Merry Christmas

to all my bloggy buddies.... I'll have to see if I can get more organized or more enthused about blogging in the new year...

Got the little chicken in the oven...the spuds mashed and put in the 'fridge 'til later.... carrots and sprouts are simmering away... hope you are all having a nice dinner too.

It is a wintery white day out there ... -20C ... the birds are having fun with the suet and seed feeders... quite a lot of action and entertainment today.

best wishes to all...

... a white Christmas..

.  ...   which of course, in Canada, would seem perfectly normal... but, our weather so far this 'winter', has been unseasonably warm and mild really.  It was totally green and crispy dry until a day or so of a skiff of snow happened... and, then, it melted.   But, last night plenty of the white stuff accumulated.  I shovelled for two full hours and still didn't get it all done.  Still the inside of a big patio to do and the sidewalk along the side of the house.  Yikes!! Somebody says we are going to have more today.  I'm not sure whether to cheer or say I'm sorry for hoping for a white Christmas.    Yaaayy..    yes, I know... motorists and people who hate shovelling will not like me much for cheering about that.  Heh, heh....

Somewhere in there is a heated bird bath and drinking bowl.... nowhere for them to perch to have  drink.  I fixed it though.... soon after realizing it.

They were a bit wary of the giant snow cone on top of the feeder too....

I love a white Christmas.  But, if is doesn't really snow til Christmas Eve and then... melts and is all gone about a week later...that's okay too.  I would even be cheerful about that.  But, usually around here we have plenty of snow from end of October til end of April.   Shovelling does become a pain..in the back, the arms, the legs and gut ..etc.  And, it does get piled so high it is tough to toss it on the piles after they are about 4 feet deep.   I'm spoiled this year.... so far.

Origami, some cute little mice and other fun stuff has been happening...so at least it is fun stuff that prevents much in the 'bloggy-sphere'...

I found some great gold and glittery paper this year .. there is glitter all over the floor and tables.  I
splurged on a $9.00 roll... it should last me til I'm at least 205 ....   even if Muriel helps me use it.  Still haven't found any of the perfect weight gold thread I used to be able to buy... I hate when they stop making perfect stuff.  Gold thread is just toooo darn thin.... and so difficult to work with  Plus... even the tiniest seed beads slip off the end...arrgghhh!!!  Good thing I am so patient...hahahahhahahahhahahahhahah  Anybody who knows me is laughing their heads off.... I have absolutely NO patience whatsoever.   Well, with some things... mostly people.

I have new babies...

I took out my box of Christmas 'mousie' bits when I searched for the Christmas cards in the storage area awhile back.

It was a Herculean feat just to get into that storage area believe me.  It is still stacked with all manner of "stuff" we had to move in there to get it out of the way so we could make our renovation mess.   There were rolls of excess carpet, boxes of record albums, boxes of electrical and electronic gear, my massage table, boxes of tiles, golf clubs and carts, the other pop down movie screen and two long blinds from upstairs reno of 3 years ago....acckkkk!! Disaster area of the first order.  In January, I am going to do a major purge... what fun that'll be.  No, really, I'm actually looking forward to throwing out anything and everything related to renovations.  Goodbye and good riddance to it.  I no longer have to save any of it.  Wheeeeeee!!  oooh, sorry, got a bit giddy there for a nano second..  Oh, alright... perhaps maybe one box of tiles in case there is an accident and something needs replacing.  But, there is going to be a lot of stuff piled out by the fence in the New Year.  We love doing that... we have some regular scavengers who stop by to check it all out and in no time at all...it disappears.  Perfect.  I bet some of them have built houses with all we have chucked over the years.  Complete houses.

Back to the mousies.  It appeared that I had cleaned out several walnut shells last year so I had a head start... thank goodness, as we finished this reno so close to the festive season I didn't have much time to tinker around.  Managed to find a few hazelnuts in the box as well, to make into the actual mice... so, lots of drawing eyes and noses and gluing and playing later...I have several new babies to hang on our own tree or to give to various neighbour kids.. I sneak out on Christmas eve and hang them on doorknobs for a laugh.  Only got caught once when somebody decided to drive home at the exact time I left the porch.  Probably I looked like a deer in the headlights.  I was busted there.  And, one dog barked his head off inside a house...but nobody figured out why, so I sprinted down the block before they opened the door.  Whew.

I love them on our tree... and little kids and parents alike think they are so cute... I make a dozen or more every year it seems.

Here is a shot of a portion of my tree...  you can see a few of the little guys on there.... along with origami and all my other fun little things.. it looks like one of those pics you could make a puzzle out of doesn't it?
Click on any pic to biggify

Here are the little mousies... all the same and yet...all so different.  Just like little babies in a nursery...hahhahahah.... oh, I'll take that one please, the one with all the lovely black 'sticky up' hair...oh, just a minute there aren't any.  Not since my nephew was born.  Okay then..the one with the little blue flower between the ears please?  She's mine, all mine.

Special friends

Among my friends, I'm lucky to count a "speshol brown bear" and a "litol gween dwagon pwincess".....  That's right.  I have unusual friends.   And how I love it.

When I was down for the count just before Christmas; sick and coughing and aching all over and just downright miserable.....     I received a card from the two of them and it made my day.  They had drawn and coloured and written special messages just for me.  How cool is that?

I set it on a table with some other cards and looked at it several times during my wandering about trying to find somewhere comfortable to sit or lie... nowhere was any good.... so I kept on walking til I fell on the bed.

The next day I noticed that a late bud on the Christmas cactus had grown larger ... remember the plant?  It bloomed way back around the first of November.  There were a few extra little teeny buds on it that didn't amount to anything and fell off.  But, this bud stayed....

It got much bigger the next day and Dilly had her eye on it... the third day it opened slightly and the next day..it was in full bloom!  Oh, that did it...she moved her card right up close to it.  She loves pink and declared that it was the perfect colour and actually the very same colour ..as her "pwetty pink dwess" .. and, that she must sit right beside it.  She admired it for days ....

I had to take a few pics of them together ....

Of course, Bob T. Bear (esq.) ...  not to be outdone..... found a couple friends to hang out with as well.  Some sheepies and a mini Santa....

They kept it up for several days .....I never knew where to look for the card; some days it was on the sheep table..some days it was next to the cactus flower.  Seeing as Dilly found the flower first.... she got the most "me" time... well, that and she does have a very insistent way about her......

Thanks so much Bob and Dilly for my great card (and, the nose hugs!! )  You guys are the best!

Almond Biscotti

Yep.... another month has flown.

I'm hanging out close to home because I've managed to break some ribs.....again.  It happened a few years ago as well.  Then, I leaned into a woodbox .. putting a fair bit of weight on them.  It hurt like hell when it happened ..but, like an idiot I also turned to my left and reached in again... also doing the other side.

This time, hardly any weight at all (barely leaning) on a spindly clothes drying rack...whilst trying to peer behind it into the water softener to check the salt level.  Yikes!  It felt like getting stabbed with a hot poker.  What an idiot.  There was a lot of swearing and then some crying.  Then, just being totally p.o'd.  How disappointing it is to realize I am in such a fragile way;  I've always thought of myself as 'sturdy' or physically fit even if I am a smallish person.   But, a few years ago I even gave up my motorcycle when I found out I have full blown osteoporosis.  Can't afford to get knocked off or fall off one of those if I can't even lean on something without breaking parts of me.  Let's just say...it's bloody annoying.

Anyway.... onward.  I've been baking.  My usual fall back in so many situations.  I love baking.  And at my speed it is not too strenuous.
I can't lift out my mixer...but, Mister BV moved it onto the counter and I'm leaving it there.  For as long as it takes for me to be able to lift it once again.  It was only a week ago today that I did the stupid thing...so I have several weeks of not being able to do much.  Laughing, coughing, sneezing or any quick movements are shocking to the area...to say the least.   Getting in and out of bed is agony.  Turning over in the night wakes me up with a start.  Okay... backtracking...hahhahah...oh, don't laugh...it hurts!

These are lovely and rustic looking.  In my biscotti making over the years I've gone from wanting them to look pristine to loving the rustic, home made appearance of biscotti like these.

On my Tea and Scones blog I have more pics and the link to Nonna Pia ... (what a little sweetie) ...actually, I'll link this up as well.  She makes very soft dough.... which is the furthest thing from what most recipes make up.  She spoons it out onto the parchment paper.  Seemed so strange when I first tried it because I usually have a lump of fairly dry dough that doesn't even stick to my hands while forming the 'logs' for the first bake.

My first few test bake recipes are in preparation for ...............wait for it................................did you guess?  ..   and I'm not the first this week to be talking about it......... Christmas!

Yeh, I know.  Too early.  But, it isn't.  That's what happens isn't it?  We are still trying to have our summer fun... then, it's fall and other things happen, and, all of a sudden, whammo!  It's the festive season and we are behind the eight ball already.  Not this year.  I'm getting a jump on recipes and then, I'm going to get busy with some crafting stuff.  Yep.  This year I'm gonna be ready.

Hahahahhahahhaha..... oh, brother that really hurt.  Silly me.  I say that every year and it never happens.  But, also, having said that ...I don't have too much to do at the festive season except baking and some little crafty stuff.  Buying gifts went the way of the Dodo years ago.... when postage and bus fares went sky high.  Our families agreed to buy ourselves gifts instead.... or not.  How much does a person need anyway?  We usually spend our money on things for the house.   Luckily, this year we are not renovating....wooohoooooo ........

So, after all of those paragraphs of twaddle, how do you like my rustic, crunchy, Almond-y biscotti?

'Tis the season to be.... sparkly!!

... and, I've been making more origami ornaments like I do each year since I learned how to make them.  I love doing them and using pretty foil type wrapping papers.  My neighbour gifted me a strip of beautiful, sparkly, almost fabric like paper...wow...it folds wonderfully and looks great!

Yesterday I heard some little noises in the front room and poked my head around the corner to see what it was.....


(click to enlarge them!)

Uh, oh.... sure enough, there were these two on the coffee table... playing with the half done papers ............  Tuffy deciding it must be a party hat .... but, then...  complaining because it was waaaay too big for his little head.

..... then, more muttering....something about,'who the heck was it for anyway'? ....

Frikkles, on the other hand, decided he would claim the one with turquoise and pink papers.... because it matched his big ol' hand made glass bead..... and ...he loves that colour!

I tried to explain to them that they were actually ornaments for the tree .... and, now .....they are lobbying to sit next to them in the tree when I hang them........ hmmmmmmm... trouble comes in all sizes ........

Merry Christmas!

Bernie settled in early on Christmas Eve to see the sparkly tree.... of course, it wasn't sparkly when he first got there and settled in to his favourite viewing spot.  It was still daytime.  I think he was a bit over eager.

Nonetheless, he did get the best seat in the house. And, soon...was rewarded for his patience.

oh, wow...........

ooooh....... yeh...........

uhm, Bernie.............

It's bed time, man......... c'mon............

Show and tell..

Finally!! I've had to keep it under wraps 'til now because my stitching buddy Maggi hadn't yet received it ...and she does check out this blog every so often... I didn't want to spoil my little surprise.

Remember the 'master sheet' of fabric I made from various bits of other fabrics?  Well, here is something else I decided to make from it..instead of just pincushions.... a little Christmas stocking.

I cut a design in light cardboard and moved it around over various parts of my sheet of fabrc..to decide on the best area to begin.  Tried bits of trim and got a feel for how it might look when finished.  Of course, it always changes midstream...but, that's fine... it's mostly just to find a great place to start.

See?  It did change ...I decided on a totally different area, but that's fine.... I'm sure nothing is ever set in stone when doing handwork.

I figured out a little bell in cross stitch and used some seed beads for a clanger... made some gold stars and tried a few French Knots with single strand of thread...  that was tricky...the gals on our stitching Flickr group heard about it and offered suggestions to tame unruly gold threads.... thanks ladies!
An edge of buttonhole lace on the real piece of lace on the heel, and a few green and red threads for holly and berries.. and, as they say....et voilà!
I did find a perfect ribbon instead of the cord to hang it ...but, no, I did not remember to take a final photo of the finished product.  Too eager to get it on its way to Maggi's house.... ...

I love my own little rendition of some Christmas bells....  here you can see them close up before I added the lace to the heel.

And, because I was so pumped with my finished stocking...I just had to do another ...and it was easy to finish on time as I had already done plenty of hand embroidery on what I thought would be another pincushion....but, for some reason...I was having big trouble deciding what to put on the left side of this piece of stitchery...total mental block it seemed....... .until...I looked at it through my "stocking" viewfinder instead of this "pincushion" block ... ...hahahha....all of a sudden.. a stocking it became!!

The three large rose looking flowers are actually bits cut from the piece of lace fabric I won from Karen a while ago.... I added some bullion stitches around them...and of course, had a lot of my favs...tiny Forget-Me-Knot flowers....

Once I decided it was becoming a Christmas stocking I had to add some gold stars to mine as well... copying the first Christmas stocking... and found a bit more ribbon to hang it ....

Directly onto our tree it went.

Makin' babies....

... maybe I had some of you there...hahhaha.... don't ya just love deceptive titles?  Sort of a regular on the news and great for selling scandal rags near the checkouts at the grocery store.

I'm making my walnut mice babies...that's what I'm really up to ... for the tree....and to give away.  They are pretty cute and almost everybody wants one for their own tree... why wouldn't they?
                                                                               

Remember last year when I was panicking that I would be buying a Safeway BBQ'd chicken for Christmas dinner ? ...(turned out I didn't have to resort to that, but, it was close) .... because this was where my oven was still sitting on the 21st of December  ..... in the dining room!  Because the cabinet guys couldn't get things right.  Not this year.  All is done ...but, now...I don't have my new dining room table and chairs..oh, well...we still have the old one....and I ain't taking it out til I see the new one in the back of a delivery truck!  which may be first week in January...or not......

it's December ....

hhahahah...no it's not!  But, it seems like Christmas to me!  And, I want you to know that I risked life and limb clambering over plenty of "stuff" in the crammed storage space to find my tiny tree for this shot!  It just had to be done didn't it?

Mr. BV said no way will you ever find it and if you do see it...you definitely won't be able to get to it....hah!  Oh, yeh?!

Boxes were delivered.... but, they are tightly wrapped ....and then...nobody came to open them the next day or to install the cabinets inside ....sigh.

The contractor showed up later in the day and seemed surprised that I hadn't opened at least one to get a sneak peek at my new kitchen.  It is strange I suppose.  But.. with some things? ....I AM patient....  not many, but some......

As you can see, there is some colour on the walls.  They add colour to the primer coat .. so you get an idea of how it will look.  Too dark for me...too blue-ish for Mr. BV...   back to the drawing board.  Or paint chips as it were.....don'tcha hate how tiny they are ?  Who can tell what a whole wall or room will look like ....  I mean really?  Yes, you have sort of an idea...but no, not really.

Doors, casings and window mouldings were also delivered...

As you can see.....the "dust bunny" as they called her, was also around.  She vacuumed all areas to remove most of the drywall dust after the taper left.  Wow... it looks darn good in photos ... real life, ..... nyehhh.....  not so much.

Still plenty of mud, dust and stuff all around..

The hardwood has been patched in all the areas where we extended rooms and moved walls ...we pushed the walls back almost three feet in the master bedroom.........

oh, and yeh...where the kid with the skill saw got careless....

All patched areas just very lightly sanded for now....the whole floor will be sanded and refinished closer to the end of the reno.......it's tricky to keep up with the progression of steps really.... like painting a first coat before hardwood being done etc.  But.. apparently it is better to paint the primer onto the newly taped and sanded drywall...for protection during the rest of the things being done.  There will, of course, always be damaged areas that need touch up.

This area near the front door.... ..... you can really get the idea in photos perfectly.  It has always been a danger zone.

Can you notice that there is a step down from the living room onto the foyer area?  It is pretty much invisible with the grain of hardwood going in the same direction .... and several people have taken a misstep there.  So...this time we had a lighter strip of Maple wood inserted into the area,  I hope it is enough to give people the clue.  It had to be repaired anyway as we widened the doorway.  The doorway below is my hobby room.... which also now has a wider doorway and some French doors will be hung there instead of just the original pocket door.  Here is a shot of the bottom of the step.  You can see the step from the lower side no problem.......still needs a piece of hardwood inserted there as well...

.......... it continues.......................................

here's what I'm doing today...

baking some of these.  Double Chocolate Chunk cookies...with cherries.... mmm... and with the link....reprising an old post from 2009 on my other blog.. Tea and Scones .... and.... figuring out how to make some photos smaller so that I can continue loading them ..even though I am nearly at 98% as far as blogger is concerned ( and, thank you to Catherine for helping me figure that one out)! I guess other people probably figured all of this out long before I did.  I AM a bit slow.
And...perhaps my way is still a bit convoluted... I am now exporting them to my documents..in smaller size and then uploading them from there to blogger... but, it does make them much smaller files to upload so perhaps I will have to go back through many postings.......and reload the pics.... smaller.....oh, dear...... I see a lot of work ahead of me......sigh...... or...I could just pay a few bucks and add more space to my blog....
Anybody have a better solution?  If so, please let me know.....

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can't upload pics today

 blogger is telling me my account size has been exceeded and I can pay for more storage etc... ...hmmm... when did they start to charge?  Hence ...no header pic...let's see if I can upload one here... maybe it's just a glitch...

hmmm.... seems okay here.... what is happening I wonder?
more cards in my tree.... recycled because I just can't toss them... I love the look of the cards in there.

Here is a cute one I got this year from Bob....the bear...

The Three Wise Bears.... they'll be sitting in my tree next year...

He made it himself....it's a lino cut.

......and decorations on the tree...

I particularly love this little birdie house.. it is made of metal and painted a soft sage green... has rugged old bits of twine holding on some rusty bells...there is a bit of greenery and berries.  Always find a special place for it.



The pile of ornaments grows each year... only by a few though as who needs to buy any more?  But, you know how it goes..sometimes you just see one that wants to go home with you... or a pair perhaps.  Actually I don't have a pear.. maybe some day a partridge in a pear tree might have to come home....                                                                             

Love this plump Santa...with his teddy.  When I bought a few of these..all slightly different...I thought maybe I could make some of my own out of one of the clays..but, so far...nope.  Haven't given one a try.  Maybe after Christmas... for next year...he really is a sweetie.

Our tree is pretty eclectic ...  bits of everything, but still tastefully done, I think.  I saved this tag from years ago... still love it.  Reminds me of the years when I used to have cats...and they would definitely be hanging from our tree or hiding in it ..... kinda miss that....hahahah...and all you cat owners know exactly what I'm talking about!

More of my favourite ornies to make... wish I had some lovely dark green foil ...but, none around this year....

 ..... or, even more of this paler green.... green seems tough to come by...

And...still my fav of all.... a card sent to me by my sis years ago.  I love the depiction of a Victorian Christmas.