Handmade Christmas

This wonderful illustration is available for you to use for Christmas cards courtesy of Julia at Lineanongrata. Go to her blog to check out the details or her etsy shop to check out her wonderful illustrations and bags. Truly original and inspiring. Now, if you are part of my family and live on the "right coast"...please stop reading right now.

For the rest of you, I want to share part of my handmade Christmas....for our lovely Miss M.

Back in the summer, I blogged about an auction we went to. I purchased 2 wooden silverware cases For $1 that I planned to revitalize and turn into treasure boxes for our 2 grandchildren. That didn't go as planned. Some things just don't work out I guess. The boxes were the perfect size. I took out the old velvet linings, but no matter what I tried I couldn't get rid of a terrible musty smell. Yuck. I abandoned my plans. But I did come up with an alternative for Miss M....a wooden mini chest of drawers that I bought and painted. Here is the finished project:

I filled some of the drawers with wrapped presents. Her Beebee Mod shirt...some "jewels" to make her own jewelry...some rhinestone flowers with sticky backs...some sticky foam letters and flowers...Purple is her favourite colour. I hope she likes it.

More of my favourite things

Yum. That's all I can say.

Well, maybe I can say a few more words. It's been a Christmas tradition every years for the past number of years that Cody make a party mix to give away to some family members. It was born out of necessity...he being a poor, penniless, starving student. But it continues because it's such a popular gift (well, to be honest he's still poor & penniless but now he's an aspiring actor...not a student)

So here is the recipe for Cody's Party Mix. It's GOOD.

6 cups Cheerios
6 cups Crispix
2 x 200 gram bags pretzels
300 grams salted peanuts
1 cup melted butter
4 - 5 tbsp worcestershire sauc
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion salt
1/4 tsp celery seed
1/4 tsp chili powder and/or
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix up dry ingredients in a foil roasting pan.
Melt butter and add other ingredients. Mix well.
Pour over dry ingredients and mix well. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes and stir every 15 to 20 minutes. (Keep an eye on the top layer - it may get dark - reduce heat or cooking time) YUM!!

Another favourite thing...continuing in my theme of hand made things for Christmas:

A wonderful long sleeved t shirt from Beebee Mod for our lovely Miss M. Isn't he the cutest snowman? Check out Jen's etsy shop to see all her great designs.

Are you ready for Christmas yet? I'm getting there!

Urban Dog Photog's great Christmas Photo Idea

One of my Paws for Charity partners is Urban Dog Photog Suzanne Bird. She is the most amazing photographer...not just the actual photographs she takes but also the creativity and experience she provides to her subjects. Just look at this great idea...

Not your average "dog photo with Santa". You can have a photo taken of you and your dog under the mistletoe. What a fabulous way to show the connection between a person and their pet.

Available at Wag Cafe in Ottawa this Friday November 30th. Sessions are $59 and include a custom 5x5 print ready for framing and 5 custom country kissmas cards. Call Wag to book your appointment.

Fabulous!

Urban Dog Photog's PerPETual calendar

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I met with the Paws for Charity women for coffee. Urban Dog Photog Sue Bird had her new calendars with her....and they are fantastic!

Sue always comes up with such original ideas, and this is definitely original. Her 2 year perPETual calendar is a wire bound calendar featuring her fantastic dog photography.

One year is dedicated to greyhounds. The other year is an "all breed" calendar. Aside from Sue's wonderful photographs, the great thing about this calendar is that it's perpetual...you can start it anytime and go for 2 years. Anytime. Not just in January. Not just for 2008/2009. Anytime.

What a great idea! Even better is that Sue is donating part of the proceeds from each calendar sale to our Paws For Charity cause.

To order a calendar (great for gifts!) go to the "Buy" section at www.photobysuebird.com.

Everything's coming up tulips

Road side asparagus from a farmer: $3.50

UV filter for my zoom lens: $29.99

Ride in our Miata to take photos of the Ottawa Tulip Festival: $priceless

This is Roy MacGregor. He is a performance artist, and does his painting live at different events. We saw him yesterday at the Tulip Festival. I just loved this painting, but alas it will be a while before I can afford to have a MacGregor in my home. His paintings command a cool $2500 to $3500 a piece.

But I do have reason to celebrate...I sold my first 2 items from my little Etsy shop! Yay! (thanks Beebee Mod!)

And...a woman phoned me yesterday to arrange to pick up some Barking Biscuits. She wanted to drop by and pick up some dog biscuits to take to Japan with her to give to a friend. Cool.

Thank you Angelique & a couple of things

I won a little contest sponsored by Angelique and look at the wonderful gifts I received! A business card holder (how did she know I had stolen my husband's biz card holder and didn't give it back? John thanks you Angelique! Now he can have his own holder back) My new biz card holder has paw prints (how appropriate!) on the outside and cheerful little flowers on the inside. And aren't these little flower magnets so cute? Best of all, she included 3 note cards featuring her own photography. Peonies & calla lillies are 2 of my favourites and these tulips are so bright and cheery! I love everything Angelique..thanks!
Angelique is quite the busy lady. You should check out her Snow Angel Designs etsy shop. My favourite item is a woobie. What's a woobie? Check out her blog to find out. I can see these used for adults undergoing chemotherapy too. My sister was always cold when she went through her chemo treatments. A woobie would have been great for her to have...for warmth and comfort too.

Now I'm off to prepare for tomorrow's fundraiser. I'll be selling my biscuits tomorrow at the K9 Spring Fling in Ottawa (at the Forever Friends Dog Training School, Unit 6, 17 Grenfell Crescent from 10 till 4). This is a fundraiser for Bullies In Need. There's going to be lots of fun stuff going on so come out & enjoy. Friendly on leash dogs are welcome. Natalie Heath will take a professional 5 x 7 portrait of your dog for a $10 donation. You can buy beautiful blankets, dog beds, and more...all hand made by volunteers. And I'll be there with all my dog biscuits & fund raising button pins. Come by & say hello.

Finally, make sure you leave a comment or email me before May 1st about my little contest.
Here is another hint: Beebee Mod is close to the answer!

Back to the lighter side of life

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my life changed a month or so ago when we finally got high speed out here in the country. Now that I don't have to wait 2 minutes for every page to load, I've been busy whipping around the internet, checking out blogs, discovering artists, and lots of fun & creative stuff.
This all inspired me to set up a little shop of my own on Etsy.com. (a place where only hand made things are sold) So far, I've added only 4 little watercolor paintings but we'll see where it goes. This is the first painting I did in March when the end of winter blahs were getting me down. I needed some color in my life so I painted with reds and purples. If you check out etsy, beware! There are lots of amazing artists there.
The funny thing is, when you're visiting different places, you never know where you're going to end up. I am in awe of all the creative people in the world. I think it was through Etsy that I discovered the Pay-It-Forward I was involved in with Beebee Mod. See my previous post "In Search of Good Peoples". My PIF went to Snow Angel Designs. You'll have to check her blog...she'll be carrying on the PIF soon.
So, today's thought is...take some time to do the things you enjoy!

Pencil Drawings by Miriam Mas

This lovely pencil drawing was done by Miriam Mas.
I met Miriam several years ago through the Ottawa charity Canines with a Cause (Miriam is the founder). In addition to her involvement with CWAC, Miriam paints gorgeous oil paintings and produces fantastic pencil drawings.
Bailey, our Siberian Husky and inspiration for The Barking Biscuit, passed away in September 2005. I commissioned Miriam to do a pencil drawing to give to my husband (she used a photo taken by our daughter in law Kelly for her inspiration). I asked Miriam to sell prints of her drawing to raise money for Canines with a Cause (a favourite charity of mine). You can purchase notecards with Bailey's drawing from CWAC. All proceeds go to CWAC. They have other cards available as well. (but I'm a little partial to Bailey's drawing)