A Good old fashioned blizzard~and more!

Well, we had a good old fashioned, Minnesota blizzard! LOL! It has been interesting, this storm affected many things, including our Metrodome, which the roof collapsed due to the weight of snow!
We received 17.2" of snow here, and many other cities received even more! The wind hasn't helped, and my husband is just now out to snowblow the rest, as the snow was too much to handle along with the winds.
I have a pot of cheddar potato soup cooking now, and I added some chicken to it. Sounded good on a cold day, I think I'll make some garlic bread to go with it.
I  have however, been doing some crafting, so it's not been too bad!
I thought I would share with you some pictures. I apologize, I haven't been motivated much to get things out, don't get me wrong, I WANT to, but my body says take a break! I have to admit, I can tell I am slowing down to a degree. I don't like it, but I just have to go with it when I have these "bursts" of energy I guess.
So~ my meager attempt at Christmas so far is as follows. The sun is very bright today, so I am sorry for any glare.
I really like my little german slim tree! I'd like to make a different tree skirt for it, but I have had this one for a number of years now, and thought I'd use it. It's not as prim, this was kind of before I really got more heavily into prims.
I am bad about taking "before" pictures of things I makeover, but this shelf wasn't pretty when I found it. I discovered this quite awhile back on a thrift outing, I could see the potential it had, and I liked the size of it. It's 6 feet long, and I got it on sale for 7.50. Not too shabby! The paint job on it wasn't good, so I sanded it down, and cleaned it up. Now, my husband said "What color are you painting this? Please tell me NOT black!" I let him guess a bit, but I DID use black, and then went over it with a color called "Pomegranate". Once that dried, I then went over it with Minwax Dark Walnut stain. I was actually happy that the different tones came through. Then I applied a matte finish poly.
I didn't think much of it, but he said that it was the best makeover I have done so far, and he thought I should do the other two tables the same way! I have been working on this one table in particular. It's the one that belonged to his Grandmother. Let me just say, this table has ALOT of details! For a person with a short attention span, NOT fun! So, I am debating this one, because I still need to do another coat of black on the top of this one. The other table/bench is one I got years ago, it's currently navy blue, which I wouldn't mind, except for one of the boys colored it with black, permanent marker, so I need to redo it.
We are going to use that as a coffee table in front of the sofa.
I really like this shelf here, so now I have to debate what to put on it! I like the fact that it has pegs, so I can also hang things from them. So, I am searching through some of my things to see if anything is grabbing me.
I like to use bigger pieces to anchor, and then I can switch things in and out. I just have to figure the right things to place here. I love this bench! It's made from an old door! The little red cabinet is sitting there, I am not sure if I'll keep it here or not. John bought that for me several years ago, and I want to find a good place for it.
I hope you all are staying warm! I dread having to get out in this tomorrow, but duty calls!
Thank you for visiting me!
Blessings to all.