A snow day off work!

We had a wonderful walk into the Cuillins at the weekend, lots of snow in the hills & just about ok driving to get there. They all had a wonderful time sliding down & trudging up over & over again while I watched, enjoyed my extended family 'playing' together & froze my buns off sitting on the snow ;)  I did make an angel, going back to my own childhood & delighted in laying there watching the tiny clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky....for about 3 minutes, tops.

youngest, middlest, the gf, me, the 'dil', eldest.

It was a strange contrasty light with the end of the Cuillin Ridge between us & the sun.

                                                        
                                                                   Walking on into the Glen



An ice sculpture

& a helping hand ( he had to be pulled out when walking on a thin bit of ice for heavens sake!)

It was truly a winter wonderland here today. I enjoyed my first snow day off work yesterday - the snow had come around here overnight but the eldest & 'dil' just managed to start & finish their journey back to Edinbro after 2 extra days stuck here. The gf can't get back to near Glasgow tho & my DH bravely tried to get the youngest out of the village (up a steep hill) so he could get a bus to school but it was too slippery. Bring back the wonderful (expensive!) Landrover! So we're still a housefull & I'm trying not to be too distracted! I'm happy to bundle up, enjoy the snow while waiting to see if my last craft fair will be on this Saturday. It's out of our hands so we might as well eat mince pies!

& in the garden

I made a couple of brooches as Christmas presents for the 'dil' & the gf, a bit bigger than the ones I started to make for last years craft fairs.

And finally, a month of squares. I was 2 months behind & now I'm only 1 month behind - these are October's squares. In gathering them together, thinking I had lots to make to catch up, I'd find a little pile on my desk hiding under pieces of paper strewn about, or a small pile of them in a little bag for safe keeping, so I wasn't as behind as I thought. Hopefully I'll come across some  for November, tiny collections of bits & pieces of the day tidied into a little square or a piece of an experiment cut away for adding to my squares pile ready to find at a later date. When I empty my pockets I find papers or plastic stuffed in there - I'm always thinking This could be for a square! but take a little longer to assemble them into one place, ready to photograph. It's taught me such dicipline, making these squares, well, & showing them here in an organised fashion & I'll have such a collection by the end of the year, something to be proud of. I'm thinking already of what to do regularly next year, something like a collage a week, something for the studio. I'd like to work thru all my wonderful books & actually make that collage or hanging that I'm always saying I will get round to one day, giving it my own personal spin, of course.

We'll see.

I've shown the top 2 lines already. The 3rd are all the usual suspects except the 'braille' one, not sure if you can see that I've painted a pill packet & highlighted the braille dots. The last 2 strips are the usual again, including a bird stamp used for a Christmas card & the multicolored bear is similar to the sweet 16 birthday card for the youngest. The last 2 squares are the start of my trip to Oxford.