Midwinter blues.

 This is the time of year to start anew and clear out all the clutter.

That being said, it's also the time of year I dig through my dwindling stash of goodies

and attempt to come up with pleasing arrangements for tabletops and mantels. 

Our living room mantel is the thorn in my side, because nothing looks good
 on top of the dark mantel and equally dark old brick.

Source: Country Home

Maybe this will be the year I shake things up and change our old fireplace.

The photo above is one of my favorites with the combination of wood mantel
and painted wood surround and bricks.  Perfection!

As I reflect back on the changes I planned for 2015, I'm happy to say
 that I crossed off most of the items on my rather short list.

  A revamp of our fireplace will remain on this year's list.

I replaced a kitchen cabinet with open shelving and installed t & g wood
above the stone backsplash tile.  I also repainted all the kitchen cabinets to get rid of the
 creamy yellowish tone, and that's something I never thought I'd be doing again
 in this lifetime!  Next to go are the too white walls.

The dollhouse we should have finished by Christmas is slowly coming along.
Since we're in a deep freeze (-15 F this morning), it's the perfect time to
nail and caulk and sand and prime and sand........

I do see a pattern in my MO.  I jump right in and start the first project of the year
and then it's all downhill from there.  Do you remember the rickety chairs
I vowed to glue before the next holiday after Christmas of 2015?

If you had stopped by on the morning of December 23 (family arriving that evening)
you'd have found me starting that little task.  I tried wood glue earlier in the year,
but it didn't do much as far as stabilizing the chairs, so as a last resort
I sent my personal shopper out to buy a product I had seen at a local hardware store.

It took less than 10 minutes to fill every joint in the wobbly chairs
and I instantly had 2 super sturdy chairs!  It's been several weeks
and they seem to be holding up fine, so I'm giving Tite Chairs a 5 star rating!

I even stood on one of the chairs to hang the top 3 plates in the photo above.

I bought a whole stack of the plates and bowls last year for only $3
and it's taken me almost a year to hang 3 of them on the wall.

As I showed you in my last post, I finally hung curtains in the master bedroom.
I bought and returned at least 6 different pairs before I settled on the plain white
curtains from Target.  I was ironing and hanging the last pair on December 22.

I've nearly finished all my knitting projects from 2015 (lots of ends to weave in),

so I allowed myself to start a new project at my knitting group the other night.

I've got the first pillow started and I hope to knit a few of these before winter's over...
which isn't going to be any time soon in my neck of the woods!

Free pattern on Ravelry

Thanks for visiting and keep warm!
Vickie

*I'm joining the parties at:
Create Share Inspire The Wicker House
Tweak it Tuesday  Cozy Little House