So...... Ice is heavy huh?

I've posted a couple of times now about the large and beautiful icicles growing on the side of our house. We've been here for a few years now and haven't seen icicles this size before. We figured it was because we're using the upstairs room more and the heat escaping from the roof is melting the snow that is refreezing into the icicles.

Makes sense.

So what do you do about it? If you knock them off you risk breaking a window or ripping the eaves trough off the roof, or worse......loosing an eye! Those things are pointy you know!

So when I came home from work today Mr. Jimmy and I found a frazzled Mom and this in our side yard.

All the ice has pulled away from the house and brought with it roof tiles. Most of the eaves trough is now loosened from the eave and bent beyond use!


You might also notice that our fence.... or what use to be our fence is now flattened like an accordion under a fifty pound block of ice.

Here is the saggy eaves trough.

Anybody out there see this coming?

Snapcrafty Order

I ordered some jewelry findings and cabochons from
Snapcrafty
just before Christmas for Maggs and I.
I found her on ETSY!

This is everything I ordered! So much fun!!!!
Look at all this great stuff!
(I'm a little excited.... I don't know if you can tell.)

I really love these skelly cameos.
I couldn't pick just one colour so I ordered one of each.

Couldn't wait to start to put things together.

I made these cute little earrings in the blink of an eye.

Then I made these little hair clips by gluing a small piece of felt to he back of a flower with the bobby pin tucked inside.

I can't wait to see what Maggs is going to make!

Pink Glitter Nails with 3D Roses

I had the day off work and used it all up on myself!
I feel very guilty.
Did my nails and documented it so I could share it with you.
I also spent the day watching the Pink Panther movies that Mr. Jimmy got me for Christmas. You can hear them in the video. So funny! Nothing like good old fashioned slapstick to make you chuckle.

I used Martha Stewart sparkles again. I like that they're subtle. The colours are transparent when you mix them with the acrylic powder and liquid.

I also used nail tips this time. I usually sculpt the tips using nail forms, but I wanted to see if this was any faster. I think it was faster. It took me about an hour and a half to do these nails. (Not counting the two and a half hours of video taping and editing.)

This is a pretty true representation of the colour. They are barley pink.
They're so girlie!

Hard to get a good shot of the rhinestone. These ones were heart shaped and pink.

The video!
Hope this helps you see how I do my nails. I think people are curious as to how long it takes to do them because I change them so often. It really doesn't take that long. Especially when you consider just putting nail polish on natural nails and letting it dry takes about an hour.

Mom's Embroidered Apron.

I made my Mom an apron for Christmas.
I embroidered birds and flowers onto it with DMC floss.

I really liked the old school tattoo art style birds in the pattern I used.
It was a Hobby iron on transfer made by HA Kidd and Company,

Some flowers and a ribbon.

Almost done.

I put some pockets on the apron so she would have someplace to put stuff. This was on one of the pockets and the little bird was on the other.

Oh yeah, here is a pic of the giant icicles from inside the house. They're growing longer and stronger every day.
Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Snow News

Just thought I'd share with you what we deal with on a daily basis here in Artario.

The local High school has had four snow days in the last two weeks.

This is the path into our side yard.
I know icicles like this mean we're losing heat through the roof.
But ain't they pretty?

This is the other side of our yard.
Driving has been interesting.
I couldn't get gas last night because the local gas stations ran out.
Took some from the lawnmower stash in the shed.

Just a few miles from here the highways were closed because of the snow and the people who were stranded were airlifted out by helicopter.

Last but not least, this shows just how light and airy our snow is.
It's not even bending the littlest branches over.

What's it look like in your neck of the woods?

Joy of Cooking Cookie Recipe Adaptation

Mom put this fab Christmas wreath together. I had to add a flocked deer in a Santa hat to the top of it.
I just can't help myself!

My Joy of Cooking was just $7.99.

:D

Here is the basic recipe we used for the following cookies.

We added 1 cup of chopped walnuts
and 1 cup of rainbow coloured candy coated chocolate mini chips

The dough is made!!!

Dog wants to know what the heck is going on. It's starting to smell pretty good in here!
Mom gave him some macadamia nuts so he'd feel included.

** WARNING!!! Macadamia nuts are poisonous to dogs!!!**
here is a list of Human food to watch out for.

Maggs found that some of the cookies came out broken!

She had to get rid of them....

Happy baking!

:D

Double Thumbprint Cookies

Just over a year ago, we lost Auntie M to cancer.
Her fight was long and difficult and she made us believe she'd beat it many times with her cheerful disposition and fighting spirit.

One of the last things she did was to make sure we all had a special personal keepsake from her. She had made small silver pendants on a key chain that were shaped like a heart, each containing her thumbprint.
Auntie M was an artist and crafter her whole life and inspired the need to make things in a whole bunch of us. We had to make these heart healthy thumbprint cookies in honor of her.

We will love ya forever Auntie M.

This recipe is in the current Better Homes and Garden's Christmas Cookie Magazine.
found on page #43

We made two balls of dough and pushed thumbs into them. Then pinched the bottoms to make a point. They look like little hearts.

Then we filled each indent with Presidents Choice Blue Menu Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.

This is what they look like after baking. we sprinkles them with a dusting of icing sugar before packing them up as gifts.

Grandma Grace's Jello Fruit Cookies

These are the cookies I remember the most from being a kid. My Grandma Grace on my Father's side made these (plus a thousand more!) and my brother and I looked forward to them every year. The recipe is so simple that Mom and I had to call Grandma and confirm the recipe.

Now I make them with my kids and Mom and Boyfriend.

All you need are three simple ingredients:

Jello Powder 2 packages (We used strawberry)
Sweetened shredded coconut fine 1. 200g package
Can of sweetened condensed milk
green royal icing

Mix one pack of the jello powder, all the coconut and all the condensed milk together.
pour the second pack of jello into a shallow bowl.
Shape the mixed coconut, jello and milk stuff into strawberry shapes and roll them in the shallow bowl of jello powder.

mix up some royal icing
1 cup of icing sugar
1 tsp of meringue powder
a few drops of green food colouring
enough water to make an icing consistency

Use a skewer or toothpick to make leaves of green royal icing on each strawberry

Keep them in a secret cool dry place and they should last for a couple hours
until someone finds them and eats them all.

try 'em
you'll like 'em!

:D

Christmas Nails and a Random Goldfish

I removed the gel nails last night and decorated my natural nails for Christmas.
They've grown a heap!
I don't believe that wearing nail enhancements ruins your natural nails, I believe that removing the fake nails by ripping them off ruins your nails.
Gel nails should be soaked in gel remover,and acrylic nails need to be carefully filled off.


I did a red sparklie french tip then added green, silver and white diagonal stripes with white dots at the smile line. Then I coated the whole thing in two coats of clear polish.

Here are the blue swirly tips embedded in longer clear sparklie tips. I added a goldfish to my thumb just to be silly.

A blurry goldfish close up shot.

Gonna spend the weekend baking cookies!
:D

Emergency Prop Jewlery Job

Had a new client request initials NG as a gold pendant.

I used my favorite FIMO clay and gold powder by Staedtler to create the pendants. They only need one. I decided to make three versions for them, one is thick, one thinner and the third has crystals in the corners for bling. The pendant will be used in a close up for a corporate instructional movie.

YEAY!!!!

I always wanted to be a sci fi movie make up and prop gal!

:)

Ball Jointed Doll

I think its time to make a new doll.
This one is going to be a ball jointed doll.

I'm working out the proportions in my sketchbook.

I copied the original sketch out in three different sizes. Not sure how big or small I want to make her yet. Not even sure exactly what she'll look like. But I'm pretty sure it's going to be a girl. I think I'm going to make her out of polymer clay but I'm still working out construction details.

Gel Nail inside a Gel Nail Experiment.

I decided it was time to change the nails. I like the blue and the stilleto shape but decided they were a bit too short.

I made a swirly blue and white french nail with gel, then capped it off with some clear gel and sparkles. Looks a bit like a nail floating inside another one.

Maybe you can see it better from the side?
I also added a lace smile line sticker.

Underneath it all. Looks like a dogs breakfast but at least you can see what's going on. I think the idea has possibilities. I might just sculpt some goldfish in there and add some seaweed.
What do you think?
:)

Here is a video of our friendly neighbourhood Squnk. It's just a squirel with a white tail, but he's a master of disquise. No one will mess with him just in case he really is related to the smelly black and white kitty.

Wonder why his tail is white?

Anyone know?

Sock Dreams Purchase!

I made a fun online purchase that I thought I would share with you all.

I ordered six pair of socks from a company called
Sock Dreams.
Three pair for me and three pair for Maggs. Maggs got the stripey ones and the purple pair and mine are grey, rust and green. The rust and green socks are called over the knee socks and they do come to just over my knee, but the rest are thigh highs.

:)

....and they are thigh high!
I can pull them way up to the top of my leg and make them look like tights if I want to wear them with a skirt, or I can cuff them like this and wear them with leggings and a long top.

I Love these socks.
They were reasonably priced and look and feel like they will last forever....... the shipping was quick and trackable however shipping fees were half of the order price. The socks came to just about $60.00 and the shipping was almost $30.00. I wish there were an option for cheaper shipping, I'd order from them every month if there were.

Christmas Twig?

This year we are going for a retro upscale Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Not something you can just purchase at the local Canadian Tire store. We're gonna make one!

First we found the old galvanized bucket we had kickin around.
We filled the bucket with pebbles and stuck the twigs in there. Then we poured plaster of paris over the pebbles and twigs to hold things more firmly.


Got some cheap white spray paint from the hardware store and started spraying.............. and spraying..........and spraying...................... well...... you get the point. It took a while.

I covered my hand with a bread bag so I wouldn't need to soak in solvent before work to get rid of the paint. It worked well, gloves would have been better and not gotten in the way of the nozzle so often.

Huge Tip!
Wait for a day that's not windy. Most of the paint blew away but I got several face fulls of white and my hair should have been covered. I look like I've had a sudden shock and now have grey patches.


Here is our Christmas twig inside. We're going to have it right in the front window.


We added turquoise, green and silver balls first.


Here we've added red balls, turquoise birds and some mirror snowflakes but it's hard to see. Sorry about the picture quality I've been really frustrated by camera problems.

Mom put our home made elves from a few years ago on the tree as a joke. She thought I wouldn't like them........ But I do! I like them on there. What do you think? Are the elves too kitchy?

** Edited to add project completion pics**

Mr. Jimmy and I went to Canadian Tire and purchased three strands of 100 light white chorded tree lights. We picked the warm white glow. I think we still need 50 more lights or so. The branch in the back didn't get any lights at all.


Here is a progress shot of the mantle this year. Mom made the cool paper drifty snow and put the Elf dolls I made her years ago up on top of her new polar bears.


Sebastian isn't sure what to make of this inside the house tree. I hope he doesn't get too confused.


He's a cutie........ Maybe if we bribe him with treats he won't use our Christmas tree as a pottie.
:/