Baking Goodness !

LoL ! Baking goodness ! Yup, because it's the holiday season I believe any baking done for home/friends/family/get togethers/parties is all 'no fat no calories' woohoo ! Hey, I can dream right ? :D

To tell you the truth, my pants suddenly felt tighter 2 days ago, boo-hoo :( Oh well, I'll lose it in the new year ( and yes this time I finally mean it. After losing 20 lbs. early 2008, my dear mom passed & I gained it all back plus a few pounds more. Now after over a year, my body has begun to shout at me & I'm ready to respond ). Blaming it on the cheese cookies and fudge ( my head is disappearing into my shoulders )

So I thought I'd show off a few Christmas goody pics:

In the first two pics. are the beginnings of McLaren cheese cookies and party mints patties. Last pic. shows our son mixing  cream cheese with crumbled cherry chip cake to make chocolate dipped cherry chip cake balls:

Here I am adding the food colourings to the party mint 'dough', what a shade of blue ! And those cake balls were fun to dip too !

A diabetics nightmare ! Not for the faint of heart --the beginnings of chocolate fudge using my two fav. ingredients: sweetened condensed milk & milk choc. chips !

Here are the party mints, just need to sit for a day so the wonderful mint flavoring soaks in

And voila ! A wee plate of very tasty treats ( choc. covered cherry chip cake balls, party mint patties, McLarens cheese cookies and a batch of peanut butter milk choc. chip cookies, with a few wrapped Peppermint Patty candies too. The fudge was firming up in the freezer --didn't last long ! )

Throwing in a shot of the upstairs bathroom decor. The candle centrepiece belonged to my parents, not sure if it's mercury glass but it is vintage kitschy loveliness

Finally a shot from last week when we received a wee dumping of snow. I took this without the flash, looking out our front window. There's just something about holiday lights glowing on the snow, takes me back to when I was a child. How about you ?

Christmas in the House

 

A few shots of some of the treasures ( mostly my parents vintage treats ) I put out each year. Actually, I didn't put out everything like I usually do. Left in the box this year is my little village scene, instead I've made a scene with just Christmas trees, flocked reindeer & a few Santas. To the left of it is the tv with two Santa heads I found at Michaels, my one and only really big Partylite treasure is the skating snowman tealight holder with music box, the snowman actually skates when the music is playing.

There's our coffee table display with my fav. chubby snowman & funny greeting card from a dear friend ( Janis, you gave me this card over 10 yrs. ago ! ).

The fireplace is waiting for an electric insert ( previous owners haven't used it for over 25 yrs. and we don't relish using wood ) so it shows off more treasures --a couple of Christmas sock bears I made over 15 yrs. ago ( using my dear dads old socks ), a tree our son made when he was in kindergarten, thrift shop found jewel tree picture, moms kitschy animated Santa and a few other items from when I was little.

The next image shows a mixed media painting I made 'just because'. A porcelain bird sits on top & gold sprayed plastic branches hold tiny decoupaged images of angels & Santas. Copper tubing is home to 'Joy' and 2 sweet stockings.

The big bear was a prize my husband & I won at the Vic. General Hospital back in the early 90's. Very huggable !

Above the fireplace display hangs one of the trio of musical bells next to my bungy Santa --and the egg dude I brought from Ottawa happily rests inside the vintage wreath that still gets packed in its original box.

The musical angel is one of two ( also in original boxes ) standing in front of an old German advent calendar.

Two of my fav. garage sale finds are these lovely pictures. Everytime I look at them I feel instant peace.

Even the kitchen got a touch of Christmas this year. My newest items are the two small red trees purchased from a fab. shop called Cameron Rose in Sidney B.C. ( they're known for selling Christmas Krinkle treasures ! )

So there you go for now. As said, I didn't put everything out this year, wanted to keep the decor less cluttered. What's missing are a couple of small nativity scenes, trio of musical bells, a few small & large houses. I did take out my most. fav. music box of my parents, it's on the dining table, will post a pic. later when we have the tree up. We're getting a real one sometime next week !

Now off to make some cherry cake balls ! ( I wanted to make the red velvet cake kind but there was no RV cake mix to be found. So I went with cherry chip mix & added red coloring for a lovely pink mix, yum ! Baking photos to come too woohoo ! )

A shot of what's inside.....

Well I had a bit of time before my husband got home from work so I took some shots of the opened Christmas boxes, just to give you an idea of 'what's in store'. There's the animated Santa my parents purchased in the mid-80's -- a real kitschy piece nowadays & still fun to bring out. Boxes of other kitschy things too, things I'm really going to think about whether or not I want to display them this year.

So there you go. Maybe tomorrow I'll get the decorating done & can post a shot for you :) Until then, have a great evening/day wherever you are !

To go all out or not this year ?

So I finally hauled up the Christmas boxes the other day, it reminded me that I have to get back to exercising ! You miss a few months and wow does the body turn lazy, huffin and a puffin up those stairs. So needless to say I'm now doing my stretches and situps again and will begin the aerobics stuff prob. on Thursday.

Those boxes are chock a block full of Christmas goodies, quite a few from 'the past' oooooohhhhhh ahhhhhh. I've held onto many of the treasures my parents bought before I came along in 1967: 3 musical hanging golden bells, music boxes, stockings, ornaments, etc...AND for the last 5-7 years I always ask myself "why", "why do I keep decorating the SAME way every year with all the SAME stuff ?!"  It's a bit odd, I'd rather live in an uncluttered Japanese-style and/or high tech house with just a few choice treasures. When I unload the Christmas boxes, I end up taking out everything and making displays out of it. The vintage colours and glitter bring out the child in me, but the rest of me feels that 'uncomfortableness' lurking in the back...I want to take away an item or two, clean up the areas, leave just one or two treasures. But it never happens and I leave it. Our son and my husband like it but it's not 'that important' to them. So if it's nice to have but bugs me, why do I still do it ? Have to give that question a good think.
So this year I'm going to try and see if I can leave some of the old stuff in the boxes. Oh we'll decorate the tree with some of the vintage treasures and I think I'm going to bling up the living room window too, maybe add some strings of lights around the living room or string one around the kitchen window so people in back can see the Christmas cheer. And I'd like to wrap soomething around the railing....Well I'm feeling better all ready, thanks little blog for letting me vent lol ! :D

ANYway, I'll post a pic. or two of what's inside the boxes and then a shot of the final decorating. Just have to get off my balloons and get crack-a-lackin, tomorrow for sure !

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Thursday 9a.m. everywhere !!

Yay ! It's that time of year again ! We've had our Canadian Thanksgiving but I'm looking more forward to the U.S. Thanksgiving because of their yearly:
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

woohoo !!

Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate all Thanksgiving days, the turkey, the stuffing, the family and friends. But there's just something aboout having a parade too :)

It's only been in the last 3 years that I've decided to make the Macy's Parade my own personal tradition. My dear husband and son are always at work/school and I'm home working on art creations for my Etsy shop. But now I take that day 'off' and get ready for Christmas --by watching the parade. Before this special day I don't think much about decorating, baking, etc...until after the parade, and then I'm all in that Christmas spirit :)

So for this year's parade I'm whipping up some homemade hot chocolate and maybe even some kind of cookie. After the parade I may head downstairs and start pulling out the Christmas decorations. Ooh it's making me all wiggly.

Drop me a line if you too will be enjoying this event. I wish I was right there for it. Just something about New York.

For our area ( Vancouver Island british Columbia ) you'll be watching either channel 14 (Kiro on CBS) or channel 18 (King NBC)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving U.S.A ! Many blessings for all of you xoooo

Here's even more info. about the parade:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macy's_Thanksgiving_Day_Parade

Upcoming Vintage Inspired Christmas Brooches and Other Delights

Showing off the first of my vintage & kitsch inspired Christmas brooches.

When I was a little girl, I always new Christmas was close when our old Woodwards store put out their big table of floral corsages. It was such a sight to behold through a child's eyes, the explosion of colour and glitter. The big glittered plastic flowers with big bits of plastic greenery, maybe some fake snow too. And each one of them would have it's own little plastic Santa, snowman or maybe a metallic wrapped fake gift or two.  They were attached with either a long straight pin or a simple open c-clasp one.

It's funny, I never really loved any of them individually, but all together was magical. Nowadays I often think back to those early Christmas corsages, which in turn make me think of all the other magical Christmas stuff:  when window displays were all about fun and fantasy and children would drag their parents to stop, look and dream ( unlike today where the ones here in Victoria British Columbia are so boring, lifeless, showcasing clothing/material objects  and all about getting more sales ).  I know I'm not the only one who misses those fun displays, so maybe one day soon someone somewhere will say "enough is enough" to the unmagical commercialism of today and make the effort to bring back some of the past, to lighten the eyes of todays children and re-lighten the joy of the adults too.

This pin was inspired by those memories of kitschy plastic flowered Christmas brooches and vintage Christmas cards. It's already in my Etsy shop --just click the shop on your right. Look for more in the upcoming weeks.

This floral necklaces was made 2 years ago. I will be relisting it again in the next day or two. Created with a real porcelain rose taken from a damaged Adderly rose table decoration. The necklace consists of czech glass beads, a few aurora  borealis glass beads, swarovski crystals on the dangle and a section of curb chain from another vintage necklace. A modern goldtone lobster claw is the clasp if you should need it --necklace slips on/off quite easily. True 'trashion', the bone china floral decoration almost get sent to the trash ! Thank goodness I saved it. I made a pink one for my mom, but she is now passed and so I will be keeping it.

I listed this piece yesterday and was going to blog about it when I went back to check on it and couldn't find it in my Etsy shop ! It sold ! What a lovely surprise that was :)

It's called Beautiful Dreamer because the image of the lady & all the other lovely bits are assembled on top of a vintage Sankyo music box which plays the tune 'Beautiful Dreamer'. Originally a keycahin and found amongst a pile of plastic necklaces and earrings in a thrift shop. I think I paid under $2 for it ( !! ) and didn't immediately notice the Sankyo mark, nor even knew they were collectible. A year went by until I finally dug it out from under my own pile of vintage jewelry, it was then I took a good look at it and did a bit of research online. Many other Sankyo music boxes were selling for quite a bit more than $2, let's say $40 to $60, sometimes more ! But they all had a design on the front whereas the one I found was a plain goldtone box with a simple cheap goldtone keychain attachment. The plain face of it called to me big time and I could almost instantly see what it was I was going to do. Well voila, there you go, a lovely assemblage to go with the Beautiful Dreamer music.

It took me several days to decide if I wanted to list it or not ! I did wear it once to a friends, just to say I did ;) But now it is on its way to another music box lover, in Toronto Canada. She too makes gorgeous creations with small music boxes and music works, the website is Tuned Teeth . Check it out !

I hope to one day find another wee music box and make another lovely necklace like this. The lady getting this is definately getting a ONE of a kind creation :)

Free Images & feeling the Christmas spirit....

I like Halloween but I LOVE Christmas ! Though I'm not yet ready to haul out the Christmas decorations, I am feeling in the mood to create some goodies for my shop.

So I'm going to make a few 'cute' Christmas brooches, using cardstock & various bits & bobs found around my art room --things like vintage Christmas cards, broken jewelry bits, flowers and more. Of course you mustn't forget the glitter !

My first brooch is almost done, but below the cardinal is the beginnings of it (vintage card bits,stars cut from a vintage candle tin wraparound). It now has flowers,glitter, a heart earring and a shiny coating of gloss ( fake resin ). I may add a small piece of ribbon to transform the brooches into ornaments for the tree.

The cardinal and flower will be part of another brooch. Fun !!

These next 6 images are scanned 1950's-early 60's Christmas card covers. They were purchased super cheap from my parents next door neighbor, who was a packrat ! She loved her thrift shops,garage sales and even bought a ton of stuff from the old shopping channel. She was so much of a packrat that about 20 yrs. ago her house suffered a fire, because of items piled up near the furnace :( Thankfully there was more smoke damage than fire but a LOT of her stuff had to be discarded in a large dumpster outside her garage. So my mom walked over one day and took a peek in the dumpster ! She brought home a couple of items, a porcelain bowl, some ugly brass planter with lions and doves carved into the brass, etc...

As much as it might have been fun for my mom to go dumpster diving ( and believe me I felt the temptation too, she had a lot of wonderful treasures ), I couldn't do it. It was after all, still the neighbors stuff ! If I had found an item and was able to clean it up, I would have given it back to her. But that's the way I work.

ANYWAY. About 5 years ago she got to the point where she had to have constant help, so it was time to find a care home. One of her sons had a huge garage sale. There were so many wonderful treasures, from Mr.Bean bears ( she usually would get more than one if she could ) to full bottles of unopened makeup to old bottles and more. I still kick myself for some of the things I passed on ( like more vintage cards and a Mr.Bean bear ), but am very happy with what I did find. One of these days I'll post images of 6 unique wine bottles from France. Each of them is dressed up in clothes and the bottle stops are handcarved wood faces. The best thing about them ? Each face has one large winking eye ! I've perused the internet trying to find anything about them, so far no luck.

The only sad thing about the garage sale....her son had no idea the value of some of her things, so it all went soooo cheaply. He didn't really care anyway and I wondered if his mom ever found out. Lots of very happy buyers that's for sure !

So these cards are on very thin paper and I think some of them may have had removable inserts. I saved the images at 300 dpi ( dots per inch ), which I've read is supposedly the best size to print out. You can also access them on my Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bytracy/4078270380/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bytracy/4078270620/

If you do end up using these in art, etc...I would love to know and see a pic. or two :)

Enjoy ♥