Sunday 29 December 2013

A Banner for Carmendy

We been doing lots of crafts this past month.

I actually crafted more this year for Christmas than baked....which is a little odd.

I've seen these banner things all over Pinterest and I thought they were so cute.

I figured that I should try and make one.

I have a niece who is also my goddaughter and her name is Carmendy.


She just recently had her room painted purple and I wanted to make her a banner for her room as part of her Christmas gift.

I got out my handy dandy scrap booking paper....

....that I don't scrap book with.....

and picked out a few sheets that I thought would match her room.

And then I made triangles.

LOTS of triangles.

I decided to make 3 triangles for each letter.....and layer them.

Her name has 8 letters....so I had to make 24 beautiful triangles.

I made a tracer for the 3 different sizes....one size for each layer.

My triangles were all 70 degrees + 70 degrees + 40 degrees.

Triangles angles always add up to 180 degrees.

I used a protractor to make it all accurate.

Each triangle had the same angles but was a half an inch larger.

Then I glued all the triangles together.

I printed out the letters and then cut them out.  I can't remember which font I finally decided on....that was a hard decision.

And then I glued them onto the triangles.


But then I realized that it just wasn't stiff enough.

It needed to be stronger.

I spotted the box from the ivomec and I knew that that was just what I needed.

I cut out more triangles and glued them onto the back.


That made it all more hardy.

Wall ready.

I just needed to link it all together.

Ribbon and a hot glue gun.

Then I put some homemade wire hooks on the back....on 4 different letters.


Finished.


Brenda

Thursday 26 December 2013

Merry Christmas

JOY TO THE WORLD


We have been celebrating.

 
 
 



Merry Christmas

Brenda

Monday 23 December 2013

More Snow

The Santa Claus Parade was cancelled yesterday.

There was a big snow/ice storm.

We had our float all planned....but we will just save it until next year.

It's a beautiful snowy wonderland out there.


Everything looks like it's covered in icing.

Terry and Grady have been busy blowing and scraping snow with the tractors.




The kids have been trying to shovel off the pond...but it has been snowing nearly everyday...and so the pond kept getting smaller and smaller....Terry took the tractor and scraped it off for them today.  It's a little slushy in spots but it should be good in a few days.



Ruby is such a crazy dog.



Brenda

Friday 20 December 2013

Two Cakes this Week

I decorated a couple of cakes this week.

Johanna is in the band at her high school and they were having a Christmas concert.  They were wanting to raise some money for their upcoming trip and they requested a cake for a raffle.

I made this for them.


It was simple....I just used the leaf tip to make the Christmas tree.....and luckily I had some red and silver ball sprinkles in the cupboard.


I see that Google is messing with my photos again....the sprinkles didn't actually light up like that.

But it sure would be neat if they did.

Anyways, someone won it.

Then I made this cake today.


Friends of ours are having their son baptized tomorrow and they needed a cake.


It's pretty neat that they named their son 'Leo Grady' and we named our son 'Grady Leonard'.

So very similar.

Brenda

Thursday 19 December 2013

Cinnamon Buns

This bun recipe has been screaming at me.

 
I needed to make them.

I also needed gifts for the fiddle teacher, step dancing teacher, school teacher, bus driver, librarian, neighbours and our priest.

These buns would be it.


One batch makes 7 pans....that's a lot of buns!  I figured maybe I could just make individual 'big' buns and put them in those mini pie pans.

But then I thought about it.

That would be an extremely cruel and mean gift.

Just one bun.

These buns aren't meant to be eaten alone....as just one bun.

A person needs to have the entire pan.....if they share it or not is entirely up to them.


So I made two batches.

They were amazing....knock your socks off....unbelievable.

The only thing that I did differently was that I didn't melt the butter....I just softened it.


And spread it on thick.

I also changed the icing a bit.

I'm not a coffee drinker.  I didn't want to put coffee in it.

And I didn't have maple syrup flavouring.....but I had a whole whiskey bottle full of our maple syrup.

So I gave the icing a real maple syrup flavour.

And it was amazing....knock your socks off....unbelievable.

The girls raided the craft box and made tags and pinecone angel ornaments to attach to each pan of buns.


 


And we delivered them.

Brenda

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Funny how you remember things like that.



Jack turned 12 today.

Johanna stayed home from school to celebrate with him.

She has pink eye.

She had pink eye when he was born too.

Isn't that quite a coincidence?

Funny how you remember things like that.

Jack was born a week before his due date.  He was due on Christmas Eve.

I remember telling an elderly neighbour that I was due on Christmas Eve and she asked me if I was going to name the baby 'Jesus'.

Funny how you remember things like that.

I remember arriving at the hospital....I had been having contractions for 12 hours already and I figured that I had better go and get checked....and the nurse suggested that we go to the mall for a walk.  It was the week before Christmas.  I was needing to 'breathe' through my contractions at that point.

I was not impressed with her suggestion.

Funny how you remember things like that.

We went to visit Terry's Aunt Marie instead.  I paced in her house....and I ate a Harvey's cheeseburger and fries. 

And we had a visit.

Funny how you remember things like that.

It's like it just happened yesterday.

But it was 12 years ago.

Brenda

Saturday 14 December 2013

Hockey with the cows.

It's beyond cold.

I'm not complaining about the cold.

I'm just stating the facts.

I have a hard time with the cold.

Johanna told me once that she was surprised that I hadn't just frozen in midstride yet.

I thought that was pretty funny.

I freeze....and I try really hard not to complain about it.

But everyone here knows just how cold I get.

Everyone was inside this morning after the chores were done.

Everyone except Jack.

He went out to the pond.

He asked if anyone would go with him....but everyone said NO.

And I told him that girls weren't allowed....it was just too cold.

So he went out himself.

And then I looked out and I saw that he actually wasn't alone.

A few of the cows came over to watch him play.

 
 

This is seriously bizarre.  I uploaded the above photo twice by accident and now it just started doing this....


It's snowing!

Brenda

Thursday 12 December 2013

Frost on the Barn

It's cold.

I heard the 'thunk' of the frost going into the foundation of the house....actually I heard it twice.

There were frozen eggs on the hen house floor this morning......some of those girls refuse to lay their eggs in the boxes.

I've been lacing up skates here everyday....the little pond is in great shape!

Card games are being played around the kitchen table.  I need to shuffle but Lydia loves to 'serve them up'.  Crazy eights and go fish are her favourites....and she always seems to win ;)

We are checking water bowls and troughs regularly....everything ices over so fast.

The furnace is always being refilled with wood.

We have to remember to plug in the tractors if we want them to start.

We wear layers and layers of clothes.

Snow suits need to be hung up to dry and mittens need to be placed on the vent.

We all seem to eat so much more than usual.  The baked potatoes were so good last night that Sophie had two with her supper.  She said that they were the best potatoes that she had ever eaten....and I couldn't agree more.  All my potato bug picking has paid off.

It's winter.....almost.  It hasn't officially arrived....but it certainly feels like it has.

I hope we get some more snow.

I'm looking forward to getting out my snowshoes.  and the sleds.  and the cross county skis.  and having a bon fire.

This morning I noticed a  thick strip of white frost all the way up from the barn door.  The heat from inside the barn had frozen as the air escaped.  Of course I didn't have my camera to get a really good photo.

But we had to go back over to this barn this afternoon and I tried to get a photo.  The frost wasn't as prominent as it was this morning.




Can you see it?

Brenda

Monday 9 December 2013

Paper Snowflakes or Stars

We've been decorating for "Crimis"....that's how Lydia says it.

I needed to make some snowflakes.

Or maybe they are stars.

I don't know.

But I made a HUGE one a couple of years ago and I loved it so much I left it up and I had to take it down when it collapsed with dust.

It was time to make another one.

This time smaller.

I got out my fancy scrapbooking paper.

I have scrapbooking paper but I don't scrapbook.  This paper is good for all sorts of things.

It's pretty.

I picked 4 sheets that I liked and then I glued them together....to make them into 2 sheets that were double sided.




Then I measured and made them into smaller squares.  They became 5 1/2 " squares.


I took each square and folded it in half.....triangle style.


Then I measured again.  It wasn't quite 8"...but close...so I just centered it and pretended that it was 8".


I made marks at the 1 1/4", 2", 3", 5", 6" and 6 3/4".


Then I cut at those marks....in the direction of the triangle.  Make a triangle but don't cut all the way....stop before the point.

 

Then take the middle part and roll it together and tape it.


Then turn it over and get the next two to meet and tape them.

 

Keep turning it over and rolling and taping until you have this....


Do that with all 6 squares until you have this....


Then line them up with the biggest side meeting the smaller side of the other one....and staple them together.


Keep doing this....and then connect them all together to form a snowflake.

Or a star.


And then get the middle until you like it and staple or tape it together.

 
Punch a hole in the top....add some ribbon and hang it somewhere.
 
On a door....or from your ceiling.
 
I hung mine on the corner cupboard.
 
 
Then I took those left over 5" squares and I made into 4 squares...they each became 2 3/4" squares.
 
And I did the same thing with them.
 
 
 
 
Guess what?......It turned out exactly the same!
 
Sweet.
 
I hung it in the middle of the kitchen light.
 
The original one I made a few years ago was made from 11" squares.  It was a good size for a door.
 
So....what is it....a snowflake or a star?
 
It doesn't much matter....I LOVE it!
 
Make one.
 
Brenda