Brrr. January. Buffalo.
Go ahead, make your jokes. Get it out of your system. Keep thinking those thoughts.
I won’t be the one to tell you that it was 55 degrees here on Christmas Day. (You know you live in Buffalo when it’s no surprise to see a guy wearing shorts and sandals with a winter jacket…I’m looking at you, Dad).
Say what you will, I love living here and enjoy all four seasons, I treasure summer most of all, but I love a beautiful snow and the coziness of winter. Personally, I’m excited about the January – March hunker time. This is project season for me and a great time to actually work on all any of the gazillion ideas swimming in my head. Not to mention continuing the nearly whole-house transformation that we started last year. (Yes, I should give a project update one of these days.)
But, does it get cold here? Yep. ‘Tis the season.
So as the second-most northern contributor to the Where Bloggers Live team, I might have something to offer for this month’s topic: “How I Stay Warm in Cold Weather.”
1. Dogs. Every season is the right season to cuddle up a pupper. But winter is the snuggliest of all.
2.. Sweaters, sweatshirts, and flannel. Hey, ICYMI, this is no fashion blog. For years, my favorite at-home winter outfit comprised some type of pajama bottom/sweatpants, topped with any of a collection of duplicate leftover 2XLT sweatshirts from the company where Mr works. Super warm, obscenely comfortable, not remotely alluring. In sharp contrast, Mr always looks snappy (I swear that man secretly irons his pajamas), so I “upgraded” to jeans or fleece-lined leggings and a nice sweater, a cute sweatshirt or shacket, or the occasional tunic-length flannel shirt.
3. Cotton blankets. Warm in the winter and cool in the summer, I have cotton blankets everywhere. There are three on our bed right now, thrown off and pulled back up at various times of night when the fireball moments hit and wane. On especially cold nights, we also have a cotton quilt at the ready. In our family room, there are a bunch of twin-sized cotton blankets on hand that I keep rolled and accessible. Our kiddos each have a favorite blanket or quilt, (which is why I once made that enormous and, in retrospect, cringy looking storage ottoman) and their blankets are now stored in a large basket behind the sofa.
(IF YOU ARE VEGAN, STOP READING HERE, LEST YOU WILL UNLIKE ME)
(Also, dogs who are grateful they are neither geese nor sheep.)
4. Down and shearling. Go ahead, judge me. I likewise judge myself. If I spent a minute investigating how either of those animal-based textiles were harvested, I would likely opt to freeze to death…while eating a hamburger. So no, I’m not vegan…and I don’t delight in making jokes at the expense of animal suffering. I just eat them and wear their skin because they are both delicious and warm. But yes, there are pangs of guilt. I am conflicted… and simultaneously toasty and fed.
5. LLBean Wicked Good Slippers. Period. End of story. (No, it’s not.) The one thing, well… two things, that are always cold on me are my feet. (One might question if all that pizza is good for my circulation). But because I LIVE in these slippers, my feet are happy and toasty. Every waking moment spent at home involves this footwear. My old pairs become outside slippers, and I have even been spotted wearing them in the garden. I wore the last pair into home renovation hell, and just replaced them with a new pair…and received a bonus pair for Christmas. And, let’s get it out in the open: fully shearling lined. So, yes…Mary HAD a little lamb…
I was about to conclude that this has been a fairly mild winter compared to last year when we had back to back snowstorms with LOTS and LOTS of the white stuff. And then this pops up:
Bettye! You jinxed me! It’s going to be a chips and chili kind of weekend! And speaking go Bettye, last I checked it was also snowing in Seoul, South Korea. Did our fearless leader pack mittens among the very few things she brought? These and all the other answers to your how-to-keep-warm questions can be much more fashionably answered by visiting these talented ladies:
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Sally at Within a World of My Own
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings – (Iris is taking a break for a little bit)
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Welcome to “Where Bloggers Live.” It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers!
Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes?
The second Friday of each month is when this group of seven bloggers link up to share their workspaces,
homes, towns… or whatever our fearless leader, the fabulous Bettye, proposes.
Make sure you visit everyone to see where the magic happens!
Oh, JANUARY-MARCH is project season for you?? What on earth do you call April to December??
Now I want Fireball.
Thanks for the map. You could show me a map every day for the rest of my life and it will always surprise me. So Buffalo is RIGHT next to Oh, CAN-AH-DA. Gets me every time.
All I’m ever sure of in NY is Long Island and Manhattan. And very loosely, the Hudson Valley. Ish. The rest is a mystery to me.
I’m sorry.
MITTENS?!? Mittens are for girls. Oh. Well. Still. No. I never understand mittens. Let’s de-evolutionize ourselves, shall we? Let’s leave ONLY the opposable thumb. Guh. No. I can’t. Can you?
I DID freeze in the cold northern air that blows down from the mountains of North Korea (apparently it is a harsh place across all categories. Too bad those people couldn’t at least have balmy breezes and sunny skies to suffer underneath.) but because I am a stubborn *^*$%! I refused to wear any gloves until MY gloves arrived from the US courtesy of my slow-to-mail-things child. I love my supple leather (sorry animals…like you, I am conflicted but still a murderer), cashmere-lined (ditto), touch screen gloves and will wear no other. A brown pair and a black pair keep me up to modern evolutionary 5-finger status…and warm.
Okay, get back to “project season.” You’re running out of time.
xoxo
Haha. Valid point about “project season,” at least for last year when it did indeed stretch from January through December…
But there are certain projects on my own list…no helpers allowed…and these are the ones to which I was referring. No helpful assistants or project managers, haha. I did enjoy the gotcha, though. Quite correct, you are!
Most people who think of New York generally think of “the city.” The rest of us are just 7 hours away and lesser players. We are actually closer to being mid-western than we are to being an NYC suburb, but I get the confusion. This group has been helpful for broadening my geographical exposure as well. I think I’ve checked a map for each of our members, thus far.
NO MITTENS!??? I. confess to acquiring gloves only last year to wear on a regular basis for errands,. but I am a mitten girl at heart. All my digits are happier in the club room sharing their warmth, rather than being isolated and lonely in their individual tubes of solitude. If I’m spending more than 20 minutes outside, it’s mittens for the win. But yeah, no touch screen capabilities with mittens. Hope your gloves arrive before summer!
Pups are the best way to stay warm, and our kitties run a close second. I miss having a dog or dogs around the house, lounging on my feet, curled up at the foot of the bed. Our new kitty enjoys curling up across my chest and nibbling the left side of my neck and face. He’s there right now as I type this. And that part of my body is toasty. The rest, not so much.
I need some of those cotton blankets. I have always liked the waffle weave blankets that hospitals use. Especially when they put them in that blanket microwave and heat them up. We are using a very old and very pitiful looking electric blanket on our bed that my parents gave me many years (and several marriages) ago. Need some of those cotton blankies.
Can’t wait to see how the big reno project is progressing. I think as hard as you work, you are allowed/entitled/forgiven/permitted to wear animal fluff on your tootsies. Don’t they just shear the sheep for the fluff?
Someday I hope to get back to Buffalo. The pictures you’ve shared of your home and yard in the different seasons and you’ve convinced me that Buffalo is a fabulous place to live.
Hospital stays are where I first discovered how much I like cotton blankets…and I’ve been hooked ever since! And the blanket warmers…mmmmm. I think Brookstone sells one for towels, I wonder if it would work on blankets. You may be completely on to something, Leslie!!!
My go-to recently has been an Eddie Bauer cotton blanket that comes in stripes and solids on Amazon. I had originally used one to make a slipcover and matching pillows for the ottoman in our family room simply because I liked the coastal stripe. But I also like its herringbone weave, plus it was a frugal option.
I really do love living here…but I think there are all kinds of lovely places to live…and those mountains near you also look so pretty!. True confession that the stretch from late-March through the end of April seems more like six months than six weeks…by then, I’m done with winter, cold, and gray. The left over ice on Lake Erie usually makes spring chilly here…but our summers are spectacular.
#1 had me laughing out loud….maybe I can convince Rob to let Piper up on the bed at night??
That “B” word?? Don’t miss it at all. Sure, it’s pretty and all but gosh it’s cold.
I will say that our summers are the time when we get things done in the house since we don’t hang out when it’s super hot. But hey, at least you don’t have to shovel sunshine,
XOOX
Jodie
Allie snuck on the bed once when Mr was out of town… She tried to make it permanent but she would’ve really interrupted our sleep…plus the hair, so even for me it’s a “no.”
But on the sofa? Absolutely. She won that challenge!
So happy you found Piper!!! I can see how much you guys already love her!
It was a bit terrifying to realize that St Paul is just a bit north of Buffalo – no wonder it’s so cold! But seriously, y’all with the cold and the lake effect snow…I wouldn’t trade for that. Those shearling lined slippers do look seriously snuggly (and the dogs, of course!).
I confess to looking up your latitude and discovering you had us beat by 2 degrees! The more you know… 🤷🏻♀️. I did know you get some low temps, tho! I was thinking about the Superbowl hosted there a few years ago…i thought it was so neat that it was held in a cold climate!
Hello! I’m hoping we get some snow out of this weather system, but alas it looks like it’s colliding with a southern born system… sign, more rain. Pittsburgh is the fourth cloudiest city in the USA.
Please don’t cringe or berate yourself for not wearing vegan (mainly petroleum product) attire. After all, animal meat will be eaten and we might as well use, productively, as much of that animal as we can. Fight for better conditions, smaller producers and buy local, not grocer, whenever you are able to do so. If you can’t then write your representatives telling them you support more humane methods and hope they vote accordingly.
Sorry for the rant! Enjoy the snow and puppers, and blankets. For fun, while the hubs is digging out the house, turn your mailbox into a snowman, if you’ve a streetside mailbox. Thanks for the slipper recommendation, perfect timing! Please! Keep these fabulous posts coming!
May you and yours enjoy a Happy, Safe, and Healthy 2024
Hi, Joanne!
Rant away…yours is an entirely valid and fresh perspective…Tbh, im not even sure what we’re being fed anymore. Crazy how out of hand everything is. Actually, Im pretty sure we’ve become the sheep.
Are you looking forward to the game Sunday?! I wonder if it’ll be moved to Monday. I’d like to wish you luck, but I’m definitely a homer!
FWIW, the slippers are very plush and feel a little snug at first. They’re whole sizes only, and when i sized up they became sloppy after a day or two.
Thanks so much for giving me a kind read! 😘