12 Weeks of Christmas Week : 6 Shopping

This is week 6 of the 12 weeks of Christmas! Hard to believe that there are only 47 days till Christmas! This week's topic is Shopping.

I love shopping, which is fortunate, since, as much as I enjoy it, my spouse dislikes it. His idea of shopping is browsing in the electronics store or bookstore. I enjoy the 'thrill of the hunt'. I am twice as pleased with a purchase if I found it on sale. Here are a few pointers to help you with your shopping.

1. Shop throughout the year. Even if you don't purchase your gifts right when you find them, shop for gift giving ideas. You have the best chance of finding what you want in the size you need if you start early. If you leave your shopping till the last minute you are more likely to overspend out of desperation. Plus, you don't have to fight for parking or shop in less than wonderful weather.

2. If a great gift idea comes to mind - write it down. I keep a journal just for that purpose. Pay attention to people's hobbies and preferences.

3. Consider buying at a thrift store or garage sale. You can often find BRAND NEW items for a fraction of the price of retail. Plus, you save yourself the sales tax. Remember that a dollar saved is MORE than a dollar earned because you shop with after-tax dollars.

4. Gift certificates can make great gifts if they are for businesses that you KNOW the person frequents. Some of our drugstores here stock gift cards for a variety of stores, not just their own. This can save time. In Canada gifts cards, by law, do not expire. Check out what protection the law gives you where you live. In Canada there are frequently terrific Boxing Week sales (particularly on electronics) so the the gift card recipient can stretch those dollars.

5. Homemade certificates for services like snow shoveling, or babysitting are really appreciated.

6. Pool your money with other family member members to buy one large gift rather than individual gifts.

7. Get gift receipts when possible and check out the store's return policy. Keep all the receipts in one location just in case you need to return something.

8. Homemade gifts add a personal touch. Just be sure to start them well in advance. You don't want to be knitting that second slipper on Christmas Eve!


I have most of my Christmas shopping already done for this year (please don't hate me). I hope to be totally finished by the end of November. So if you are out there in that crowded mall on Dec. 24th, don't look for me. And good luck!

I'm sure the others linking to Red Writing's blog have lots to share about Christmas shopping too. Let's have a look!

12 Weeks of Christmas Week 5:Homemade Gifts

This week on the "12 Weeks of Christmas" the focus is on homemade gifts. I have a couple ideas up my sleeve, but I'm not going to post them here just in case anyone I know actually reads this blog! Here are a couple of ideas that I CAN share. I can't really take credit for any of them.



Altered clipboards: Clipboards can easily be found at dollar stores. They don't have to remain plain and boring though. Maureen Spell at Scrapjazz has a great tutorial on how to jazz them up here .


Decorated Candles:
Plain pillar candles can be decorated by stamping images on tissue paper and melting them onto the candle wax using an embossing gun. You can find a tutorial here .


For other fantastic gift-making ideas, check out Red Writing's blog.

12 Weeks of Christmas Week 4:All About the Food

I have two Christmas recipes that I would like to share. These have become traditions in our family.

Egg Nog Pie

This recipe is surprisingly light. I usually serve it for dessert for our turkey dinner. If you prepare the graham crust yourself using a non-sugar sweetener, it is suitable for diabetics.

Ingredients:

1. Prepared graham pie crust
   
2. 2 cups Calorie reduced Cool Whip
   
3. 1/2 tsp nutmeg
4. 1/2 tsp rum extract
   
5. Jello Fat free vanilla pudding mix (sweetened with aspartame)
   
6. 1 cup cold 2 % milk
   
7. marachino cherries , drained (optional)
   

Prepare the Jello pudding mix with half the milk called for in the directions. Add nutmeg and rum extract. Fold in the Cool Whip. Fill pie crust. Garnish with marachino cherries and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Chill. May be prepared ahead of time and frozen. Just thaw on the day you plan to serve it.

If you are unconcerned about your calorie intake, you could used regular Cool whip and Jello pudding mix.

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Chocolate truffles

I made these one year for a Christmas cookie exchange and they were requested every year thereafter. They make great gifts or colourful additions to a goodie tray.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• Coatings:
• Finely chopped toasted nuts, flaked coconut, chocolate sprinkles, colored sprinkles, unsweetened cocoa powder, confectioners' sugar or colored sugars

Directions:

1. In large saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.
2. Pour into medium bowl. Cover and chill 2-3 hours or until firm.
3. Shape into 1-inch balls; roll in any of the listed coatings.
4. Chill 1 hour or until firm. Store tightly covered at room temperature.

If you are hungry for other delicious recipes, and Christmas food traditions, check out the other posts at Red Writing's blog.

Finnish Star (snowflake)

For my Christmas Accent Craft I'd like to show you how to make a 3D paper snowflake (sometimes called a Finnish Star).

To make my snowflake I used:
1. paper cutter
2. 1 sheet 8.5 x 11in cardstock
3. glue stick
4. scissors

Cut 12 strips of cardstock 8.5 in long and .5 inch wide.



Take 2 strips and glue them together at their centres to make a big plus sign.

Take 2 more strips and glue them beside the first.

Weave 2 more strips horizontally through the verticle strips and glue them at the intersection points.

Take the top end of the leftmost verticle strip and the left end of the topmost horizontal strip and glue the ends together. The paper will naturally form a curve.

Repeat for the other corners.

Repeat these steps for the other set of 6 strips.

Place the two halves of the snowflake together so that the curves all point towards the centre. Twist the top half so that the points of the curves are aligned over top of a straight strip.

Glue the curved point to the straight strip and cut off the excess paper on the straight strip at the very end.

Repeat for the other 7 points. Voila!!! Your snowflake(Finnish Star) is complete. These would look very pretty with glitter added. You could hang these from a garland or in a window. I might even make some for package decorations for larger gifts.

You can see other lovely Christmas accent crafts at Red Writing's blog.

Spooky Tablescape

Your dinner companion this evening will be my honoured guest, Mr. Bones.

Eyeballs, bugs, snakes, bats - delicious!

Check out more wonderful tablescapes at the

61st Tablescape Thursday

Pink Tablescape

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Today I present a pink tablescape in support of this worthy effort.

The glass tumblers are from Avon's Pink Ribbon collection.


Check out more wonderful tablescapes at the 60th Tablescape Thursday

12 Weeks of Christmas No. 2: Christmas Memories and Traditions

For the second week of Christmas, we are sharing Christmas memories and traditions.


A Tradition of Giving:

When I was in grade 5 (many, many years ago) our teacher gave the class a wonderful project. We 'adopted' a family that was experiencing financial hardship and provided a Christmas for them. We made crafts such as candles and wreaths and held a craft sale to raise money. We had a list of the childrens' ages. We chose students to pick out appropriate gifts. I believe the teachers made up a food basket for them. That Christmas I remember wondering how those children enjoyed their gifts. It really made a huge impression on me.

Each year I try to continue the tradition of giving. One year my husband and I built and furnished a dollhouse to donate to a toy drive. Every year our church puts up a tree with gift requests from various charities. We pick one or two and buy toys (or whatever was requested). Each year our family participates in Operation Christmas Child. We fill shoeboxes with items such as school supplies, toothbrushes and toiletries, small toys and hard candy. You can check online to find a drop-off location near you. The deadline is usually mid November. These boxes are shipped all over the world to needy children by Samaritan's Purse.

I'm sure there are many opportunities for giving in your community too!


A Tradition of Music

Even as a child, I enjoyed singing in choirs. In elementary school we performed in Christmas concerts and music festivals. In highschool I joined the church choir. Every fall we practiced music for Midnight Mass. This is my third year with our Diocesan Choir. There are over 50 members in the choir and music is absolutely gorgeous! Each year we have an advent concert. We take collections at the concerts and raise money for various charities. One year we raised enough money to finance quite a few eye surgeries at a hospital in South America. Unfortunately the weather always seems to be horrible for these concerts! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for this year!

I'm sure I'll have more chances to share my favourite traditions as we work through the 12 Weeks of Christmas. Others have been describing their Chritmas traditions at Red Writing's blog.

12 Weeks of Christmas Week 1: Lists

C'mon, it's barely October and I'm blogging about Christmas lists? It's later than you think! There are only 12 weeks till Christmas!

Red Writing has launched a new Christmas countdown series. The 'Twelve Weeks of Christmas' should be a great way to keep on track with our Christmas preps and have a lot of fun comparing notes. This week the focus is on Christmas lists.

I am a big fan of lists. They give me the illusion of being in control. So, it is only natural that my pen and pad would come out at the very thought of Christmas preparations.

First, I start my master 'To Do' list. This list of lists might look something like this:

To Do:
- Gift list
- Dinner menu
- shopping list
- Christmas baking list
- seasonal activities
- decorating
- Christmas cards
- wrapping

Every year I struggle with finding the perfect gift for each and every person on my gift list. This year I thought I might consult a Christmas gift giving expert.

Dear Santa,

I don't know how you do it - finding just the right gift for all the good boys and girls. I hope that you can give me some Christmas list tips.

Should I try to adopt a "Naughty" vs "Nice" strategy? Most folks seem to be a bit of both, so I get confused. And I am told it is sometimes nice to be naughty! Help!

I think it is a terrific idea to ask everyone to send in a wish list. Yet when I ask people on my gift list what they are hoping to receive, the responses range from " I dunno", "Oh, you don't have to get me anything" to "a HORSE". That doesn't help me too much. It also seems a little unfair that you get to deliver coveted gifts like ipods, Nintendos and Lego sets leaving me with exciting options like underwear and socks.


I have a proposal for this year. You bring the cool gifts, I'll wrap up the underwear. And on Christmas morning I'll just switch the gift tags! It'll be our little secret!

I feel better about my Christmas Gift list already!

I'll send MY wish list in a few weeks.

Cheers, Maureen


PS. In spite of reports to the contrary, I've been a REALLY, REALLY GOOD girl this year!
PS2 Be sure to get your flu shots this year (I hear there's a nasty bug going around)

Let's see how everyone else is doing with their lists at Red Writing's blog.

Fall Luncheon Tablescape

It's definitely feeling like fall now. For today's tablescape, I'm dabbling in warmer colours to reflect the glorious hues that will soon be everywhere you look.




These dishes were acquired by saving cash register tapes from the grocery store (A&P, if I recall correctly). We even had other family members saving their receipts to help us collect more placesettings. They've been our 'everyday' dishes for many many years. It's 'Cordella' stoneware, made in Japan, that is almost indestructible. You can microwave it and run it through the dishwasher a gazillion times. And since so many folks got the same dishes, it is pretty easy to find replacement pieces should accidents happen.



They're not that fancy, but on a chilly autumn afternoon, I think they look pretty comforting. Who knows, someday my great grandchildren might consider them antiques!

You can see many more lovely tablescapes at Susan's
58th Tablescape Thursday.

Paper mache pumpkin

It's Metamorphosis Monday time at "Between Naps on the Porch". This is my first time sharing a transformation. It's just a little project - a 'mini-met' , so to speak.

This week I bought a paper mache pumpkin at Michael's.

I agonized for a bit about how to paint my pumpkin. I'd seen so many unique ways to transform the humble squash. I've seen pumpkins painted white, silver, even some adorned with gold leaf! In the end I decided to go for the more natural look (I can always get more creative next year).

I first gave it a couple of coats of pumpkin orange paint.

I decided to emphasize the indentations by using a rust coloured paint along the segments. Here is the final product :


The real master of pumpkin paper mache is Scott Stoll at Stolloween . His creations are amazing!

Wreath Makeover

Well, It's official. It's autumn! The days are getting shorter and the leaves are starting to become tinged with gorgeous colours. It's time that my front door reflect the change of season.


I had a spring wreath that I augmented with silk flowers in colours similar to some of the flowers in the bed in my front yard. I thought it looked very welcoming. I guess a pair of robins did too. Before I knew it, they had built a nest in the wreath!You can see it at the 1:00 position on the wreath. We moved it to the wall beside the door so we wouldn't be disturbing the birdie family with our comings and goings. Eggs were laid and before long three baby robins hatched! While we were very pleased with the blessed event, this left my front door rather plain.

I found another grapevine wreath at a garage sale. At the same sale I found another bunch of silk flowers. I put them all together and, voila! I had a new summer wreath!

But now it's time to pull out the pink blossoms. At yet another garage sale (notice a trend here), I found some lovely orange and yellow sunflowers. While there are no leaves in the wreath, per se, I think the colours definitely say 'fall' to me.





You can see many more lovely fall creations at Keelie's
Fall Wreath Party.

It happens every time...

...that I paint that old garage door. I have chocolate hallucinations. See what I mean? I wonder how many calories that would be?
Any other chocoholics out there? What's your favourite?

A Family Heirloom - Treadle Sewing Machine

Marie at Emma Calls Me Mama
is hosting an Heirloom Party! I'm a little late, but here is my 'show & tell'.

This Singer treadle sewing machine belonged to my husband's grandmother. We think it was purchased around the 1920-30's. We were able to restore it to working order by replacing the leather belt that connects the treadle and the machine. You are still able to buy replacement parts for this type of machine because treadle sewing machines are still used in parts of the world where electricity is unreliable.

She's showing her age (aren't we all?) but she has earned her retirement. She was used to sew everything from wedding dresses to baby clothes. Someday I'd like to sew a quilt on her.