Skating Snowlady Welcome Sign

Another year has passed! Happy New Years everyone. Here's wishing all of you a Happy, Healthy and Creative 2013!

We have a lot of snow here right now and although I'm not a huge fan of snow I do think it's quite pretty - as long as I'm on the inside looking out and not out shoveling! I love to watch the birds in the backyard in the winter. The Northern Cardinals seem so much redder against the white snow. We hang a small beaded cup on one of the stands and fill it with peanuts still in the shell. The blue jays come and sit on the pole and reach down and grab a peanut and fly off. Sometimes there are 4 or 5 blue jays waiting a turn for a peanut and the poor blue jay that is last and the peanuts are gone will sit there and ruffle his feathers in disgust before he flies off.

Well, we have a new welcome sign up for January. This is just your typical tole painting. No fine art applied here but still fun to do.

This is on slate. I have so much more to use up and I'm determined to do so this year. There is obviously some camera glare on this but in real life it is not faded at the bottom.

Memories of Christmas 2012 & A Snowman Plaque

Well, Christmas is over for another year. Today the malls will be filled with bargain hunters buying more stuff they don't need and probably can't afford! Fortunately Joe and I are of the same mind when it comes to finances, we both hate debt, we want a nest egg, but we want to enjoy the comforts today as well. Luckily we are able to do that and I feel sorry for those who get caught up in the madness of spending.

So, I thought I'd post a few or my memories of Christmas 2012.

Best moments and memories of Christmas 2012!

The best “Christmasy” moment was coming out of the Christmas Eve service at 8:00 p.m. to a light snow fall. Large fluffy flakes of snow just swirling around which made the street lights glow; the church bells were ringing and everyone was calling out “Merry Christmas” to each other.

The best moment for sure was thanks to technology. Our son-in-law in Kuwait was able to see his wife and sons open their presents and talk to them over the computer. 7:00 a.m. in Canada was 3:00 p.m. in Kuwait and they luckily ended work early over there so it worked out fine. He’ll be home end of January and it can’t come soon enough for Barbi and the boys.

Funniest memory – Finn’s monkey giving Grampa “5s” on Skype! What, you say! Let me explain. Grampa always teaches the grandchildren to “give me 5” right from when they are babies. The first time we used Skype he held his hand out in front of the camera and said to Finn, “Give me 5” and I said to him “He’s not going to know how to do that on Skype”! I was wrong. Finn pretended to give him slap his hand. Finn is 2-1/2 by the way. So, we talked to him Christmas morning; he ran and got some of his smaller presents to show us and he gave Grampa “5” again. Then, his aunt came over in the afternoon and one of his presents was a very large stuffed monkey. He kept asking to see Grandma on the “puter” so she Skyped me again. Apparently he wanted me to see his monkey because as soon as I answered he ran to get it. When he came back Grampa was beside me and said hi to him and we watched Finn grab the monkey’s arm and slap it down. He did it a couple of times before I clued in to what he was doing – he was having the monkey give Grampa “5”! As soon as Grampa said thanks to the monkey Finn just stood there and laughed. So darn cute that kid!

I'm also posting a small painting of a snowman on slate that I made and gave as a gift.

Nothing much to say about it because it is just a painting on a small piece of slate. Slate is very hard to drill thru! I had to buy a special drill bit and it's still takes a lot of pressure and time to drill each hole. I learned the hard way if you try to drill too close to the top, the slate flakes off. Still, I love painting on slate and I have a huge box full to use up.

Snowman Stack

Today we took a quick trip over to Port Huron Michigan to visit our friends there. Believe it or not, I did not go into any craft or sewing store. We made one quick stop at Kroger's to get a few more packages of vegetarian food we cannot buy here and that was it! Our friend is fighting lung cancer. Please, if you are a smoker, quit!

Actually the day was pretty uneventful even with me along! Nothing bizarre to write about at all so I think I'll get right to the post.

This is another quick and simple little snowman set I painted a few years ago.

Not sure what the original name of it was but I call it the snowman stack. Another friend of mine who is a wonderful tole painter decided she only wanted to paint animals so she gave me a couple of these stacked snowman that she had already cut out. I painted one for me and one for one of my daughers that also loves snowmen, I mean snowpeople! There was no coloured pattern to follow so I just did what I felt like doing. There is a little more shading and high lighting on this one compared the ones I posted the other day. Experience helps. This actually stands just over a foot high. The sign is separate and attached with wire and I added beads to it.

Mr.Snowman and Ms. Snowlady

What a wet miserable day it was here. The dampness just chilled right thru us. Once again, I wasn't up to doing much so we did a few errands, ate lunch out, did some more Christmas shopping because I forgot one thing, and stopped to visit with the sister-in-law. All that pretty much took care of the morning and into the late afternoon. I just realized that I didn't post anything today so it's a little late but here it is.

This is a Mr. Snowman and Ms. Snowlady that I painted many years ago. I actually painted a pair for all the girls too. It's pretty simple tole painting, not fine art, but once in awhile it's nice to do something quick and easy. This would be a good project for kids or people just getting into tole painting. Not sure where I got the pattern from so I can't give you a link and it was so long ago, it would be out of print.

These started out as 1/2" boards, not sure what kind I used but I think it was some pressed type. I cut them out myself up at the senior centre's wood shop. It seams no one in my family, especially hubby, wants me to own saws! The guys at the wood shop let me though - of course, they don't know my background of being a klutz and I sure didn't tell them. Like I said, these are years old and done when I first started tole painting. I would have done a little more shading and highlighting if I was doing them now but they're OK.

Snow People Card Box

I finally ventured out of the house today. First Joe and I went for about an hour's walk "around the block"! Yeah, it's obviously not your standard city block but it's what we call it when we just want a short walk. After lunch I had to go to the library and to the scrapbook store, The Paper Pickle (which is only open Wed, Thurs. and Sat. now) and on the way home I decided to go over to the Value Village for a quick walk thru. So glad I did. Someone decided to give up card making and I scored big time. I picked up about 5 bundles of 12x12 paper and two 81/2x11 bundles, each one was $5.99 except one of the smaller ones was $2.99. And I'm talking about BIG bundles. One of them had two complete packs of Christmas papers that sell for at least $24.99.
Whoot! Whoot! Cha Ching! Cha Ching! This made my day!..and week!

So, now I'm in the process of sorting it all out. Yes, I'm a Virgo and I cannot have my paper all mixed up. So, first I separated the Seasons and theme paper and now I'm sorting the rest into colour groups. The next thing is to find storage for it all! When all piled on top of each other it likely measured about 15" or more - like I said, BIG bundles of paper! This one problem I am happy to deal with.

I love snow people. I love painting them too. This is a box to put Christmas cards in that I made. I made one for each of the girls and a couple of extra ones and this is the left over one. I like to give them choices so I make extras.

                       This is just the regular acrylic paint for tole painting.

Here is a different angle. And the colour is much better (different camera used). Still playing with getting the colour right on my older camera. After painting the bottom red I used white paint on snowflake stamps and stamped them around the edge. Not sure what to do with this one but hubby gets after me to take some of extra stuff to a craft sale so I may do that. I wonder if any one would pay me $5.00 for it? I think I worry that no one will buy anything so I shy away from trying to sell my items.