Sylvia's Simple Shots

I took this shot at the Sturgeon River a few days ago.  

Ice is forming along the edge of the river but we still do not have snow.

We have had some flurries which whitened the ground for a few days and then disappeared.  I have to say that it has made driving wonderful in November.  I am so thankful.

I took a trip to the south this week in search of C7 light bulbs for my Mom's Christmas Light Window Candelabra.  I wanted to make sure that I had replacements when one burned out.

I checked the website which indicated that they had several packages of just yellow bulbs but when I arrived and inquired I was told they don't have any - data error.  So I bought a large box to get the 5 yellow ones.

I have taken photos of these lights many times over the years that Mom had them.  She loved them and it was one of the decorations she took with for her year at the lodge. 

These were in the picture window at the house every year.  She loved them and I loved them.  I just love the halos.

It was the only thing I wanted to inherit of hers when she passed.  They bring me comfort.  It is a little thing but a big deal to me.

I will enjoy them the whole season.

This is a cobalt blue glass bottle made from recycled glass made in Spain.

I love the pattern on the bottom, the texture of the glass and the fact that it is a flat bottle so does not take a lot of space despite it's height.

It will serve as a flower vase when I want flowers on the table and I have the yellow table cloth.

I have some blue linen that I want to make a table runner - the project is on the back burner.

I have been working on Christmas stuff a lot.

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton.  This is my thirteenth novel in this series.

This one was a bit slow in my reading of it.  I could be my mood.

Kinsey Millhone witnesses a shoplifting incident at a shopping mall. What are the chances.  She so rarely visits department stores so to get embroiled in a conspiracy was a surprise.  Turns out Audrey Vance, the lady Kinsey saw take lingerie from the department store turns up dead a few days later.

This story involves a highly sophisticated fencing operation of stolen goods.  It is well organized where cells don't know all the players, works like a well oiled machine until Audrey is found dead.  She had her cog in the wheel and now there is no one to prepared the stolen goods and the stuff backs in the system. Kinsey is hired by her fiance to investigate and find out why Audrey died.

The mastermind of the operation is a crime boss, financier, "private banker" Lorenzo Dante.  He inherited the family business from his father who got into from his father. They all live on a large compound that Lorenzo supports for the aging members of his family.  He also supports a brother who has not inherited the gift for the business and has been in and out prison.  The should have cut those ties but it's family.  The brother makes a decision that will cost Dante all of it.

Christmas Card Challenge - Nov - Christmas Light

The challenge for this month is Christmas Light. It can be a lot of things: stars, lanterns, tree lights, fireplace, moon, lamp post, candles, or a house lit up.  What comes to mind for you? Leave me a comment.

This is not the card I started to make but I really like it. I cut the vellum with one of the Spellbinders Nestabilities Arched Windows One dies.  I then stamped the nativity and the dot stars on the vellum die cut. The nativity rubber stamp came from the $1.50 section and the dot stars on the vellum were done with a Stampin Up Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp.  I then embossed them with Jeweled Gold embossing powder.  Wanting to keep with the same colors and with no star stamp in my collection I rubbed clear embossing ink onto a scrap piece of vellum then embossed it with the same powder then punched it out. Voila! It matches.  I wanted to make it look a bit like a snow globe so I cut some black metallic card stock for the base and adhered it to the vellum.  I was going to put it directly on the black but there was not enough contrast so I added a white layer. I created that layer with a rectangle frame with the first few words of the song "O Holy Night" printed in black.  I trimmed this layer and adhered it to the black card.