a bit of christmas

I thought I would share some of my Christmas decor.  I am always looking for the perfect mantelscape and have lots of ideas in my head but it never seems to turn out as I imagined.  Instead of greenery and red or white feathers and silver it is black and red with my angels.  I collect Jim Shore angels and usually hang them on the tree where no one can see them.  This year I decided to highlight them and show them off.  In the end I love how it turned out.

I wanted to give some of the angels height and originally I wanted to cut down some cedar 4x4 posts but when I saw the price I decided that wasn't going to work for me.  Instead I headed to the thrift store and bought two candlesticks and two small saucers all for a total of $2.50.  I unscrewed the middle from one candlestick, painted all the parts black, and set the plates on the candlesticks.  What a cheap solution and it fits better with all the other pieces.

The top of my fridge:

The kitchen windowsill:

  The nutcrackers:

The Story of our Nutcrackers 
This summer we visited Leavenworth, WA for two days and the kids (my daughter especially) had to visit the nutcracker museum.  My husband and I are not really enamored with nutcrackers but took the kids.  I did not know there were so many different kinds of nutcrackers.  We (the parents) still do not like all the shiny, glittery, fuzzy nutcrackers but appreciate the handcrafted ones.  The little guy in the top picture is in lieu of the ornaments I usually buy for my husband and I each year.  We bought him at the Christmas Market in Vancouver, BC.  He is small but totally cute and hand made in Germany.  The bigger guy I bought at Michaels.  He is made in China and is not the same quality.  He is my compromise with the kids.  They soooo wanted a nutcracker.  Every store we went into they would ask for one.  I couldn't find one that was not over the top, for us parents, until I saw this one.  He has a pretzel in one hand and a beer in the other.  The perfect "German" nutcracker.

table and chairs

In October I painted our table and chair set.  The table we had bought at the thrift store and it has needed to be refinished for many years.  The kids are now at a point where it doesn't get destroyed every time they craft on it.  The chairs were from my husbands parents when we got married.  They had them for many years and both my MIL and I had slip covered the seats a couple of times.  My husband and I cleaned them with TSP and sanded the table down until it was smooth.  The table top has about 5 coats of paint and the chairs and table base 3 coats.  I tried to spray paint the chairs but after three cans of spray paint on two chairs I decided that brushing them would be easier and less work.  I used Benjamin Moore satin finish oil paint in Cloud White.  This is my favorite color for all my trim and misc cabinets.  I love it! Here is a picture of a chair before:

  This chair was one of the better chairs.  A couple of years ago I had recovered two chairs in this brown vinyl.  It cleaned up easy!  I bought different fabric in the spring (or maybe last winter) and had the foam in my daughters closet all summer while our house was on the market.  Here is a couple of pictures of the completed chairs and the set:

Since the dishes were white and the table was white we needed to add a little of something.  The kids and I headed to Homesense and bought placemats.  The have only actually been used a couple of times as they keep getting dirty and I forget to wash them when I do the laundry.  They did look pretty the first day.

The white really brightens up the kitchen, especially on these dark winter afternoons.

Perogy Update

So the perogies were a hit!!  Even my husband who didn't really like perogies was asking for more.  I guess I will be making them more often and no more store bought ones.

Dinner!

Actually this is tomorrows dinner.  I have promised my son for months now to make gluten free perogies.  Perogies were one of his favorite meals before he was diagnosed with celiac disease in May.  I knew that if he needed energy after dinner he would eat perogies.  He was a picky eater before he was diagnosed and is actually better know.  Weird.  Anyway I finally made the perogies yesterday.  I thought that since they would take a bit of work to make I would double the recipe.  I made 7 dozen.  I sure hope he likes them!  Here are the beauties:

  I bagged them by the dozen after they were frozen.  I think that the rest of the family will eat store bought so that they last longer.  It took me more than two hours to make them.
I found the recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/gluten-free-perogies-199482

I'll let you know how it went.

Another Finished Quilt

For those of you who still check my blog THANK YOU!!
I finished my quilt for my new niece on Thanksgiving and brought it over to my sisters.  I loved it.  I don't have pictures of the back but it turned out great as well.  Here are some pictures:

It is sooo different than the ones I made for my nephews.  Theirs were all farm ones.  This is so girly.  Love the purple and pink.

 Just because I haven't posted in a while doesn't mean I haven't been busy.  I will have more to show you soon. Please keep checking. 

Finished Quilt

I finished a quilt today!  It feels so good.  It has been a while since I made something other than cards so to finish this project is rewarding.  Here are a couple of pictures of it:
The quilt top:

Sewing the layers using wavy lines (tried something new):

All DONE!!

The back:

I love, love, love how it turned out!  The colors are calm and soft.  I also added some quilting on the back.  This is something I keep seeing on many other quilt blogs.  I think it adds something special to what is usually plain and forgotten.

I have already started on my new nieces quilt.  Look for updates on this next!

sneak peak

Here is a sneak peak at my mother in laws quilt:

Sorry the picture is flipped.  I'm trying this out on our Mac and I haven't quite figured out how to do the pictures.

lunch bag

Months ago my sister in law asked for a drawstring bag similar to one I had made for her daughter.  She wanted it a little bigger and with a pocket for her wallet and keys.  Here is the finished bag:

This red butterfly fabric makes me smile. :)  The pattern was an Amy Butler pattern that I modified to include the pocket inside and make it big enough for her lunch.  I think it is fun!! 

Projects on the Go

I have two quilts to make in the next bit.  Here is a sneak peak of them:

Since school starts in two weeks I need to get working.  I have three classes this fall which is a first for me.  My youngest is now in grade one so I am able to have all day to do school.  

The pink and purple combo is for my new niece and the blue/green is for my husbands cousins son.  My mother in law would like to send something handmade.  I hope they turn out to be real treasures. 

Day 158 Card Recipe 4

Alas I was not able to finish the rest of the card recipes for day 5 and 6.  I need to finish my final exam in my class today and tomorrow so I will be busy.  After tomorrow though I am free of school for a month!! :)  I hope to complete some sewing projects in the next couple of weeks so be sure to come back and check them out.

On to the card:

The Recipe:

5x5 Card

2 3x3 patterned papers

Sentiment
1 image (stamped, fussy cut, digi, whatever)
2 Buttons

This is my favorite by far.  I love it!  Hope you enjoy it as well.  The image is from Sweet n' Sassy stamps.  It is a digi stamp and it makes me think of spring.

Day 157 Card Recipe 3

Recipe:
4.25x5.5 Card
2 3x3 patterned papers
3 rhinestones
Sentiment
1 stamped image
2 Buttons

 

Card: 

 This card I find interesting and had fun creating.  The paper and sentiment are from Stampin'Up.

Day 156 Card Recipe 2

The recipe:
4 1/4" X 5 1/2" Card
3X3 patterned paper
stitching
3 rhinestones
sentiment
1 stamped image
2 buttons

This one I found more difficult and actually made two cards and wasn't necessarily happy with either.  Oh well that is part of trying new things!
Here it is:

Day 155 at 365 Cards

Hi all
I thought I would challenge myself this week by participating in the Card Recipe challenges at 365 Cards.
Here is my card for Day 1:

Recipe: 4 1/4 " X 5 1/2" Card

3"X3" Patterned paper

stitching

3 rhinestones

sentiment

1 stamp image

This is different from most of my cards.  It has no ribbon!  I think it turned out okay.

Cardoff

After we came back from vacation we decided to have a card off.  My two kids make cards all the time with me but my husband has never joined in.  This was a little different.  I put a whole bunch of items, stamps, stickers, ribbon, bling, in a bag and everyone got to pick four things.  We each got a card base and there were markers and pencil crayons, adhesive, punches, and buttons that everyone could use.  We had a half hour to create.  Our neighbours were the judges and we were each assigned an award (that way everyone was a winner).  Here are the cards and awards:

Award: "Pretty in Pink"  for good use of the color pink and clean and crisp symmetrical lines.

Award: "Creative" for best color and pattern combination

Award: "Extravagant" for good design and 3D effects.

Award: "Cute as a Button" for most colorful and uniquely shaped.

It was lots of fun and I am thinking about how to do the next one...
Can you guess who created each card?  Husband, me, son, or daughter?

My Birthday Quilt

Back in May I saw this quilt:

at my favorite quilt stores blog (here).  It was my birthday earlier this month so I told my husband he could buy the kit for my birthday.  I'm always thinking ahead and I knew I wouldn't have time to start on the quilt before my birthday anyway.  I still haven't started but I look forward to trying this one.  I am actually going to make two baby size quilts from it.  Check back later in August to see how it is giong.

Vacation

At the end of June my family and I set off for a ten day trip.  We had a great time but spent more time in hotels than we had intended.  The weather wasn't the best at the time and we had no desire to tent in the rain.  Here is a picture of where we were on the 4th of July:

We were so surprised while driving through Glacier National Park, Montana to have a couple of meters of snow along the road.  We got out and it was CHILLY!  It was also inspiring and beautiful.
Although we had a good time it was nice to come home and sleep in my own bed.
The rest of the summer is going to be pretty quiet.

Card Therapy

In June I was pretty stressed with my school and all the end of the year stuff with the kids.  I decided one day that I would just spend time doing some card therapy.  It is always calming to create new things.  Here are the results:

Both stamps are from a set from Stampin' Up.  The bottom one is my favorite stamp.  It just warms my heart and actually reminds me of standing in the wind on the beach on the West Coast.  Now if that isn't calming I don't know what is.
Hope you enjoy!

Back from the Abyss

So...I think it is time to update this site!!  My goal is to bring you up to date on all the posts I meant to do.  Life was busy in May and June and now July is almost over as well.  Boy does time fly.  I will start with the ant farm.  Last year I purchased an ant farm for around $5 from the Bay.  Good deal I thought.  It came with a coupon to send away for free ants.  My kids asked several times to do it but it never seemed right.  I also bought one for a homeschooling friend of mine.  She attempted to send in the coupon but found out that ants don't ship across the border.  We looked into more 'local' sources.  No one seemed to have ants available.  One sunny day the kids found lots in our parking area.  I sent them out with a jar and they collected around 20 ants.  About half of these didn't survive and we did collect more about a week later.  Here are a couple of pictures of their progress:

We had the farm for about a month.  It was interesting to see how far they built overnight.  They started to pile all their 'garbage' into one pile and it began to stink and turn the gel a funky color.  We had to throw it away.  It was getting nasty.  The kids released the survivers and the rest went in the garbage.  Both kids took it to school for show and tell. 

Day 66 and 67 at 365 Cards

Here is my card for Day 66 - White, White Space and Wings:

The sentiment is from Verve.  I think the butterfly is from the dollar store.

Day 67 - Love, Leaf, Lace

Day 68 - the 3 C's - Circle, Cross stitch, and Cream Colored

I love the letter challenges at 365 Cards but I can't do them all this week.  I wrote them down this morning and one was done.  I "found" some stamp sets in my bucket while cleaning out my closet (you can see in it now!) and decided that I was only going to use them for the next few cards.  The sets feel rejected if I don't use them :).  Here is my card for 3 C's:

As you can see I cut out a circle with my Stampin' Up punch, stamped on cream colored paper and added some cross stitch on the bottom.  This card was inspired from cards made by Julie at Paper Trufflez and Kristina at kwernerdesign.  I love their websites.  I think it turned out good and might be used tomorrow for mother's day.  That's the next project to complete, a gift in the thought processes.  I will share it if I do it... 

stamp: Stampin' Up

ribbon: American Crafts (Michaels)

thread: DMC

stickles

ink: Stampin' Up markers

Day 62 - Look Who's Talking at 365 Cards

Another bird card!  Can you tell I'm really addicted to birds right now.  In the past year I have bought ALOT of birds and bird themed decorations for my house as well.
The challenge was to have a speech or thougth bubble:

Bird Stamp: Old Island Stamp Company

I hope you enjoyed all my cards this last week.  Who knows maybe I will complete some in the next week as well. :)

Day 61 - Circles 3 Ways

So we had to use circles in three different ways.  I was inspired by Sophie's circle card and thought I would try another new technique.

The lighting is a little dark but it turned out so fun!  I have a circle card with circle paper and a circle sentiment and three round buttons. 

Patterned paper: We R Memories

Sentiment: Verve

Buutons: My jar :)

If you never did you should.  These things are fun and FUN IS GOOD.

                              - Dr. Seuss

Day 60 - All that Glitters at 365 Cards

For this challenge we had to have three different colors of glitter.

This bird is another treasure I found in the scrapbook store this week.  It has all the glitter for me!  I did buy some Stickles as well but didn't use them because I liked the simplicity.  The patterned paper is from American Crafts, Letterbox collection.

A close up of glitter:

It has pink, blue and green glitter.  How Gorgeous!!

Day 59 - Moving Parts at 365 Cards

This challenge had me stumped.  I was not until last night that I remembered that I had this little digger stamp that might work.  Here it is:

In the up position:

In  the down position:

This card would be great for one of my nephews.  The dirt is brown flocking that I got at Michaels.  I have never used flocking but when I saw it in the $1.50 bin I thought it would be worth a try.

I really love how this card turned out!!

Day 58 - Crazy 8's at 365 Cards

We were to use 3 different items in 8's.  Here is my try:

This is not my favorite card but both my husband and son like it.  I have 8 gifts in 8 patterns and 8 large jewels.  I have no idea where all the bits are from, sorry.  This card is so big I will have to make my own envelope for it (or save it for my sons birthday).

Now it is off to bed, sports is over! :)  I will post the others tomorrow.

 

Day 57 - Ad Inspired at Day 365

Here is the ad that Gloria used for inspiration:

I loved the combination of white and plaid.  The frames on the walls inspired me so I used them as my inspiration.  Because I didn't have someone in mind for the card I used a chipboard bird instead of a letter.

The patterned paper and chipboard are from Stampin' Up.