Canning and crafting

Oh boy. I've got my work cut out for me today! I am embarking on my first solo canning mission. I have all the secret ingredients for my childhood BFF's mama's antipasto. She used to serve it every Christmas and before I moved away, her mama and I spent the day together making it and getting the hang of canning. So I have 3 cases of 500ml jars, a fridge FULL of ingredients and a diswasher primed & ready to sterilize all those jars. I'm pretty excited to do this by myself and am confident that it will all work out just great. I even have super cute vintage labels to put on the jars.

But before I get going with that, I'll be whipping together a few more layouts for upcoming challenges at Lotus Paperie. Our current design team says farewell this week and while it's a little sad to see them go, two of them are sticking around for another session so it takes the sting out a little. We've also got two new fab gals joining us beginning next friday. We truly have an international team now; 2 of us from Canada, one from the states, one from Singapore, one from Norway and one from Italy! Wow. Very exciting.

Our latest challege is up this morning. Can you believe we're at # 152??? This is my layout for this week. If you want a closer look at the journaling, head over to the Lotus Paperie blog where all the others' layouts are posted too. Be sure to leave them some kind words as their journey with us comes to an end.

We've also got lots of handmade-Christmas plans here at our house. Great way to make the holidays more meaningful and to save a lot of cash. Are you giving more handmade gifts this year? If so, share some of your ideas! I love a good link!!

Update

Okay this is gonna be quick. I have a monsterous to-do list ahead of me today but I thought I'd just touch base with the outside world. Spruce Bog craft fair was last weekend and was downright BONKERS. I have had my inventory thoroughly pillaged and desperately need to replenish the stock but that's okay! Also, I'm doing two more craft fairs on Dec 4 & 5 (Check Lotus Paperie's FB Page) and in the meantime, we're also getting down to business on our handmade Christmas. I'm tired of buying more and more plastic toys and crap nobody needs so I'm making a serious effort to make meaningful gifts for my nearest and dearest.

Also, Ray's left town till Christmas. He couldn't find any work locally so he got shipped off to Grande Prairie Alberta. Joy. Actually, he's super excited to be returning to his old job. I'm tickled that he's so happy. I think he wishes he could do it and still come home every night but as the philosopher Jagger says, "you can't always get what you want".

I would love to stay and chat but there's that pesky to-do list waiting. It's staring at me like the Geico money. So with that...I'm out!

Great haircuts are a gift

Y'know...I am a wee bit of a procrastinator. Maybe it's because I don't like doing things half-assed...maybe it's because I take on a little too much (but don't tell my husband I ever said this!)...but one of the things that seems to get neglected the most is some of my personal care stuff. Am I alone here? Surely I'm not the only person who waits WAY too long to get a haircut. It's not that I'm cheap. It's not that I'm dissatisfied with the quality of the cut...I think it's that it requires me to stop. To not work. For a few minutes. This is NOT my strong suit. Maybe I should schedule more haircuts just so I can work on making me a priority and just practice sitting still and not working. Hmm...I could be onto something here.

Manicure anyone?

calendars & craft fairs

Oh this is such a crazy time of year. I love the hubbub and all the hustle & bustle that comes with being inclined to make EVERYTHING by hand! I have big plans to can a massive batch of antipasto for everyone's Christmas gifts (if you're on my gifting list, I guess the cat's outta the bag!) and have revived my pleasure in sewing and plan to make some darling felt foods for my nieces. I won't say what I've got up my sleeve for Ray because he reads my blog but I will tell you that for my boys, I'm hoping to have time to knit them some alligator scarves. This is what they look like::

They are gonna be so stinkin' cute and warm...I just hope they don't lose 'em!

I was waiting patiently for the calendars that I've been selling on Etsy to arrive and they came just in the nick of time! PHEW! I got 14 of them mailed out yesterday and today I'm plotting handmade Christmas gifts and making paper pinecones. Good times. Spruce Bog is this weekend and I am trying to just be mellow and not get too frantic about all the stuff I haven't made. Just breathe, right? Be mellow. Enjoy the season.

Are you having a handmade Christmas? I want to know about some of your projects...are you as crazy...er, I mean ambitious as me?

Autumn Beauty

Oh yeah, one more thing...there's a great photo challenge at I ♥ Faces today! The theme is "Autumn Beauty" so since we're under a blanket of snow right now, this is one from last year...Here's my photo::

Manic Monday

Well hello there, Monday. It seems we've got a very busy, monotonous day ahead of us! The craft show this past weekend was a success and I must say, I'm feeling the pressure just a little to rock the next one. Apparently Spruce Bog (at the Canada Games Center this coming Saturday - Nov 21 from 11-5) is THE craft show of craft shows around here and I'm wondering if I have enough of the right stuff made to be coming home with empty inventory bins and a bursting-full cash box.

I am on the paper pinecone train today and every other day this week until the advent calendars arrive in the mail. I have 17 to ship out in the mail! Wow. Thank you Etsy! Those bad boys have been flying out of my little shop! What a great way to kick off the holiday season!

Also, I should mention for my Yukon readers, I am doing a few more photo sessions to build my portfolio so if you have little kids (or babies or just a 'bump') and would like some natural photos of them just doin' what they do at home or whatever, let me know. Let's talk and maybe it'll work out for me to hook you up with a few great photos that you'll treasure forever.

So the paper bits are cut up and neatly piled on my craft mat , waiting to be folded and magically transformed into pinecones! Wanna learn how to do this yourself? Go HERE to see the tuturial. (I don't think it's up yet but it IS coming!!) the kids are climbing onto the bus as I type this and my morning has officially begun. Am I ready? Not sure. I will, however, tackle the to-do list anyway. Phew. Let's do this!

Carmen's Maternity session

God help me! This hobby of photography could really turn into something amazing up in this neck of the woods. I spent a few hours today hanging out with one of the most fantastic women you'll ever meet! She has this engaging smile that draws you in and lord have mercy, those eyes! She is clearly at home in front of the lens and makes my job easy as pie. She is nearly nine months pregnant and had the energy & gusto for pretty much everything I threw at her.

We pulled out all the stops today. I had her standing, sitting, walking, laying...and she was rearin' to go for each and every pose, outfit & location. Lucky me!

This is just a glimpse of some of the wonderful images we were able to capture today. It was such a gift to be able to try my hand at photographing someone other than my kids for a change. So gratifying.

Gratitude looks something like this.

Alright, so Tuesday's photo session was a bust but we're gonna try again today. Poor mama, kinda hard to muster your inner supermodel when your legs hurt and you were up all night compliments of Braxton Hicks contractions. Yuck. So today is "take two" of the photo session. I'm super excited about having the opportunity to create some meaningful images of a friend & her fella. He's a member of the RCMP so there should be some beautiful photos with her wearing his red serge (that's their fancy uniform, in case you live under a rock or something and have no idea what it is!)

We've been scouring some inspiring photography websites for ideas and will take a stab at it ourselves today. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the sun shines and the temp stays nice and warm (it's only zero right now! YES!) so we can go outside for some additional photos in the snow. Should be a great day, no?

Yesterday was a real treat. It was Remembrance Day so that meant no school which, in turn, meant no alarm clock. We slept till like, 9:30. Ahhh...you wanna talk about gratitude? Dude.

So after a very luxurious sleep-in, we got up and immediately began baking. Ray was on the bread and I was rockin' the raisin strips. We headed over to my pal, Carlie's place for a visit. The boys disappeared immediately and the grown-ups hung out sipping wine & cold beer upstairs while I followed the only daughter on the scene, Ruby all over the place. The light in Carlie's house is unbelievable so I just couldn't help myself.

I grabbed a few photos that I really like and Ray snatched the camera and got one of me! I love that! Here are some of the photos from yesterday ::

Here is the beautiful Carlie herself. Mama to three and master creater of all things bead-y.


This is the delicious Miss Ruby herself...sitting upon her...uh, throne.


This is my current fave pic of me. Thanks Ray :)



I couldn't stop there...had to have one of my fella too!


Did I mention that I'm grateful. I'm grateful for a wonderful family, friends who I wouldn't trade for anything, a comfortable warm home and a life that looks an aweful lot like a dream. Life is good.

Belly shots?

Do you think it will work if I try to will the clouds away? I see the sun is trying to poke through and for a while there, it was winning...but I see new clouds rolling in over the mountains. Ugh. Maybe it's nicer in town.

Today is slated as attempt #1 to get some great maternity shots of my pal, Carmen. However. She had a rotten night last night, compliments of the small person incubating in her belly. Poor girlie. Gonna hafta bring her some prezzies, I think.

Fingers are crossed that her 3.5 hour drive to get into town from Pelly doesn't suck ALL the wind outta her sails. I've been poring over photo ideas and have some really fun stuff up my sleeve. Let's see what today's good for!

I ♥ Faces

I have been wanting to participate in this photo challenge for a while. This week's theme is "Thankfulness". I chose this photo because I'm immensely thankful for all-day kindergarten. My little guy comes home after a long day tired and happy. I get a day to myself to work, read, knit, photograph. Whatever.


Click the "I ♥ Faces" logo above to see what everyone else does with this week's photo challenge.