O Tannenbaum

I looked at my list this morning and I chose to get the tree up and decorate it. It isn't what I consider to be part of my deep cleaning this week, but it was on my list so I won't be too upset about it. It is still a big job and I did it myself. It took most of the morning to do.

I have the Christmas tree lights and the ones on my mantel plugged into the power bar along with the television, so I will be able to enjoy the lights in my living room while watching TV in the evenings.
And since I brought down the tree decorations this morning, I finished up decorating the garland around the French doors leading from the dining room. I had the lights up for the grand kids but I didn't have time to hang the gold ornaments and beads until today.

Touches of gold.

I also clipped my red and green feathered birds to the Norfolk Pine in the computer room.
I watered the plants upstairs today....all my succulents and all the geraniums I brought inside to over-winter.

On my way out of town this afternoon, I mailed off my 50 Christmas cards that were stamped and ready to go. I dropped into my bank to do some banking before visiting one grocery store....No Frills.

Frozen produce cost $26.00 even....oriental vegetables, spinach, the last 5 bags again of winter veggies and a 2 kg package of frozen blueberries.

Fresh produce cost $13.01 (cabbage, 2 eggplant, 4 zucchini and walnuts)

I paid $11.76 for this ham  (only  $1.27 a lb)

Dairy cost $12.71  for a total expenditure of $63.48 on groceries today. I will make a moussaka with the eggplant and half the feta cheese, and I will slice up the whole ham and freeze in portions. I still need to pick up eggs, milk and cheese, but I will buy them at another store for a better price.

It is another weekend. Hope you have a good one.

The Fridge

I did in fact choose cleaning the fridge from my mile long to-do list of deep cleaning chores I had written out. Yesterday morning I finished up washing the banister and railings that surround the top of the staircase that I refer to as the loft. The nice thing about having a list of chores that I would like to get finished by Christmas, is that I feel like I have a choice about what I feel like doing on any given day. I MUST tackle one of the items but I can choose which one. Cleaning the fridge is not one of my favourite cleaning chores, but I felt I had the energy and motivation to get it done. On a day where I might not be in the mood for deep cleaning, I might choose to wipe fingerprints from the light switches, or dust my bedroom furniture. I am feeling quite proud of my clean fridge. Not only did I clean the fridge, but I also cleaned the freezer above. That was a huge job and I ended up throwing a lot of unused items into the garbage. It is never a good thing to feel fine about tossing food, but these items were left from before I went on my current diet. I cannot eat them and they are too old to offer to someone else.

Yesterday I also watered my indoor plants that are downstairs, and I made card boxes for the three sets of cards I am gifting at Christmas. I stamped the backs of my homemade Christmas cards and signed my name, and I printed out inserts with Christmas sentiments for the insides of the cards. I started signing and addressing the cards last night and finished them all today. I have spares for if I need them.

Fifty cards ready to put in the mail tomorrow.

Because I needed a bigger table for my company last weekend (and for my dinner on Christmas Eve), I moved my smaller table against the wall seen in the top photo and I brought out my craft table from my crafting room in the back, and covered it with  a Christmas tablecloth and the quilted table runner that my SIL gifted me last year.  I brought my tree indoors but have not set it up yet. I feel like I may be on schedule this year, and it feels pretty good.

A Day of Socializing

I slept until 8:15 this morning before crawling out of bed. I dressed and came downstairs instead of taking a shower. I checked over my To-Do list to pick out the deep-cleaning activity for today while having my two cups of coffee, face-timing with "Dee", and unloading the dishwasher while making my 2 egg omelet. Then I went upstairs to throw a load of laundry in the washer and have my shower and wash my hair.

Yesterday my job was washing the inside and outside of each pane of glass in all SIX French doors downstairs. That was a lot of washing. I was going to use Windex and paper toweling on them afterwards, but I think I picked too big a job for one day, and because the windows look so great already, I decided that if I have time later on, I will clean them again. So today I decided to wash the stairs, banister and railings. Again, it was a huge job, so I decided early that I would just wash the railings and banister going downstairs, and save the banister and railings around the top of the loft for tomorrow. I was just finishing up when I got a call from my son and my DIL. She had a break between classes and wanted to come out for a visit. We had lunch together and had a couple of hours visiting before they had to go back into town. Soon after I got ready to leave for Kingston myself. We were meeting at a restaurant to celebrate another friend's birthday. I should have brought Christmas cards with me but didn't think of it. The next birthday celebration isn't until February.

It snowed today and is supposed to continue all through the night. This snow is sticking and the trees look very pretty. I forgot to turn off my outside Christmas lights yesterday before going into town to help move a cedar chest for a friend of mine. So they were on to greet my arrival last night and also tonight. With snow, they look especially festive. 

 Some simple decorating inside my house. Old Christmas baubles in a hurricane glass with fake snow (from the Dollar Store) poured over top.

Different kinds of snowflakes gathered over the years are strung up with fishing line against one wall from the ceiling.

Daybook: Monday, Nov. 26/18

Outside my window.....the snow is all gone, again. It has been raining the last 3 days and the grass is back to looking very green. I turned the timers on the outdoor Xmas lights for my grand kids coming this past weekend and have not turned them off yet. I will do that today when I go out.

I am thinking.....of the very short but wonderful visit I had with my daughter and SIL and the two grands on Friday night and Saturday.

I am thankful for.....their safe return home as they were driving in the rain that had the potential to become an ice storm.

From the kitchen.....there isn't a lot going on these days. I have been eating the leftovers up from the turkey roast and vegetables left over from Friday night.

I am wearing.....black jeans, black socks and a dark gray thin knit sweater.

I am creating.....nothing crafty this past week, save for a couple of note cards. I do have to make packages to hold the card sets I made for gifting, and I need to write and address the Christmas cards to go out at the end of this week. I am still trying to be optimistic about the mail getting through despite the postal workers grievances. I hope for a resolution soon.

I am going.....to pick up a friend tonight after work and take her over to another friend's house to pick up a cedar chest and bring it back to her place. I will probably take the opportunity to stop at No-Frills to pick up this week's specials and to the drug store to pick up a prescription that I am phoning in. 

I am hoping.....to accomplish most of the items on my To-Do list this week.

I am hearing.....the sound of tires on wet pavement outside. 
Around the house..... I need to start making some detailed to-do lists each day this week. I want to continue the deep clean of each room in the house, but mainly the kitchen.  I will bring in the tree and decorate this week, so I can wash the floors afterwards. I have to do my Christmas cards (and maybe a newsletter to include inside?)

One of my favourite things.....is my brand new keyboard that was gifted to me by my daughter and SIL.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include another birthday dinner for one of my girls' weekend ladies, tomorrow night. I was also scheduled to attend a follow-up meeting of the cravings workshop this week, but it has been postponed until January. So far, this coming weekend has not been booked for anything yet. I had something going on every weekend during the month of November.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

 Christmas poinsetta I bought for $3 at Freshco this past Thursday.

My Christmas cactus is starting to get blooms. A Norfolk pine is in the foreground. I will put bird ornaments on it this week.

Week-end Afternoon

I hate when I have not posted in so long that I have to spend so much time trying to recount the missing days. First of all, I got too busy to write and then I didn't have a working computer. But here I am at long last. I am feeling very tired today and I will probably have myself an afternoon nap, but I will post this blog first.

At the beginning of this week, I had many invites presented to me....lots of people to see and places to go. There was another Christmas Craft sale at my friend's church, which I could not attend. My brother and SIL who live in Smiths Falls were hosting their annual "come over and decorate and have dinner" event. I turned down that invite. After all, I have my own house to clean and decorate. For a while I considered going to Collingwood. My Dad and "Dee" , my sister and BIL rented a time share for the week and asked me to go and stay with them for a few days. I would go past my daughter's place on the way there, or the trip home, and I could stay overnight and we could exchange Christmas presents and the kids would be sure to get their Advent calendars before the end of the month. But as the week progressed, my cleaning at home was getting underway and the highway conditions were not great for me traveling.  By Wednesday I decided that I would not do the traveling, knowing that the weather was looking better for this weekend and my daughter, my SIL,  and two grand kids could drive here to my house instead. At the very least, we could do as we have done in the past, and both travel as far as Cobourg and have lunch together at the Swiss Chalet.

With that in mind, I decided to just finish up cleaning the computer room by doing a damp dusting and doing a thorough clean of my computer, including my keyboard. I removed all the keys, and cleaned out the dust and grime with  q-tips  moistened with rubbing alcohol, as I have done so often in the past. However, this time I couldn't have been as careful as I usually am. Later that night when I tried to use my computer, I discovered that I'd lost function in my asdf keys. I tried rebooting the system, but no go. I spent all of Thursday, after going for groceries in the morning, putting up as many lights and decorations as possible  inside the house. Friday was spent with damp dusting and vacuuming all through the house, cleaning bathrooms and readying the bedrooms for my guests.  Traffic outside of Toronto was particularly bad, so they didn't arrive until closer to 6 PM, so dinner was ready for them. And when they drove up, my whole house was lit up with lights both indoors and out.

My grocery shopping expedition on Thursday morning yielded plenty of bargains.  Meat cost me $32.71  The ground chicken listed at $10 for 4 lb. chubs, was actually only $8. The bacon was only $3.47 per pkg., so I bought two. The 500 gm pkg. of Pillars pepperoni (17 meat sticks) was on sale also for only $4.77, the kielbasa cost $3, and the butterball turkey roll was only $10. I saved $22 .79 off the regular price of the meat alone.  I roasted the turkey roll for dinner on Friday and there was lots leftover. I also served bacon for breakfast the next morning.

Dairy cost $17.52, saving me  $8.09 off the regular prices.

Cereals and breads cost $4.99, $2 off. The bagels were eaten at breakfast. The holiday Rice Krispies I  bought because if I do no other baking, I have to make marshmallow rice krispie treats for Xmas.

Produce cost $7.47 The grapes went home with the kids, as well as a lunch mate snack pack for each of them that only cost $1 each. (Not pictured) I cooked and served the two yams for dinner and we had blueberries and blackberries with breakfast the next morning.

I bought a few other items that I have not taken a photo of and spent a total of $97.40 at two grocery stores. I saved a total of $28.57 at one store and $24.90 at the other. I took advantage of a lot of sale items.

I have not been able to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime on my television lately. In fact, over the past couple of weeks, it has been increasingly frustrating trying to watch anything on my tablet. The signal from my router has just been getting increasingly weaker. So I had ordered a new, stronger router from Amazon waiting for my son to come over to install it. My SIL offered to install it for me, and so they discovered that was an impossibility with no asdf keys working on my keyboard. Ha, ha. So off he went to the local WalMart,  the same evening he arrived , and bought me a brand new keyboard. Within half an hour, I had a working computer and television. I was feeling so blessed. They left earlier yesterday than they had intended because the road conditions in Bradford (where they live) showed freezing drizzle had arrived,  and was moving east towards Kingston. They hoped to get home before conditions got worse. They had rain for most of the trip home. Rain did not arrive here until the afternoon and then it did not freeze, fortunately. They messaged me when they got home safely.

So yesterday and today, I have been having a restful weekend recuperating and watching Christmas movies on the big screen. How was your weekend?

Decluttering

On Sunday, we had temperatures of -7 C degrees, so in the end I decided NOT to start hanging my outdoor Christmas decorations. Instead I made up some more Miracle cleaner to replenish my spray bottles. I disinfected my kitchen counters. I made up another batch of homemade Taco seasoning and my Ten Things Farm chicken seasoning because I was out of both. I did two loads of laundry and hung them up inside to dry. They have since been put away. And then, even though I told you I finished the twelve Christmas projects that I set out to do....I  finished another one.

Yesterday's temperatures were mild, so I took advantage and went outside to string up my lights. I have them on timers and I checked them last night to make sure they are all working, but I won't turn them on until after the first of December. I have far fewer decorations than past years because I got rid of a lot of them after Christmas last year. I also sold some at the yard sale this year. I did put out my little fake evergreen tree (made by wrapping a rope light and garland around a tomato cage). I have that up on the "table" on my front verandah. I didn't want to put hooks into my brand new front stoop, so I just wrapped the Christmas lights around and through the railings. Since I do have hooks on my fence and my front verandah, I strung both garland and lights from those. I took night-time photos, but they really did not turn out. I will have to take daytime pictures, I guess.  In the afternoon, I made up a "Thinking of you"  card and wrote a message inside. I wrote birthday wishes in another card for  one of my grand daughters, and I wrote another notecard for my mother. I walked them to the post office and picked up my mail. There was another card from my 7 year old grandson. I was going to make up the packaging for the card sets I made a few weeks back, only to discover that I had not put any birthday sentiments inside the cards. Fortunately, I keep a binder of card designs and stock sentiments on hand, so it was just a matter of printing them out on a sheet of printer paper and inserting them inside the cards.

 My verandah. This is the entrance people use to my house.

My new front stoop and the front of the house. The milder temperatures took away most of the snow

Today I planned to clean my computer room.The big job was to dust off the desk and the book shelves on the wall above the desk. At the end of the night, neither is done. It took me HOURS to file everything away in their designated locations. (I am thinking of you Bless)  I shredded 5 grocery bags of papers so far. I decided not to open the proverbial can of worms and just get all the rest into my filing box to take care of in January. I have manuals for appliances I know longer own. But I remembered that last year when I started in this same room, I spent days sorting through tools and hardware and organizing the lot so I would know where to find stuff. I did not want to fall into that trap again. Tomorrow, when I have natural daylight again, I will tackle the dusting and washing. At least the big job of putting things away where they belong, is finally done.

Amherst Island

I arrived dockside to catch the 9:30 AM ferry. I left my car on this side and traveled over with the other 3 women in one car. We arrived at 10 AM just as the elementary school/community centre was opening. Stella is a very small but well-knit community. Inside,  the vendors were setting up tables for the Silent Auction, crafts, Amherst Island t-shirt and fleece jacket sales, books, photography, baking, and the ever popular (and my personal favourite)  white elephant table. I had to keep reminding myself that I was purging stuff from my own house and I didn't need to pick up anything at all. There are some lovely treasures to be found on these tables and "purchases"  are made by way of a donation. Despite my restraint (and I really, really mean that), I picked up a couple of small items.

I bought this brand-new, never been used Christmas wine bag. I like to use these cloth bags as gift bags to hold " difficult to wrap" Christmas gifts. This one has a pocket in front to hold a little extra something, like candy or maybe a gift card.  I love that red winter mug. I had my coffee in it this morning. In front of it is a gorgeous little gold pin of a Xmas tree in red and green enamel. I couldn't resist the bird. It is a Styrofoam base covered in plant material. At Christmas, I decorate my fireplace mantel with an evergreen bough with birds and rustic decorations made of natural materials. This satisfies both requirements. In the centre is a jumbled pile of wine charms. I bought those to repurpose the beads and charms into my card making.  Charms are generally very expensive to purchase from a hobby store. One's cast-offs are definitely another's treasure.

Admission is free, but I usually pay $10 at the door....$5 for lunch, and $5 for 3 raffle tickets on a huge basket full of goodies that I never win, but it is fun to wish. All the proceeds from this Craft and Bake sale go to the Church renovation fund.  Lunch is chili or a variety of soups with buns and dessert, and of course coffee or tea. I can't have the buns or dessert, but the bowl of chili was more than enough. We also went to the Island gift shop which features arts and crafts from the Islanders (lots of extremely talented artists reside here) and we dropped in at the studio of one of the portrait painters on the Island, since he was having a Studio tour. Then we set off in the car to find a Snowy Owl, since the Island is famous for them. Amherst Island is on a migratory path and is renowned to birders from all over the world. We didn't find the elusive Snowy, but we saw dozens of red-tailed hawks and as many deer, up close and personal. Not one of us thought to bring a camera because we were only going to come to the sale and lunch.

After coming back to the mainland, I drove one of the ladies with me to No Frills to pick up a few groceries and I took her home. I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up my prescription I phoned in the day before, and I stopped to pick up my Avon order that arrived Friday afternoon. It had some last minute stocking stuffers.

 I spent $22.72 on produce. I cleaned out all 5 remaining bags of winter vegetables that were left, and 2 bags of oriental mix, 3 zucchini, 1 red onion and cabbage.

 I spent $13.67 on meat....loin pork chops and chicken legs with backs attached.

Dairy cost $15.07
I spent a total of $51.70 and earned only 700 points, but I will take them. Every little bit helps. I don't think I am finished grocery shopping yet. It seems to me that cheese is on sale somewhere else this week for a really great price and I could pick up another variety of meat if I find a sale price.

I had planned to put up my outdoor decorations today. It is currently -7C, so I don't know if it will happen today or not, but perhaps I can get a start at it. Others on my street have theirs up already. Not to worry. I have lots of dusting and vacuuming that I can accomplish. How is your weekend stacking up?

Winter Has Arrived

We have snow......lots and lotsa snow. It started early last evening and has been coming down all day. I wish I had gone grocery shopping yesterday, but instead I was busy crafting. I don't have a radio or television on during the day, so I miss out on all of the news and forecasts. I didn't know this was coming. Otherwise, I would have taken a break from Christmas prep to go to a grocery store like I had thought about. Anyways, today I will make do. I used my last cup of milk yesterday making up some cream cheese sauce, so I made a small batch of instant powdered milk to have today for my coffee and tea. I am going into my pantry tonight for some tinned salmon which I will eat with creamed veggies. I do have a small roast of beef and lots of mashed turnip in the freezer, but I will put that in the crock pot tomorrow while I am over on Amherst Island for the day. The snow isn't that bad, but why go out on the snow covered roads if you don't have to?

I called in a prescription and will pick it up tomorrow when I do go out for groceries after the Christmas Craft and Bake sale on the Island. I was able to complete the last one of 12 Christmas gifts today. I have materials to make another two, but I have accomplished what I set out to do. I still have the month of December if I decide to work on the last two. Starting on Sunday, I will be ready to start cleaning and putting up decorations. I will probably put up the outdoor lights first before the snow gets too deep to get at the areas I want to work. I have a feeling that this snow is here to stay. There was enough snow to shovel out of the driveway, but I didn't feel like it. I have a one track mind when it comes to crafting. As long as we don't get more of the white stuff overnight, I should be okay to back out of the driveway.

Perhaps next week I will have some photos to share. As I clean up areas and put up my lights and garland, I will take pictures that I can post. It seems everything I am working on right now cannot be shared yet. But I have been very, very busy. Have a great stress-free weekend everyone. Stay warm and stay safe.

Sunny and Crisp

I use the word "crisp" to mean "pretty damn cold", and so the weather today was a crisp autumn day. It was minus 11 C (or 12 F), but the sunshine was wonderful. I worked on another Christmas project while enjoying the sunshine streaming through the living room window.

Yesterday I took a break from crafting to wrap everything I have so far (gifts and stocking stuffers). I decided to take a chance on the mail and shipped a large box out to Vancouver. I will keep my fingers crossed that it isn't slowed down too much by the postal workers' rotating strikes. I also bought another roll of 100 stamps because I knew I wouldn't have enough for all the cards I plan to send out. I also like to include stamps with my card sets that I gift. I gathered the gifts going to different families into bags and boxes to keep organized until it is time to deliver. I have finished 10 homemade gifts and would really like to do at least 2 more. That will leave me supplies for two more IF I still feel like working on those. I will probably not do more, but just in case. I really want to start on the cleaning, so I can bring out the decorations....preferably before Christmas Eve. Ha.

I started my day yesterday by washing, seeding and slicing those 8 rainbow peppers I bought the day before. I had some last night with whole green beans and Italian sausage done in the oven. Tonight I will have some dirty rice made with some cauliflower rice from the freezer, some fried ground beef and half a jar of my sister's tomato sauce that she gave me during my last visit. (She gave me 6 quarts) She used to do a lot of canning and preserving. I never learned how to, so I am grateful for the fact that she likes to share the bounty. Lucky me.

Two quart bags of sweet pepper slices for the freezer. 

Daybook: Monday, Nov. 12/18

Outside my window.....it is dark at 5:40 PM.

I am thinking.....that perhaps if I sat down tonight to do a Daybook post, perhaps I would get into the spirit of writing. I have not been in the mood the last few days. My friend with brain cancer is in Palliative Care now. My next door neighbour had a heart attack last weekend and needed triple bypass surgery. My daughter's FIL had surgery recently for removing a cancerous tumour. There has been  so much illness and hardship around me lately, that sometimes I just want a break. But I will continue sending out cards of encouragement and hope some of that positivism will rub off on me.

I am thankful for.....having started my Christmas shopping and wrapping all those weeks ago.

From the kitchen.....my supper is in the oven. I am having a mix of stir fry vegetables (peppers, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, green beans, etc.) topped with cooked ground meat in a cream cheese sauce.

I am wearing.....blue denim jeans, a royal blue long sleeved v-neck t-shirt, and black socks.

I am creating.....a few gag gifts and I am continuing to produced more handmade Christmas gifts. I am taking photos so I can share after the holidays.

I am going.....nowhere tonight. I was out shopping today at Walmart, the Dollar Store and No-Frills grocery store.

I am hoping.....that I won't need to go out shopping in the stores again for Christmas stuff. I am so DONE with spending money. I just want to be able to clean my house and enjoy the decorating and the entertainment.

One of my favourite things.....is being able to relax in the evenings and watch some early Christmas movies that are starting to come out already.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include mailing out the shipping box that is ready to go to BC. I can start putting up my outdoor decorations, while it is still relatively "warm". (I won't be turning on the lights until after December 1st). I want to finish wrapping up ALL the presents and stocking stuffers this week. This weekend is the Amherst Island Christmas Craft sale, where we will buy back all the crafts we made last weekend. Ha,ha.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

Today I spent $35.60 on some groceries. The rainbow peppers were only $1.97 for four, so I bought 2 packages. I paid only $2.47 for each tub of cream cheese, which was cheaper than no-name brands. The beef roast was on sale, so I picked it up for Christmas Eve dinner. My usual frozen veggies were sold out. Oh no! So I bought spinach (for my omelets), cut green beans and whole green beans. As a treat for myself I bought more frozen blueberries. I earned 4000 points with the frozen berries, frozen beans and roast beef.  That is $4 to add to my growing total.

Spending Money

I left the house today in order to spend money. That is the main reason why I don't like to go out. I'd rather stay home.  First of all, I went over to Shopper's Drug Mart to buy some stocking stuffers to send off to Vancouver. Fortunately, I was able to spend some $30 worth of points to offset the costs a bit, AND I did find some items on sale. Secondly, I had to drive into Kingston to Staples Office Depot. This was not on my radar at all, but when I discovered this morning that I had run out of toner and I discovered I did not have enough printer paper for everything I need to accomplish this season, well......That was an unexpected, but necessary, expense.

So this afternoon I was wrapping again. My packages are ready to go out West, but as I was driving back home I noticed that the Postal workers in our area were picketing. Apparently, just now it is rotating strikes, but I wonder if I take a chance with the mail or do I send by courier? Hmmmm. I spent the rest of the afternoon, after lunch, wrapping 55 little bite-sized chocolate bars left over from Halloween. They will be used to make candy sleds this Saturday at our Crafting extravaganza. All this wrapping is cramping my fingers. Can one get carpal tunnel from too much wrapping? Ha.

Working on My Christmas Goals

I have a list of people that I like to send encouragement cards to every week, including a note card to my mother. Since returning from up North, I have not been doing so well in that regard. I have been busy with other things. Today I decided to write up three of them and got them in this afternoon's mail pick-up. I also picked up my mail. In the past week, I have received 4 cards....all of them from children. My grandson sent two, my grand daughter sent one, and today I got a Halloween card from a nephew. I don't send them cards to receive cards, but it sure is a nice benefit. They always brighten my day.

I finished my seventh Xmas project last night and at the end of today, I have 50 Christmas cards made. Considering that we are only one week into November, I am not doing too badly. Today was another rainy day, until just before the sun set. So I did not go out to buy stocking stuffers, but instead stayed inside to work on my cards. I phoned a couple of people to find out what I should bring with me to the crafting workshop this Saturday. For dinner tonight I am having creamed cabbage with hamburger before I continue to watch the sixth season of House of Cards on Netflix. That's it for me...short and sweet.

Daybook:Monday, Nov. 5/18

I started working on another Christmas gift project after I had my breakfast this morning. I have decided to take a wee break and have a cup of hot tea. Since we had our sunshine for the month yesterday, we are facing another rainy day today and I am feeling the chill of another cloudy day. This is the seventh gift in the works, and I will just keep making them (and taking photos) until I run out of time and/or materials.

Outside my window.....it is wet, and green. The plants are doing well. A lot of autumn leaves are down off the trees and that makes for some slippery roads where a lot of wet leaves lie.

I am thinking.....of the great evening I enjoyed on Saturday as my friends gathered to celebrate one of us turning 70. I spent WAY TOO much money however on a seafood trio of salmon, grilled shrimp and lobster tail with a side of broccoli. But it isn't every day I go out to have a restaurant meal, so this was indeed a special treat.

I am thankful for.....a great bunch of friends. I am getting together this coming weekend with a different group of friends on Amherst Island to make Christmas crafts and have a potluck dinner. We also have been doing this together for several years and it has become a tradition to prepare a table of crafts to sell at the Island Christmas sale and luncheon the following weekend.

From the kitchen.....I shredded and sauteed another cabbage yesterday to eat later this week. Last night, I roasted the four chicken legs with backs attached with the last of my "10 things farm chicken seasoning" to have last night, for lunch today and dinner tonight. I repackaged the 9 Italian sausage and put away in the freezer.

I am wearing.....the same things I wore yesterday. I have on blue jeans and a light gray knit sweater with  a flutter hemline and long flutter sleeves. This was one of the tops that my friend from Charleston Lake gifted me after the dinner Saturday. She gave me two tops, a jacket and a practically brand new pair of white running shoes. The two tops are too big for her now, as she is also losing weight. I have this outfit paired with gray and red striped socks. I love this sweater!

I am creating.....Christmas gifts and Christmas cards.

I am going.....to Shopper's Drug Mart in Amerstview to spend some points on small stocking stuffers for my "Big Kids" (my married children and their spouses). Yes,  I have made them a handmade gift; but I also throw in a few gag gifts and candy so they have some small things from me to open on Christmas morning. Then they will also have a bit of money to buy something for themselves from me. I don't think I will go today because I need to figure out exactly what I want to look for and make a list. But I would really like to get my parcel mailed out to BC as soon as I can.

I am hoping.....to make as many handmade gifts this year as possible. I have supplies for 14, so I will just keep going until I run out of time.

I am hearing.....the occasional sound of traffic on wet roads, a crow somewhere in the distance, the hum of my computer; and then the blower of the furnace starts, drowning out all the other noise.

Around the house.....my housework (like dusting, decluttering, vacuuming, etc.) is on hold while I tackle these other Christmas chores.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....are flexible. I don't have any appointments to attend except for the crafting workshop on the Island this weekend.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

My garden is done. (This is for your benefit, Bless) There is still some interest from the seed heads, grasses and leaves that have changed colour. Texture is also an important element of a garden when there are no flowers to look at. All of this will soon be blanketed in snow.

Back to the Grind

I haven't been working on Christmas lately because I needed to take a couple of days to come up with some decorations for the important birthday that we celebrated last night at Red Lobster. The guest of honour is the first one in our group of friends (who go away for a girls' weekend every year), who is turning 70. That is a huge milestone.  (My Sweetie would have turned 70 this year).

Anyways, some of us felt that we should do something for the occasion. We decided that true friends would embarrass her, if we truly cared. On Friday I got together with another lady in the group to decorate a plastic tablecloth. It came with pictures of cupcakes around the outer edges, but the centre of the tablecloth was plain white. I made some stencils of the number 70 in different sizes (up to 5 1/2 inches) and using different fonts using my Cricut and different cartridges that I own, and then we used a black permanent Sharpie to trace the numeral stencils all over the top of the tablecloth. We did a fantastic job. I don't have a picture of that. Sorry!

Last night we arrived at the restaurant early to set up the table with our beautifully designed table cover, a tall vase with a fake autumn arrangement of sunflowers, coloured leaves, and bull rushes. I brought a tall arrangement so I would have something to stick my sign into. The dowel I used was 3 feet tall.

There was no missing this sign when one entered the restaurant. All of us party goers, except for the guest of honour, wore name plates that said "Not Me".
 On the table were two 8x11 inch acrylic frames with information on them. One had a list of "Twenty celebrities that are as old as --------. " The other had  "Other historical events from the year 1948". I am so sorry about the photo quality here. I still have not figured out why my tablet does not focus sometimes, and I can't tell until I download. So I have taken a photo again of the first sign I did that I needed to re-do because I had missed writing in the fact that Canada has had 13 different Prime Ministers in -------'s lifetime.

The party was a total blast. We all had a wonderful time and the wait staff at the restaurant were absolutely terrific. They helped to make the evening a resounding success. The guest of honour protested just a little, but was very pleased with the fuss that we made in her honour. She took the placards home with her.

So today, it was back to work again. I completed another 8 card fronts, chopped and sauteed a head of cabbage for meals this week, and I prepared another Christmas project to work on this evening.  All the kid's Advent calendar gifts are accounted for and wrapped and ready to go to the recipients. I did up two loads of laundry and hung them upstairs to air dry. Today was our first sunny day since Tuesday and I am feeling pretty good about that. Hope you all had a great weekend.

An Extended Break From Christmas Prep

Halloween is over but I have not yet got back into making Christmas cards or gifts. I have been working on something else, but I will tell you about it over the weekend. I put away all the decorations from Halloween and today I went into town for a little grocery shopping. I didn't buy a lot so I don't think it will last the two weeks, but we will see. I left my options open to visit another grocery store  later this week, if I still feel up to it.

 I spent $21 on frozen produce...2 kg. of blueberries, 4 packages of winter veggies and 1 of oriental.  The only fresh vegetable I bought was a small head of cabbage for $1.81  I still have 2 zucchini from the last shopping trip

Dairy cost me $26.59  Look at all those no-name brands I buy. The eggs were only $1.88 a doz.

I bought more meat for $17.27  (Italian sausage and 4 chicken legs with backs attached). Tonight I am having left over pork roast that I cooked up yesterday in the crock pot. Then the only other meat I have left in my freezer is a small roast beef and ground meats. I cannot believe I finished up all that ham I bought last month.  Next time it goes on sale, I will have to pick up lots more. I really, really enjoyed it.

It has been overcast and wet since Tuesday night. The mornings at 7 AM are so dark. I watch the kids walk to school in the semi-darkness (the street lights are still on). Thank goodness the time change is tomorrow. I know that it will be dark by 5 in the afternoon, but I would rather have more daylight in the morning. It is kind of depressing to have the day starting out gloomy. Now if the sun would only come out, it would be a rather nice weekend.