One Reason

gifts

wrapping

decorations

parties

baking

concerts

lights

tree

One Reason:

Merry Christmas!

Holly Jolly Christmas

When my sister and her sweet one moved to Vancouver Island, there weren't many postives - for me.

They got to experience mild weather (although a bit cloudy!), island life, amazing scenery, fresh seafood, extended family and oh - did I mention the mild weather? We enjoy visiting them in the summer, but regret the goodbyes that always come.

After a year, though, the good island life is now sprinkling my way! And, yes, in the middle of winter! My sister phoned a while ago and asked if I wanted some fresh holly. HOLLY! And so, when Dad came back from visiting Grandpa and my sister on the island, he came bearing a gift of a HUGE box of holly. From a real holly farm.

So I googled 'decorating with holly'.


source



source



bhg.com



Since I needed a centerpiece for my kitchen table, I decided to go that route.

Beautiful. How could you not like the colours red and green at this time of year?

My sister mentioned that the holly will 'shrink', so I saved some in case I needed to add more closer to Christmas.

Or, I'll make some kissing balls. Wink.

Christmas Movies

It's that time of year again! On Friday, we hunckered down and watched this:

So much fun! There really is no other movie like it! AND it takes place in Chicago, one of my favorite cities.

My sister even has a set of these:

Love the dickie!

This is my other favorite movie:

And...yes...it also takes place in Chicago!

Sandra Bullock is the best!

Peppermint White Chocolate Popcorn

This is the Best. Popcorn. Ever. I can't tell you how many requests I've had for the recipe in the last 2 years that I've been giving it away as a gift. To be honest, I think I've lost the original recipe and now I just go by memory. I mean, really, how can you mess up with chocolate and peppermint?

Step 1: Gather your ingredients...pretty easy since there are only 3.

Peppermint candy canes (I like the red and white)

White Chocolate Wafers

Popcorn

Step 2: Pop popcorn so you get approx. 24 cups.

Step 3: Crush package of candy canes into small pieces.

Step 4: In a microwave safe bowl, melt candy wafers (entire package) in microwave on low. Stir occasionally until smooth.

Step 5: Pour chocolate over popcorn. Stir. Sprinkle on candy canes. Stir. (I find it easier to stir if I separte the popcorn into 2 parts.)

Step 6: Spread on wax lined cookie sheet.

Notice that I forgot the wax paper?

Place in fridge until cool. I use the garage. Lately, it's been cold enough. When it's cool, bring inside and break apart. I found these cute bags at Michaels to put it in.

Yum!



4 Angels, 1 Sheep and a Stomach Flu

No, it's not a new song. Just my life at the moment. We just can't have a Christmas season without getting sick during some part of it! And hey - better now than Christmas Eve.

The costumes are for the Christmas program at our church. I don't mind doing it and it's something that I can help with. And considering my youngest just threw up at church yesterday, maybe this is a way I can make it up to them!

I'm off to get some Ginger Ale. 

Christmas Colour

I think that we're done.

It's all finally up.

Someone asked me what 'colour' I use to decorate my house for Christmas. Ummm...do you have stick with one colour?

Green:

Red and Silver:



Red and White:

Gold and Silver:

White and Silver:

Pink and Blue and Green:

White:

Red and Green:

Blue:

Yes... I love wreaths!

Bubblegum Wreath

About a year ago, I saw this wreath. I loved the simple idea of using a coat hanger to make a wreath. Because I had an excess of ornaments, I made a couple of them:

But what I really wanted to make was a 'bubblegum' wreath, made with pretty colours that little girls love. Actually, I wanted to make two of them. One for each girl and hang it on their doors for Christmas. And if I waited until after Christmas, I could get a selection of ornaments for cheap. And I did. Canadian Tire had boxes of beautiful ornaments for $1 a box. Sweet. I picked up as many as they had.

I started to make their wreaths and quickly remembered that they take an insane amount of ornaments. I only had enough for one wreath and in fact there was a problem with the ornaments:

They were glass not shatterproof. Oops. However, I only had one casualty...  

...and a wreath not fit for a girl's door. Because we all know that little girls love to slam doors. So I put it on their bathroom door. They don't ever bother shutting that one, no matter how many times I tell them!

So, this year after Christmas, I'll look for shatterproof ornaments and, oh, I probably won't use the white ones again - they don't show up very well. I could try to move the ornaments, but I'm not going to fiddle with a glass wreath!

Out of the mouths...

What's one of the worst things that can happen to a Mom?

Yup...the dryer breaks down.

For a couple of weeks, clothes (not mine) have been getting caught in the drum and I've had to yank them out at the end of each cycle.

They've ended up with holes and black marks. Yes, it was a concern...but not a crisis.

...Until my clothes were getting caught. Something had to be done.

So my hubby took the dryer apart.

...And a good friend took my load of wet kid jeans to her house to dry. How nice is that?! (And, I might add, in minus 30 degree weather!).

After she folded them, her daughter came home from school, saw them, and asked why they had my laundry at their house. My friend explained that Mr. O.M. was fixing my dryer.

Without missing a beat she asked, "Why doesn't she get a real man to do that?"

In all honesty, I know that she meant 'repair man' but it was so gosh darn funny that I laughed most of the afternoon over that comment. And, of course, I loved telling that story over dinner!

'real' man (in flannel pants - I'm so dead)

Oh yeah...the dryer is fixed. Thanks hon. Life is back to normal.

Christmas Glitter

Despite the chilly weather, it was a great weekend:

* the girls had a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's sooo...
* Mr. O.M and I went out for lunch and did some Christmas shopping ON OUR OWN!
* our family was able to get together with new friends, as well as old;
* some Christmas decorations went up;
* the girls and their dad went sledding (yes, they are crazy and it didn't last long)
* I 'helped' my sister with her dress for the Christmas party. She's going to look AMAZING. I was pretty much the moral support part of the duo (I fed her monster cookies).

and...

* I did some crafting with glitter:

I had all the supplies to make my own glitter ornaments for the tree:

styrofoam balls
glue
glitter

So...how hard can this be?

This is how I started...

Mistake #1 Brush glue on the balls:

Next time, I'll use the spray adhesive.

Then I just sprinkled the glitter on the ball.

Because I used elmer's glue, it all started to droop (with the glitter) to the bottom. Oops.

Mistake #2: Not having a plan for drying them. They rolled and bumped into each other and ended up losing a lot of glitter and glue.  

Anyways, once they dried, I figured that they were good enough for my tree.

But, honestly, next time I'll spend the $3 at Walmart for ornaments. And save myself the time of cleaning up the glitter that is still everywhere. 

Hope your weekend went just as well!

May Contain Traces of...

Do you know how hard it is to find a peanut-free monster cookie recipe? I mean, how else am I supposed to use these:

We all know that there's no point in making cookies with peanut butter. The kids can't take them to school, and really, you can't bring peanut butter anywhere outside of your own home without it being frowned on. 

So, after a while I found this recipe which contains no peanut butter.  

And he is happy to have a full tummy...

Why was I making cookies in the first place? I didn't want to shovel this:

Sigh...

A 2 1/2 year Project

O.K. maybe it didn't take 2 1/2 years to finish, but it did take 2 1/2 years to do something with it.

When we moved into our new (to us) house, this piece of furniture didn't fit. Anywhere.

at our old house - can't believe I found the picture!

We knew that if we were to sell it, we would never get out of it what we put into it. So we put it in the garage, under the stairs, covered by a blanket, intending to get to it some day.

I had a lot of ideas, but just didn't know where I could most use the cabinet. I thought of converting it to a linen cabinet or maybe a place to store china in our dining room. But first, I had to convince my hubby.  

There's one phone call that Mr. O.M gets at work, quite frequently, that absolutely strikes fear into his heart.

Me: Hi honey...do you know where I can find the cordless drill*?
     (*You can subtitute: staple gun, wood filler, electric sander etc.)

Mr. O.M: Ummm...what do you need it for?

For the most part, I have to say that he's pretty supportive of my projects. I have ideas, but sometimes, I have to 'work' on him so he can come around to my way of thinking. One 'way' is painting wood furniture. The way I looked at it, why have a piece of furniture in the garage, when it can be put to use in our home?

The finished project:

We changed the hardware from the black:




Love it!!

I added a 'fabric curtain' to the one door because I drove into the cabinet with the truck and broke it  wanted to. 

The girls chose the fabric out of my bin. It used to be curtains in my first apartment! I gathered the material and staped it to the inside.

A toy cabinet!

The back panel was cheap, so 'we' replaced it with beadboard panel. The buckets we had fit perfect. The only cost was the $20 paint (and time)!

Lest We Forget

No need for words...

Nine Years

You have brought us so much joy!

We Love You!!

Burlap Table Runner and tutorial

It's not very often that I have an idea in my head and it turns out exactly as I pictured! For a while now, I've seen burlap table runners all over blogland. As beautiful as they are, none of them looked the way I wanted mine to look. I wanted it with 'finished' edges and huge, white, gathered, ruffles on the ends.

Like this:

I started with a piece of burlap (from my FIL's shop) cut it into the size and width that I wanted. I ironed over the sides and stiched it down:

The white fabric came from IKEA, called 'Lenda'. Lately, it's my 'go to' fabric for just about everything! It's a yummy creamy colour, not too white.

I then cut the fabric double the width I wanted. (I wanted mine about 6-7 inches wide, so I cut the fabric 14 inches)

I then folded the fabric lengthwise:

Stitched up the sides 5/8 inches and the top 5/8 inches most of the way:

I ironed open the seams and flipped it right side out. Ironed it again to have it lay flat.  I then gathered the top and pinned it onto the burlap, right sides together (gathering involved decreasing the tension on my machine and pulling the bottom thread):

Unfortunately with the gathers, I wasn't able to use the sewing machine  to attach the ruffle (I broke 2 needles trying!). I just hand sewed it on and it looks great!



I have very little sewing skills, so there is probably a much easier way to do this. However, my sewing expert is away at the moment, so I'm stuck figuring it out for myself! (At least it keeps me out of the Hallowe'en candy!).

Now I'm off to iron it! I was so excited to have it done that I forgot to do that last step!