Getting back to normal........

little by little.

After blowing out the driveway on Thursday I set about putting away some of the Christmas decorations.  I now only have the tree up and the cards up.  I hope to take the tree down this weekend and I'll leave the cards up until the 12th night.  I enjoy having all the Christmas things in the house, but like to have the house back to normal right after Christmas.

We got this from dd best friend "K" for Christmas.

Inside was this; a lovely Crabtree and Evelyn gift set for Gardeners Hands.  I told dh he could use the case as a new lunch box, he said he would pass!!  I am going to use it to store some sewing supplies in.

I saw this great idea over at Cindy's blog.  If you dry out your potato peelings for 24 to 48 hours, you can put them on your fire to help clean off the creosote and build up on your chimney.  So on Christmas Eve this was what was sitting on the hearth:

You still have to clean your chimney, but thought this would help.  The peelings burn at a high heat when dry.

Took a photo of across the way on Thursday afternoon.  Winter bloody Wonderland, for those who don't have to shovel!!!

Yep, I still hate Winter!

Chimney Sweep and other stuff...

Had the chimney swept on Monday morning and I have to say I was thrilled with the service they gave.  Excellent and super clean.  I did not smell any soot at all and there was no soot in the room either.  They even spray painted the top of my insert so it looks all brand new.  They were between $20 to $50 cheaper than everyone else; so that too made me very happy!!  Also because I had it done before the end of the month I saved on the PST (8%), so another plus.  I will definitley use these people again.

Below is a photo of Molly sitting looking miserable, as she wasn't allowed in the family room while they were cleaning the chimney.  They were in and out of the patio doors, so I didn't want her getting out and going for a frolick around the woods again!!

I talk about Molly in my column this week for the Eden Valley Messenger, here is a direct link to it


I have mentioned before a friend called Nita who has an online site called Phancy Pages.  She has a section called Blogs Around The World, and is looking for more people to submit their blogs to add to the page, contact her here

Oh and finally do you think Molly is comfortable?