A Colourful Life

Christmas Bargains, Kid Thoughts, the Jump Shot and a Card

Christmas Bargains:   One of the best things that happens after Christmas is everything "Christmas" is on sale!  This is usually the time that I go on the hunt for unique Christmas decorations to use next year. I found some good ones!

Beautiful Christmas coasters.....I loved the vintage feel of these coasters.  They kind of remind me of my stampng style....and the coaster itself looks like a card that I would make!  They are wood with the design on top sealed with a lacquer to withstand any beverage you might put on them!  Love these!
 

 

These little plates were quite uinque.  They are designed from the 12 days of Christmas carol - on this plate you see 10 lords-a-leaping, 11 pipers piping and 12 drummers drumming.  They are simple and elegant and excellent for next Christmas.  Simple in red and white, these plates are classic and will be used every year during the holidays!

I had a hoot with these red and white balls.  Each of them say "HO, HO HO".....we thought this time of year, they'd be ideal for Christmas at Tiger Woods' house.  (If you're a Tiger Woods fan, don't get mad.....just poking fun at the guy.....!)

 

 

Kid Thoughts:  I always wonder what kids are thinking when I see them -- I mostly relate to them when I think of how my brain worked as a kid and how things I heard or saw affected my thought process.  For example in the Christmas carol Santa Claus is coming to Town....I always thought the line "he sees you when you're sleeping...." was quite odd.  I would often go to sleep and wonder how it was possible for Santa to do that. My curtain was shut and the door was closed, so how could he do this???  Also as a child, I always worried about flying if the plane I was on was full.  I thought the heavier the plane was, the less chance we'd get off the ground...or the greater chance we would crash!   I would sit in my chair and watch people come in and sit down and hope that the line would end while there were still some empty seats cause this meant a lighter plane.  Sometimes this would happen and I would breathe a sigh of relief as they shut the plane doors, thinking we were safer.  Other times the plane would be packed full and I'd be worried sick that I was going to die for sure! 

The Jump Shot:   Every year at Christmas the family goes on a bus tour of all the local Christmas lights and we always take a jump shot.  This year, we went to Van Dusen to see the Festival of Lights and we got separated while touring the gardens.   So this year's jump shot is quite incomplete....though we will do another jumpshot when the family is complete. 

 

It was a pretty sad jump shot compared to last year's shot which you can find here.  But to make up for it, the kids did a  vogue shot a la Madonna.

 

Hahahahaha......I love my family -- we are very twisted in a special kind of way!  Here are more pics.

 

 

 

The Christmas lights display was beautiful!!! 
 

A Card: -- nothing fancy, just a lot of green which is my fave colour.  I will be doing more classes very soon, and this card is one of the cards in one of my January classes.

 
  

I am looking forward to New Year's -- we are having our New Year's Eve family party at the Marriott in Richmond and that promises to be lots of fun.  I will post about it and all the family hijinx with pics after the event, but here's a link to last year's fun.  Enjoy.
 

The Calm After the Storm.

Somehow I'm not sure if the title of this post is appropriate....it is Boxing Day after all and Doug just got back from the mall with Jordan and had to come straight home because he could not find a place to park!  That's how crazy the malls are today.  So "calm" is probably not the right adjective to use for the malls today....but it is for us here at home.  The build up to Christmas with all the decoratng, cooking, baking, etc is over and now we can relax this week.  I love the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Doug is off work and the kids are home from school and it is just one extended vacation at home full of endless days of long naps, watching T.V. and videos, playing video games.....just good ol' quality family time.  It's the best. 

Here are pics from Christmas:

 

Jordan got the Roland DS-5 speakers he wanted for practicing his DJing in his room.  He also got the other usual goodies....gift cards, money and chocolate.

 

Alyssa got her own netbook computer.  It is so cute and tiny and it is pink!  As Jordan, she got other goodies -- pajamas,slippers, hoodie, shirts -- all in pink!  

 

My wonderful husband gave me a great prezzie -- a trip to San Franciso on Jan 29,2010 to see a play I've been wanting to see forever -- "Wicked!"  -- when he handed me a piece of paper, I thought something was funny.  The paper had a United Airlines logo, a Westin hotel logo, a pic of the Golden Gate and the promo photo for the play.  I am very excited to go!  

 

After such a wonderful prezzie, I almost wanted to rush to the mall to buy something more for Doug....quite the impossible task on Christmas Day.  But Doug was happy with what I got him....clothes!  I did get him the Canadian Men's Olympic Team Hoodie in 2 different colours and he really likes hoodies -- wears them all the time.  But I feel kinda awful, cause I also bought myself a hoodie at the same time.  But he's happy, so it's all good. 

Before I go, here are the pics of the canvases I made as prezzies for my nieces...I know some people are waiting to see them.  They look better in person....these pics don't really show them very well, but here they are.....

 

 

 

 

 

And some close ups:

 

 
 
 

Just about time for Santa....

It's been a week since I've blogged.  Sorry about that....there really is no excuse other than I've been so busy with Christmas "stuff" -- christmas parties, baking, cooking, shopping, wrapping presents.....you know the drill.  This year a lot of my presents are from the heart, i.e. I made them myself!  Check out these canvasses that I made for my nieces....I'm only showing parts of them and real close-ups cause I don't want to post the actual full pic till after Christmas.

 

We've also been busy decorating the house and getting it all Christmasy and ready for Santa's arrival.....

 
 

The kids have their own ornaments that they put out each year....
 
 

The partying has started as well.  Doug's Christmas party was this past weekend (pics to come) and we've had friends over as well.  Last night we had some good family friends over.  Here are our kids playing a card game called SET. 

 

It's nice to see the kids grow up and become adults.  Our kids have known each other since they were babies!  Here is a pic of all of us, except Jordan who was taking the pic!

 
  

We have Xmas Eve dinner at my sisters, Xmas day lunch at my brothers and Xmas day dinner at Doug's brother's place.  I am predicting a visit to the gym on boxing day to work off all the food I am sure I will eat!

Hope all your Christmas preparations are going well and that Santa will be good to all of you this year!
 

Decorating, decorating....and Monogram Gifts.

The Christmas decorating continues.....yesterday I cleared all the family photos from the fireplace mantle to make way for the Christmas village that I put on there every year at Christmas.

 

At night when we are all in the family room watching T.V., we turn off all the lights and just have the lights illuminated from inside the buildings as our sole source of light and it is super cool.  It is a nice touch and one of those things that I look forward to every Christmas.  

Tomorrow I am going to a friend's birthday and I made him some personalized chocolate in a tin.  Here it is in the making.....

 

First I create the essential elements to personalize the actual tin case that will house the chocolates.  To do this, I just use the punches above and a monogram stamp set.

 
 The chocolates are Hershey's milk chocolate nuggets.  They are covered in Avery labels that I have handstamped in coordinating colours, before adhering them around the chocolates.
 
And this is what the final product looks like.  So easy to make and the fact that it's personalized is even better! 
 
 

Mom's Soup

Today, I cooked!  If you are a friend, or if you are in my family, or one of my sisters, don't have a heart attack....I'm not totally useless you know!  My family all know that while I love to craft, cooking is not something I like to do....but today I made soup.  This is the kind of soup my Mom cooks for us all the time and I love it....and today, I put on my big girls pants and made it all on my own!  Here is what the final product looked like:

 
And this is how my daughter likes to eat it....with rice!
 
Here is the mess I made while I was making it....
 
And here is the recipe.   It is sooooooo good!

Before I go, check out my kit blog!  The 2010 calendars are ready to be purchased!
 
 
 

I Love Snowmen!

I do love snowmen....I just don't like the snow!  How that makes sense, I have no idea but I really do not enjoy snow unless I don't have to drive in it.  I love to see it fall and see it so white and clean on the ground....the minute it turns into muddy slush, it's just gross!  The forecast continues to call for sub-zero temperatures and a possibility of snow flurries on Sunday.  At least, I can stay home that day! 

....we have lots of Christmas parties to attend coming up....starting this Friday night.  I love Christmas because it's a reason to buy a new outfit.  I have got my eye on this and I love this jacket as well!   I think shopping online beats real shopping anyday!

Today I made this:

 
A boutique on the West side who stocks my cards ordered a bunch of these snowmen cards.   I have to redo this one....can ya' see where I smudged the red ink on the left side....so annoyed with myself!  Here's a closeup:
 

Anyhoo.....happy Wednesday everyone!
 
 

Cold Outside!

It's cold here, but I shouldn't complain -- it's colder in other parts of Canada.  I don't know how the homeless do it, and I wish there was no such thing as homelessness.....specially during cold days like today.  It will dip way past zero tonight, so I hope that the shelters downtown can house as many homeless as there are roaming the streets.  It's way too cold to be outside.  It will be cold all this week and I'm so glad I don't have to drive downtown to work this winter! 

Today we put up the Christmas lights....and by "we", I really mean  Doug.  I just took a couple of pics then ran back inside where it was toasty and warm!

 

While Doug was outside, I continued to play inside my studio and made these.

I love this stamp and use it a lot.  It is from Stampin' Up's Upsy Daisy stamp set.  I love it because the solid image requires no colouring....so it's always super easy to whip up a card.  
 
If you choose patterned paper that isn't too busy, it's good to use with this stamp.  Stamping in black makes the image bold and it pops right off the paper.   This is a monochromatic card with black as my bold accent.  I loved the way it turned out.

Jordan is finished school for Christmas break but still has exams to write.  He is studying like there is no tomorrow.  I admire his dedication and commitment.  He wrote about his first term on his UBC blog and I had a good laugh at the way he ended the post -- check it out here.

 
 

3 weeks till......

...Christmas!  Most of my shopping is done...all out of town gifts wrapped, but yet have to be mailed, so I'm doing that on Monday.

This weekend I'll be designing more classes for the New Year.  Here's some closeups of cards from my current Winter wonderland class.

 

To order this class in the kit form, check out my kit blog here.

And check out this picture.

 

Someone's been re-arranging my studio....!

 

Winter Wonderland Kit

I have a new kit on my kit blog here.  Below is one of the cards in the kit as well as a close up.

 

The snowflake doubles as an ornament and is layered -- the top snowflake is all glitterd up!  To use as an ornament, just take it off the card by undoing the silver brad.

 

It's been fun making this kit and the pictures on the kit blog don't do the cards justice.

It's going to be cold next week -- the weather reports warn us of dipping temperatures.  Thankfully, it doesn't call for snow.  Snow can wait till Christmas Day! 

Yesterday I made this:

 

I haven't made jello in forever and while at Safeway I saw the Jello Snack Packs and thought why buy that when I can just make my own?  It was so refreshing.....I'm gonna buy other flavors and layer them like I used to, to create rainbow jello!  Yummy.
 
 
 

Who can resist.....

...chocolate??? Every year at my craft fair, I make these nugget tins.  Basically, they are tins with a clear window on top and I fill them with Hershey's chocolate nuggets that have been wrapped with handstamped labels.  This is not an original idea, rather one that has been floating around the web for at least a few years....not sure who originally thought of these, but thank you whoever you are cause these are a great seller for me!
 
I make a belly band to wrap around the tin with a scalloped circle label on top.  Here's a close up.
 
I make this every year and also make some as gifts.  Friends and family always appreciate it!  Trouble is I always end up sneaking some of the chocolate and several of them find themselves in my mouth while I am making these.  Oh well.....it's all good!