The Annual Valentine Craft

It all started last year.  My youngest wanted homemade valentine's cards for his class.  He was very specific.  He wanted a cupcake card with a valentine theme.  I just looked at him because my brain does not function that way.  But do you know who's brain totally functions that way?  Marn's! So last year he got exactly what he wished for.  And you are in luck because I saved one of the prototypes so you can see how fantastic her execution of my son's vision was.

This year a request was placed for a heart with a cupid arrow and the tip of the arrow needed to be a chocolate heart. So off to Marnie's house I went...

In my totally illiterate way, using basic props, I tried to explain what I'd gleaned from my son's description.  And I loved Marnie's valentine stamp and wanted to incorporate it some how.

 Marnie noodled on the computer for a couple of minutes and then found a perfect design.

I took one look and wanted to leave,

Marnie has this machine that she programs to cut.  I sound remedial but I do not craft.  I watch.  In total amazement,  Marn got this thing to cut perfect hearts.

 Pretty cool.  "How many do you need?" she asked.  And as I stammered out "24" the silhouette machine whirred and away she went.

I knew this project was going to turn out well when I saw that look.  Marn's delight is so contagious. I have no idea what magic she was working but I knew it would be fantastic.  Plus she let me sit across from her with a camera and snap away.  So FUN!

Pure creative genius!

Once the hearts were all cut out, Marn made the fletching end of the arrow by hand.  Grabbed some scissors and this vicious looking mini exacto knife and went to town.

 At the end of the day, all that was left to do was assemble.  I took a break to go skiing with the family and shop for my eldest's bake sale project.  (that's an entire blog post in itself.)

 Finally, I sat down and got to work.  I have no grace when using my hands for fine detail work. I struggle mightily to get this tab to fit into that slot.  There was a lot of muttering, some words I'm afraid I can't repeat floated over this project and my eldest got chewed out for teasing his brother  - but really he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - I just needed to yell.

In the end the requisite number of valentine's day cards were assembled.  Turns out I only needed 18.  Don't tell Marn.

 All that was left to do was personalize them.  Marnie's talent strikes again.  My son and I are so, so grateful.

Marnie's Vinyl

It sounds like I'm going to talk about old records in this post.  But I'm not.  Marnie does incredible things with vinyl and iron on applications.

This was a Christmas present for a co-worker

I'm pretty sure that you'll never have all of Marn's attention.  Because while she's listening, talking, cooking. crafting or doing whatever, she is also planning.  Mostly it's craft projects, sometimes adventures, and the odd time food.  Right now she is obsessed with these transfers.  And her obsession can be quite funny.

This is on her basement toilet

 But mostly, it's just perfect.  I love this personalized water bottle.

Marn's better half is obsesses with transformers and he's got this logo all over the place.  Obsessive is big in Marn's household.

This one is on their trailer

My youngest has asked her to decorate his soccer water bottle with a wedge of cheese. Now that, I'm looking forward to seeing.  And as soon as Marn get's it out of her head and onto the water bottle I will take a picture and post it. (Nag, nag, nag.)

Winter Comfort

Happy New Year!

Today my house smells like winter comfort.  I made homemade chicken broth from a left-over Costco chicken and chocolate chip cookies with the new baking sheets that Marnie gave me for Christmas.  I've got the laundry machines humming away and the sun is shining.  A very nice way to start the new year.

I stole this image from Anson Mills. 

I did not intend to bake so close to the end of the Christmas season.  My family has had their fill of homemade whipped shortbread, butter tarts, cheesecake squares, and ginger cookies.  However, I was unable to deliver a present over the holidays and I'm hoping that homemade chocolate chip cookies will work as an apology as I now deliver a new year's present.

The fun part is baking on these fabulous new baking sheets.  Before Marmie's present  I was using really small sheets much to Marn's exasperation.  "How can you bake on these, when you bake so often?!" she would cry.  And there hasn't been a baking session we've done together where I didn't secretly hope she would forget her baking sheets at my place and I could steal them.  But now I don't have to because I have my very own!  Thank you Marnie.

It feels like a switch has been thrown and life has resumed.  I'm picking up the threads of everyday details I laid down over the holidays and figuring out how to cope with the copious amounts of snow we've received over the month of December.  I love the snow, it's the wet boots, hats, mitts, and jackets that are throwing me for a bit of loop.  Of course the boot warmer that was on sale at Costco in August would be brilliantly helpful right now - alas my clairvoyant skills were not working that day and I'm stuck with a hairdryer, the clothes dryer and some strategic placement around the baseboard heaters.

I'm secretly dreaming about a snow blower.  You'll know things are going very well for me and mine when I have a snowblower for the one season in twenty where we get this kind of snow.

Also stole this image from Markham Mower Power Products as I do not have a snowblower... yet.

I would rather have the snow, and the wet boots than no snow and no opportunity to get boots wet.  Although when my youngest ended up sticking both boots in the freezing cold lake so he could break the shoreline ice "just like the big kids were doing Mom"  I realized we were going to have to have a winter safety talk.  And that without a boot warmer, it takes about four days to dry winter boots with a plastic coating - even with a hairdryer!

Nothing Beats Outdoor Christmas Lights in the Snow

It turns out that one of my very favourite things about the Christmas season are Christmas lights.  And Christmas lights in the snow are even better.

This is the front lawn tree I decorate.  It looks good normally, but with snow, it looks like a Christmas card.

How about this arty little number?  I had such fun taking these pictures.

When I look back at the Christmas activities I drag my family too, about a third of them involve outdoor Christmas lights.

I've already raved about the Lighted Truck Parade.  Then there was the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens Festival of Lights.

I could put you in a serious coma with all the glorious pictures I have of the Van Dusen Lights.

Okay, last one...

And if that didn't fulfill your outdoor Christmas light needs, I dragged the family to a new light exhibit called Enchant

.

No idea who the woman is in the forefront of this picture.

This was some serious illumination.

And we still haven't piled into the car, picked up some KFC, blared Christmas music and driven around town checking out all the spectacularly lit homes in town.  But we've still got some time, because if there's one thing this family needs its more outdoor Christmas light exposure.

Thank God for Marnie's Craft Studio

I lead a Beaver Scout Colony.  And when I need a craft for said Beavers, one of my 'ace in the holes' is Marnie.  This year I came to her with the idea that I would get the kids to make a Christmas card for a loved one of their choice.  We'd focus on the message and then they'd get 20 minutes to decorate it.

The prep this involved was enormous.

For 2 hours we cut out disks and snowflakes, and more snowflakes, and Marnie used her magic machines to create "Merry Christmas" and character cut-outs.

I get impatient with this level of detail.  But Marnie talked me down off the ledge.  And showed me how to use these fabulous snowflake and circle punches while calmly running off die cut cut outs.

It was a master class in scrap-booking.   Anything I needed, Marnie had it in a drawer, on a shelf, or on a counter. 

I came equipped with paper and she turned it into creative choices I had to pull the beavers away from. They could have decorated a thousand cards. It was magic.  And every kid's card, no matter how enthusiastic they were with the glue, or adding details, had a unified feel, which made them work.

This was my son's finished card to his brother. Worth every minute with the snowflake punch.  Marnie you are truly the best!

Lights! And Trucks!

This weekend was our Christmas kickoff and we headed over to Victoria to watch the Island Equipment Owners Association Christmas Truck Convoy.

Otherwise known as the Truck Light Parade.  This is one of my FAVOURITE activities of the season. I originally started going because I had a little guy who loved trucks.  Now, I go because this is one of the most fabulous Christmas celebrations ever.

These people covered their trucks in Christmas lights. Completely covered.  I can't even imagine the effort this takes.  It's such a magnificent sight to behold.  Remember the goose bumps you used to get watching that Coke commercial with all the decorated trucks?

Well this is even better.  They are right up close, rumbling by, and the lights are so bright.

A truck convoy is pretty cool on it's own.  Now watch it at night; when each truck is coated in Christmas lights and you'll have enough energy and inspiration to enjoy every single crazy moment of the Christmas season.

Thank you Island Equipment Owners Association for a wonderful experience.  You guys did an outstanding job and it was so much fun to watch.

Ginger and Molasses

November chewed us up and spit us out.  It has been a rough month.  However, the giant silver lining is we made it through and have come out the other side just in time to focus on CHRISTMAS!!!!!

And one of the first things Marnie and I did was to make ginger chewy cookies and gingerbread cookies.

It started with Marnie hauling lots of her cool baking equipment to my house.

 And then we got down to the business of baking.

 Marnie had to soften the butter because I forgot to leave it out.

We got to bake with molasses which made the batter lovely and dark.

 The batter smelled fantastic and when we baked the cookies the whole house smelled like Christmas.

We used two recipes for this baking session.  The first one was a Good Housekeeping recipe I've had for ages and it worked really well.  These cookies are delicious!

Seriously delicious.  I was fooling around with some icing sugar and a template but I could never get the star centered.  Baker and decorator I am not.

The next recipe was Pioneer Woman's gingerbread.  This dough was easy to make, rolled out like a dream and it was easy to create uniform cookies with it.

 The only flaw, and it was a tragic one, was they did not taste good.  I know, PW never lets me down! Unfortunately, I've noticed that some of her cookie recipes are not as good as I would hope.  This could have easily been baker error, but I had Marnie with me and her attention to detail around this kind of thing is spot on.  We ended up making a second batch of the ginger chews, adding more flour and rolling them out.  It sort of worked, this recipe poofs up and so our snowflakes looked like flowers because all the edges became rounded.  However, the most important detail was that they tasted really good.  And the kids sure loved decorating them.

Ta Da! The first gingerbread of the season!

Better Homes and Gardens Giant Ginger Cookies

Ingredients
4-1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves (we used allspice)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses

1. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl beat shortening with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds to soften.  Gradually add 2 cups granulated sugar.  Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.  Beat in eggs and molasses.  Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can with the mixer.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour mixture.

3.  Shape dough into 2-inch balls using 1/4 cup dough.  Roll balls in the 3/4 cup coarse or granulated sugar. (We didn't do this - we used powdered sugar after they baked)  Place about 2-1/2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

4.  Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until cookies are lightly brown and puffed.

These cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months according to BHG. I have not tested this out.