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.