Top left: Have a ‘game day’ of vintage board games and puzzles. Top right: Bring in the winter woodsy feel with small live trees and pine cones. Bottom right: You’ll be ready to think spring by winter’s end.
If you are lucky enough to have a fireplace be sure you have plenty of wood on hand, fireplaces are the best! The wintery setting is nice but now search out items for comfort. Quilts, afghans and blankets are good to curl up in as you settle into your cozy space. There are fun granny- square afghans, very retro, and original quilts to be found at vintage shops if you don’t have some tucked away in Granny’s attic. This is a good time to gather up some wool scarves and mufflers with matching hats, and those vintage sweaters we would refer to today as “ugly” sweaters, particularly the Christmas ones, which were the height of fashion a good 30-plus years ago. Food is essential if you’re going to stay in. Fill your pantry with favorite comfort foods, have the fixings to make a great pot of soup and invite friends over. Plan an outing, all bundled up, walk, skate, ski even or bike if there is no snow or ice, then come back in to warm up. Better yet start with soup and then bundle with those sweaters and mufflers you’ve gathered and go out and make s’more around a camp fire or your grill! Warm up with some spiked cider. Baking is another surefire way to make things feel cozy, tasty and smells great too and particularly nice to have on hand on a snow day. While you are now warm and fed it’s time
window boxes, look for heirloom seeds and enjoy a bit of vintage style gardening. Enjoy your winter hideaway but get out and enjoy the fresh air as well, it will make coming back into your space that much more rewarding. ^ About Maggie: I have always enjoyed the chance to do a bit of hibernating when winter sets in, using the time for a bit of creativity, to stitch or hook rugs or try some other new craft. I am an avid reader as well and always feel better with a book or two in reserve. My home is filled with things I like to have around me making it a cozy nest. I love to make a pot of soup on a bitter day and have been known to cook on our gas logs in the fireplace when we had an ice storm the caused a power outage. I feel if you gather around you things that make you feel snug and cozy you’ll manage to get through the cold, that of course includes family and friends and a sweet pet if you have one. I hope you enjoy your winter!
to catch up reading or watching movies, pick a decade, for example, the 1970s and choose something from the top-10 list. Movies are great way to enjoy staying in, pop some corn, sit back and enjoy an old flick. Look for a new hobby to try, painting, knit- ting, crochet — how about macramé? There are books out to learn from, or YouTube, though how about trying to learn the way it was before the digital age. Drawing and sketching can be fun, even see if you can find and old Etch-A- Sketch to try. Jigsaw puzzles have always been available, some more challenging than others, you might find some at garage sales as well as your vintage shops. There is much more out there to do, find some time while you are gath- ered all in out of the cold. Winter will not last forever even if it begins to feel like it is; spring will eventually arrive and while you have been snug and cozy you can start to look thru the seed cata- logs and dream about planting a garden or
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