What a difference a day makes!!

Yesterday was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and it was above zero, but today, what a change.  We woke up to lots of snow and now, late afternoon, the wind is howling and swirling the snowflakes around and around.  We have been so fortunate (only if you don't care for snow) that the weather has been temperate so far this winter, but I think we are going to start paying the price.  Take a peek.......................

Spent a very nice afternoon with my son, Gareth and his lovely girlfriend, Chelsie.  They stayed for supper, very plain this time, just roast pork, potatoes, turnip mashed in butter, gravy and Finnish apple cake with custard for dessert.  How quickly we turn away from sickly sweet or overly rich foods.  I'm sure I am like you, I still have too much left that hasn't even been touched yet.  I guess it will keep.  This same son received a Keurig coffee maker from his lady for Christmas and very kindly passed his used one on to me.  Not complaining, it's a Cuisinart, makes fabulous coffee.........................

I did very well for Christmas also, my son Phil who came to visit me (that in itself was a wonderful gift) gave me a new set of bathroom scales and a lovely wall plaque which I showed you in a previous post; the son and girlfriend, previously mentioned, gave me a great DVD player amongst other things like this..................

and my third son and his wife gave me a safety bar to put on my bath to help me get in and out......................

My dear friend Laurie, a very talented artist, of  

http://laurie-whentheboughbreaks.blogspot.com/

gave me permission to frame one of her latest creations.  Here it is in a beautiful frame given to me for Christmas by son Phil...........

All in all, I did very well for Christmas and I must say it turned out to be one of the best in a very long time, being with family makes all the difference.  The only thing missing was not having my son Dave and his wife and baby here.  Maybe next year I will spend Christmas with them, who knows.

I reduced all the prices on my Etsy account - haven't been selling anything anyway.  I think I had better stick with my Craft Shows.  I had created an Etsy shop so that I wouldn't have to lug all my stuff around, this being difficult for me because I don't drive and if I couldn't get my jewelry, etc. to the destination in my carts, then I would have to ask for help, which wasn't always easy to get.  We'll see what the New Year brings and if nothing then I will cancel.  At least I tried.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ChrisCarterCreations?ref=em

I put all my decorations away, except for the tree which is going tomorrow and changed my furniture back to the way it was.  I had moved it around to make it easier for everyone to watch the old goggle box, so it's now back to normal and I wonder what happened to Christmas.

I changed it back to this......

That's about it for now.  Have to check out the blogs of other bloggers and see what they have been up to.  Have a wonderful week.

Just over a week until Christmas

Last evening, my friend Laurie, a wonderful artist,  who lives down the hall from me, (from http://laurie-whentheboughbreaks.blogspot.com/), and I sneaked downstairs (I say sneaked, because I was in my housecoat and didn't want anyone to see me) to take some photographs of the Lobby which had been decorated so prettily by the supers of our building, mostly by Ruth, her hubby Ron did the heavy work.  Every year they go out of their way to make the entranceway so cheerful for us and our visitors, but then they are very dedicated and work very hard all year round so it's not surprising that they put a little extra effort in at Christmas time.  Thought you might like to see how welcoming our apartment building is....................

Yesterday I went for lunch with a new friend, Dawn.  Very nice and most interesting lady.  We ate at a reasonably new restaurant called "Embers" and I must say, the lunch was delightful.

Talking about friends, another lovely lady I know, Gloria, who lives in my apartment building, offered to make some cookies for me.  I have given up doing anything finicky like that because of my arthritic fingers (my excuse, LOL) so she whipped me up a batch, love her heart.  Thanks so much dear friend.  They really are good.  There are called "The Breakfast Club Cookie" (my darling daughter-in-law gave me the recipe when I was visiting this summer, and she's a good little baker) and here's the recipe just in case you want to make them for yourself.  Gloria said that the mix was a little dry, so perhaps add another egg and the almonds perhaps should be chopped up a little...............

THE BREAKFAST CLUB COOKIE

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup large flake rolled oats
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 ½ tbsp. liquid honey
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup whole almonds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
2 tbsp. flax seeds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberriesPreheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together both flours, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt until evenly blended. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and honey until smooth and creamy using an electric hand mixer on high speed, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat on medium low speed until just blended, about 15 seconds.
Gently fold in almonds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, raisins and cranberries.
Use a 1.5 oz. ice cream scoop to drop mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 3 inches apart. Flatten each cookie using the bottom of a glass and bake until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. These stay soft and chewy for days in an airtight container.

Later today a group of ladies from the Library and myself are picking up Chinese food and going to visit a colleague who recently has had surgery.  She's doing very well and we thought it would be a nice treat for her.  I haven't had Chinese food for ages so I'm really looking forward to it.  Talking about the Library ladies, I just took them a little something for Christmas. When I worked there, each department used to get a gift basket from the Board of Directors/Management and we all looked forward to them so much but the last year or so it has been downsized to a gift card for about $8 per person for a local coffee joint.  Personally, I would rather have had the gift basket so, I made one up for my department and took it over..................

I'm looking forward so much to one of my out-of-town sons coming to visit.  He should be here on the weekend and plans on staying for around ten days, at least until after Christmas.  We are going to have so much fun with my son who lives here and his girlfriend.  I would so love to be with my little grandson and his mum and dad, but I will be with them in spirit and will chat with them on the phone.  Nothing says Christmas like a little child opening a gift, the expressions, the oohs and aahs, so precious.

Here are a couple more of my little decorations, just to fill in some space, LOL

And my lovely white Christmas cactus coming along just fine.

'Til the next time, have a wonderful week and don't get too frazzled with all the shopping, baking, partying, etc.  Remember the real reason for Christmas and take time to reflect on that.  Without that, it would be just another day.

I've heard of Auckland, but, DORKLAND?

Well, it's official, I am a DORK.  I can't believe what I just did.  I decided to take a walk to the Mall to pick up some wrapping paper and some more ornaments to make some decorations and just as I was almost there, I realized I didn't have my purse with me, so that meant, no wallet, no credit cards, no debit card and no bus pass.  I was a little put out, to say the least.  I had to trudge all the way back home, dragging my shopping basket on wheels behind me, to warm up (it's -2 Celsius at the moment) and rest for a few minutes and do it all over again.  Just a little Senior moment I'm afraid, LOL  I don't think I have ever done that before.  Okay, I'm warm enough, so off I go again.

This time, it was fine.  I even met a lovely friend, Janis and she gave me a ride home.

On a more positve note, I put up my Christmas Tree.  This year I decided to change my colour scheme.  I had the same ornaments, etc. for the last six or seven years so decided it was time for a change.  I don't have a lot of room for a tree, being in an apartment, but I think this two and one half foot tree turned out pretty awesome.......

It looks really great in the evening with the lights blinking.  I guess you will have to take my word for it though, LOL  The angel on top was a gift from a dear friend, Nancy, quite a few years ago.  We worked together at the Library and a group of us would go out for dinner quite often, especially at Christmas time and this was the gift I received from her that one Christmas.  We still keep in touch but now it is Tuesday night at the movies, cheap night, LOL  I thought I would sell my old tree decorations at my last Craft Show this Saturday so I bagged them up all nice nice and will sell them for $1 per item.  Some of them cost quite a bit and came from our local Art Gallery.

I also made a little inside door decoration, just to add some holiday atmosphere, keeping with the same colours.......

I figured I should also take the time to start wrapping presents and also writing Christmas cards.  It's not that I don't like giving or receiving gifts and cards but wrapping and writing are not my favourite things.  I used to love to do this when I was a lot younger but now with all the aches and pains I find it a chore, so I guess it should mean more to the recipients because of the ordeal I have to go through, right???  LOL  I am kidding, honest.

At one of the craft shows I recently did I found a couple of gorgeous little gold framed mirrors.  My intention, of course, was to paint them cream but when I got them home I decided to leave them just the way they were.  They really are very attractive............

This one shows more detail, but unfortunately I am also featured in it!!!!

Well, I guess I had better get back to wrapping, but before I do, I would like to thank those of you who said they would pray for my friend who underwent surgery last Friday.  Thank you so much and happy to report that she is doing quite well.  Until next time, TTFN

Just adding this little bit - it's now 2.00 a.m. and I have just finished wrapping a few gifts.  That's less I have to do tomorrow, LOL but, I still haven't written out the cards and the overseas ones should have gone long ago, but they'll get there, they always do.  Goodnight.