Handmade in My Home Jim's Paperweight

I have been meaning to do a series about the handmade items that surround me in my home for a long time. I started this idea on another blog that I merged with this one last year. This is mostly to document these things for myself but I don't mind sharing them with you all as well.

This is a paper weight I made more than 30 years ago for Jim, as you might have guessed from the picture. I made it during a visit at my cousin Jacque's house around Christmas time one year. She made one for her husband's office too. We filled a child sized high top sneaker with plaster of paris first. Then we painted accents and names on them.

Looking at it and taking the picture today reminded me of how long ago that was and the pleasant times we used to have visiting at her home. In the funny way families are her children were my age and she was more like an aunt to me.

I sell - Zibbet
I blog - A Cozy Life
I tumble Cozy A to Z
I socialize - on Google Plus, on Twitter, and on Facebook

Cuprum29 Shop of the Week

Cuprum29 is an amazing shop filled with work that shows the talents of ErikaLyn who is an artisan committed to creating beautiful things with a mixture of different metals and techniques. After looking at the shop, take you time by the way because you will want to browse it all, it would only take a minute to share it with your followers on your favorite social media.

As a personal note ErikaLyn also shared a great tasting salsa recipe that was a big part of our football food around here yesterday. Thanks!

What a week!

I happen to belong to a wonderful group of online friends. You can find links to them all on Group2020.com. I was the group's featured shop this week and the results have been very nice indeed and I want to use this post to thank them publically. The views of my Zibbet.com/cozy shop have tripled my average monthly results.

These friends have tweeted, pinned, blogged, G+'ed. stumbled and posted on facebook and wanelo.

Thank you all!

What's New Wednesday

So what is new today?

Well it is snowing but at the end of January that is not so new. American Idol is on tonight and that is a new episode and I admit to being a fan. I have surveys to fill out in my inbox, not new. I got a couple likes from strangers on my tumbler blog and that is new.

But to me the best news I have is that I got two shawls listed online yesterday. Learning some construction techniques from other projects helped me to design and make these and I am pleased with how they turned out. These really need to go where they will be worn and loved by somebody.

I used four strands of thread to make the shawl above that had grays, beige and browns, one of them a variegated thread. It came out so soft and drapes over shoulders so well that you could wrap it lots of ways. The border creates a ruffled edge, but not too ruffly. I have only done one of these so far but I do have supplies for more.

This one I imagined as a bridal or wedding shawl although if someone likes to wear white it would work for them too. When taking the pictures I was really worried about capturing the white without funny tints and am pleased with that. This thread has an opalescent strand in it that I just couldn't get to show up. So with this one you get white with a bit of bling. I did this style in an icy blue too and will hopefully be getting that posted today.

If you want to see more pictures of these they are in my shop Cozy on Zibbet.

Yellowstone Has Teeth

I live in a very small Idaho town and to do any kind of big box shopping it has to be online or drive more than an hour. On weekends we like or rather Jim really likes to get out of town to relax away from his duties at work.

This weekend found us in Riverton, Wyoming. On the way home we stopped at a gas station in Dubois (around here it is pronounced due-boyz) and while waiting my turn for the only restroom I looked at a display of books in the aisle right by the door. I can tell you, Marjane Ambler, that your book is well placed. I saw the title "Yellowstone Has Teeth" and of course read the back cover. If you know me at all you would know that I buy most of what I read at thrift shops and library books sales so full price is a splurge but that is what I did.

I read the first couple chapters before bed last night and am loving the story and the way it is told so far. I can think of a few folks in my family who would really enjoy this too and will be passing it on to them when I am done. If you have an interest in Yellowstone National Park, wild life, surviving winter in small communities, you will definitely want to get a copy of this one for yourself.

I will post more about this when I finish.

Memories of a Nice Weekend

Over the weekend we had guests. Our weekend company was a couple that Jim works with at the hospital in Jackson. They arrived late afternoon on Saturday and brought these tulips as a gift.

We had dinner together that included a prime rib roast cooked by Jim. He used tips from the Pioneer Woman website. The company was great and the food was good. After dinner we played the card game Phase 10. Have you ever played that one? Jim won. Our guests spent the night rather than go home late at night over Teton Pass.

In the morning to get the day started we have coffee, juice, fruit, and bagels. The they left us to go home and watch the football games. All in all it was a fun way to spend a weekend.

Books 2014 Ratlines by Stuart Neville

I don't usually read to study but rather to enjoy. The terms some use when reviewing books don't fit with how I use books to entertain myself so if you are looking for a deep analysis here I recommend looking this book up on Good Reads. That said, I really did enjoy this story. I like nearly all historical fiction and this one kept me tuning pages in my spare time for a couple days. The setting is Ireland in the 60's. It has a hero who gets the girl and some bad guys and those who get caught up in between. Want to know more? I recommend you read the story.