Speed Crafting!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Seriously, that is my mode right now...fast, faster, FASTEST!

Today was Secret Santa Gift Exchange day at work.

For my Secret Santa I made a Fisherman's Wife Cowl in Poinsettia Thick & Quick:

I added a box of Strawberry Bath Gel and Lotion from The Body Shop and packaged up in the Batik fabric Gift Bag I sewed:

Finally, all wrapped up:

Hoping she likes it!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

My Grandma Sadie used this expression about her life all the time.  The older I get though I am not truly sure she understood the concept of it in the manner that I do.

This morning my son and I started the day off by getting up and getting to Santa's Breakfast for 0900 hours.  We made it, although we had to eat at the preschoolers table by the time we got our food!  My son thought it was hilarious that his mom could fit at the preschoolers table ☺

Then we waited in line to meet Santa.  Santa was awesome.  My son has not got a list this year as to what he wants for Christmas so when asked by Santa what he wants he replied "stuff".  Santa was awesome and let him know that Santa has "stuff".  ☺

After that we headed off to try and get my son a hair cut.  Thankfully we were out and about early enough in the morning that his favorite hair stylist was able to squeeze him in.

Afterwards we stopped at Bulk Barn and picked up some random goodies which included these sprinkles that I put on our hot chocolate this evening after walking the dog:

Then it was back to Millennium Place for skating lessons:

After skating  headed off to his Christmas piano recital of which he played his own composition of Deck the Halls.  He was very proud of himself for accomplishing this as was I.

Then it was finally time for lunch.  We used a Groupon for poutine at My Fries.  Yummy as always.

Next up we stopped by Sweet Convenience to buy candy with (you guessed it) another Groupon I had!!!

Lastly we stopped by River City Yarns and picked up some wonderful woolly goodies.

Coming home I decided that maybe I should do something with all of the craft chaos that I have going on right now.  "Sew" here is what I accomplished:

I sewed the buttons onto my Fingerless Mittens (still a silly concept I think) that was one set of mittens from my October box of Yarn Crush.  I did have to make these mittens a little smaller than the pattern not because my hands are small but because although I knit to gauge there was not enough yarn to complete both of them as long as they were supposed to be.  Now I have 4 left over buttons for another project I guess.

Now it's off to bed as skiing starts tomorrow, and there is laundry and baking for lunches this week and groceries and house cleaning and ......................................

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Secret Santa Day 3

Good Evening Internet Friends.

In continuing with the Secret Santa Theme of: Things that make you feel better, I compiled a "prescription bottle" of items that could be used to make one feel better:

-chicken soup

- facial tissue

- lozenges

- hand sanitizer

- Gingerale

Here is how it looked:

The "pharmaceutical" label I attached with glue dots to the jar/bottle!

Everyone thought it was quite fun, so that made me happy!  ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Secret Santa Day 2!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today I decided to bake gingerbread cookies for the Secret Santa gift exchange at work. 

Apparently I do not own, or simply cannot locate my gingerbread man cookie cutter, so I had to make STARS!!!

They turned out well, and very tasty of course:

TAH DAH!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Secret Santa

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I finally have a few minutes to sit down and post what I have been up to. Okay, today, nothing that spectacular, but special never the less!

It is Secret Santa week at work ☺  I love Secret Santa week.  This year I got the name of the guy who makes sure that we are stocked with all the things that a clinic needs to function (crutches, gauze, IV cannula's, etc.  - the important things).  I think that I got his name as I was one of the last to pick names and while most people tolerate him, lots of people just ignore him because he is a little kooky or off center.  Our theme for this year is :things to make you feel better during flu season.  So, one of the presents I got for him is a box of Tim Horton's Keurig Cups.

I stamped a brown gift bag for gifting:

Hope it makes him feel better!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Or so I've heard.

Of course since Santa is coming tonight and we are some of his last deliveries, my son figured Santa needed lots of extra energy to keep him going for the last bit of his journey. 

We have been watching his progress all day long thanks to the Norad Santa Cam.

The cookies we are leaving for Santa are an old favorite from when I was a kid, and the recipe over the years has been modified, much so that my son was able to make these almost independently:

Chocolate Fudge Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Here is how to make them:

Cream together: 1/2 cup non hydrogenated margarine and 1 8oz block of cream cheese

Add: 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla

Pick: 1 box of cake mix (I chose Chocolate Fudge for these) and add to creamed ingredients.

Add: 1 cup chocolate chips or whatever you want to the cookies (raisins, coconut, nuts..... the list is endless).

Bake at 350F for 10 minutes.  Let set in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Enjoy!
Merry Christmas everyone, and
Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Cards Fourth Edition

Today is the official start of my Christmas Festivities!

This is the fourth card that I made at Karina's Stamp a Stack:

 I thought this card was super appropriate for today, as in a couple of hours, I will be standing down town Banff for the Christmas In the Rockies Santa Claus Parade!

The drive down was uneventful last night for me, there were some cars in the ditch and several tractor trailer units broke down or froze up at the side of the road, my dashboard thermometer did let me know that at one point the outside temperature was -42C, but my GO GO GO Toyota (as we call it), had no trouble at all : )

Now, to bundle up for the parade...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Friday Feature Card

If any of you pay close attention to my blog you will have noticed that my blog posts are now done at some bizarre early hour of the day.

There is a reason for that.  Usually, I do not go to bed til somewhere after midnight.  Am awake by 0300 because after decades of waking to check my blood sugar at that time, I don't even need to set a clock, and if my husband is home, he wakes at around 0400 to get ready to leave for work at 0500 as he has about a 45 minute commute before work.  I lay in bed and stare at the walls for about 2 hours and then get up.

This week after feeling a little tired, I decided to try something new!  

If I go to bed at 2100 hours (9 p.m.) I can get to sleep until 0300, then doze until 0400, and then get up and be productive til 0600 when I get lunches and school stuff ready for the day.

Here is what I did this morning:

I think this will be another one of the cards that I make with my friends for our annual Christmas Card Making Party!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Snowmageddon, Santa, Snowmageddon, Grilled Cheese

What a weekend!  Every year we (and I mean usually me) take our son to Christmas In the Rockies, because unlike the imposter Santa's at the malls, the REAL Santa comes to this event as my son tells everyone.  Every year the trip is an event.

Here is a picture of Stoney Trail Northwest at 2300 hours on Friday evening:

The parade on Saturday evening was awesome, and I have attached a picture of the official Banff SUV, (okay not really, this is a joke for us Western Canadians, NOT to be taken literally):

It is the Brewster Icefield Bus, and if you ever have the chance to go on it, you MUST.

Of course while in Canmore for the weekend we did some shopping at my favorite spots: Knit and Caboodle, Sugar Pine Quilt Company, Rocky Mountain Soap Company, and before we left this morning Le fournil Bakery, for a loaf of pain prairie.

Now for the journey home:

This is the Queen Elizabeth II Highway today at about 1400 hours at the Olds, Alberta, off ramp.  If you look closely you can see the sign as well as the car in front, of which there is a semi-tractor trailer in front of it (honest)!!!!

So after almost 7 hours of driving in my Go Go Go Toyota (should be a 4 hour trip at best), but with puking kid and road conditions it took much longer, I got home.

The craft of today is our dinner:

I used the pain prairie I had picked up earlier today, cheese, and the Strawberry Balsalmic Red Pepper Jelly, I got last weekend at Chartreuse Decor.  It was delicious!

Drive safe, and Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Dazzling Details Santa

I bought this plaster Santa to paint because I thought it was perfect for Christmas.  When I started to paint it, I decided that I would add Dazzling Details to the paint, so that Santa's coat would sparkle!  Somehow, the paint "ate" the sparkle and I ended up with a red coat.  After Santa was all dry, I put Dazzling Details on my finger and rubbed it all over the red parts of his coat and now it sparkles.  It's hard to see, but it really is pretty.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy