attacks when we get our heating bills.
    Stay warm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think our heating bill has been too bad (we have natural gas)...I haven't looked at the actual amount. We pay a fixed amount every month year-round.

      Delete
  5. I remember as a child when we had ice on the inside of the windows, we had no heating, just a fireplace in the living room downstairs and a paraffin heater in the kitchen. The ice patterns were pretty amazing. Of course all these years on I have no desire to have ice on the inside of my windows!! I hope that it doesn't stay this cold for too much longer for you. The corks look great in the lamp base don't they! I actually like it not totally full. I have a fishbowl vase with "champagne" corks - most are sparkly wine! - and I like it not full so I am biased. Love your mug! xx p.s. sorry, I seemed to have a lot to say today! xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope it warms up here by March, but we'll see. I don't plan on filling the entire lamp base up with corks...probably about halfway.

      Delete
  6. It is freezing here, too...my skin is SO dry! I started doing some spring decorating, because I just had to lol! Love the lamp idea...and the mugs are great, too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't done any spring decorating yet...maybe mid-March. It'd better be a little bit warmer by then!

      Delete
  7. I am not going to tell you about the weather where I am right now because you would hate me.

    I have been to The Strand in NYC. My sister and I are book lovers and she took me there on one of our visits the the city.

    If you need corks, I will start saving them instead of throwing them away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You don't have to tell me...I already know. ;-) Thanks so much for offering to save wine corks for me, but it's all good...I have a couple of local people that are going to save them for me.

      Delete
  8. The corks look great in the lamp!
    It's cold here, too, and time for us to begin imagining that this winter will not end. They said on the weather the other day that two years ago we had snow in May. Ugh.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Last year we had snow in April when the lilies and hostas were poking up out of the ground. Ugh is right.

      Delete
  9. I really like your lamp. When I was looking for lamps for my living room, I was considering lamps exactly like that. The corkscrews look really nice in the lamp, too.

    Your mug is so cute and perfect for a cup of coffee. Speaking of coffee, I treat myself to a cup of hazelnut coffee some mornings... yum. We woke up to 0 degrees this morning and tomorrow they're calling for 2-5 inches of snow. I'm hoping that they're wrong... :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Last year it was the tons of snow for us; this year it's more the frigid cold. We had a big snowstorm a few weeks ago and that has been it for now. So we still have a blanket of snow covering the ground. It's certainly not going to melt with these temps!

      Delete
  10. Hi Melanie; Its freezing cold here to. Schools have been closed for 2 days due to cold temps. Today its 27 below 0!! Needless to say I stay indoors. Love your mug, would love to visit The Strand, but seldom get to NYC anymore. I did not buy myself a present, but did treat myself to lunch at Miss Mollys Tea Room with a good friend. We went the day before the freezing weather hit us. I love that place, good food, any kind of tea you can think of, lots of atmosphere, and its really close to home. Have a great day. Love and Hugs, Nana

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. -27 without the wind chill factor? That is crazy! School has been cancelled here a few days this winter, too. Lunch at a tea place with a friend sounds fun - glad you had a good time.

      Delete
  11. Brrr! We had a dust storm but after 24 hours, it seems to have cleared. Cute mug. My son got a Valentine from one of the girls in his class that had a drawing of a cat and said "Take Me-owt! Cute! :) Warm wishes, Tammy

    P.S. I vote drink more wine! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That Valentine sounds so cute! Sooo...did he then ask this girl out? ;-) I opened a new bottle of wine this weekend...will take me awhile to finish it though.

      Delete
  12. Ice on the inside of the window is never good... yikes! It's raining and cold right now, but nowhere near as cold as where you live, so I'll just shut up LOL

    That mug is really cute!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Melanie, message me your address on Facebook and I would be happy to send you a bunch of wine corks.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a kind comment - I read and appreciate each one!