It's So Cold........What's Blooming?

Today's high temperature was 22º.  The wind chill brought that down, down, down.  So I thought it might be a good time to document what I had blooming inside.

This orchid has been blooming since last February.  I guess it's very happy where it is.

This orchid opened up a couple of days before Christmas.  Several of my other orchids are in various stages of setting blooms too.

The white Oxalis has multiple blooms right now.

While the purple one is down to it's last bloom.

My pink Christmas Cactus has blooms and buds.  I see another bud on the yellow one and look forward to that blooming.

This African Violet is on it's last bloom for now but there are some buds at the base.

We have two Amaryllis' in bloom (the other one not pictured is on it's last bloom).  And there's a third almost ready to pop.  Of course, we still didn't get the timing right for these as they opened after Christmas yet again.

This pixie Spotted African Violet next to the kitchen sink makes me smile every time it blooms.  I just love the speckles.

My Godmother brought me this beautiful pink Primrose which we'll add to the outside garden once the ground defrosts.

This little pink Kalanchoe came from either Trader Joe's or Ikea (it's been here about a month and I haven't gone to many places since I've been home, but neither of us can remember where we got it).

And I do have some very fragrant paperwhites still blooming on the kitchen counter in a bowl of marbles.

You can see that we have a light covering of snow outside which they say will be around for a few weeks because this cold snap is going to be more than a snap.  

I wanted to revel in the beauty of the flowers today, and the silence of my home as I reflected on how lucky I am to be here to be able to.  Today is my Hysterversary.  I've been cancer-free for 6 years now, and although this last year was difficult health-wise, I feel good about the direction I'm going in.  Getting stronger every day and pain free.

Smash, Crash, Boom......... Happy New Year

Well, that was a little over dramatic but as I was trying to get myself in order today, gathering the holiday remnants to stack on the dining room table to be put away for another year, there was a loud thump at the sliding door in the back.  Kirby was a little distressed over it himself and started pacing frantically in his cage though the door had been open for him since I came downstairs this morning. (He is allowed to come out of his cage and sit on top when we're home, and now, since I am allowed to bend down, it is okay when I am home alone in case he takes one of his "There's something scary out there and I'm outta here" nosedives to the floor.)

There, in the light dusting of snow that we're getting right now, was a male downy woodpecker laying on the stoop in a stupor (sorry, couldn't resist).

My heart sunk as I tried to discern whether or not he was still alive.  His beak moved a little and I could see him trying to lift his head but I wondered if he would recover or if the cold temp (20º) and his state of shock would get the better of him.  Earlier I had been watching the birds at the feeder and had the camera nearby so I snapped some photos and whilst doing so, he picked up his head.  (He probably saw me moving around inside.)   I thought about going out and picking him up but then what would I do with him?  I couldn't put a wild bird in the Kirby's cage with him and the last time I tried to rescue a bird it got loose in the bathroom and when I caught it, bit me in the neck.  So I just decided to just keep an eye on it from inside.

I snuck around to the front of him and in these next two pictures, if you pay attention to the eye you will notice that on the second one he is using his third eyelid, or nictitating membrane which clears the lens in a horizontal movement and keeps it lubricated.  (I really didn't know all that off the top of my head.  I had to look it up. But now we'll all be ready for that question when it comes up on Jeopardy!)  

I wondered how long he would sit there collecting himself or if a hawk might spot him and snatch him up for lunch.  

As I sat at the table, catching up on some blogs, I was relishing the fact that it was so peaceful with the snow falling outside and the only sound was the frantic tapping of the solar snowman's arms like his heartbeat from an exerting workout or the ticking of a loud clock.  Then there was a little bit of chirping outside so I stood up to check it out.  It was a titmouse in the leaves behind a planter on the opposite end of the stoop, but it must have sparked some fear in the woodpecker (or maybe it was my shadow in the window) because he up and flew away.  Thank goodness!

I was going to include the story of our New Year's Eve Meatloaf Cookoff but this is already too long so I'll save that for another day.

Jingle Belles - No Time Like the Presents

Here it is, January 5th and we have not yet put Christmas away.  My excuse........I'm having my mother and godmother over for lunch today because they couldn't make it last week and I promised to leave the decorations up.   As soon as they leave today I'll make the decision as to what is going to stay out (maybe my white lanterns and silver trees for the winter) or what's going to come out (my winter birds and/or snowmen).  In any case, there will be a lot of packing to do.

Speaking of packing and getting back to the title of this post, I am happy to say that I am going to participate in the Jingle Belles challenges again this year.  It is, I've decided, the best way to stay ahead of the Christmas rush that inevitably hits in late fall.  So on with it...........

No Time Like the Presents - Lauren and Stephanie have challenged us to use some remnants of our Christmas wrapping, be it actual wrapping paper or tissue paper, trims, bags or tags.

I am so tickled with this card (and so was HWNSNBP).  The center blue circle with the Santa on it is a tag from a gift that my daughter-in-law's parents gave us (a beautiful silver and white ornament for our tree).  The bow on the wreath was the ribbon that the tag hung from.  Surrounding the blue tag is a red and white cord which I had wrapped around a gift that I gave to a friend who visited over the holidays.  The green snowflake background is a gift bag given to me by another friend.  I also used the soft yarn handle around the center motif.  I used "be merry" Essentials by Ellen dies for the message in gold foil paper.  Oh, oh, and I added a gold pencil border around the snowflake piece.

I don't know why, but this reminds me of the Looney Tunes Logo a bit.  I've got another card cooking for the second week of this challenge.

Yikes, speaking of cooking, I'd better get going.  I'm making three new recipes for this lunch.  I know, not the best idea to try things out on guests, but they're pretty simple.  Thanks to my time off from work and perusing Pinterest so much, I've amassed a small stack of recipes that I want to try out and since it's only HWNSNBP and I, it's usually too much for the two of us, so at least I'll be able to share whats made.  

This is the dessert that I decided to try - Edible Pine Cones.  (HWNSNBP says they look like chocolate Christmas trees which is okay too.)  I had bought all the ingredients for this and for the other two recipes to make for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but with all the regular holiday fare that everyone was looking forward to, and the hecticness of those days, I put them off.  

The rest of the menu includes Christmas Tortellini and Spinach Soup and Meatball Sub Bubble Up Bake.  They look simple enough and don't take an exhorbitant amount of ingredients or time to make.  So let me get going.

But....... I'll be checking out the Jingle Belles gallery later on.  Here's the link for JB:15:01.

Clean Up in Aisle? and a Swan Thing

Well, not the aisle but the table.  I attempted to clean up my work table on New Year's day and found a whole boatload of project discards so I decided that on the first of the month (hopefully for the rest of the year), I will try to make something out of those discards.

So I found this base of Crumb Cake and a strip of Basic Black, a little piece of Soft Suede and some lace punched Whisper White.  A torn piece of Bermuda Bay and a feather of Soft Sky.  A spray of Pistachio leaves and an embossed Strawberry slush piece and it took longer to find the staples for my new SU hand stapler than it did to layer all these pieces together with what looks like one staple, but truthfully, the bigger pieces are snailed down.  

I've got another pile of stuff to work with for something else to share in the future.

We were down in Barnegat and LBI for New Year's Eve and made a quick trip home first thing in the morning on New Year's day.  (First thing being closer to 10 a.m. due to the partying the night before which I'll post about in a bit.)

On the way out we passed the bay beach and there, besides new construction on the beach which has us a little baffled, were swans.  Lots of them.  HWNSNBP offered to turn around so I could take pictures.

There were many more that didn't fit in the picture and they were just lazily floating along.

I've come across a couple of swan-themed links in the last couple of days that I'd like to share.  The first is a Youtube video of how to turn an apple into a swan .  The author makes it look pretty easy. And then there's a project using the curvy box die which I only have a picture of

 and which is making me want to do some kind of swan-themed party or something.  Maybe I'll be searching Pinterest for a few more swan ideas a little later today.  I'm having my mother and godmother over for lunch on Monday and this might be something fun.   I'm open to ideas.

Okay, more cleaning to do and hopefully a lot more crafting this year!

Happy New Year

We will open the book. 

Its pages are blank. 

We are going to put words on them ourselves. 

The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

 ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Another Cheesebox Card

You never know what you're going to find on sale just before Christmas and lucky for me I found these kraft colored doilies at Michael's and they were the perfect size to cover the front of some more of my recycled cheesebox projects.  I first used my circle cutter to cut a circle of red cs and then adhered the doily over it.  Then, using a Martha Stewart punch and some Gumball Green cs I punched out the branches for the wreath.  After I glued them on, I took some red liquid paper and added dots to the branches for berries.  The bow on this one was made from some red and white baker's twine and I added a few punched stars in gold foil and gold glitter paper.

Inside of these I put a watercolored image from the SU set Beauty of the Season and added my chopped paper "snow" to the inside seam.

On the outside of the box I added some vintage ribbon that I came across at a flea market in September.  I knew when I saw it that I would use it at Christmas time, but I was thrilled that it was the perfect width for these boxes.

I made three of these for gifts and each one was just a little different from the rest.  Since HWNSNBP liked them so much I think I have to get busy this week and do one up for us.  I've got a few more boxes stashed away!

The Christmas Elf Was Hard at Work

Pinterest-inspired bottle cap snowmen.  

Start with scads of bottle caps - you will need three per snowman.  On a sheet of cardboard I taped down rows of blue painters tape, sticky-side-up and then lined up the bottle caps and HWNSNBP put his elf hat on and spray painted them white for me.  I chose to use spray paint for two reasons - the first being that it would take far less time than holding each bottle cap and painting the inside, and also because I felt spray paint would adhere better over the plastic that's found on the inside of the bottle caps.  I did not want to have to heat them and remove the plastic.

See what was left after I pulled them off the tape..........

Next, I separated them into 3 piles. One for faces, one for buttons, and one plain pile and used Sharpies to added the facial features and the buttons.

I cut 3/8" strips of white cardstock and using E6000 glued the bottle caps to that also adding a dab of glue between the caps where they touched.  Then I set them aside to dry.  When they were ready, I glued a strip of 1/4" red ribbon to the backs of the snowmen making a loop at the top.  The next step was to add the scarves which is just a length of plaid ribbon between the head and center section.

I printed up the tags, punched them out and stamped the snowflakes onto them before tying them to the loop.  Then they got lined up in the tray and were ready for early morning delivery.

I've been out of work again this month to further recover from my back and foot issues so I snuck in to school before anyone except the custodian was there and did my little elf thing.

I'm hoping they enjoyed them.

Merry Christmas

Silver trees, glittered reindeer, silver reindeer, fairy lights, white owls, white birds, white mice, fairy lanterns, snowflake lights all adding a little sparkle to Christmas this year.

Hope you had a Happy Christmas!

The Last of the Cards and "Marshmallow Day"

As I mentioned earlier, I fell a little short with my Jingle Belles challenge cards and thanks to this beautiful candle die, I was able to pull together the remaining cards I needed for this year.  I stamped the background with both VersaMark ink and Marina Mist stamped off once to give it that foggy look.   And then, after I cut out all the components, assembled the candle and greenery.  The centers of the flower are dabs of liquid paper (the crafty kind, not the office supply type).   Don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the drip part of the candle was cut out of glossy white paper to give the candle some dimension.    You can see below that my dining room table is a mess with cards.  HWNSNBP and I have an agreement that since I make the cards, it's his job to sign and address them...... and even pick out who gets which one once I've gone through them for the personal ones that I need.  

And speaking of a mess, Sunday was "Marshmallow Day"......... well at least here in this house.  The making of the marshmallows doesn't take that long really.  And the recipe is simple (find the link in this post).  There's just some lengthy waiting for them to set up, so I usually let them sit overnight and get a fresh start in the morning.  So I guess you could say that it's a two-day job. 

Anyway, I made a large batch each of the vanilla and the cinnamon and have divvied them up for distribution to Physical Therapy, my spine doctor's office, and for school.  There happily is a little to spare for home.  This is working out quite nicely since there is no bending involved in  making these and I'm not on my feet that long either.  I'll be making half batches of each tomorrow for some more gifts that I need for some dear friends.

Well, the tree is almost complete....... waiting for HWNSNBP to finish up with the bigger ornaments on the bottom.  And once that's done I have another little decorating project to tackle this year which I hope to share soon.  He keeps telling me that he wants everything to be done by Sunday night so we can sit down and enjoy it for a few days before Christmas and just maybe that might happen this year. 

Speaking of Sunday night, they're advertising the Sing-a-Long Sound of Music to air then.  Believe it or not, I actually went to a live, in the theater Sound of Music Sing-A-Long with my good friend JT and it was a lot of fun.  Truth be known, I usually do sing-a-long even when the words aren't on the screen at home.  We just won't have the props that they had in the theater.  

If you're in the neighborhood and want to sing-a-long with me, I'll be here and there'll be marshmallows......... just sayin'.

Jingle Belle Round-Up and a Quick Little Tree Project

Above you see my stash of completed Jingle Belle Challenge cards for this year.  I am soooooooooooooo glad that I decided to do this again this year.  The way that things turned out health-wise, I would have been hard-pressed to get enough cards done if I had waited until this month.  I still need a few more and what I'll do is pick a couple of the easiest to recreate and do a few more of each of those and possibly a few more with some other goodies I have not yet had the chance to use.  I have a few certain cards picked out for certain people but for the most part, it will be up to HWNSNBP to choose a card, sign it from both of us and post it.  I've made it pretty easy for him with an Excel spreadsheet with all the names and addresses.  This way he gets to be a part of the process.

And, speaking of easy, here's a quick little project I finished this weekend.  It started with three tubes of small glittered ornaments that were in the clearance section of the Dollar Spot at Target post-Christmas last year.  I just fell in love with the colors and despite the fact that they were glittered (I do not particularly like working with glitter), I thought that they would make a splendid tree.  Getting my daughter to picture it was a little difficult.  She wasn't sure that I would have enough ornaments, but I made it work.

I started by using a pair of jewelry pliers to snap off the little hangers.  This was done because my first attempt at screwing those suckers into the styrofoam cone wasn't quite working out like I wanted (see the evidence of that fail at the bottom of the cone).  Talk about mess...........if I didn't do it just right with the right amount of pressure, they were shooting all over the room.  And I must admit that a couple of the cracked a bit, but not to worry, that wasn't going to show.

I painted the cone with some silver metallic acrylic paint and let it dry.  Then I got out my glue gun and glued them onto the cone.  I almost said randomly, but it wasn't done randomly.  There were five colors and I kept the same order for each row just moving them over a couple so the same colors were not together on each level.

Uh, yeah, well, it didn't quite look complete did it?   Maybe she was right and I should have gotten a few more of those tubes, after all they were only 25 cents each.  Hmmmm.....

A trip to Dollar Tree for some silver garland saved the day.  I snipped it into 2" pieces and then folded them and glued them between the ornaments.

Oh, yes, and the bottom, well there weren't quite enough ornaments to cover the whole cone (I know, I know, she really was right after all!) so, not wanting to cut off the ornamentless bottom, I wrapped more of the garland around the bottom giving it a sparkling silver base.

And here it is for the time being on the coffee table alongside a silver paper and glittered ornament I found in Walmart.

The total cost of the tree was less than $3 and I do like the way it turned out which made it a bonus for me even though it was not how I had pictured it in my head.  

Gotta run and finish those cards now!

Jingle Belles - Christmas Feast

I'm sure those Corgi's are feasting on those candy canes as the children put together their gingerbread house.  I used my Tasha Tudor stamp again (click here for the card I made in April using it).  I usually like to stamp the images that I am going to watercolor in Basic Gray ink and I did this time too, but about half way through I started regretting that a bit.  I might have to try it in black also, though the softness of this doesn't look too bad IRL.  I'd love some constructive criticism.

I combined an MS border punch with a branch punch to fatten up the gingerbread garland.  Oh, and those tiny ginger bread men were also part of a border punch but I just chose to use the punch outs and added their little icing details with a gel pen.  

So I'm pretty sure that this is the last Jingle Belle challenge for 2014 and I want to thank Lauren and Stephanie for all the wonderful challenges and support they give throughout the year helping us to keep December a lot more manageable.  Merry Christmas ladies!