75% Off? Don't Mind if I Do.

I managed to get in a little bit of post-Christmas clearance shopping today and I wasn't even looking.  I was at the grocery store and all of the Christmas decorations were 75% off. 

How do you say no to that?

 

Tom says it's easy to say no to that. 

Good thing he wasn't there.

First I found these shatterproof ornaments.  12 balls for 94 cents. 

Regularly $4 and $5.  I scooped up 4 of those.

I love that there are so many different patterns and textures. 

Then I found some snowball ornaments.  14 for $1.44. 

 Ahhhhh, the fluffy! I just want to pet them.

And finally some little glitter ornaments in different shapes

for $1.44 - 24 in a pack.

Look at all that shiny just waiting to spread the love.

And the glitter apparently.

So not bad, right?  All this for $6.64.

Can you guess what colour scheme I'm going with next year?

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Christmas Has Gone to the Dogs

Let's take a little break from crafting. 

We let the dogs open their own gifts on Christmas Day.  Here are the "kids" waiting to get started.  About as close as we got to a family portrait.  I'm going to have to start photoshopping myself into these things.

Sasha got right into the gift opening.  She had a very efficient system - rip off piece, turn head, spit out piece, rip new piece.  It was so methodical. Let's see if I can get a video to embed.

Chloe was much more delicate.  She would snuffle it a bit, then if it didn't open by itself, she'd go lay down.

  Sasha was more than happy to help her out.

Thanks Santa:

And a shot of Tom with his favourite gift.

Plus the bread he made with it afterwards (cheese & garlic).

Yesterday (Boxing Day) we travelled to Kinmount to spend the day at my aunt & uncle's cottage.  Even though it was a small group it was still a noisy get-together.  The count was 11 adults and 7 dogs.  Yep, seven. Ranging in age from 3 months to 5 years.  But I've got to say, it was so much fun.

Here is a little photo retrospective of these gorgeous puppies.

Callie on the left and Desi on the right. 

My aunt got a picture of this from the side - not rated PG at all.

 Stella doing her best JLo impression.

This is Ziggy.  She's just pretending she's happy I'm so close to her.

This little sweetheart is Kasey. 

Oh my gosh, am I in love with this puppy! Look at those eyes! 

If I could have snuck her out in my purse I would have.

Trying to get all of the dogs together in one shot. 

The most we ever managed was three. 

Why don't the little 8-pound dogs want to sit beside these guys?

Off to the spa

It turned out to be a long, long day for Kasey.

I think she's happy to be with her new family.

Sweet dreams puppy.

Of Course It's the Elves!

Today's Conversation:

(Scene: I'm on my hands and knees emptying out the garbage

in my craft room.  Tom walks in, freshly showered.)

Tom: Do I smell good?

Me: (without looking up) Yep.

Tom: Do you know why?

Me: Because you showered.

Tom: But do you know why else?

Me: I don't care if you've pooped.

Tom: Look.

And he hands me his stick of deodorant. 

It's a new one that he just opened today.

Who comes up with these things? 

I hope they have a mountain of awards piled up in the corner

of their livingroom, 'cause this would make me buy it.

No questions asked.

I Want Candy (DIY Gumball Dish)

I made another gumball-style candy dish this week. 

Here is the full tutorial on how to put it together. 

It's simply just a clay flower pot with saucer, wooden ball, and round bowl.  This time I used a bowl with more detailing on the sides and a plain mouth.  The fluted mouth of the other bowl made it difficult to set the top on level.

This time I also added a 1/2 inch wooden disc to the bottom to give it balance.  It's kind of like adding fancy baseboard moulding to your room - it's just looks finished.  And it isn't as top-heavy as before.

I painted this one with gold acrylic paint as I have somone in mind for it and she likes "spah-kles".  She's also a lover of chocolate so I found cookies & cream kisses and mini peanut butter cups to fill it.  I used a blue and silver ribbon for the bow to match the candy inside.  If she decides to change up the candy it's easy enough to just change the ribbon.

Even the sewing machine in the background matches!

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Linking up here this week!

Cookies & Brownies & Squares, Oh My!

I got a little baking done this week.  First I whipped up a batch of my "famous" chocolate scotcheroos (recipe here).  I swear these are no-fail.  And I've never met anyone who didn't like them. If you need a quick crowd pleaser - this is your guy.

I also tried some chocolate-dipped sugar cookies.  I'll confess - this is the second batch.  They started out as shortbread but I ran out of butter.  And since I do all my baking at 10 o'clock at night (don't you?) I wasn't going to run out to the store for more.

I added some cocoa to the batter, and I found that it really cut down on the sweetness of the cookie as a whole.  I wasn't expecting that.  Not a bad thing considering how sweet the frosting/icing/dip/I-don't-know-what-it's-called is.

I dipped them in melted chocolate - green of course - with a few drops of peppermint extract added.  I don't think I'll be opening a bakery any time soon (unless it's a scotcheroos bakery) but I'm kind of proud of my little trees.

Tom also got in on the baking fun.  His specialty is brownies.  His brownies are also the reason why there wasn't enough butter left.  Thanks dude.

They are chocolate-banana-mint brownies with buttercream frosting.  That's right, Tom has never met a flavouring he didn't like.  If one is good, why not three?  But these are pretty fantastic.

Our house is now full of baked goods.  Our flour-free, sugar-free, trying-to-be-Paleo house.  Not good. Not good at all.


Note to the dogs: When you see me leaving with plate after plate of food, I'm not sneaking off to eat it without you - I'm just taking pictures.

Honest.

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Linking up to these great baking parties!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

I haven't been able to get many pictures of our Christmas tree that I'm happy with - other than some bokeh ones that often aren't intentional - so I've been holding off on a tree post.  But I gave it another try tonight.

Some of my favourite ornaments:

We've got a "turtle"

and a "tail"

pinecones and burlap

and a little red wagon

This is the star of the show though.  You can turn the tree lights on and off just by touching the bell - you don't have to be messing with plugging and unplugging the cord.  There are even 4 brightness settings depending on how much light you want.  Love.

And a final up-skirt shot.

So that's all well and good, but what I'm really crushing on is our Charlie Brown tree in the basement TV room.

When we were at my father-in-law's property collecting branches for the wreaths and mantel, I found an entire pine tree that had fallen down, and the top of it was a perfect little Christmas tree.  So I hacked it off and dragged it home.

The fun part was figuring out how to get it to stay upright without a stand.  Top third of a plastic water bottle + small jam jar (for water) + larger vase filled with sand = makeshift tree stand.  I'll give Tom credit for coming up with that one.

What do you think of our little guy?

Since there were so few branches available it took mere minutes to decorate.  Just some pinecones, toy drums, a string of lights, and a bow on top.  Plus a skirt made of burlap.  We also added two ornaments that are brand new this year.  One is a minature milk jug, and the other is a little tree made of branch slices.  Both so cute.

And this was my helper for the day.  

Trust me, she begged to wear the hat.  

Later she let me try out lighting patterns on her.  

So patient.  So Zen. 

So easy to bribe with a potato chip.

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Linking up to these parties (and check out the Holiday parties to the right)