Christmas Cookies!

Monday night a few of my friends and family met to have a Christmas Cookie Exchange.

I made sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles.

Other folks made Gingerbread cookies, Chocolate Covered Shortbread, Mudpies, Peanut Butter Filled Cookies, Biscotti, Chocolate Chip and Chocolava Cookies.

So much sweetness!

A little too much in fact, so we also cleared our palettes with tea of many varieties

(including tea such as Eggnogg'n Tea)

And cheeses and crackers.

So much cheese! Mmm!!

We play a game of Things. Everyone's favourite question was the very last one of the evening. It came from Irina who asked us to take one character from one book and put it into another. Some of the more intriguing ideas were Piglet in Lord of the Flies, Sauron in Winnie the Pooh, Frodo in 1984, and Jonah in Moby Dick.

We enjoyed some very good laughs ... and did I mention cheese?

By the end of the evening, everyone went home with a a beautiful variety

of yummy, yummy cookies to share

with their families over the Christmas holidays!

Old Lady Christmas Shopping

She gathers up her meager Christmas gifts

And stows them safely in her shopping bag,

She mumbles to herself and nods her head,

Pulls off a little tell-tale bargain tag,

Counts off the items on a pencilled slip,

Enjoying to the full her shopping trip.

For one she buys a tiny beaded purse

And someone gets a hankie frail and sheer,

A little favourite nephew gets a book

Where knights in armour and a cavalier

Ride out to battle clad in bright array,

In all the trappings of a by-gone day.

She looks at crystal with a longing eye,

Gloats over china of a loved design,

Holds up a figurine with cautious hands,

Buys Christmas wrappings and a spool of twine,

Gets a stuffed dog with little scarlet paws

A tiny reindeer and a Santa Claus.

For one short season of the age-long year

She lets her generous heart hold happy sway,

Buying her little gifts with careful hands,

To match the joyful spirit of the day,

Denying her own need that she might share

The love that is like music in the air.

~ Edna Jaques

December 3rd ~ Hot Apple Punch

The following recipe is one I submitted to Country Woman Magazine years ago; it was featured in their Christmas Annual Book in 1998.

Photo by: Taste of Home

With its soothing cinnamon seasoning, this fresh and flavorful apple punch is a must for Christmas time.

• 8 Servings
• Prep: 5 min. Cook: 35 min.

Ingredients

• 2 cinnamon sticks (about 3 inches each), broken
• 10 whole cloves
• 6 whole allspice or 2 whole nutmeg
• 2 quarts apple juice
• Additional cinnamon sticks, optional

Directions

• Place the cinnamon sticks, cloves and allspice on a double thickness of cheesecloth; bring up the corners and tie with string to form a bag. Place in a large saucepan with apple juice (or place loose spices in pan and strain before serving). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove spice bag. Serve punch hot in mugs. Garnish with cinnamon sticks if desired.

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 cup) equals 119 calories, trace fat (trace saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 7 mg sodium, 29 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, trace protein.

This punch is very delicious on a cold winter's night it creates a wonderful aroma in the house. Enjoy!

December 2nd ~ Amazing Grace ~ Beautiful Christmas Song

December 1st ~ Craft Show prep

This weekend, I am going to be doing a Craft Sale with my sister, so today, I gathered all the goodies that I plan to take with me and assembled them on my kitchen table to get a sense of how I should set up and how I should arrange everything

Most of what I have created has been made with reused, or recycled materials. Whenever possible, I try to create something "green".

The photos aren't as good as I hoped, but you get the idea.

So this is Christmas

Something beautiful to start off the Christmas season.
I hope you enjoy this!

Okay, so writing a 50,000 word novel is one of the many things that has been occupying my time in November. Before November 1st, I didn't write an outline, didn't develop characters or anything. It was just me writing by the seat of my pants.

The novel is entitled The Bag Lady Stories. It is LOOSELY based on a newspaper article that I read some months back about a woman who had a fall from grace. She was once one of the British upper crust and she ended up in a Texas jail.

In my story, we find her living on the street; a bag lady, in the year 2020. A young reporter meets her and over the course of a year or so, she tells him her story. There's a twist ending of course, but to tell the truth, even though I hit 50,000 words, because of what was developing at the end, I probably could have come up with another 10K words.

However, this book was written only as a personal challenge of reaching 50K so I won't add any more.

And now I will concentrate on getting ready for a Christmas Craft Sale next weekend and decorating our home for Christmas. I shall post some fun Christmas-y stuff in the coming days!

Peanut Brittle anyone?

The Christmas season is fast approaching, and I am trying to do some pre-seasonal baking.

For the past several Christmas seasons, I have made homemade peanut brittle. It is yummy and always disappears very quickly. Today I made peanut brittle and I had a confectionery disaster ~ almost.

I decided to make a quick and simple microwave version of the peanut brittle that I make. Everything was going splendidly until a breaker switch turned off all the power items in my kitchen before the time was up for the peanut brittle to be taken out of the microwave.

The thing about making good peanut brittle is that you have to work fast, especially when you add baking soda at the end. What is supposed to happen, is that the mixture gets all foamy and you pour it immediately onto a cookie sheet. Well I tried to work quickly, but I because of the breaker went off at precisely at the wrong time; my brittle didn't get foamy, and ultimately ~ well let's just say the brittle wasn't so brittle. It wasn't hard, it was gooey. Drat!

So, in the end, I formed little balls and created a new recipe which I call Peanut Brittle Balls.

Look it's Woody!

Finally I can share this photo of my other son in his costume. He's a huge Pixar fan, so he asked me to help him assemble a Woody costume. He was going to a Toy Story 1,2 & 3 marathon over the weekend, and wanting to surprise the host by showing up in full costume, he asked me not to post any photos until the marathon was over.

His costume had all the necessary parts, yellow plaid shirt, red bandanna, cowboy hat, jeans and cowboy boots. But it also had a few extras such as the sheriff star badge, a pull string (think: "Reach for the stars!), Andy's name on the bottom of one of his boots and even a snake in his boot.

I think he looks pretty smashing, don't you? "Mrs. Incredible" was obviously impressed.

The Scream

My son wanted to attend his university costume party as Edvard Munch's The Scream (and fully expected me to create the costume for him.

Naturally, I went to one of my favorite dollar stores ~ Everything for a Dollar Store and purchased a sheet of Styrofoam-ish stuff. Using Munch's painting as a guide, I cut a hole in the appropriate spot and commenced painting my version of the painting with the cheapest of my acrylic paints.

I think The Scream was frightened by these paintings!

Cost of Costume: $1.05 including tax

Fun Factor: Priceless

Art how I've missed you!

If you follow my blog, you've likely noticed things have been a little quiet around here lately. Since July I have been having some health issues (and a car collision ~ wasn't our fault ~ that's another story) which has hampered my day-to-day activities. Without going into all the boring details, suffice it to say that everything from washing dishes to painting my chairs has been put on the back burner. You should see how messy my back burner is!

My latest problem is an infection from a tiny cut that was on my right hand's middle finger. I'm right handed, so this is especially frustrating me because I've been trying to finish a fine art chair. I'm so close too ~ only the back panel of the chair is incomplete. The good news is that my finger, after intravenous antibiotic treatments seems to be finally clearing up. I'm just itching to get back to my art. Art how I've missed you!

Tag, I'm it!

Karyn and Arlene both tagged me with some fun questions which I will try to answer...

Here are Karyn's questions:

1. What was your most embarrassing moment?

When I was going out with Greg, we were visiting his parents. I went for a nap and when I got up I walked up from behind Greg who was sitting at the kitchen table. Still groggy, I gave him a tender hug from behind. When he turned to look at me, I was astonished to see that I was about to plant a kiss on the lips of Greg's sister's boyfriend!

2. Do you recycle? Why or why not?

Absolutely, and have done it for years and years. I believe there is way too much waste in this world and also I feel it's our responsibility to look after what we've been given to care for.

3. What is the most dangerous thing you've ever done?

Had children :)

4. What is your favorite movie and why?

Groundhog Day. This movie isn't just a silly comedy that some think it is. It has a lot of rather serious themes. I have a lot of other movies that I like a lot, but this one always stands out some how.

5. Do you follow a sport on TV?

Hockey ~ I had older brothers who indoctrinated me at a very young age. I don't watch all the games, but if the Edmonton Oilers are playing, I'm interested.

6. If you could live at any time in history for 1 year, when would it be?

A whole year is a long time ... hmm ... part of me would want to visit the 1800s, but another part of me would love to just go back to the 1960s or '70s with what I know now.

7. What was/is your favorite school subject?

ART! (I also enjoyed English in high school)

8. What game do you most enjoy playing with a group?

"Things" is a great game. The game is much, much better than its dull name suggests. If you get a chance, try it out ~ lots of fun and you learn a lot about people.

Here are Arlene's questions:

1) What is the nicest thing someone has done for you in the past week?

My husband took me to the Olive Garden for dinner ~ one of my favourite eateries.

2) Have you ever made a "mix tape" for a boy who broke your heart?

No, I do not recall doing this.

3) Where is your favorite place on the planet, where you feel most at rest?

In the mountains!

4) Do you get up and dance at weddings, or sit out the congo line?

Sit and visit.

5) Did you write your own wedding vows?

No, but I really wish we had.

6) How did you meet the love of your life?

We have two versions of this story. I say we met when we went with a group of friends to a restaurant.

7) Which would you choose, a road trip or to fly away to an exotic land?

Now that all depends on where the road trip would be to, and whether it could be taken at a slow, enjoyable pace. I would likely choose the road trip.

8) What local business do you like to support?

Mandolin Books and Coffee Company.

Weekend!

Graphic courtesy of:

Free Pretty Little Things for You

It's about my blog ...

I've been blogging since March 2005, and my blog has changed several times since the beginning including: the banner, the layout, the background etc. Some elements have stayed constant. My blog has always displayed a combination of my art and my life [I even started another site called Art and Life to showcase the ART part of my life].

From the very start, I've featured some of my favourite blog destinations under the heading of Beautiful Blogs. Then, when I discovered some quirky sites that were just way too much fun to ignore, I started the Oddites & Wonderfullies category where you can find sites such as this and this. As the title suggests, some sites are odd and some are just plain wonderful.

After blogging a while longer, I realized that I was very taken with British blogs which I categorized as Jolly Good UK Sites which features sites such as this. There are other parts to my blog that I could talk about, but I will just mention one more. Recently while perusing the Oddities and Wonderfullies section, I noticed that I had quite a few green, frugal sites included. And since I always strive to be green and frugal in both my artwork and life ~ today I'm a launching a brand new category entitled Green Frugalicious Sites. Please take the time to investigate some of these gems and as always if you have any comments, I would love to hear from you.

Vintage Hang Ups

Here's my contribution to The French Cupboard's Paperie Party...

I created a whole suitcase-full of these Vintage Hang Ups originally for a Street Festival this summer. Sadly we were rained out that day, but these make delightful last minute gifts. My friend who is a framer gave me a bunch of matt board scraps which I used as the base. Then, I found various vintage images (some are old family photos) to incorporate into the design. A little ribbons, lace, buttons and bows completed the assemblage. So much fun to create!

Simplify ...

It is the brainchild of my 19 old son ...

a Facebook group called

Don't-Buy-Junk-You-Don't-Need-Or-Receive-Useless-Junk-Christmas

He writes:
Okay, I had this idea. I think that Christmas has become excessively materialistic. But, what if we don't buy any presents this year? What if all our gifts are homemade and second hand? What if the only gifts we will receive are homemade? Let's not buy anything more than usual this Christmas, and see it as a holiday to spend time with family.

I have hand-crafted some Christmas gifts for many years.

This year, however, I am going to try to exclusively participate in the
Don't-Buy-Junk-You-Don't-Need-Or-Receive-Useless-Junk-Christmas

by creating handmade gifts and buying from garage sales, ReUse Centre and 2nd hand stores.

I will make one exception shopping in the ethnic food aisle of my grocery store
to find a few goodies for the ever-hungry college students on my list!

So I will simplify ~ use my creative DIM (Do it Myself) skills and
save a few bucks at the same time.
This should be fun!

Summer Fun 2010

Here's a look at what I've been enjoying this summer:
Nature ...
Art ...
Friends...
Family ...






















































"And summer's lease hath all too short a date."

Crumpled News: Blog Interview 2010-2

On a recent trip to Wells Gray Country in Clearwater, British Columbia, I had the pleasure of visiting an old friend from high school, Marnie Peters, and staying at her Bed and Breakfast which she runs with her husband, Al. And today I am interviewing her...

Thank you Marnie for letting me interview you. I know you just started blogging in May of this year. You're a real newbie blogger! Why did you decide to start blogging? I have always been curious about blogging but didn't know much about it until you came for a visit earlier this year; showed me what its all about and well I guess you could say... I'm hooked, Yup! definitely hooked!

What is the name of your blog? As you know we had so much fun writing down ideas but thanks to your creative sparkle [and some serious brainstorming], "Crumpled News" was born.

What date did you blog for the very first time? My very first post was May 15, 2010. I introduced my hubby Al of 25 years. I wasn't too sure what my blog would look like all I new is that I wanted it to be a place where women can come to be encouraged.

Did you design your blog or did you have it professionally done? I have to thank all those who are so creative and generous with there free sites to help the newbies like me. They make it easy to put together.

What does your "About Me" read on your blog? I am a mother of three 24, 22 and 18. I have been happily married for 25 yrs. to a wonderful man who has been there supporting me as I go through ups and downs of a medical misfortune of being paralyzed. But I had Faith in a Big God and He delivered in a big way! I praise my Lord for what He has done and what He is going to do! I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. Phil 4:13 I am walking though not perfect......I think perfect is highly over rated anyway! This blog is my way of encouraging all those who are struggling with something like I have had to over come through the grace of God. I pray God richly Blesses all who visit my site.

What themes would best describe your blog? Inspirational, comfort, encouraging, believe!

Anything else you would like to say? I want to thank all who have already visited my site and would like to invite those of you who haven't yet stop by for a visit to do so, and if you can't quite decide on where to go on your next vacation, why not Check out Wells Gray Park! Its a must! We would love to have you as our guest at Wyndhaven Cottage Bed and Breakfast.
Visit Crumpled News and tell Marnie you read this interview!

NOTE: I personally highly recommend staying at Wyndhaven Cottage Bed & Breakfast. The rooms are clean and cozy and the Peters Family is accommodating and friendly.