Reasons for My Silence - Here's Lots of Pics!!!

We had no power at all for over five days!

We had a blizzard (for us)! 17 inches here and over 30 on the mountain tops! Sometimes I miss living up there but not now!

Here's some pics...

My car buried in snow:

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My broken-down snowball bush and see all the snow on the lines? It was heavy, wet snow; it fell straight down and there was no wind at all so it didn't drift. The lines were so heavy that they just snapped. Not these, but a lot! Poles fell down, and trees - tiny and huge, both! - broke and pulled down more lines. It looked like a hurricane had hit.

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My back porch on the day after it snowed. The day after this, we got a few more inches, but my camera batteries had given up the ghost by then.

The roads are still really rough - one lane for traffic because of the huge walls of ice and snow the snowplows inadvertenly made.

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I couldn't work on a big project, but I could crochet and I also made this ornamenet (by the light of an oil lamp! I thought I would go blind! I have much more respect for those stitchers who did their work by oil lamp and candle.)

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This ornament came from a little kit that I bought years and years ago. I don't remember where. I started a snowman, but I didn't finish it. Mostly, I crocheted. These are what I made:

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Three of them; two pale-brown for my SIL and my Mum, and one black for my lil' goth-chick sister.

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She opened it today and immediately stuck it on her husband:

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And declared that he was Franklin, the 'frilly' Ninja.

She's a nutcase...

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I also crocheted one more hat, for my Da:

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Here's some framing - my brother and my mother's gift. My SIL took them for me - see her reflection? lol! She didn't realize she was showing up!

I finished 'Mother's Bliss' a couple years ago, but never had it framed because one of my coworkers, when I was showing it off, grabbed it with greasy fingers and stained it. I could have died. I got most of the stains out, but one yellow spot on the right side defeated me. I probably never would have framed it, but my Mum knew I had stitched it, declared she didn't care, and demanded it. So she got it. Don't argue with the Mums!

I framed my 'Stress Reduction Kit' for my Da, but we forgot to take a pic of it. I'll try to get one later.

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My Gran really loved her 'Mothers Tree'. You can see some of her beautiful thread crochet work in the cabinet behind her. She's 84 and still does crochet or embroidery every day.

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and my nephew liked his afghan, too. He pretended he was a villian caught in Spiderman's web, lol! He's six and a definite handful!

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and... I got a new camera! I didn't really expect one - what with the economy and all - so was I ever surprised!!!

I have no real idea how to work it yet (the first pic is blurry, as you can see) but I can already tell a huge difference! Here's some pics I took of the drop spindle kit I also got (insert huge grin here) and the bag that came with it. You can see the detail of the bag even though I took the pic only a few inches away - the old camera I was using would have showed a washed out blue-brown blur. I'm so happy!

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Now I just need to learn to work the pretty thing correctly! (and the drop spindle, too)

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Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or... a Happy Festivus?