This year, we are going to be traveling for Christmas and may be moving to a smaller house in January. So we decided to not put up a tree or any Christmas decorations. Not for lack of wanting... I love Christmas decorations and lights. We just thought it would be easier to continue packing for the move instead of unpacking more stuff! either way, we won't be here to enjoy them.

So, in festive spirits, I bring to you some (bad) photos of last year's silver, white and blue Christmas decorations. I loved our living room. it was so cozy and magical. :) Enjoy.

Canada - Eh?

I got my blogging by mail package a few days ago, I was so excited about it, but haven't had a chance to blog about it till now...

I was partnered up with Brilynn, at Jumbo Empanadas, who lives in Canada. Her blog is AH-MA-Zing!! Her food looks so good, it's ridiculous! I wish I lived at her house!! And her presentations are beautiful to boot! I'm salivating.

Here's what I got:

Clockwise From top left: A beautiful jar of Maple Syrup, dried Shittaki Mushrooms and Apple slices from her new dehydrator, Smarties, Orange kitchen gadgets {more info below}, the movie Waitress, and a Coffee Crisp bar.

Pure Maple Syrup

Clockwise from Left: a beautiful orange juicer {not sure if it's meant for lemons or oranges or both, I used it on limes last night and it worked great!}, A spoon-holder-hook-on-pot thingie... lol. you clip it on the pot and the spoon rests on it, and a 4-in-1 Tea and Table spoon measurement guide. It's rubber-like, so one side is a 1/2 measurement, then you pop it through to the other side and it's a 1 full measurment. I love the orange!! :)

I love that the Coffee Crisp bar's slogan is "makes a nice light snack"... It just cracks me up! lol.

Thank you so much Brilynn, I'm looking forward to trying everything, and love all the orange kitchen stuff! :)

One for me, and one for you.

My Swap partner for Hot-Drinks-for-Hot-Mamas has received her apron, so here are some photos of it... :)

I'm pretty proud of it since it's my first apron, and my first completed embroidery project... oh, and my first pleated ruffles. :) {which took forever!}

Sherrie's favorite color is purple, but I couldn't find any fabric I liked. After visiting her blog here, I found out she liked Primitive dolls. So I decided to go with that theme.

I made it double sided cause I found this Christmas fabric that worked perfectly with the Primitive/Country style.

Close up of the embroidered pocket


With the apron, I included a couple of treats:


A few of my favorite recipes


Some hand made cards

Peanuts hot chocolate :: Peppermint Patty Candy Cane and Charlie Brown Vanilla Cocoa
A square of hazelnut filled chocolate and some fun beanie magnets.


I'm glad she liked it. :)

DENIED :: No Soup for you!

There's nothing like staying up all night till 6 AM,
driving downtown in the chilly foggy weather,
standing in a long line for over and hour,
getting to the front desk,
only to be told " there's no more spots available, come back tomorrow".

Go home,
sleep half the day away,
stay up all night again with the help of coke,
make the trip downtown again - this time at 5 AM - before the sun comes up,
waiting outside the closed office in the cold with strangers,
finally get inside at 7 AM,
told we'll be seen in an hour,
finally get an interview at 8:30 AM,
watch the guy type on his keyboard for ten minutes straight as if he's writing a novel,
only to be told, "You make too much money on unemployment to be eligible for food stamps."

It doesn't matter that 90% of the money we make goes to some bills while others go unpaid till we can figure out what to do.

Doesn't matter that we're applying for every job out there, weather we are over qualified, experienced or know nothing about it, and not getting ANY call backs....

Doesn't matter that they owe me 6 weeks of unemployment checks because "we never received the paperwork"... (have you checked your trash can??? maybe it accidentally fell in there.)

ummm, yeah, I'm not loving the government right now. Ok, vent over.

Apron!

Yayyy!! I got my Hot-Drinks-For-Hot-Mamas swap package! I gotta admit, I've been keeping an eye on the mailbox all week! I love packages!!!
{with excitement comes many exclamation marks!!}

I was partnered with Emily at The Dabbler and she did an awesome job! I love my bright orange apron and everything else she included in there.

Everything was packaged so pretty. The apron was wrapped in the tissue with the pretty brown ribbon.
{disclaimer: because the orange of the fabric was so bright, it's kinda hard to capture in photos without it coming out kinda wonky}

And here I am modeling it. :) I really like it.
(not sure what's going on with my hair though)

Closeup of the awesome pocket and top detail. Very cool.

Closeup of the design on the fabric. The little dots are kinda metallic.

Other awesome items in the package:

Cute little card made with matching fabric scraps.

Bellagio Gourmet Mocha... YUMMM! ;)

A Caramel Apple making kit... fully stocked with little sticks and chocolate sprinkles!! How cool is that! I was wanting to make some caramel apples too! :)

An Organic Autumn Spice orange candle. Smells yummy.
It's my first organic item. We've been trying to reuse, reduce and recycle more and more.

I love everything in my package, thank you so much to Emily!! You did an awesome job, I'm so glad you enjoyed putting it together, cause I enjoyed receiving it!! :)

And a big thank you to Val at Yarni Gras! for all her hard work. :)

My partner's apron will be blogged about soon... ;)

Don't you love packages? What's the funnest package you've received lately?

B.

Blogging By Mail Swap

My Blogging by Mail Swap buddy Marisa at July Bug received her package, so I can finally blog about it. : )


I'm so excited that she liked everything!

Here's what I got her:

The bigger package top left has a package of colorful happy birthday candles and some of my favorite recipes from my stash.
A liquid measuring conversions guide magnet for easy recipe reference.

The flower is a fabric pin I made, there's hazelnut cream filled chocolate in dice-like wrappers, other hazelnut chocolate assortment, all wrapped up in a fun spiderweb baggie with a hand stamped tag.

A Good Earth sweet and spicy tea blend... I'm not a big tea drinker, but this stuff is AWESOME! it's tough to see, but there's Jolly Rancher Cherry flavored chapstick. I can't live without chapstick.

Some of my newly discovered favorite artists.

A collection of hand made/stamped cards (see previous post here for closeups). She got the Friends card, the Yellow Birthday card, the Brown and Blue Birthday card, and the Happy Holidays card.

Last but not least, a small notebook that I personalized by stamping her name on some coordinating pretty/shiny metallic paper and antique-ing the cover to look more weathered. and some cool monster pencils.

Since hubby and I are both unemployed right now the budget was really tight but I had fun making small things fun and creative. Most items were only a couple of bucks but stuff that most people enjoy.

:)

I'm so glad she liked everything.

This was so much fun, thank you so much Stephanie for putting this together. Can't wait for next time.

Lots and lots of photos...

I love rainy days... I love the gray overcast sky, the cool chilly air, and how crisp and clean the rain makes the weather... everything seems a little sharper and brighter...

This was from a few days ago...

(click on photos to see a larger size, then click on your back button to return here)

I got some static cling window decorations from the $1 bin at Target... there's some orange and yellow fall leaves and at the top some black bats...

Our driveway...

Our neighbor's and our yard... I love the sharp colors.

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Well, rainy days make for crafty times (and hot chocolate)... I made a bunch of cards to give away to my swap partners...


Happy Birthday Card 1
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Happy Birthday Card 2
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Happy Birthday Card 3
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Friends Card
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Happy Holidays Card
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Love Card
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Tri-Fold Card 1
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Tri-Fold Card 2
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Please excuse the not-so-sharp-or-great pictures... between the 'baby' camera and the low lighting, the conditions weren't so great. :/ But it was fun to get back into making cards.

More to come...
B.