Beautifully Sunny

I see sunshine! I had to go to Minnesota to see it though lol. Nice to see daughter again.

The flights were okay. Quite short. We had to be de-iced before we left which required the plane to be sprayed down. Quite interesting.

I love being above the clouds. I had my first views of sunshine in weeks. I feel brighter already!

I Packed my Bag and in it I Put....

I'm joining up for a quick one with Amy over at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday.

I'm off to Minnesota to visit my daughter tomorrow. I'll be flying. I had some frequent flyer miles and cashed them in for a flight that only cost $11! I never thought I'd use them. I thought they had expired. What a nice surprise it was!

Anyway today I'm packing, trying to work out what to take and what not to take. Clothes are a given. Bath bits are not - will use daughter's. So what am I going to pack in my non-clothes bag? What's 'essential' to me? Daughter will be working so I'll be at her place during the day.

Camera - I can't forget it this time! When we drove daughter out to Minnesota to move I forgot my camera! I packed the spare lens but not the camera! Eek. First time I've done that. I think I was more worried that she remember everything and when we left, at 3am, I just forgot it. Sigh.

My Kindle. I'm debating taking physical books -  have to admit I still prefer them! - but space is limited so thinking of reading some of the masses of books I have on my kindle. This will also serve as my connection to the internet and Skype so I can still Skype Mum.

Stamped images to colour. These will be used to create cards. Daughter has lovely colouring pencils so I will be borrowing hers.

Two small kitted up cross stitch projects. I've been sorting things out and found some already kitted projects so two of them will be coming with me. Hopefully I'll make some progress on them.

Knitting - I started a new project! Not sure if I'm taking it with me or not. Usually I stuff anything I'm not sure of into my checked in case but I will not be checking any in and I'm not entirely sure of the whole knitting needle thing - some say they are allowed, others say can be confiscated. I really don't want to lose it!

What else do I need to keep me busy and creative? I'm really tempted by books and my laptop but both are heavy and take up space. Sigh. I have a few hours to debate about it!

I did finish a cross stitch project this week

As I was stitching this one I wasn't liking it very much but it all came together with the dreaded backstitch!

Thanks for reading my Five. I'll be visiting throughout the day in between packing! If you get a chance and like scenery pictures check out my posts from last weekend. Lovely walk by a foggy lighthouse and ice covered beach!

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Joining up with Julia over at Stamping Ground for another What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday when people all over the world share what's on their crafty desks this week.

I have finished sorting all (that I've found so far) my floss. It's nicely put away in numbered bags and then drawers. My room is actually looking a lot tidier and I feel good to know that if I want something to stitch I know where to find it!

The compartments on my desk used to be behind me but I put the floss drawers there and the pens and distress ink closer to where I can reach it. Makes more sense and I'm not sure why I didn't do it before!

You've caught me stamping out images this week. I did a few pages of them including the crazy birds you see. I'm off to visit my daughter in Minnesota for a couple of weeks so I want to take them with me. She has plenty of colouring pencils so just the images needed!

I did make a card this week but was in a hurry to post it to my sister that I forgot to take a photo of it! I also finished knitting a scarf this week. It is done in a basketweave pattern. I really like it and am quite pleased with it. I think I've mastered the knitting and purling so now I'm on to some other stitches.

The colour is deep red and black - doesn't seem to show up so well in photo. Would help if there was a little sunshine!

I'm off to visit some desks before son pops in to visit.

ICE (Sunday pt 3)

We walked along an icy pier. Not a pier in the classic English sense of one. It's basically a slab of concrete heading out into the lake - no barrier on either side. I don't like walking along them. I stayed in the middle, far from the slippery edges.

Here you can see where the ice is melting and rolling off the sides of the pier and into the water below.

We actually got to see where the ice was melting and the lake flowing.

A mixture of sand and ice on the pier and two fishermen walking down to fish off the end of the pier. I wouldn't fancy sitting out there for long!

Still covered in ice! Too slippery to get any closer. What a fun walk this was. It's supposed to be getting colder again so maybe more ice pictures another time.

Hubby and I won't be going to walks for a couple of weeks. I'm off on Saturday to visit daughter in another state. My frequent flier miles are finally paying for something! My flight only cost $11.20 with my air miles. I was so glad to see that this airline has miles that don't expire! I will be shopping with them again. The other airline miles expire so never used because I never have enough to do anything with!

Sunday Walk (pt 2)

We headed down the coast from Little Sable Lighthouse to White River Lighthouse. Here we found the ice we were looking for! I'm not sure why there was no ice on the beach at Little Sable. Really strange as there wasn't a piece in sight!

White River Lighthouse is up on the banks of the river.

It looks pretty clear and clean - until you walk down the steps and onto the river bank.

You can see the last pieces of ice floating in the river.

There's still some on the rocks.

From here we walk along to the beach where there is ice galore!

It looked like some foreign, desolate land. Sand, mixed with ice and mixed with water. It was getting pretty weak so no walking any closer! The sand was pretty squishy in places. I'm sure there was ice beneath the sand that had then melted and holes were forming.We couldn't see many ice formations on this beach but we did see some pretty cool sand ones. 

There were holes like this in the sand and inside were little sand formations.

I've never seen anything like them before!

This post is pretty picture heavy so I'm going to post another post with the remainder of the photos on - more ice and a walk along a pier.

Sunday Walk (pt 1)

The weather wasn't supposed to be that bad today so we bundled up and headed out on another day trip. We decided to head back up to Little Sable Lighthouse and see if the lake further up was iced over.

It wasn't icy but it was foggy!

The beach was pretty deserted.

The lighthouse up close is pretty impressive.

We visited this lighthouse in the summer and climbed up to the top. Back then the beach was packed. We hadn't been to this one before and we thought we had to climb up and over the sand dunes to get to the lighthouse. We didn't realise that a little further down there was a concrete path that led right to the lighthouse!

 From the lighthouse we travelled a little further down the coast to visit another - but that's a story for tomorrow!

Five on Friday

January is just flashing by and it's already the 20th of the month! Trying to think positive on this particular Friday so I'm  joining up with Amy over at Love Made My Home to have a little fun.

I thought I'd share five things from my week. It's not been very exciting here in my house - then it never is, hence the title of my blog. An ordinary woman with an ordinary life lol.

I booked my trip home to England!!! It's really early to do it, but an airline I travel with was having a really good sale on flights. I ended up paying $600 less than I paid last year! Now Mum and I can concentrate on where we want to go when I'm over visiting.

 Crafting - there hasn't been a lot of that going on here this week. Instead I have been cleaning up my craft room and the mountain(s) of cross stitch floss that seems to have multiplied over the house.

It is all nicely stored now. I have also sorted all cross stitch patterns, fabric and kitted projects and they are all easily accessible and in one place. I am sure there are more over the house, but when I find them I will be taking care of them. It does feel really good to have this done. I can easily find what I need!

Daughter and Shasta are settling in their new home. They went out and about on Monday and found a new trail to walk along. Hopefully I'll be visiting them soon!

Hubby and I bundled ourselves up on Sunday and went to Lake Michigan for a walk. We were tired of sitting in the house and as it wasn't snowing and the roads weren't bad we decided to go visit a State Park we hadn't been to before. It was really beautiful.

It was really beautiful and interesting to see all the ice formations.  Such a fun walk. Winter isn't my favourite time of year but this year I am trying to see the beauty in winter. On this walk I definitely saw some beauty!

These books are on my reading list this week. I'm not reading them all the way through in one sitting. I admit I would have a little trouble reading and understanding them completely if I just sat down and read. But I am determined to learn how to use my camera properly this year. The Year With My Camera book goes along with a Facebook group and emails (you don't need the book to participate) and already I am loving what I have learned. Hopefully by my summer hols I'll be taking really, really good photos that I can be proud of!

Hope the week went well for everyone. I'll be popping around the blogs to check.