A Little Christmas Cheer!

While I take a little intermission and try to work out my originally planned post for 2015 plans, I’m going to share a little Christmas cheer. Hmm..That almost rhymed.

I feel like I get to show off a little of my lovely 7.5 feet Christmas tree. Why? Because it took weeks to put together, like various weekends and going to stores over and over again. The joys of getting our first big Christmas tree comes with learning what length of beads, ribbons and lights we need to fit the whole thing.

On Sunday, with Christmas only a few days away, we put it all together! 🙂

By the way, under the tree are actual gifts.  I got my whole Christmas groove on and started wrapping up the gifts.  Only 2 more to wrap and one that has to be shipped off and its going to turn out to be more of a holidays gift.

Then I did this little berry vase thing by the window and thought of filling it up with colorful lights and lining the edge of the bay window with LED lights.

Plus, I have a lovely wreath (now with a ribbon) and some garland along the stairway. Its definitely starting to look like Christmas.

Add a little triple wick Christmas scented candle from Bath and Body Works in the scent of Twisted Peppermint 😉

I’m feeling this holiday cheer right now! Everything just feels awesome! Plus, last day of work tomorrow (for the week)..YAY!

How do you prepare your home for Christmas? 

DIY Vase Project!

After the glass ornaments (which you can find HERE), the next night I went straight to work on the Vase Kit Project that I had bought. I provided me not only with the vase but all the tools I needed to decorate it.

The supplies with the kit

Step 1: Using a sponge, apply the Vitrail transparent Parma colour on the previously degreased and dried surface.

Step 2: Apply the Vitrail opaque wheat yellow colour followed by the Vitrail transparent old pink colour with a sponge.

Step 3: Allow to dry 1 hour. (I needed more than that for it to completely dry…so expect at least 2-3 hours)

Step 4: Decorate the surface with the cerne relief.

They gave me circular patterns however, I had some newly bought Martha Stewart votive candle stencils so I tried to copy 3 of the patterns onto the vase.  Normally, you’d stick them on and them just dab on the colour, but this one, I couldn’t stick the stencil on or else it would’ve ripped out the paint under it.  I tried to imitate it as much as possible but my art and cerne relief skills are a bit lacking…so this is how it turned out.

Thats the final project.  I’m planning on giving it as a vase or candle holder.

Another gift completed.  What do you think?  Good for a first shot? Lets hope whoever gets this doesn’t cringe in disgust..haha…thats my only hope.  Wish me luck!

Only one more gift before I’m done everything.  For now, I need to take a break and head out to shovel snow!  🙂 Promise you I’ll be back with another post soon…I’m having a bit of traffic jam in posts to cram in before Christmas comes by.

Weekly Writing Challenge: A Splash of Colour (and more…)

I missed THREE challenges already.  I’m shaking my head at myself now.  This is the fourth week and I will be doing it.

I really want to do last week’s writing challenge, I just never got around to finishing it up.  I have to start budgeting in time to do these.  They require a bit more thinking than the normal post I do usually.  So this week, it will be a double feature with last week’s And Now For Something Completely Different and this week’s A Splash of Colour.

WEEKLY WRITING CHALLENGE: A SPLASH OF COLOUR

How do you choose one colour to splash? My brain is processing thoughts in different colours (especially after the two photo challenges the last two weeks).  So let me give you a few snippets of my palette of colours!

PURPLE

The shades of purple are the significance of my youth.  It reminds me of the times when my mom did my shopping when I was a little girl.  It was the days when I dressed in puffy little princess dresses and was young, innocent and naive.  The days when life hadn’t taken away so much of my energy and passion for living (something this blog and reading everyone else’s blog has helped bring back).  I broke out of that phase pretty much in purple and my palette after that was dark shades of blue and black all the time.

I don’t know what happened in between but life has brought me back to the love for purple.  Although it is a darker shade of purple, my room (as of 2007) is not a nice shade of lavender purple.  My clothes and accessories are preferred when in the shade of light purple, violet, dark purple.  This happened before I even acknowledged that maybe the things you loved when you were a child never really leave you.  Or is it simple a wave of nostalgia?

YELLOW ORANGE & RED

Man, that font was painful for me in test run.  So I just decided to spare you all painful eyes.  Yellow was for walking into my front yard before work and noticing that despite frost a few days, the yellow chrysanthemums are still alive and brightening up my almost hibernating garden.

In regards to the garden, other than the chrysanthemums, orange and red are around as the leaves are changing colors as fall comes in.  I just noticed that I had fall colours just in my front yard and around my neighborhood, the maple trees were looking really pretty that I wanted to double back on my way to the bus stop to get my camera and snap a shot (but I didn’t have time).  Fall colors are in my mind right now! Red for all the leaves, Orange for the leaves and pumpkins, and yellow for the beautiful strong chrysanthemum’s.

GREEN

GREEN EGGS AND HAM! Who has read that book and enjoyed it immensely? My boyfriend bought me Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker’s Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss two years ago for Christmas.  Silly as it may be. Green is grass and moss and all these natural beauties, but thinking about Green Eggs and Ham makes me happy.  Its about trying new things pretty much and to not pass judgement until you’d tried it on your own.  Such a simple story with such a meaningful moral behind it.  Maybe its also to just encourage us to be adventurous. Actually, there is brunch chain around here called Ben and Florentine’s (not sure where it originated) but it even has Green Eggs and Ham on its menu.  I’ve never tried it, but I’m definitely curious.

“You do not like them.  So you say.  Try them! Try them! And you may.  Try them and you may, I say”- Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham

WEEKLY WRITING CHALLENGE: AND FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

This was incomplete last week so I didn’t end up posting it up but I made changes this time around.  The point was that I had wanted to add a thing or two to this blog.  I have been thinking about it for a while and wondering how to make a few changes so that I can have more content for all of you.  Another passion I don’t share with everyone is my love for reading.  I have recently linked my Goodreads account here and it was my first step in starting to do something different–Book Reviews.

What made last week so hard to finish was the fact that I had coincidentally finished The Phantom of the Opera.  That book is hard to review because there was a lot of aspects to reviewing classics.  I wasn’t exactly sure how to form it.  I will work on that though.  For this time though, I’d like to bring your attention to a review of the book mentioned above: Your Favorite Dr. Seuss: A Baker’s Dozen by the one and only Dr. Seuss.

Book Review: Your Favorite Dr. Seuss: A Baker’s Dozen by the one and only Dr. Seuss

This book is a hardcover compilation of 12 favorites of Dr. Seuss.  I like the majority of Dr. Seuss but these ones are quite good. There is Green Eggs and Ham (mentioned above), How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears a Who and my all-time favorite, The Lorax just for starters.  It also had Mulberry Street, If I Ran a Zoo, McElligot’s Pool,  The Cat in the Hat, Yertle the Turtle, Happy Birthday to you!, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! and The Sneetches. If none of these works as bedtime stories, here’s another one included: Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book.

If this book is for children, it has fantastic collection for bedtime stories.  I can tell you nostalgia affects me here because I may not have kids but I read the stories out loud to myself before bed sometimes.  Its quite soothing and enjoyable.  The world of adventure and make believe words and creativity is what envelopes you.  That is the magic of Dr. Seuss!

The value of Dr. Seuss to me is equivalent to the Hayao Miyazaki of children’s book.  Hayao Miyazaki’s movies always have a message behind what he write and its his inspiration and creativity.  It has positive traits to grab from any situation. Dr. Seuss does the same thing in his children’s books.  He gives us positive stories.

Other than the stories that are in this, it also has little write ups from people who knew Dr. Seuss and talked about the particular views and interpretations of each of the stories after each one.  Its an interesting read.

So how was that? Just an idea of a book review until I figure out how to make it better.  It should come in effect by next year! Challenging and fun to do something different!

So what do you think about my additional segment in my blog? The occasional book review sounds like a decent idea? I’m actually thinking of maybe tying it in with the other parts.  I still have a bit of time before the new year arrives.

Another thing! BIG THANK YOU to you all for reading this whole writing challenge.  I will strive really hard to do this on time from now on.  I’ll leave you with a few quotes a la Dr. Seuss! Enjoy!

“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”-The Lorax

“Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!”-Happy Birthday to You!

“So be sure where you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.  And never mix up your right foot with your left. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.) KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!”-Oh, The Places You’ll Go!