Creatively Christmas Part Two

Okay so I know it's the brand new Year and not actually the holidays anymore but you'll have to cut me some slack since I only just took down my Christmas tree today!  2013 seems to have hit fast and hard in my house and it's been so tiring and hectic that today is the first time we've all been home to actually get stuff done..the serious after holiday cleaning is still being procrastinated on..I'm thinking February LOL! 

Anyhow, I wanted to share some photos from my holidays because although I didn't post, I was busy crafting and I DID get my FIL's quilt done! I was pretty happy with how it turned out and he loved it, which was the main thing.  I even have more fabric should I be ready to tackle a new quilt any time soon (though I tend to sew only every few months..it's so hard on the back to sew for those long hours, don't know how hardcore seamstresses do it...says the scrapbooker..haha)

So here's what the finished quilt looked like:

Aside from that I made some homemade snack mixes for gift giving!  The kids and I made Smore's snack mixes that we gave to my co-workers, their teachers, the daycare staff, etc.  I only wish we had saved some to snack on at home:

Then of course there were the Christmas cards I did with some students from work and of course I had the best of intentions to get my cards out to F&F before the holidays, BUT  I just sent them out last week *sigh*  oh well, better late than never!  Really I know this reflects bad on me and I seem like the worst of procrastinators *L* but normally I am a very organized and efficient person..truly I am!  I am!!

Finally, I did some baking and I tried some new recipes from Pinterest.  I Love how easy the recipe was for making this French Bread, I learned more from the tips and techniques than I did the recipe itself.  Did you know you can speed up the rise time by placing a warm wet cloth over your dough and popping it into a microwave (don't turn it on) that has been pre-run for 2 minutes.  the residual heat in the microwave and the wet cloth provide an optimally warm moist environment for the dough to rise in, my dough rose in 30 minutes instead of the normal hour...I LOVED THAT!!  Tried the same technique on my Cinnamon bun dough last week and it works great!  Now I'm more likely to make more bread dough recipes because I always hated how long the rising process took. Anyhow here is how the bread turned out, we've gone through 5 loaves already!

Oops, forgot one more thing..See told you I was busy last month..can I use that for the excuse why I didn't post ;P   I must share my photos from the Stampin' Up Cookie Basket Classes I did..these were so cute and the cookies were delicious and fun to make!

So that was the Month of December in Pictures, pretty much!  I did spend my two weeks of holiday blissfully relaxing and catching up on PVR'ed tv shows, holiday movies, and just some oldies but goodies.  I shared time with F&F which is always fun during the holidays and despite January kicking off with a bang, it's also been a good sign of the year to come!  So I'll be posting again soon with more fun stuff from my Gemini Life!

Cheers!

Creatively Christmas

Hi All,

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner, just under two weeks away!  Eeek!  Sorry for posting late, as usual.  I have had every good intention of getting my blog up to date because I have been busy creating over the last month but I've also been seemingly too busy to sit down and jot a post.  It's harder than I thought to keep a blog going, even with reminders.

Anyhow enough procrastinating.  As I said, it's just under two weeks until Christmas, my favourite time of the year, and I'm only halfway through a quilt I'm making for my father-in-law.  I had the great idea to make him a throw quilt with images of his family all over it, since the man spends most of his time in his 'bear den' and nothing means more to him than his family.  I know this is a gift that will bring about the waterworks - his son loves to make him cry..everyone says he's mean to do that but really, I know the real reason why he likes to do it - because then it means the gift has really touched his father and means something to him.  My father-in-law really is just a big old teddy bear and nothing gets him more than sentimental stuff.

I'm still not done the quilt but I thought I would share some images of my project so far and I'll post the finished product once it's completed (hopefully before Christmas Eve!).

This first image is of the pieces all cut and organized ( I may be disorganized when it comes to time frames but I am definitely organized when it comes to my projects :-)

Next is a photo of the start of the quilt.  I'm about halfway done the front of the quilt and then I'll need to figure out how to sew the back part on so it doesn't bunch.

 I can do a basic quilt like this but trust me, I am not nearly advanced enough to put the cool swirly designs on it, etc.  I think he'll like the finished product though.  Stay tuned for more pics, and Happy Holidays Everyone!

Cheers

Wonderland of fun Part 2

This will be a short post today, just updating on material I posted previously.  I finally got my butt in gear and wrote up the tutorial for making the Mad Hatter Hat. So anyone that wants to try this at home, here are the instructions to do so.

I hope you can see the instructions ok, I'm learning as I go and enjoying the journey :)

I also got the chance to show a couple more ladies how to do the Hatter Project and their creations turned out beautifully as well! I just love how the Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante Paper coordinates with these hats.  I do want to try making one more hat with my Stampin' Up papers though, because I'd love to see what effect a different style of paper has on the overall look.  I'll keep you posted.

Take care and have a great week.

What a Wonderland of Fun!

Oh me oh my..I'm late, I'm late, for a very important deadline, er date!!  I meant to blog a week and a half ago as I have set a personal deadline for myself to blog at least once a month...oh well, guess I was just holding out for something extra blog-worthy!  I'm glad I waited! 
This last weekend I attended the 'Down The Rabbit Hole' Wonderland Themed Crop here in High Level.  This is the crop I mentioned in my last post, where I was going to teach the project class on how to make the 'Mad Hatter's Hat'.  I was so ill prepared and felt so rushed because it was a crazily  hectic week and I very much felt like the Rabbit in the story, forgetting things left and right and muttering to myself; I didn't even get my cookies baked for the crop until the moring of, and of course I forgot to take a picture of the end product..silly me.  Which is unfortunate because I had made shortbread cookies and put them in pretty decorative cupcake holders with ribbon and a tag that said 'Eat Me'. Oh well, it can't be helped and in the end I managed to get my sh..stuff together and showed up at the crop...10 minutes EARLY!  How about that, I had the time wrong anyhow and was actually early for the crop!

Anyhow, I was still very nervous about teaching the Hat Class, this is only the second time I've taught a papercrafting class and I'm always worried that the projects won't turn out or people will feel like I'm a sucky teacher, I'm still feeling my way along as it were.  The ladies I taught were great though and their projects turned out AMAZING, and honestly it's due to their talents and not my teaching!  Thankfully, they gave me their permission to post their projects here..aren't they gorgeous!

From Left to right - my teaching demo, Monica's, and Kathy's

 

 

I also promised I would send along the link for my original inspiration for the hat!  Which is a site I found on Pinterest where a DIY tutorial showed me how to make a full size hat that is used for the Mad Hatter Costume!  here is the link to the website via Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/pin/283586107757269658/

 

Aside from the class, this had to have been one of my favourite crops to attend, partly because I LOVE Alice in Wonderland so I loved the theme for the crop but also because of the fun atmosphere the whole time I was there.  From the crazy teapots, to the decorations, to the games we played, it was all soo much fun!  The organizers are ladies that love to Crop and it shows in every detail they put forth..so thanks Bonnie, Gaye, and Mona..you ladies totally rock!!

 

Until next time...



Back to life, back to reality...

I am currently in denial that School is about to start and that it's time for me to be back at work.  I've had the summer off and it was relaxing enough to make me feel refreshed and just busy enough that I didn't want to pull my hair out.  My oldest son starts grade three this year and he's happy to be going back to his old school and seeing his old friends that he's missed; my youngest son starts kindergarten this year and he can't wait for his school to start so he can ride the bus (meanwhile, mommy is still in denial that her baby is old enough to go to the 'big school'); and my little girl starts Headstart Preschool this fall as well and I can't believe how much she has grown this past year and the things she has picked up developmentally..sigh...can't we just keep them little forever :(. 
Strangely enough I'm looking forward to the teenager going back to school because I feel like we haven't seen much of him this summer and we seem to touch base more often and chat more often during our drives to/from school each day and I missed him even though he was right under our noses, I feel the need to reconnect.
Creatively I can't say as I've been taking advantage of these summer months to do much.  I didn't do much baking, crafting, or cardmaking.  About the only thing I took advantage of was my photography - taking wedding photos and vacation shots.  I made a summer to-do list and I procrastinated until the very end of summer in completing it (which is a good thing I guess since my priority was to hang out with my family, which I did!). 

I did finally get my creative juices flowing and finished two papercraft projects that I was very very happy with the final results.  I'll post the picture for the one project here: My Mad Hatter's Hat, which I will be teaching as a class for an upcoming crop.  At first I wasn't happy with the grungy modge podge look of it, but after a day or two I realized it worked for the final result and I'll keep it.

I loved the challenge of making this and the final result.  I made it completely from scratch using thin chipboard, papers, and embellishments.  So cute and it's inspired me to make a matching Hatbox to go with it!  I'll post pics when I get that project done.

Anyhow that's it for me this Friday afternoon, gonna enjoy my long weekend and hopefully get inspired to do a lot more crafting while the motivation and ideas are percolating in my brain.

Talk to you soon!!

...and so it began!

You know the old saying, "you never forget your first!"  Well I think that applies to all things in life, including crafting.  I've always enjoyed trying new things when it comes to being creative - sewing, baking, cooking, photography, knitting, cross stitch, home decor projects, etc.  I like the challenge of creating something and having it turn out like I pictured it in my mind.  Having said that, the one thing I never tried was Scrapbooking!

I have an addictive personality when it comes to anything creative..I can't just go all in and give it a whirl, no I have to collect all the supplies first in order to feel fully prepared to take on the task ahead and as far as scrapbooking goes I knew that could be a fairly costly venture.  So for many years I stayed away from it.  I tried my hand at digital scrapbooking at one point in 2004 because when my first son was born I wanted to capture his first year and I figured digital scrapbooking wouldn't be expensive at all.  To be honest it wasn't really my cup of tea.  Mainly because the program I had at the time was a little restrictive and slow so my end product felt a little simplistic (when I look back now I love that album for it's simplicity but it wasn't something I appreciated then).

Anyhow I finally took the plunge again in 2008, because I signed up for a Card Making club with a Stampin' Up Demonstrator in town.  I thought card making would be a fun and simple way to try Scrapbooking without the expensive tags attached, boy was I wrong!  Card making was like a gateway drug for me..there were so many pretty papers, stamps,  and tools to collect. The techniques kept introducing me to more products I just had to try and have.  Then a friend offered me her Lot of supplies that she wanted to get rid of and that was it.  I had become addicted.  Since then I've continued to collect tools, stamps, supplies, papers (I have a true addiction for these..the styles, designs, colours..oh my!), my husband finally had to build a craft room for me to work in because I kept toting my stuff upstairs and turning our dining room into my own personal work station.  I've delved in even deeper now by financing my addiction through my personal home business with Stampin' Up..such an easy thing to do since I love their products and I've met so many great people through Stampin' Up Card Clubs and Technique clubs.

I thought I would share with you the first Scrapbook Layout I completed.  I was pretty proud of it.  It had started as a digital sketch but that just didn't give it enough life for me, so I decided to try creating it with actual paper, adhesives, chipboard, etc. and I am so happy I did.  It turned out great and like anything else I do creatively, it opened a doorway for me to express myself, challenge myself, and share my life with others.

Blogging and Baking

I can't believe I have just one more day of work (with my day job) and then the summer is mine to create, craft, and of course..bake!  I love baking but I have to be in the mood for it or creatively motivated.  In this case I am being creatively motivated to do a lot of baking for my Uncle's 60th birthday party on Saturday.  I love my uncle Doug and I'm happy to contribute however I can to making his party a success and in this case that means baking up a storm over the next couple of days! 

I've been spending the last few days getting my baker's "hat" on, figuratively speaking, and trying to figure out what's best to bake, what I should store it in, where will I store it, and again..what to bake?!  I am one of those people that, before I do anything, I have to be mentally and physically prepared to complete the project from start to finish.  On the upside this makes me a great multitasker, but on the down side..I am one hell of a procrastinator too!  I should have started my baking process on Sunday but here it is Wednesday and I'm just getting started..but that's okay, I work well under pressure!

Anyhow, I thought I would share with you one of the yummy ideas I'm planning on making.  I've only made these once and I'm still amazed by how well they turned out the first time.  I'm crossing my fingers they will turn out just as well, if not better, the second time around.

French Macarons!  I'll include the link for the recipe at the end of this post if anyone else wants to try them. 

 A few tips I will note, as I learned from my mistakes the first time around..1) make sure you have a good mixer or hand blender for when you are making the meringue.  My mixer does not do well with small amounts so I was pretty much just stirring around the egg whites instead of whipping them and it took me 10 minutes to whip them by hand. 2)  The recipe says to use paste food colouring and I highly recommend this..I used regular food colouring and while the cookies still looked okay and tasted just as good..as you can see by my photo - the colours came out more pastel than bright!

 I made sure I understood the directions well before I started and that I had the right baking tools on hand.  It paid off to be prepared, because in the end the recipe is actually very simple to make, as long as you are using the right equipment.  For example, I made sure I had a good sieve for sifting the icing sugar and ground almonds..it made it so the cookie batter was nice and smooth.

Also it is very important to let the cookies dry before baking and to make sure you adjust the heat as directed on the recipe so you don't burn your cookies and so they are able to rise properly and develop the 'claws' on the bottom of each cap.

I'll post pics soon of my second attempt, unfortunately I won't be able to let you taste test them..but I can do that for you :)  hehehe.  Just teasing..here's the link for the website where I got the recipe (Giver's Log).  I'm very happy to send more people to this blog..it's got some fabulours DIY ideas!!  http://www.giverslog.com/?p=1089

Have a great day!