Small Gifts - Car Cup Holders Coasters - Bunch 2

I made another set of Car Cup Holder Coasters.

These are for the guys in the family.

The first is J for the car he drives. A grey felt "J" on black fleece with black cotton on the back with two tone grey black grosgrain ribbon tabs.

The set on the right features the ocean and sunset in felt on teal fleece with teal cotton on the back. Yellow grosgrain ribbon tabs. 

Left again are 3 leaves in yellow, green and orange felt on green felt with orange grosgrain tabs.

Bottom right features an acorn designed with felt on black felt with black cotton on the back and brown grosgrain tabs.

Bottom left is the evergreen tree with sun and hills with yellow denim cotton on back with black grosgrain ribbon tabs.

Christmas Tree Scent Ornaments - Batch 2

I sold all 3 from the first batch so I made up a few more today and delivered them.

Felt is the best material for passive diffusers so the oil should be put onto the darkest of the balls so in this case the black or grey ones would be best.  

I had these ready the other day but I did not know I had sold so many Christmas Tree Scent ornaments so I packaged these up and delivered these as well. The gallery was open today which was really great!

Stuffed little quilted hearts.  The left one is cotton fabric in kraft striped and ivory snowflake fabric. Added a wooden button on the front and a bead on the hanger cord.  A loose stitch of teal thread around the edge.

The second one is kraft plaid with teal and heart wool fabric.  It sports the same wooden accents and teal stitching. 

The oil on these should be put on the back or directly on the wooden elements if you are careful. 

Sympathy - Tragedy strikes

This card is for my aunt who lost her granddaughter in an airplane crash this week.

The young lady had moved to California with her husband.  She had just finished her education.  Due to COVID she had not been back to visit and now it will not happen.

She was 33 years old with her life in front of her.  It is very sad.

This is one of my photographs with a filter applied to create a black and white stylized evergreen branch.  Printed on heavy card stock, trimmed to leave a small border and mounted to the front of a Kiwi Kiss card base.

I used a Modern Label punchie with a color printed greeting. Chalked with green to coordinate and mounted with 3D tape. 

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I have joined a 52 Week Photo Challenge hosted by Kevin.  

This week's challenge was Nature.  I was out yesterday morning for my walk with good temperatures.  Unfortunately, not much sun.

I captured this Scotch Pine Bough which is nature.  I love the soft background of snow but it is beautiful out of focus.  

 

 

 

I finally got myself a new pair of jeans at the thrift store this week.  I was swimming in my old ones because I have lost 22 pounds in 2020.

I could not try them on because of COVID restrictions so they are not as great as I would have liked but much better than what I have been wearing.  I even had a belt in my cupboard that matched.

I did have to hem them.  One pair of pants I can wear out in public that fit well, not that I am going out except for groceries and prescriptions. This was my 2nd thrift store visit since August. 

This book Ruby by Cynthia Bond was very multi layered. Ruby is a young girl of color raised in the 1950s in the state of New York.  It is a story of survival with love, sisterhood among women, and brutality.

I found it hard at times to keep the characters straight because of the interrelationships.  Ruby is the main character and the man who loves her, Ephram.  There is a lot of sadness, pain, growth, and extraction of demons from her past. 

I am glad I read the book despite it being difficult at times.  It was good to know what growing up black is like.

I made some improvements to the photo studio.  Consistent lighting was really necessary.  Now with all daylight LED bulbs it is low energy consumption and good light.

The power bar allows me to shut off all the lights at once.  When I take the camera to review the shots then come back and adjust my composition, etc. Having light from above is also great when trying to eliminate shadows.

Also I am not running cords across my walking space which was a tripping hazard.

When I picked up this book I thought it was about Maud Lewis the artist but it is about Lucy Maud Montgomery the author.  Maud by Harry Bruce.  

A young girl growing up on Prince Edward Island in Canada in the late 1800s when women were not given many opportunities to have independent lives.  She becomes a teacher while constantly writing. She does not let rejection letter dissuade her.   She slowly gets more and more writing published, then getting paid for the stories being published.  She is the author of the well known Anne of Green Gables.

I picked up the 5 DVD set of the TV series Anne of Green Gables at the thrift store the other day. I had just finished the Maud book so the story was fresh on my mind. There are times where there is not much wholesome on TV so this will give me something to watch.

I have decided to install photo shelves in my place so that I can change out the art and photography at will instead of making new holes in the walls. 

I bought 2 last fall sometime but my life took a bit of turn health wise so they were never put up.  This week I had a plan as to where I would put them but it turns out there is cement behind the drywall so I could not sink the anchors far enough in.

Change of plan.  I have put one up in the kitchen which holds the art from my niece and her trip to Italy and the vase of sunflowers.

The Flickr Macro Monday challenge this week is "beverage".  A bit challenging with a 3" limit.  To the right is a small cup which is filled with eggnog and cinnamon. You can check out my Flickr photo stream (SMDPics) to see the image I submitted. 

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #113 and Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #274.

Recent Photos

We got some more snow overnight!  I captured these soft snow mounds in the river valley on my walk this afternoon.

It was only -2C so the water was running in places and hopefully soon it will be history!!!

The birds were busy at the bird feeder.

I had put sunflower seeds to have them land on the railing of the steps.

Another walker had put out peanuts and was desperately trying to keep the magpies eating his contribution for the smaller birds.

I love how I got the shine of his eye in this photo.  He is keeping an his eye on me while checking out where the food is.

The House Sparrow has such wonderful coloring on his back.

The fellow had made the peanut chunks smaller but it seems a bit of a mouth full for this guy.

Of course, the squirrels are competing with the birds for dibs but I am not including of photo of them this week.











This is a small evergreen tree on the golf course in the river valley.  He is perfectly suited in a suit of white.

I captured a bit of color as well with these dried rose hips. 

The dried grasses are in the yellows and straw colors right now as well.



The snow fell slowly and gently over night and most of the morning so driving was a bit hazardous so I chose my feet in nature towards the end of the day.  This is my snow capped mosaic.

Sharing with 

Maggie hosting Mosaic Monday #77 at Normandy Life.

Thru My Lens N.137 hosted by Mersad Donko Photography.

Craft Sale - Christmas Photo Cards

I have made a few more photo Christmas Cards for my craft sale on the weekend. Check out my events page for details.

This was a snowman decoration at the Conservatory a couple of years ago.  Love his happy face.  This is a 3.5 x 4.75 inch photo on a white heavy card.




The standing deer was again at the Conservatory.

Red berry from the Conservatory.




The bird was an ornament on a Christmas tree at the Garden Center.

The Cardinal ornament with birch trees is a glass ornament on display at the garden center.

The oval poinsettia is an old design which I have converted to a photo card.  Love the red poinsettia.

The aqua blue glass ornament was on a tree at the garden center.
The sitting deer was at the Conservatory.

The evergreen bough is a great winter card.
The leaves with red berries photo does not have snow but has wonderful seasonal colors.

White poinsettia taken at the Conservatory.

Digital Cards - Save our Date

I've created some Save our Date cards using some of my art and photos.  Once personalized, they are available as 4x6 photo files and will be delivered in a digital file. They can be shared digitally on social media or sent by email. They can also be printed at your local photo printer.

This first one would be great for a wedding being held at the lake or cottage.  The lake photo has a pine branch coming in from the right hand corner.

This one features a watercolor background with one of  my original evergreen paintings.  It's elements are coordinated with the colors in the background.  This could be used for a summer wedding.

This birch tree card features one of my original watercolor paintings.  The elements are color coordinated with the background.  This would be great for a winter wedding.

You will find these on my Digital Products tab at the top of the blog.

Christmas Card Challenge - Silver / Large Greeting

It's time for another set of Christmas cards to keep me on track for November. I'm at 50 which is not half way to what I need so I will have to pick up the pace.  I have a class scheduled for June 6th so that should help.

The challenge for June was Silver and Large Greeting. I color printed the greeting. The small evergreen tree is Always Artichoke and the tree stamp from the Stampin Up Festival of Trees set. The large greeting is printed in black on vellum and then embossed with silver detail powder.   I chose a warm forest designer paper - Provocraft - Once Upon a Forest.  The paper was trimmed to leave a small border and placed on a grey green card which matched the designer perfectly.  I added a sparkly silver glitter swirl brad to fill in the open space and repeat the silver color.  I did several greetings and Winter Wishes was one of them.  There are some people that are not as crazy about Christmas as I am so a few cards with out Christmas on it helps to fill that gap in my card collection.

Super happy with these and they were very quick to make. 

Mosaic Monday - Inside and Out

I took a few outside pictures recently.  The pine trees line a drive way and stand straight and snow covered.  The deciduous trees in the background are catching the sunlight and look lit up providing a contrast for the dark green evergreens.















I am working on still life photography right now.  This is a clear glass tea pot with pink tea inside.  I was looking for a tea that would complement the red charger plate and turned out to be the Oprah Chai Tea.

















A picture of train tracks curving off into unknown parts. As I enter 2016 not knowing what the year will bring I look forward to new experiences.

Card - Color Challenge - Blue, Green, Purple

I started with a Stampin Up Always Artichoke card.  I color printed the Joy greeting with a digi from the Eventful Year stamp set in Marina Mist.  I then stamped the Evergreen from the Lovely as a Tree stamp set in AA. I adhered this layer to the card front.  I added small ribbon flags in the upper left hand corner in MM, AA and Elegant Eggplant.  These are held in place with tiny white brads.

Submitting this card to these challenges:

Clean & Simple Color & Sketches #114 Challenge.

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything goes

Photo - Get Outside!

Here`s a photo I took today after accepting a challenge from Claire to get outside! 
I have been more of a couch potato than I should be recently with the problems that brings.  I took a walk today and took this picture of our river valley.  It was -8C but the wind was pretty strong which made the temperature pretty brutal.  I was out at least half an hour so that was very good.  I`m glad I went.  Thanks, Claire for the challenge and I`ve posted my pic.
I liked the little bare tree in the middle of all the evergreens.