Before and After

Well, its been a busy few days around here. Getting ready for Christmas of course, wrapping gifts, madly trying to finish the albums I make my daughters every year(pics to be posted after Christmas!) and kitchen redecorating phase 2, new flooring!

Here's the before:



And here's the after:


I'm very happy with how well the wall paint colour compliments the new floor! And its in in time for Christmas! How awesome is that!

But even with this busyness, I was able to experiment with a new floral arrangement using candy canes. I saw this idea on an HGTV show and was able to recreate it. I picked up a vase at the dollar store, used an elastic to hold the candy canes in place around the vase,covered the elastic with ribbon,added the carnations and voila,a cute, affordable centrepiece!




Last night I did take time out from Christmas preparations to scrapbook with my friend Kathryn. And her husband Dave came over too. After enjoying a dinner of yummy hors d 'oeuvres, Steve and Dave watched an old Columbo set on a cruise ship from 1973, while Kathryn worked on her niece's wedding album and I made some cute ornaments using Cosmo Cricket chipboard and dies cuts.



You never know where these ornaments will turn up, perhaps on some presents!

Food and Drink

Our liquor stores issue a free magazine called Food and Drink every couple of months or so. Its main purpose, of course, is to promote liquors and wines but it also includes great recipes and entertaining ideas.

My friends, family and I eagerly await it and hit the store to pick a copy on the first day of its release. The holiday issue has lots of great recipes and I decided to to make one to take to a work potluck tomorrow; Pear, Cranberry, Pecan and Coconut Crisp.

It smelled so good while it was cooking, I'll let you know tomorrow how it tastes.

Here's the recipe:

6 to 8 large pears, ripe but not mushy
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, cut in half
2 T granulated sugar
1 T cornstarch
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup whipping cream ,softly whipped

Heat oven to 350. Peel and core pears, cut into 1/2 inch chunks. Place into an unbuttered 8 by 8 glass baking dish. Stir in cranberries. Fruit should fill dish to top. Stir granulated sugar with cornstarch, mix into fruit and smooth top. Stir oats with flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir in butter so crumbs form and all is moistened, mix in coconut and pecans. Evenly spread over fruit. Bake uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes or until fruit filling is bubbling. Serve warm garnished with softly whipped cream and a whole pecan.

Serves 6 to 8.

Favourite Family Recipe

Well on this stormy,blustery day I'm continuing Christmas preparations,extra cleaning and laundry as well as making the potatoes so I don't have to do them next weekend.

I also made our favourite Christmas treat, Coconut Peaks. My Mom has made these for as long as I remember, she got the recipe from her Mom. And my girls love them, it wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't make them. Here they are all lined up while the chocolate hardens.




And here's the recipe:

2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1/4 cup cream(I use milk)
3 cups flaked coconut
1/4 cup butter
3-4 oz. chipits
2 T shortening

Heat butter, stir in sugar, cream and coconut. Cool, shape into peaks, place on waxed paper, refrigerate. Melt together chocolate and shortening. Dip bottoms of peaks in chocolate or drizzle over tops. Refrigerate until set.


And a few pics from outside our home today.

Looks like Christmas!



And the snow piled up on our BBQ just ouside our back door!(yes we do BBQ year round, but won't be today!)

Poinsettias 2007

Every year Steve goes to our favourite nursery and picks out two large poinsettias for the house. And he always gets a darker coloured one for the family room and a mixed lighter coloured version for the living room.

Here they are:

Christmas Kits

Its coming down to the crunch, only 10 more days until Christmas and I still have a few scrapbooking projects on the go as well as my wrapping to do!



This kit from Colorbok is helping with the wrapping as it makes the cutest pillow boxes and favour boxes. I plan to use them for gift cards as well as small place setting gifts!

Christmas Quiz

I've received this quiz from a few different friends and decided to post my answers here. I'd love to hear how you would answer these questions, please feel free to comment on some of all of them.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both!

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real!

3. When do you put up the tree? Second weekend in December

4. When do you take the tree down? New Years Day

5. Do you like egg nog? Yes, the real stuff not fat free!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Record player

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No

8. Hardest person to buy for? My Dad

9. Easiest person to buy for? My daughters

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? None

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Carol(the orginal with Alistair Sim)

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Coconut Peaks

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Coloured

17. Favorite Christmas song? My Favourite Things

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Staying home this year.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixon, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Morning

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The crowds

22. Favorite ornament theme or color? Gold

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey with all the trimming

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? To celebrate with family and friends

The Tree is Decorated

Finally, the tree is decorated and the cards written and sent. On to wrapping next! And I have a few more scrapbook projects to finish up......will blog about them in a day or so.

Oh and I liked this pic of one of my new ornaments

Another Christmas Recipe

A friend asked for the Peanut Butter Slice recipe that I had a picture of in a previous post but for which I didn't include the recipe. So here it is:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
2 pkg. butterscotch chips
2 cups miniature marshmallows

Melt butter, peanut butter and chips, cool and add marshmallows. Put into 8 x 8 pan, refrigerate.

Christmas Decorating

The stockings are hung, the outdoor lights and garland are up and the tree is almost ready to be decorated. We were going to decorate it yesterday but it needed more time to thaw so that the branches drop. Tonight the lights will go on and then tomorrrow night the final decorations.

I'm pretty much done the rest of the indoor decorating. And it was as I looking at these pictures that I realized how many of these decorations I've made over the years. Here are a few highlights:

This is a Father Christmas I made over a bottle several years ago with some ladies from work. I still love him!



This is the wreath on our front door that I made a long time ago at a crafters weekend in Stratford with my Mom, Grandma and sister. It really is showing the wear. I'll have to update it next year or create a new one!



These are a centrepiece and wreath I made a few years ago at a college craft course with my Grandma. I added my own hurricane glass to the centrepiece.






And a couple of decorations I didn't make:

A lovely feather tree given to me by a friend a couple of years ago.




A mini-tree decorated with snowmen!

More Christmas Cards

As I mentioned in a previous note, I scrapbooked on Friday night with a fun bunch of ladies. And we have all been sharing our Christmas card ideas. Here's three I made compliments of Noel(yes her name really is Noel!).



I think they're quite cute.

Christmas Baking Part One

The girls had the day off from school today so we started our Christmas baking.

Brianne made her speciality, shortbread. She doubled the recipe but found it was dry so adjusted it by adding more butter until it got the right feel.



They turned out great and she iced some with almond icing, so yummy!



While she was doing that Britt and I made truffles.



These are an easy Eagle Brand recipe but look like you've slaved over them!

Truffle Recipe

3 pkgs(175 g each) semi-sweet choclate chips
1 can regular eagle brand condensed milk
1 T vanilla
various coatings(we used colured sugar, sprinkles, coconut)

Melt chocolate chips with Eagle brand. Stir in vanilla, chill 3 hours or until firm.



Shape into 1 inch balls, roll in any of the coatings. Chill again until firm.

Then I made magic cookie bars(a favourite of Steve's), peanut butter slice(butterscotch chips, peanut butter and marshmallows) and chocolate fudge.









Brianne also made an awesome looking Breton Brittle, one with chocolate topping and the other with almonds, peanuts and pecans.






Britt and I also made another favourite, Puppy Chow, a simple recipe that makes a lot and could be packaged up and given as hostess or teacher gifts.




Puppy Chow
1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 pkg milk chocolate chips
1 box crispix

Melt butter, peanut butter and chocolate chips in large pot. Stir in Crispix until evenly coated. Toss with icing sugar in paper bag(I use a large tupperware bowl with lid) until evenly coated, needs a lot. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Still on the list to make are Coconut peaks, Gingerbread cookies and Chow mein clusters!

Peppermint Patty Presents

I'm scrapbooking tonight with a fun bunch of ladies and wanted to bring them each somthing small and scrapbooked for Christmas. I remembered some years ago seeing a peppermint patty covered in cardstock and closed up lke a present but couldn't find directions to make them anywhere. So I've created my own.



I had pattys left from a bag of mixed treats I used to fill the girls advent calendar. So using a patty for size I went to work measuring, scoring, inking and threading ribbon! I trimmed a couple with flowers but most with buttons and am very happy with how they turned out.



I think they would make great placesetting gifts too.

Another Altered Container

Guess what it is? Yes, its a clementine box that I covered with Basic Grey paper. My creative juices are flowing!

You could nestle clementines or candles or homemade jams in it and it would make a great hostess gift!

Here's a couple of other views.

Altered Coffee Tin

So I've had this coffee tin for awhile and finally altered it for use as a gift container. I like use of the colours in this line of paper by Daisy Bucket, Wrapped Wishes.The pink and green is very pretty.

Ross Petty's Peter Pan

Today we braved the snowstorm warnings to travel into Toronto to see Ross Petty's Peter Pan starring Kurt Browning in his theatre debut.

Every year Steve's company celebration for the kids is a matinee presentation of Ross Petty's pantomime. We've gone to about 7 or 8 of these now and they are so much fun. We just couldn't miss this year's or Kurt's theatre debut.

So Steve shovelled out the driveway, we received about 8 inches of snow, and once off of our street the roads were actually not too bad but we did see one accident in the opposite direction and a couple of cars in the ditch(drivers, slow down!).

We arrived in lots of time to see the play at the Historic Elgin Theatre.



I love how beautifully these theatres have been restored and all the gilt work.



As in prior year's 'fractured' fairy tales Ross Petty plays the villian and the audience must boo and hiss him when he's on stage. This year he was Captain Hook while Kurt Browning was Peter Pan. And true to form, Ross played Captain Hook with flair and a few references to Jack Sparrow were thrown in for good measure! Kurt did wonderfully as an 'aging' Peter Pan(yes reference was made to his hairline and a comparison made to Scott Hamilton)who of course beats Captain Hook at his own game. The story was updated with current jokes and references made throughout to Steve's company. I found this great play review here.

Kitchen Redecorating Phase 1

We've completed kitchen redecorating phase 1, stripping off two layers of wallpaper put up by previous owners then painting the ceiling and walls. We decided on a colour to match with the oak cupboards, Benjamin Moore Ginger root. It looks more golden in the actual light although in the pictures it very closely resembles the sample on the website.





This project came up rather quickly as we're looking at replacing the floor with new vinyl in a slate look pattern by Mannington. We may be able to have it in before Christmas so decided we should paint before any new flooring arrives!

Click here for a look at the flooring we've picked. It actually has more black to it than shows on the website but I noticed that the floor colours matches the palate shown on the Benjamin Moore page, so I guess we're on the right track.

So the flooring will be phase 2, then the next phases in no particular order will be new windows and plantation shutters, new countertop and sink and a new backsplash. We'll probably work on these projects throughout 2008 so I'll be sure to post the next phases as they're done.

Christmas Stockings

I spent last night scrapbooking with friends. We all worked on various Christmas projects from mini-albums to cards to gift card stockings.

I made three gift card stockings based on the instructions published by Papercrafts Magazine and designer Nancy Davies(also a contributer to the Go Scrapping message board where I've been known to hang out!).

I suspect I may make more of these but here's a look at those I've done so far.







I also made this Christmas tree card compliments of Janet who put a package together for each of us to make two cards. It was a quick one to make and I like how it turned out!



I spent today decorating the house so will post some decorating pics later this week!