Waste Not

We had a surprise dusting of snow in our area yesterday, about 2 inches.
This morning, as we were leaving for school, my 10-year-old remarked on the amount of snow still left on our front lawn,

"Wow, we've still got lots of snow."
"Mmm hmmmm," my reply.
"Well at school, it's already all gone. Some of it melted in the sun and people used up the rest."

To be sure, my Three will be found on the front lawn after school today, shrieking and pelting each other with the slushy stuff. Building a snowman or dragging each other around on sleds would ideally require a lot more snow but I don't doubt they'll still manage to do both. And even though the age span between a 14-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy could otherwise constitute a great divide--- it seems for now that the Three have purposefully not allowed each other to pass the age (or the attitude) of finding snow to be useful.

Shelter

I just learned that Condé Nast's Domino magazine is discontinuing it's circulation due to lack of advertising revenue. I'm a little embarassed to admit my attachment to a home-dec publication, but I found its 'sensible-not-predictable' attitude refreshing and unique to the genre. With its smart and accessible resources, part of my 'devotion' stems from the fact that I was actually able to pull together my own ikea workspace based on one of the magazine's articles:


Of course mine is nowhere near an exact translation and certainly a less glossy version, (I still have a problem with cords everywhere and the shelves went a little wonky) but it's a much more usable space than it was before. And without said magazine, I would have never had the guts to replace the inherited French writing desk or the plastic filing boxes.

From inspiration to reality? Well certainly the reality comes two-fold.

Yesterday, we faced the regrettable task of pulling the plug on a long standing dream of ours to build a little cabin in the country. (My whimsical intention to draw upon more mag articles--- dashed.) Our building and design plans had finally been completed and permitted. And it had been almost a year of planning put in after the purchase of the lot. But the current economy and housing market forced us to rethink our venture and has kept us from breaking ground. Fitting and not at all ironic that a magazine purposed for attractive settings and fanciful inspiration is gone as well, due to similar circumstances. Absolutely no bitterness, though. I don't intend to complain about having to hunker down in the Burbs while there is so much to be grateful for.
In the meantime, I will focus on our current shelter which is in dire need of some serious Spring cleaning. How in the world do we collect so much stuff???

It snowed this morning and turned to slush. I feeling slushy myself. I will put myself to task now and hope for these winter doldrums to ease away.

Sure to gladden the heart...

a little song, a little dance, a healthy portion of Broadway, and lots of love.

As it's so easy to do on Ravelry, I got side-tracked one day while looking for a knit pattern and instead, I found this: (start at 1:48)