Sylvia's Simple Shots

I had planned to attend a local church service on Christmas Eve but it had snowed enough and it was cold so I decided to stay home.  I then headed to the internet to find a Christmas Eve service I could enjoy.

Conception Bay Newfoundland had a great service.  Enjoyed it immensely.  So grateful to the technology available these days.

The Huron Carol sung by Tom Jackson is one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

With my plans changing for Christmas Day because my family was sick and turkey dinner was delayed I spent Christmas Day differently than usual.  That was okay with me. A chill day - yes - it was chilly -23C and snow fell.

A pristine layer of snow covered the green space beyond the patio.

The sun shone which was much appreciated.

So far, it has been a gloomy winter and I look forward to more sunny days.  Gloomy drags me down.

I had the last of this beautiful tea that my aunt gave me this summer.

Just look at that color.  Lavender Chamomile.

A chocolate bran muffin.

Turkey is planned for supper.

I worked on Mom's candelabra this week.  I want to convert to LED lights.

I did manage to get some LED bulbs at Rona but they are clear and not yellow.

I did color one yellow with Alcohol Inks by Ranger.

The bulbs are not quite the same shape so they need a bit of trimming.  

Maybe I should hold out for yellow LED which are the same shape. I expect it will happen.

I saved a piece of turkey from my sister's house so I thawed that.  

I bought brussel sprouts and microwaved them some and finished them in the cast iron fry pan.

Veggies and rice were added to the plate.  

Of course, high bush cranberry sauce (pembina) from my sister was the icing on the plate.  

I did make some gravy from my left over Better than Bouillion from house warming soup.

It was delicious.

I made Raspberry Bavarian that Mom always made for dessert.

Served with a white chocolate cookie.

A bit of dark chocolate and a warm large cup of tea finished it off.

The Skystone by Jack Whyte was the book I read this week.

It is set in 367 - 448 AD in the province the Romans called Britain.  The central figures are Roman soldiers Caius Britannicus and Publius Varrus. The Saxons (Germanic people from northern Europe) invade Britian and breach Hadrian's Wall and chaos ensues.

The story is told as a remembrance of Publius when he is very old. 

These men had served the Roman Empire in Africa in early 360s.  Now they are together again fighting the enemy.  After the injuries both men go their own ways - Plubius to the house he inherited from his grandfather who died while he was in Africa. Caius to his Colony - a fortified compound in western Britain where a new society is growing.

When things get bad, Plubius abandons his home and heads to the compound and is warmly welcomed. He meets Caius's sister Luceiia who he eventually marries. 

Plubius' father had found a stone that fell from the sky and learned to melt it and forged a sword where the metal was mixed with iron and a dagger made from the Skystone metal.  It was silver, beautiful and very hard.  Plubius is on the hunt for more Skystones to make some magnificent weapons.  In the hills near the Colony he does find the stones and works to dig them from the ground. 

In my opinion, the name of the book is not indicative of the story told. The skystones do not feature prominently in the story.  

The story of these two men is fabulous.

On the right, I have included a very interesting map of the world in this time. 

Christmas Decorations are up!

The front hall rectangular bowl has pine cones and mercury glass ornaments with the brass jingle bell.

The Christmas rose bowl with a red candle is sitting there greeting guests as they arrive.  I have replaced the real candle with a red battery operated one.  This was a gift from my sister who sent it from Germany.

The white ceramic tree works all year long and fits right in at this time of year.

I set up the large metal nativity scene for the first Sunday of Advent - Nov 30th. 

The candle holder in the front is my alternative Advent wreath since I just did not have the space for the large glass one. It will get spruced up next year but for this year I am just glad I have it up.

I set up my fluted tea cups as tealight holders which works well.  I put a crackled glass holder at the top for Christmas Day.  

I put real candles in the Advent Wreath and make sure I blow them out when I leave the room.

Here's the Christmas Tree all light up and decorated.

It looks so good.  

It was nice to open the boxes of decorations I have not seen since 2023. 

They are mostly glass with a few wood ones as well.

Some are ornaments we receive at our large family get together which we celebrate every other year.

There are a couple of very old ornaments which we had as kids.

It sits in the middle of the conversation corner between the 2 yellow chairs.

I have several nativity sets.  My large one is still packed so I pull out this medium one which sits nicely in front of the folk art painted fold out stable.

I added string of battery operated fairy lights and the green ceramic Christmas tree I found on sale at Superstore a couple of years ago.

The Reason for the Season.

I have several fireplace DVDs.  I chose this one for this year because it makes the TV look great and there is the option to only the fire crackle and no music.

I had it on went folks came to visit.

The Silent Night wax warmer from Scentsy which I received as a gift from my niece is putting a cinnamon scent in my place.

I love how it makes light marks on the wall at the back.

The wax plate is generous and wax lasts a long time.

Scentsy Cinnamon Vanilla is my favorite. After checking current scents I see it is still available.

I will check in my new town if there is a rep nearby.

I now have Mom's Christmas Candelabra.  I just love it.

I have it set up in the window in the craft room.

I will investigate getting LED bulbs for it. I can color them with alcohol ink to make them yellow.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

Finally, the restoration of the kitchen is moving forward. 

The bottom cupboards are back in the kitchen.

They are being reinforced where damage occurred during the removal process. 

There will be plastering, sanding, painting happening here for a little a little bit.

The carpenter is very generous to spend an hour with me going over ideas about paint, finishes, and much more.  

I left feeling that we were on the same page about the renovation.

I watched this Christmas movie this week.

An angel tree topper comes to life to return a Christmas spirit to this town.

One of the residents of this small town has a very poor attitude and she brings woe to those around her.

The angel and the girls vow to bring a brighter spirit to those around them.  They bake cookies, give away gifts, paint rocks with encouraging sayings andhelp out neighbours including Mrs. Grouchy. 

Turns out she used to be Mrs. Christmas in this town till her daughter eloped against her wishes then her attitude soured.

A Christmas spirit is returned at the of the movie and Mrs. Grouchy gets to meet her grandchildren for the first time.

I spend a lot of time with my sister on Christmas day trying to decide which color scheme to paint the cupboards after they were damaged during the asbestos abatement process. 

The white is the walls, the yellows are the frame on the cupboard doors and the grey is for the face of the cabinets. The second yellow represents the butcher block counter top.

I am happy to report that painting was the solution chosen and that project is moving forward

I went to my sister's for Christmas day and we attended this church's Christmas morning service.  It was very good.  I am so grateful that roads were so good for driving.  I returned to the hotel on Boxing Day.  We were joined by their neighbors.

We attended a community turkey lunch with a few hundred people.  I understand 214 plates were served.

We sat with a gentlemen who had recently loss his wife and this was the first time he attended on his own.

The turkey with all the trimmings was excellent though it took a while to serve that many people.

Another visit with Kinsey Milhone in Sue Grafton's X book.

Kinsey helps a widow with investigating the death of her husband which was someone Kinsey worked with.

I have read this book before but I did not have it blogged so I am including it here.

Christmas Ornaments - Mom's Memory

I am working on making these ornaments for mysiblings and grand kids as a memory of Mom who passed Jan 2023.

We are having a family get together on the Dec 27-28, 2024

We did a similar one for Dad 2 years ago.

Wooden spool, with navy wool felt, a piece of Mom's favorite dress and a LOVE heart held with a safety pin.

Mom sewed all her life so the spool works well. We all remember Mom's special dress which she made herself.

She loves us a lot. 

Nice slow stitch project which my sister helped with preparations since I have limited access to my tools!  

Turkey Dinner

I got my one Turkey Dinner for Christmas.

This is our seniors group at church, who served a wonderful turkey dinner.

It was wonderful to visit with friends and enjoy a great meal.

I skipped the concert afterwards because of having to walk at night.

 

Christmas Movie - A Christmas Winter Song

I watched this Christmas Movie on Sunday. A Christmas Winter Song.

A new to me Christmas movie with a good story line and wonderful characters.

A story of redemption which fits in well with Christmas.

Watercolor Art - Christmas

I tried a Christmas art drawing last night.

A Bethlehem Star front and center.  A night blue sky with stars.

A stable with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.

Sand dunes a plenty.

Penciled then went over with a dip pen and black ink.

Watercolored with my rag tag pencils.

 

Sylvia's Simple Shots

Nice to have a cool Christmas story in the middle of a summer heat wave.

A Baxter Family Christmas by Karen Kingsbury.

I am not familiar with the family but there is a very good summary at the beginning of the book.  

John the patriarch of the family has invited the recipient of his precious Erin's heart, Kendra Bryant for Christmas Eve dinner.  Erin, her husband and 3 of their 4 children were killed in a car accident. Some of the siblings don't want to meet her and make different plans.  It will be a different Christmas than the one everybody has celebrated in the past.

Flanigans are friends of the Baxters but due to changes which have taken place in the last few years they have not recently joined the family for the traditional Christmas Eve dessert and Pictionary evening.

Maddie West a granddaugther has been helping with the Christmsas children's play organized by Bailey and Brandon. Connor Flannigan has been asked to judge the auditions for this years show by his sister Bailey.  There is instant chemistry between Maddie and Connor but there will be some trials between Thanksgiving and Christmas that they will need to navigate.

I packed up the bookcases this week in preparation for the removal of the carpet later this week.

The bedroom is getting pretty full of stuff from the living room and dining room.

The heat wave has started and it was HOT all week!

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George is a book I read this week.

Monsieur Perdu runs a book shop on a refurbished barge docked in Paris on the river Seine.  He lives in a house with several other residents.  Catherine Le P. as recently moved after separating from her husband.  She has very little and the owner of the house is asking for donations, in particular a table. Monsieur Perdu has an extra table which has not seen in 20 years as it was closed off in a room when his love left him.

Catherine finds a letter in the drawer of the table which Monsieur Perdu received when Manon his love left.  He has not opened it.  He was afraid and has lived his life hiding for a long time.

After some persuasion, he reads the letter and it was not as he expected.  He has wasted 20 years and now he must find her.  He releases the barge and heads south on the Seine.

Many adventures are had.  It was a very easy read and delightful to travel France.

I was very grateful when my sister and brother-in-law agreed to come help remove the carpet.

The temperatures were soaring and it was hot and sweaty work.

I had most of the dining room done when they arrived.  We worked from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm to get the carpet and tack strips put into rolls.

We washed up, changed clothes and headed to Boston Pizza for lunch in air conditioning.  We had great food, conversation and rested for a couple of hours.

There was a lot of rubber cement and areas of adhesive that needed to scraped down with blades to make sure the surface was smooth.

The underlay was just a mishmash of different colors and remnants all just patchworked together. All the seams had been glued.  Not exactly wonderful.  They took away the 11 rolls of carpet so that was one less job for me.  Thanks so much!

The installation of the new flooring has been put on hold.

Plans to start on Monday are postponed until approval has been granted.

YUCK!

I decided to paint the dining room.

In the top left hand corner of the collage you can see how the place was painted before I moved in.

The electrical plates were not removed and the paint did not even go to the edges.

It was a very hot and sweaty job.  The paint was drying fast so I had to take it a little bit at a time to get it covered well.

It was a full afternoon of up and down the step stool and my arms were tired by the end of the afternoon.

It looks fabulous!  Worth it.

I got my COVID shot this week.

It was not like the old days, I walked into my pharmacy with my updated prescriptions and asked whether I could schedule a shot and was told we can do right away.

Filled out the paper work, got the shot and waited my 15 minutes and it was done!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I found a few things at the Thrift Store this week.

There Christmas section upstairs was open so I had to have a look.  I found a PartyLite bird tealight holder. I own a silver one and a ruby one so this will make three. Perfect.

The little LED Christmas tree will come in handy and all it needed was a new battery.  The string of snowflakes works.  All of this for less than $2. 

I have been looking for a swivel peeler for about 6 weeks. When I visited one of my sisters she just used the peeler to create carrot curls instead of grating it.  I thought it was a genius idea.  

My old stiff peeler did not so such a great job.  The ceramic peeler was just what I wanted and for under $1.

My sister and I decided we needed to swap things that were going in both directions. We decided to each take a bit of a drive in meet in the middle.

We had lunch at Wendy's then hit the 2 Thrift Stores in town.  I found this tea strainer brand new in the box for less than $1.  I have been looking for one since I misplaced mine. It retails for over $10 so that was a bargain.

The shape could not be better, a little teapot shape.  I have not seen one of these before.That will pair great with Lemon loose tea I found recently and really enjoy.

I also found pillowcase for cotton for the bags I am going to sew.

My trusty 2" circle punch bit the dust while I was preparing tags recently.

When Michaels had a 40% coupon in mid October I bought a new one. I do have thinlits I could cut circles with but the punch is so handy.

It really comes in handy for a lot of things.

I have decided to buy my bread at Cobs. Yes, the price is high but it is very good quality bread.  I can pay the same price at my regular grocery store and not get the same quality.

I find with this bread, I can cut the size of slice I want.  I can eat 1 slice and not feel triggered to eat 3 more slices which I found happens with the grocery store bread.

The loaves are bigger than my regular store and it is very wholesome and very good.

It is more expensive but I eat less so it works out.

This is the Country Grain Loaf.

A small little book with a great story. The Music Box by T. Davis Bunn.

Angie Picard as moved from the city to the mountain country and her home town. She is a teacher and enjoys her vocation. She has had a lot of challenges in her 31 years. She returned as a young widow.

Melissa Nealey is a newcomer and is quiet and shy and in the eight grade. She and her father Carson have moved from the city. She loves music and has a music box left to her by her mother when she passed 3 years ago.

In a crisis, Angie steps in to help Carson and Melissa through a health crisis.  She cares and loves on them and much healing takes place. 

Melissa and Angie share their love of music and life brings healing to Angie as well. 

The traveling was good to attend the reception Saturday afternoon.  I met a couple of my aunts there and shared with the other artists in attendance.

The 12x12 pieces were hung by color.  There are many wonderful works in the show.  It was a good time to connect with others in the group.

I did visit Michaels again this week with another 40% coupon for basic card making supplies. 

Calendar - Countdown - Four More

Cool Snowman Countdown Calendar featuring the scene I created and photographed. 

On this 4x6 I added the "Days until Christmas" and the star digitally onto the photo that I took.

The birthday side features bright red polka dot designer paper with silver metallic balloon punchies with black strings.

This one got a black dry erase marker.

On this Green Red Ornament countdown calendar I used a red ornament on a green background with a pine bough.  I created this digital composition a few years ago. I created all these elements myself.

I added the star and the words digitally above the ornament.

The birthday side has some beautiful blue paisley designs with olive green and chocolate brown sprinkled around the shapes.

I chose the green dry erase marker for this calendar.

The calendar features a Bethelehm collage that I created on artist board. I painted the board a medium blue.  I then ripped cardstock paper that I had painted in deeper tones of blue.  The paper was also embossed with the Swiss Dot folder.  The darker pieces were adhered onto board leaving the blue color show in between.  

The Bethelem buildings a a similar design to my Simple Bethelehem.  They were traced, cut from card stock, painted with silver domes and lit windows. The bottom third was cover with crinkled paste paper in deep blues and purples. The silver band of metallic card stock was cut with the Creative Memories Decorative Trimmer and adhered over the collage.

I did have to manipulate a photograph of this artwork to make the silver band wider to allow for the words and space for the numbers.  

The birthday side is a piece of wonderful floral designer paper with purple and yellow flowers and yelllow bees. This calendar was paired with a purple dry erase marker.

Warm Snow Angel count down calendar was made with the photo shoot I did the other day.

I added the words "Days until Christmas digitally before having the 4x6 printed professionally.

The birthday side is a colorful wirly swirly designer paper featuring many colors.

I paired this calendar with an orange dry eraser marker.

These are ready to go!

Photo Shoot - Chrismas - Tiny Wood Stable

I found this tiny wood stable ornament at the ReUse center.  They always have a bit of Christmas all year round which works for me. I am sure it olive wood.

I just removed the eyelet and string hanger from the roof of the stable. 

I added the white fiberfill batting around the base making sure to cover the transition from the table to the background. 

I used my gold foil star die cuts again on this  composition.  I wanted to leave some space at the top so I can add digital elements as I go along.

The star background again is 12x12 designer paper by Creative Imaginations created by Helen Dardik.

This will work for a 3.5x5 inch layer on an A2 (4.25x5.5") card, a 4x6 print on a 5x7 A7 card, a 4x6 photo background for the Christmas Countdown calendars. And who knows what future projects.

This process entails taking many photographs, tweaking the composition, post production work including cropping and sizing for specific outcomes.

Photo Shoot - Christmas - Warm Snow Angel

My sister gave me this wonderful warm color snow angel.  It is quite large and would not fit into my tiny photo studio so I just put him on the shelf. I photographed him at her house years ago. This is a set of cards I create with that shot.

With a lot of thinking about it I realized that I could use my background stand to hold background paper.  That worked out really well. Check the photo below.  It can be set up narrower than I usually use it from photographing my art for gallery shows.

Now I could create a background in proportion to his size.  Also I now have 4 feet of table to create depth of field with items laid further apart.

I used some warm and natural quilting batting for the snowbank.  I cut gold foil stars with my Sizzix star #2 die that cuts 4 stars in various sizes.  Found the foil card stock at ReUse for free.

With this composition I have enough space at the top to either add a digital greeting for a card or a place holder and words for the countdown calendars.

So glad he came back to me.

Photo Shoot - Christmas - Cool Snowman

I worked on Christmas photography for cards this year.

This was a fun one.  This was created with free and found objects.

It started with the blown glass snowman I found at the ReUse Center.  I needed an environment for him and it took a few days for me to remember the little house and find it. 

It is a small gingerbread house that lights up.  I think IKEA but it is not marked.  

The white wood tree pick - I cut the pick to short and put it into a styrofoam block so it would stand.

The tiny bottle brush tree came out of an ornament which I managed to extract with a piece of wire.

The snow is fiberfill batting for quilts.  It is stretched, moved around, fluffed up and patted down as needed.  Added a bit to the chimney. The house and snowman are raised so they don't get lost in the snow. Need enough snow to cover the transition from the the table to the background.

The background is a piece of scrapbook designer paper in navy star night sky.  Perfect.

It is 12x12 designer paper by Creative Imaginations created by Helen Dardik.

I now have a photo that can serve different purposes.  Trimmed to the right size of 4 x 6 it will become a Christmas background for one of the count down calendars. More about that later.  It will need a few words and a star where the numbers can be written At this size it can also be used on a 5x7 A7 photo card when I add a digital greeting.  The shot can also be trimmed to 3.5 x 5 inches to be used on a 4.25x5.5 inch A2 greeting card.  This turned out so well.