What to Do on a Cold Snowy Day

The past two days have been cats-in-the-house,

three-cups-of-tea-in-the-morning,

warm-wooly-socks kind of day.

Tonight the temperature is supposed to be near zero; winter is making a statement at last. The two black Labs, our male dogs, are enjoying the heat in the new, still unfinished log room (unfinished because I have so many future furniture projects piled up in there!) but Miss Daisy Mae, our yellow Lab, seems to feel entitled to be in the house, and the boys don't seem to mind.

Larry and I comfy and busy inside, working on a variety of projects. You can see two of them in the above photos--the candleholders (I painted the bases) and the wood tool box that Larry stripped and repaired. I'm still debating paint or stain on that one.

Other projects include this round oak table. It's not old but will be nice when I'm finished with it. The top needs sanding, so I'm held up until it warms up enough outside to do sanding.

 The base needs one more coat of paint and a protective top coat; the top will be a dark stain with protective top coat.

This little desk has given me fits. It had some damage which Larry repaired--then we discovered that one of the extra braces he put in it kept the drawers from closing. A DUH! moment; when we did that we weren't thinking about how the drawers might fit in there. So he re-did that. Then I painted it and used a white wash and a glaze on it. That looked great on the top and edges, but the sides--yuck. So I sanded them off and put on new paint last night. I think it's going to look great, eventually.

 Here's the front drop-down door, sitting sideways on the rocker. I put a new knob on it that is decorated with little flowers.

And here are two of the drawers, ready for topcoat and then the hardware. I hope to get this one finished today. We'll see.

I'm working on this old mirror. I've put the first coat of paint on it but there's a scratch on the glass that I originally thought was dirt. Nope, it's a scratch and I am not sure how to fix that or if it's fixable. Google, here I come.

This little end table is a keeper--we always need more book storage! It's getting some red paint and glaze.

The first of 4 chairs to be re-done. I'm using a dark stain on the frame, antique white in the center, and Parisian print fabric for the seats.

There are a few calm spots in this storm of projects. The house is, well, cluttered at the moment and I'm having to move pots of paint, sandpaper, tools and small projects off the top of the washer every time I want to do a load of clothes! It sure makes a nice worktop. But in the log room, this little table is an oasis of calm:

And in the living room a new lamp is bringing light to a good reading spot,

while on the other side of the room a pot of blooming tulips co-exists with two favorite pieces of glass.

Time to get back to work. The wind can blow and the snow may fall, but inside there will be music, cats, paint and contentment.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.