How soon until spring arrives??

We had some snow over the past couple of days in downtown Chicago but we have not had nearly as much as our friends on the East Coast. The top picture is the view from our front balcony this morning. As you can see the main roads are clear. The next picture is from our back terrace and you can see how much snow we actually got. A friend few in from skiing in Jackson Hole last night and was only delayed a half hour so things were pretty much under control around here.

We had book club last night and it was a little scary getting home. Fortunately, I had taken a cab so I left the driving up to someone else. My car is a rear wheel drive and just awful in the snow so I don't take it out unless the streets are dry. Soon that car will be retiring to the Florida home so we will buy something more winter ready next time.

I have been working on my Long Dog sampler this week. I am about done with the strawberry motif. I have to finish the two flowers then I can move along. They look almost done in my picture but they need the light color filled in in both flowers and the top one still has some green to fill in. I have been spending time on this project so the strawberries were completed in about a month.

I ordered the supplies for the ort box stitching group from ANG Cyber Pointers. The first place I ordered from has the canvas on back order and I just found out about it yesterday. Two weeks after I placed the order. I reordered the supplies from Fireside so hopefully they will get my order out to me soon. Actually, I ended up ordering cooler canvas from them. It is white and silver. Plus, I ordered a couple of Threadworks variegated #8 pearl cotton balls. I have no idea what I am going to end up with because I did not have time to look them up, but I figured I would have the DMC to coordinate with whatever comes. I ordered four colors so something should strike my fancy....

I have been reading. I finished South of Broad by Pat Conroy and Already Dead by Charlie Huston. South of Broad was good. It did not get that great of reviews but I found it an enjoyable read. I like Pat Conroy's books (The Prince of Tides, The Water is Wide, The Great Santini). On the other hand, Already Dead was strange. It was about vampyers, zombies and a murder mystery. Yes, they spelled vampires with a "Y". I think this was just an attempt to get dollars from the vampire love fest going on right now and there is nothing wrong with capitalism. It was a free book on Kindle and I know why they were giving it away.

Now I am working on Pride and Prejudice. Hopefully, later today we will finalize our book club choice. Since the weather was bad, I think we are going to post a vote so some that could not make it will have a say in what we are reading next month. I am stocking up on some of the Kindle books in case they have a price war so I have several books to choose from.

Hope everyone stays warm and melts out the snowy mess. Happy stitching. Hopefully, spring will be here soon. Kelly