It's 2016

Hello and Happy New Year to everyone!!

Does anyone else find it hard to believe that the holiday

season is all but over for another year??    Where did it

all go?    Seriously?

Got a fair amount of baking done ... and eaten ...

unfortunately ... during the weeks leading up to 

Christmas and I really appreciated not having to 

juggle work and holiday preparations anymore.    I 

made up gift boxes of goodies to give our neighbours 

and I took trays of goodies to the parties that we were

invited to so it all got used.   Well, most of it anyways.

And left overs will be going to Phil's workplace for his 

co-workers to enjoy this week.  

Note:  didn't take pictures of everything I made.

The above picture is just a random sampling.

I love making bows and decorating the parcels

that I wrap for Christmas.   The sparklier, the better.

I mentioned this in my previous post but here are

a few pictures showing close up shots of some of

the bows.

You can tell that I'm a traditionalist when it comes to

the colours of Christmas.    I might use blue and silver

on occasion but really red and gold and green are my

favourites.

I had a strip of gold sparkly paper left over

which was too small to wrap anything with.

I had a strip of wired red ribbon with Christmas

trees on it which was too short to make a 

bow with.   I combined them, one on

top of the other and made an arrangement

out of bits and pieces on top of that.

Festive!

Rupert had a good Christmas, though we

were both exhausted from our various

seasonal obligations by the end.

Books!   Glorious Books!!!!

One of my favourite thing to receive for Christmas

is gift cards!   For the bookstore.    Oh yes!!!

Happy dance time!!!!

Thank you to my friends who know me so

well.    YA, fantasy and adult fiction.   Aren't

they the most beautiful things you've ever seen?

Speaking of which ....

And Rupert loves the box that they came in.    I used

his old Chapters box to pack and wrap a Christmas

gift in so I just had to make sure that I replaced it 

with a new box in at least the same size.   He was

actually in this box before I had a chance to get most

of the books out so I had to pull them out from under

him.

Gift card from the craft store.   Went to Michaels to 

redeem the card and got myself more Smash books to

fill.   These, sadly, are no longer being made and are

getting harder and harder to find.    

I made a Smash book album for a friend for Christmas

and I also made two scrap books full of pictures for 

another friend and I had a blast doing them.   So I am

eager to get started on scrapping/smashing for myself

now.    

I've been puttering in my craft room trying to find 

places for some of the craft supplies that I also got

for Christmas (stamps, punches, embellishments ....

yummy stuff like that) and rearranging things so

that they're easier to get at and to find.   I am one of

those people for whom out of sight is out of mind so

I need to have everything within easy reach and more

or less in sight.

Another gift that I've been loving.   The illustrated addition

of the first Harry Potter book!    It's so gorgeous!!!   I'm

actually reading it now .... well .... not right now, this 

minute ... but over the holidays and I am bowled over

by the gorgeous artwork.   And the story is as sweet 

and exciting and joyful as ever.

The entire gang on New Years Eve. 

We went to friends for dinner and just spent the 

evening sitting around, nibbling on goodies and

yakking and laughing.    It was 2:00 am when 

Phil and I got home and so New Years Day we

were not too lively.   But that's another tradition

for that day isn't it?   

No New Years resolutions for me but I would like

to spend lots of time this year being creative.  That

includes stitching,  scrapbooking,  drawing and so

on.    I firmly believe that being creative is very good

for one's soul and mental health.    

And perhaps blogging through the entire year too.

Cheers for now!