surviving the cold snap

That was quite a cold snap. It was so cold (-32 with wind chill!) and so much snow and such wind, we didn't leave the house for days except to wade through the drifts to bring in more wood to heat our drafty little house. We stayed warm though and had some fun. I knit a lot. A real lot. This little vest is nearly done and so are a pair of slippers and a set of wrist warmers. When it is this cold all I really want to do is stoke the fire and make warm things for my family. So there was knitting.
and there was swinging.

and there was visiting with friends who also conveniently happen to be neighbours, so only have to walk a few steps across the driveway through the howling winds to come for a visit. Ari took this picture along with several close ups of my friend's face which I'm sure she would appreciate me not posting!

We ate good warming foods like stew and quiche and alphabet soup.

And there was some sewing. I made this little wool shirt from a not-so-cute adult-sized angora sweater. I was reading Melanie's blog (blog reading also being on the list of things that will help a mama survive a cold snap,) and saw the sweet little shirt she made her baby from a pair of old long johns, and I immediately headed to the sewing machine.

I used a pj pattern I had in my stash and tried to adjust the neck as the pattern was for a v-neck top, but it is still a little wide-necked for my taste, but it is soft and warm and looks so cute on him and I am pleased with it. This is the first success I've had sewing a stretchy fabric without it bunching and buckling (I lowered the feed dogs on my machine, if anyone is needing a tip in sewing stretch fabric- it really helped!) which makes me excited to try more clothing sewing. I was pleased to be able to cut the pieces to keep most of the light green trim from the original sweater. I only had to sew in the neck piece separately. Dori loves his little green wool shirt, so we are calling this one a success.

We also kept warm with lots and lots of building and playing. This is a kapla train with a sleeping car, a dining car and a dome car. We made more snow flakes, and paper dragons (no photos, they fly too fast,) lots of paintings and drawings and the boys took care of their dolls and their bunnies and their gnomes,
and built elaborate scenes that took up much of the living room. Which brings me to this beautiful barn, which Perry built for the boys for solstice. Isn't is lovely?
It is getting a lot of play these days. The poor animals need somewhere to get out of the cold.

The weather is warming up and we are getting back outside again. Lots of playing outside in our future. There are some very large snow piles left by the snow plow (which had to come 2 times in the last week- sometimes we only need to call the plow a couple times all winter!) that should make some mighty fine sled runs. I hope you are all weathering your weather where you are. Good night!