Sylvia's Simple Shots

The second Sunday of Advent and lighting the PEACE candle.

The second Advent candle reminds us of Mary and Joseph’s journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem before Mary gave birth to Jesus. 

This second candle recalls that after all of the division, destruction, and dispersion of the kingdom in the Old Testament, there might finally be peace on Earth – Jesus is coming, and so is his Kingdom of Peace. 

So fitting for our world today.

On Sunday I attended the Steve Bell concert with my sister and brother-in-law.  They have seen him 2 times before and this was my first time.

The Alliance Church was about 80% full. His concert in Calgary was a sell out.

The music was good, the company was great and it was a wonderful evening.  Driving home late at night was made better by the fact that there was no snow or ice and the temperature hovered just about 0C.

We had supper at Swiss Chalet before the concert which is the first time in nearly 4 years that I have eaten there.  The food was delicious as always.

I bought this book a couple of months ago for .50 cents.  It was after I had started with my Inktober challenge and I recognized that I needed to improve my drawing so I could do better ink and watercolor pieces.

I read the first 5 chapters.  That is the basics, now I will have to read and to exercises so that is no longer bed time reading.

I will have to get a sketch book and work on this.

When I was at the reception for the Christmas Store there was a table which had not been filled when I visited earlier with my friend.

The pieces were glass which is my weakness. There were small glass pieces made by Joe DeWitte.  There was a gorgeous acorn but it was less versatile than this small golden yellow flower.  Check out those tiny perfect water drops in the center of the flower. 

I still have to decide how I will display and use it but it means I can have flowers on my table all year long.

Totally happy!

I decided to revisit Greenland Garden Center this week. What a difference 5 weeks makes.  The shoppe was so empty compared to when I last visited.  They have moved a huge amount of inventory in that time.

I was truly amazed.

There was still a nice collection of Christmas decor to make a few shots possible.

The fresh flowers and plants were really nice.  Check out that Christmas cactus.

On Saturday I went to my aunt's house to make our traditional meat pies called tourtieres.

The meat is a mix of beef and pork with potatoes and onions then slowly cooked with wonderful spices.

She made a double batch of pastry dough and we made 8 small pies. The bit larger ones are for her and the 4 smaller ones for me. They turned out really great.  She froze enough meat to make a large pie when she is ready to host her family.  

We had omelette for lunch with no alcohol white wine and had a great visit.  It was a great day.

I attended the Women's Christmas event at church this week.  It was a small group with a wide age range.

It was a last minute thing.  I just got the details a couple of days earlier. 

There were a few ladies I had visits with which was wonderful.  There was snack food and games.  Minute to win it games went on for a long time and there was drama between a few of the participants which showed some immaturity. Disappointing.

There were wonderful door prizes. I chose this jam set with beautiful small jars, a plate and spoon.  Fig, apricot, orange, raspberry and black cherry are a few of the flavors.

Greenland Garden Center

I met the girls at Tim Horton's for coffee then headed to Greenland Garden Center for a photo shoot!

Mistake! It is a day off today in lieu of Remembrance Day so the place was packed with wonderful Christmas decorations but also a ton of people young and old.

I did manage a few shots before I just gave up.  I did buy a pick of jingle bells on my way out. 

There was a light which reminded of my stained glass light project. There were many nativities available, I liked this one a lot.  Nice and simple for one with very little space. The birds are always great. 

I see that the felt ball garland is still in vogue this year.  These were gorgeous but with a crazy price and no tree to put it on it stayed on the shelf. It could hang elsewhere I suppose.

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.

Holy Family Photo Christmas Cards

I take photos of nativity sets whenever I can. This was taken during the 2016 Christmas season.

This time I was working on supplies for a stack card kit for my class on Monday.  I printed a few extra to make some cards for the craft sale.

Here I have adjusted the orientation of the photo to accommodate my needs for the card kit.  I added a color fill background and added a greeting.

For this card with a 4x6 photo I had to reduce the space between the photo and the greeting so I trimmed the photo down to a narrow color border.  I then trimmed the greeting to the same width as the photo.  These were adhered to the card front of a heavy white card. 




Left: This little nativity I have used before.


Right: I designed this card with a Mother and Child photo from Pixabay.  I`ve used this image several times.

The stack kit should be ready soon.

Mosaic Monday - Visit to Garden Center

I visited the large garden center yesterday.  I generally only visit at Christmas time when it is totally decked out for the season.  It was very windy yesterday wo it was nice to photograph flowers that were sitting pretty.

There were a large variety of pots for house plants and outside patios.

There were some 3 feet tall and very decorator in color and finish.  There was a variety of materials: pottery, plastic, glass, ceramic and wood.

I thought these were bright and colorful.  Together as a group they are quite overwhelming but spread across a space they would likely do the trick.  I thought the colors where quite retro.

They have a wide variety of decor items featuring a number of materials including resin, glass, papermache, and metal.

This was a small angel in a cream color.  It had a wash applied to highlight it's lovely features.  It was maybe 4 inches tall so could easily be tucked into a corner of almost any space.

Great in the house or the garden.

The model train was set up in the central area.  It is the same one I saw at the Conservatory a while back.  It must take a lot of work and time to set up the pieces in new venues.

I've just finished viewing a series of railroad promos done in the first half of the 20th century telling of their history in North America.  It was very interesting.





I was surprised to see the amount of art and paintings available at the center. It's not fine art mostly but very nice pieces which would look good in a living as well as in a 3 season room.

This piece of art was huge, probably 4 feet square and very lovely.  As you can see there is a reflection so some parts of it were a bit shiny.  I love the texture in the petals and the monochromatic color scheme.



Of course, there was lots of plants for sale. The orchids were gorgeous, ranunculus in many colors as well as rhododendrons in very pretty colors.

I enjoyed my visit and will be back as the seed rack was full and I will want some herbs again this year on the balcony.

Sharing with Maggie at Normandy Life who hosts Mosaic Monday #32.

Christmas Card Order - Manger #1

I received an order for Christmas cards recently.  The client created her own manger sentiment of the inside so she wanted card fronts that would speak to the child born in the manger.

This is a Holy Family decor set I photographed at a garden center several years ago.  I love the monochromatic feel to the image.  I printed it onto white card stock but decided after ward I wanted it warmer.  Out came the Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Stain and I applied it along the border and it was just what I needed.  I trimmed the image along the thin border then adhered it to a dark warm green card.  I was fortunate that the figures were quite tall so I placed my greeting along the bottom edge of the card front.  I punched a Stampin Up Modern label punchie from dark grey green and an ivory greeting with the SU Word Window.  These were adhered together then mounted to the card front with 3D foam tape.

I pulled out my trusty Bethlehem image for this one.  I added a starry night and made all the elements the same color, Cherry Cobbler.  I printed it onto a quarter sheet of white card stock, trimmed it to leave a small border and adhered it to the card front of a red card.  I had left space in the top right hand corner for a large gold confetti star which was adhered in place with a Zot.


I made some of the same design in Night of Navy.

This stained glass nativity is one of several I own.  I added a tealight behind the arch background as it was designed. I photographed it against a white background.  I was able to play with the image in post production to have several different colors.
I created the layer as a 3.5x5 photo with the greeting below.  I cut a layer of gold card stock to leave a small border and adhered it to the front of a kraft colored card.  
The nativity was trimmed to make it 3.5x4.75 inches and it was adhered to the onto the gold layer.
I added a strip of the gold card stock over the line between the image and the greeting.