JYC Day 18 & 19/ more snow photos

I was playing catch up again today - with all the snow we had when we woke up yesterday I decided to spend the day sewing. The knowledge that Christmas was only a week away was preying on my mind! I was hand sewing the binding last night and didn't get round to doing my layouts. This afternoon I finally finished the quilts (as in I am now finished with all sewing for Christmas!!) and this evening I did my two layouts!

For this layout I decided to back the tree and give it a border - I really like the way it turned out.

The letter to Santa prompt had me stumped for a while because I wanted to incorporate one of my snow photos. I'm quite happy with the way it came out though!

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And finally, a few more of the snow photos from yesterday and today. Although we haven't had any more snow today, we still have fairly thick snow lying on the ground from yesterday. The road outside our house is a little bit better today but still extremely icy. At least some cars have been able to get out. I haven't attempted it, I'm quite happy to stay at home and look at the snow from inside where I'm nice and cosy!

Emily went outside fairly early yesterday and was amused at Cloud's antics.

Spot the dog. Cloud just about disappears in the snow. She's so funny, runs around like a mad dog which causes the snow to clump on her fur under her tummy and then we have to get it off again.

This causes much laughter!

I loved the trees with the snow on them - if you look carefully you can see how all the snow was on one side of the tree trunks showing the direction the snow had blown in from.

Tyre tracks in the snow outside out house. The cars that haven't moved have stayed covered in a blanket of snow.

Hope you're having a good weekend wherever you are.

xx

Snow Day

This post is mainly for our family in South Africa :) This morning I woke to the sound of tyres spinning as someone was trying to get up our road in the snow. When I came downstairs this was the sight that greeted me Looking out the back

See how thick the snow is on the table and the top of the shed

Looking out from the front door

You can see the tyre marks in the road - that's where we always battle to get up the little incline.

I then walked out to the green and took a photo looking towards our house

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When I turned on my computer the first message to come through was from Emily's school letting us know that school is closed today. They break up a day early for their holidays - yippee!!!

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Glad I don't have to go out anywhere today :)

xx

JYC catch up & what I've been doing

I'm going to post my layouts first and get them out of the way. I know the photos make them look like they aren't straight but, believe me, in real life - they are! I didn't get a chance to do yesterday's layout but caught up today.

Yesterday's layout

Today's layout

It's good to be caught up again.

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Now, for those of you wondering what happened with the pavlova, I thought I'd fill you in on the story. The first one looked wonderful but seemed awfully sticky - there was sticky stuff oozing out of the bottom. I transferred it onto a plate but when I tried to see if I would be able to lift it when dishing up, the knife came out wet. Probably not a good idea to serve it to people I didn't really know ;o), so I made apple crumble instead.

The following night Claire made carbonara and there were 3 egg whites left over. My friend, Sarah had given me a recipe to try so at 10 o'clock at night I decided to make the meringue. That way I'd be able to leave it in the oven overnight to dry out. I stayed up until the cooking period finished so that I could turn the oven off. Next morning, I was looking forward to seeing how it turned out.

Doesn't look too bad, does it! The only thing I wasn't so sure about was that it looked a golden colour. I thought that was maybe because I'd added a tiny bit of vanilla extract. I didn't worry about it and last night I asked the girls if they would like to try it. Their verdict? It tasted like toast! I tried some and could see it did taste slightly different but I wouldn't say "like toast". I think maybe I should give up on pavlova's for a while. I'll think of something else to make (or buy) for pudding on Christmas day instead.

And talking of Christmas - one week tomorrow!!! To make me feel a bit more festive - a photo looking in at our tree from outside ;o)

And one take tonight of the tree lit up for the evening. Do I have the Christmas spirit?? I'm getting there. Looking forward to doing some wrapping soon and getting quilts finished - then I'll be a bit happier. Also looking forward to school breaking up tomorrow so Emily and I don't have to get up at 6am!

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Snow is predicted for tonight through to Sunday! Could be interesting!! Planning a day at home tomorrow to get the binding on the quilts - looks like I may have chosen a good day for it.

xx

My little visitor + JYC Day 15

Look who came to visit me today :o) and I couldn't have been happier! Alyssa's Mummy, Daddy and Nan were going to see her big brother in his first Christmas play and I had offered to look after her. Poor little girl has a stinking cold and is so snuffly. She's had it for about 2 weeks and has a real problem breathing with it. I had been warned she may be a bit miserable and grumpy; that she doesn't like going in the car and may scream when we stop but she was as good as gold.

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The first lesson when she was dropped off was how to put her carseat in my car so I could take her round to my friend Alison's for a quick visit. No problems. We also found that putting a bit of Olbas Oil on a tissue near her so she could breathe in the vapour seemed to help her snuffles a bit. On the way home, she fell asleep in the car and carried on sleeping for a while after we got in the house. I have to admit we did spend a fair bit of time cuddling but at least it meant she got to catch up on some sleep and I loved every minute of it ;o)

This evening I made a quick layout for Day 15. I decided to construct the inner block on Photoshop Elements and print it out in one, then stick it on to the cardstock. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out but wish I had realised the middle photo needed to be moved very slightly to the right so you wouldn't have seen the white line between the two photos. I'm not going to stress about it though as I'm just pleased to have another day completed.

I'm now ready to go and have a cup of rooibos (redbush tea) and work out what I'm doing tomorrow. Still have a quilt to finish, presents to wrap, lists to make, etc. and Christmas is getting closer day by day.

xx