Home Wong Nga and Black Cty: December 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

Pajama Pants

It's all about balance.

As the mother of six children (three boys & three girls; how cool is that!), Christmas can be a tremendous balancing act! Sometimes I balance across all six children, and sometimes I just have to make sure the boys balance (or just the girls).

Enter a pair of pajama pants.

Really, I promise it will all make sense.

You see, I knitted a dragon scarf for one boy. And a handmade gift for one boy means the other two need something handmade...and Christmas was drawing ever closer! I finished a pair of fingerless gloves (see my boys' gifts here). Then I was out of time!!

In a desperate search for something to make up the difference, I came across some delightful "Toy Story" flannel, and a pair of pajama pants was born!

Boy #3 looks happy, don't you think??

And look....he balances!!

For all those that love to clean...

One thing about me is that I'm a sucker for cleaning gizmos. I love hearing peoples cleaning tricks, and love tyring new cleaning supplies. A friend in the neighbourhood was telling me she rents a carpet cleaning machine for $30 from Canadian Tire for 24 hours and she cleans her carpets and upholstery. I stopped in my tracks. $30? A carpet cleaner? It was like I had won the lottery.

Helloooo Gorgeous!

I said should she ever want to rent it again, to let me know and I'd split the cost. The next day she dropped off the rented cleaner ($15 from me, $15 from her) and I got to play with this awesome thing I had just found out existed.

She showed me how to use it, as well as brought over some Oxy Clean from her house, as she had also talked about how awesome it was. (1) Is the carpet cleaner (2) Jug of warm water (I used 3 jugs) and (3) Some of the Oxy Clean mixed into the water

You put the water in the machine and go to town. The vacuum head part sprays out the water and sucks at the same time as you pull on a lever. Let go of the lever and it just sucks, so you can go back over damp areas.

Ok, so I failed at taking action shots. It would have been messy. But pretend you are vacuuming. That's exactly how this thing works.

And now here is a picture I look for the "after" shot.

And look at what came out of our bedroom carpet!!! Uck. Sooo gross. And I vacuum one a week, if not more. I consider our bedroom super clean, so to see this shocked me.

Although it is hard to tell, our carpet in our bedroom is almost feeling brand new. Aubrey came home and could tell the difference. And coming to bed tonight, well, I felt a little like the whole room was new because of an awesome carpet cleaning.

Even though it's inexpensive to rent, she mentioned I shouldn't do a carpet cleaning more than once a year really as it can damage the carpet. I guess it's like Christmas...Wait patiently for the one day a year! ;)

Ps., I also washed the glider in our nursery, the carpet in the nursery, area rugs on the first floor....I would have washed the cat would she have allowed me! (Kidding)

I would like to wish you a very Happy New Year!!! I hope 2010 was all you had hoped for and 2011 is even better. Thank you for reading H&H, you mean the world to me!!!

xx,

Marianne

{ Eye Candy }

We're away on a mini vaca ~

So, while away enjoy these random images I've saved for some time now.

{ Happy New Year }

*all from Cottage Living*

hope your all staying warm and cozy

Link Love No.36!

You must be wondering why I am posting Link Love so soon... the reasons are...

1. Tomorrow is our New Year’s party, and I am not posting.
2. On January 1st there is something exciting I am going to post, so I really wanted this week’s link love posted soon.

Thank you again everyone for your wonderful projects. It is hard for me to pick just five every time. I always try to have a variety by picking different types of projects. Also, I want to give many different people a chance to be featured. I hope you understand where I come from and why I pick certain projects for my link party.

Ok, this week’s link love...

The Quick Un-pick shared this wonderfully done Sewn Photo Canvas Display. Her tutorial shows you how to make this, and the result is stunning!

Are you looking for the perfect gift to give in January that is useful all year long? Very Merry Vintage Style created free printable calendar for 2011 and shares a tutorial on how to create this amazingly cute calendar. This will be going on my "to-do" list. :)

These black & white fortune cookies by Homeworkwill spice up any party. A very fun and stylish idea!

Is this pretty or what? I keep my recipes in a special binder, but I might start writing my recipes on index cards, so I can use this card holder. :) Check out Life's Sweeter with Chocolate wonderful step by step tutorial!

I posted several different tutorials for brooches (including mine) in the past, and I believe this is totally new! I love the fullness of it, and it looks easy to make. Thank you for sharing Innocentia !

I can't believe this year is ending soon... I just want to tell you all how thankful I am that you to take time out of your busy day to come back to read my blog. Really, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I hope, I can keep creating and writing fun and feel good posts during the coming year.

Have a nice New Year’s Eve, and Happy New Year!

On Christmas my true love gave to me....

Kaleidoscope Ribbon Necklace from Aubrey. It is so beautiful....Perfect for New Years Eve!

I'd like to pick up a second necklace for my Mom but they don't ship to Canada...Ughh. Any US friends out there with a PalPal account (so I can pay you) that would like to buy it + I can send you the money? Free print as my thanks!
UPDATE---I think it's all good folks...someone is an angel and e-mailed me...

Canadian Artist, William Kurelek

I was captivated when I saw the cover of the Special Holiday Section of The Globe and Mail over the Christmas weekend. I'm slightly embarrassed that even with all my Art History background his name, William Kurelek, didn't seem familiar as he's quite the accomplished Canadian Artist. As I've done in the past, I like to showcase artists I love, especially Canadian Artists. So it is fitting that I introduce his work.

After some digging I found the following two paintings that I also fell in love with. When I read the titles I was surprised when I saw the street name Balsam Avenue. Balsam Avenue is right down the street from us.

(LEFT) WILLIAM KURELEK, CHILDREN PLAYING IN A SNOWBANK BALSAM AVENUE AFTER HEAVY Found here
(RIGHT) William Kurelek Balsam Avenue After Heavy Snowfall 1972 Courtesy of Joyner Waddington’s Canadian Fine Art found here

I Googled some more and found some references. Turns out Kurelek lived on Balsam Avenue with his family, and the painting on the right depicts Kurelek and his Family on their street after a heavy snowfall. Toronto Star, November 26, 2008 and Joyner Canadian Fine Art

For those of you not familiar with the Toronto Beach area, we have steep streets going towards the water. From Kingston Road to Queen Street, the streets are so steep, I wouldn't even attempt to walk it in the winter. Kurelek captured this in his painting - see the three men helping the car up the road?

And so I started to try to actually locate where he may have stood for his starting point of the painting. Two factors lead me to believe I could figure it out - The Bend in the street, and the red building that looks like a school. But the red building in the background, I can't locate anywhere on Balsam Avenue. On Beech Avenue (2 streets over) this is the only thing I can come up with.

I wonder if he used some creative freedom with the placement of the buildings in his painting? The hunt continues on to see if I can figure out where his vantage point was. At any rate, I hope you enjoyed this introduction to William Kurelek!

Art In Motion

Chanel Spring 2011 Show- It is visual stunning and inspiring, especially the aerial views of the whole "runway". Hope you enjoy...

The second part is probably better and shorter for those who don't want to sit through Part I...

Karl, you are a creative genius.

Time to grab Christmas Ornaments

I'm not a huge Boxing week person. Truthfully I'm tiered of stores and shopping by the time it rolls around. However, it IS the best time to pick up ornaments as they are usually 50% off.

I picked up these two ornaments today at Nesters/Chalet on Queen. Our tree has a underlying bird theme so whenever I spot a bird I like I tend to grab it. The bird was actually glued onto a box, but I sliced the nest off the box to make it a super cute tree ornament. And the sheep - well, he was too cute not to grab (although not sure he is all that Christmasy?) But he was marked 50% off in the Holiday section.

Since I only usually buy special ornaments that jump out at me, we will take awhile to have a full tree decorated, but it means that all that is on the tree is loved and cherished. Anyone else grab some ornaments on sale? I think *most* of mine have always been end of season purchases.

Hello everyone,

First, a New Year's wish for you from a photo I took at our kitchen table last week.Isn't it hard to believe another year is almost over? If life is a journey will someone put on the brakes!!! It is definitely true the older you get the faster time flies. Anyway, I am enjoying the journey and I am very thankful for all of our blessings.

Now, I thought some of you might have wondered how we could fit our large family into our kitchen and dining/library. So I took some photos to share with you today..

Many of you have also seen these rooms many times before but with a few changes we are able to bring our long folding tables,take up some mismatched chairs,put on some tablecloths and set our tables with my red and white transfersware china.

It is definitely not the fanciest table setting in blogland but I kept in mind that we have no dishwasher and so simple would work best for us- there were 23 of us to enjoy our family turkey dinner.

We set up the tables on Christmas Eve Day, which of course saved a lot of time on Christmas Day. We sit down to eat around 1:00 p.m. as some of our family have evening commitments.

I use a mix of red and white dishes.

I love the candle chandelier -very inexpensive but cozy!

Lila, our youngest granddaughter had her own little chair right by the tree. Lila is enjoying my homemade cheese bread- a family favorite.

Now, this is our kitchen before we took out the smaller table but this is how it looked before.

I thought my husband had earned a little quiet time by the fireside by evening.

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Thank you to all who have visited me today and though out the last few years I have been blogging- I hope you know it wouldn't be any fun without all of you!!!

I hope the New Year will bring you health, joy, peace and love and may you all have time to enjoy your blessings each and every day.
I am joining Susan again for Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch. Thank you Susan for hosting once again.

Love & Blessings to all of you,

Carolyn