Hello and Happy New Year!!!

Here it is ,an hour and a half from the very last day of 20-10. Ask me if I thought I'd live to see double digits past 2000 and I would say that I never dreamt it. Now we are heading into twenty eleven and I find that amazing to even let those numbers slide off my tongue... 20-11, 20-11 ....20-11. Seems like it is all in a dream, but here we are, bigger than life making plans for the upcoming year...and it is going to be one of the best since probably 1999!
To wind up 2010, we will have a little games night over at Deb and Ashley's house , with Randy and Francis and with any luck, we will all keep our peepers open long enough to ring in the new year. Then we begin a fresh new year at midnight with loads on the horizon, because it is going to be an awesome year!
I want to stay and chat all night and let you know all of our plans for 2011, but I am fading away as the clock ticks closer to 11:00pm . We have had a heck of a busy week at work and I have been mostly on my own.... our lovely city is filled with visitors who have come home to spend holidays with their parents or grandparents...and every kid in town has come back to their favourite jewellery store, Kolmels.

Now I am pooped but still need to tell you about an important email someone sent me about a phone scam. A caller calls your number then says you have won a trip or prize or a relative is sick or she has something to tell you, then asks you to call her at a number that begins with area code 809, or 284, or 876. The email has been in circulation since 1996, but still bears some important info. It tells you never to dial a number with area code 809.284,or 876 as these are foreign countries that can be dialed without a 011 prefix that is the usual for foreign countries. 809 gets you to the Dominican Republic, while 284 takes you to the British Virgin Islands and 876 is to Jamaica. You can run up quite a tab if you get some long winded prerecorded message.
Always be wary of anyone telling you won something and that you have to call up a certain number or give up credit card info or send a cheque. You can google an area code to find out where its location is.
On the other hand, if you get a call from Canada Safeway telling you that you won the Grand Prize in the Texas Hold'um contest, you better believe it! I know, because last year, I did get that call and guess what? We are finally going to get our prize in a few weeks... to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and best of all, my cousin Lynn and my daughter Sonia are joining us in the fun. See what I mean about 2011!!!! It is going to start off with some fine Tropical weather, great company and 2 weeks to lolly gag on the beach.... I can't wait! .....Now it is time for bed...for real!


"The Creator"

Merry Christmas

Emil was smiling as he opened Janice's package o' dough ...she paid back all the damages from the time she broke his boat...



Silky loved Co-co's new bowl

Coc-co is barking at his new dish... thats when Silky walked over and helped herself to the treat inside of it!


Bea's smiling at her new kobo e reader... ( Now if I can only stop calling it a KUDO)



"The Creator"

Eclipse of the moon

These are pics of the Lunar eclipse taken by Sonia's friend, Dave Merritt, in fort St. John...






It looks like I have them in the reverse order, but enjoy ...they are great photos!
"The Creator"

Year of the HAre coming up

Get your little bunny coats all made up...note that these ones are lined with??? bunny fur!!! It is the Year of the Hare in 2011!!!!


Mr. Baily... He is so photogenic...


I scared them away when I came out on the deck... Missy and Maynard last week after the wet snowfall

The bird feeder is supposed to be for the little birds, but the ducks and crows and ravens make their rounds for any feeder crumbs that fall to the deck below.

Have a great Thursday and I suggest shopping early if you are coming into Kolmels today. We have been rather busy, as is the season, but it seems like the menfolk get off work around three and then they descend upon us. Not to worry, still loads of beautiful jewellery in a great range of prices and you can count on great quality that comes with sterling silver or gold from Kolmels !

"The Creator"

Geminid Meteor Showers

Look up late tonight and part those clouds to see the best meteor shower of the year called the Geminid Meteor Showers...showers of "shooting stars" that do not even come from a meteor... Read all about it at the link above at Spaceweather.com
"The Creator"

Taking you back a few years

35 years ago we were thumbing through Eaton's last Christmas catalogue, wondering what Santa would bring us.... and 32 years ago on the 11th of December,our mom passed away and ironically we had a big family Christmas that year with everyone except for her... Sad to say but the years have flown by and we have all grown up, as have our children and now their children...all beautiful, smart, and talented and a all families to be proud of. We will miss not having our own family with us this year, but with the likes of Skype and MSN video, we can chat with everyone and be blessed that we are healthy and happy folk...still thinking about the good foods my mom and Emil's mom cooked up every Christmas...and doing our best to duplicate the old flavours and smells that linger in our memories. Today Emil and I made perogies, the other night I made a cherry pie and buttertarts and tortierres... yum yum! Foodies at heart-that came by it honestly...all of us! Sonia is going to make Pytaheh and Annette will be cooking up a turkey for her and Shawn. I will do the same for Emil and I.

Emil and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year, full of good Health, Happiness, and Prosperity. You can thumb back through the archives to see what we were up to last year... and all we can say is that 2011 is going to be just great!

I love you all and have hopes that we all get to visit in 2011!



The fellow's suit is actually a blue brocade.... quit "a'hem" beautiful...hey Sonia and Annette...Didn't Grandma buy that red dress for each of you?


$21.99???? No wonder we couldn't afford those fancy models!!!



And those luxurious black satin sheets...we all craved them didn't we?



Who didn't own one of these cassette decks??? They were the rage...ours could even record... Thats how Emil and I kept in touch when he went to Montreal for two months...around 74

We had Ashley and Deb over for dinner tonight and lets see....did I need my free flowing whatever the hell you call that blue thing to make me at ease... NO, a rum and coke did the trick! Prohobition is over, but apparently not in 1975!

Wrapped up to the neck so the old boy can't get a finger in there...

And the ever so cute raggedy Anne and Andy... ours melted away in the flood of 80 in Victoria...

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane...

"The Creator"

Christmas is here!

The decorations are up as far as they go this year. Mantle is done, top of china cabinet has the bears all arranged and my little clothesline is up to hang the cards on ,above my patio door. The lights are on the railing outside, along with some pine garlands and my giant candle is out in front of the garage... No Inflatable Santa this year, and no deer... so it will be a toned down Christmas without any kids around and me working right till Christmas eve. The good news is that we have the trip planned now for the new year , that I won from Canada Safeway , to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. We will be joined by two surpise guests who will make our first week so exciting... I can't wait. Week two will be our Xmas gift to each other this year.
Have a good week... time for us to eat some dinner... Love ya and leave ya..
Oh yes, cards are nearly done. I will do an online card too as I am trying to cut down with postage being so crazy.




"The Creator"

Beautiful Saturday...

If you weren't lazing around in your cave all day, then ypou probably saw it... pure blue sky ( in parts) and best of all...sunshine...It made me revitalized after these past few weekends of snow and more snow! How about you?
I received my much anticipated parcel this past week, a shelving unit from Costco. Did you know that if you order online, the prices INCLUDE shipping charges and from our part of the world, that is better than driving four hours to get to a Costco. Puralator does the deliveries which meant I had to drive to the Gill and Gift in Balfour to pick it up...and it was extremo heavy! It is designed to hold 500pounds per shelf... probably the exact weight I have on each shelf now! See bottom picture for beginning of my filling it up.

A view of the mountains above Redfish Creek,just as the sun was setting

And it was this bright ! Bright and beautiful! Emil and I went for a hot tub this morning before breakfast... nice to soak up the heat and think about our vacation in Punta Cana that will be upcoming...it will be a heatwave when you walk to breakfast in the morning... I can't wait for that!


So now you see the shelves..nicely tucked in to utilize the exixting shelves that were in the closet already... Emil is pretty handy when it comes to figuring these things out. My new arrangement allows me space to keep many of my little appliances and things like my large serving platters and my huge wok.... I am so delighted... It set me into cleaning mode and I went through the kitchen,washing the floor in there and the bathroom, emptying some cabinets and rearranging others. It makes my heart sing to see space in my kitchen cupboards now and to have a place ( that I can see and reach) to store my appliances and big ceramic pieces. Yea! The shelving unit is 72" tall, has four shelves that are 18" x 36" and came with wheels that I opted to exchange for the stabilizing feet.

Also, I ordered a rack that suspends from the ceiling of the basement near my laundry area where I can hang clothes either to dry or on hangers for easy steaming once they are out of the drier. I don't see that going up just yet, but with any luck it will be up before the snow melts.
Now to put up some decorations and get the rest of my cards done.... Have a great weekend...see you next weekend unless something spectacular happens in the meantime ..

"The Creator"

More Snow from the Snow Fairy

Yesterday was a snow today and the snow fairy dumped another three inches of it last night...looks gorgeous, but my body isn't too happy with the idea of more shovelling. The temps rose yesterday and the snow turned into concrete...so much so that the snowblower stopped blowing it after I did the driveway..Lets say that I had a few issues and thus I was out there for no less than four hours hacking away at the snowload. I will go earlier today and hope to have it all done before any of it starts to melt. The snowblower can stay in the garage... it is way to heavy for me to maneuver...even tho it doesn't require pushing...I will be happy to have Emil come back and tend to the snow duties... I miss my sweety:-)
other than that, I did half of my Christmas cards last night and hope to finish the rest up today. I tried to whittle my list down to fifty cards this year,so don't feel left out...just read my blog and I will be putting my very funny Xmas card up on header,come December... Why, that is only a few days away. I hung my Christmas wreath and removed my fall decorations fromt he front signpost... might hang a red Xmas ribbon up today instead to try to get into the Christmas spirit this year. It won't be the same without our four girls, but thankfully we have phones and skype and the ability to easily communicate nowadays. Our first Christmas in Quebec was one of the lonliest,despite having friends over for dinner. It is hard to be away from your family, but not as difficult as it used to be in those days without email, easy phone plans and cameras mounted in your computer. I will look forward to a rest after a busy few weeks at work that doesn't end until Christmas eve.
Ok, enough procrastinating...out to the snow shovelling!
Happy winter to everyone!

A little bird came out of the snow on the roof of my feeder this morning...he was fluttering his wings to remove the snow...and made me wonder what the heck he was doing there in the first place...the food is down below!

Do you see that patch of blue? It is coming up in more places between the clouds. i understand that the weather will take a dip in temps tomorrow to -9*

"

The Creator"

Saturday morning

The smoke bush, below looks pretty with its dollops of snow piled up on the red leaf clusters.
We did get about 4 or 5 inches of snow last night and here I am burning up time on the computer when my real task at hand is to snowblow. I can do it, I can do it I can do it! New snowblower, but Emil kindly left it full of gas and guess what? It has hand warmers!!! I will be testing those out today!





I did see one moment of sunshine peaking thru the clouds, but those are long gone now... Ok have a great Saturday and I will too... tho I can hardly get my nose out of a book that Caro gave me to read called Dragon Bones by Lisa See ..the first of a series of three... so maybe I will be curling up by a warm fire with a hot toddy to read this afternoon... NO! NO! I have Christmas cards to do, Walnuts to Shell and a multitude of other chores... I did a little online Costco shopping and ordered up a nice hanging laundry rack for my new laundry area downstairs when ever it gets completed. Also ordered a commercial shelving unit in chrome that holds 500 pounds per shelf!!!! Have a great weekend.

"The Creator"

Let it snow, Let it snow...

I will snap some pics tomorrow of the snow... if you like white, that is what it will be looking like. it has snowed all day and is still snowing... and my sweet Hubby is still in Victoria,so I believe it will be moi who is on the end of the shovel or the snowblower tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. Maybe not that early! It was a great week... dinner with Ronda and John at Ron and Phoebe's on Tuesday night... Such a great idea it was! They ordered the Chinese food and I picked it up on the way home from work... Felt like I slaved away in the kitchen for hours...ha-ha... It was a yummy treat and so nice to see John and Ronda and Ron and Phoebe. They had been bothered by a bear who ,for two nights was trying to climb up the corner pillar to their balcony, over the carport. Unfortunately, the poor creature had the crap scared out of him when he accidently stepped on the fire extinguisher....and knocked it down, waking up the household. Poor Ron had to clean up....the bear poop!

On Wednesday I called a Stitch and Bitch meeting for Francis and Deb and Alissa at my house... after work. I have to say we have the best cooks in the neighbourhood! Each brought tasty appies and Alissa came equipped with a bottle of champagne that was called "Pink" and was pink in colour...fairly tasty, it was, but champagne goes straight to my head, so I opted for pink wine instead. Alissa's appie was a cream cheese ball layered with pesto and sundried tomatoes in festive layers of White, red and green. A little spread on a cracker went a long way because the flavour was so intense and delicious!

Francis brought lovely platter with little boats of individual endive leaves filled with fresh shrimp flavoured with taragon and caper ,all fanned out around a dish of tasziki dip... It too was very yummy.

Deb ,who is Russian seems to have some Italian blood in her,as she loves the aged cheeses. She brought a dried salami, aged cheddar, brown soft bread and mi favorito... fig jelly. i don't know where one buys that fig jelly, but it has a flavour that compares to nothing else in the world, and pares beautifully with a rich cheese . I have to say I had more than one helping!

I, on the other hand made some brushetta and cooked up some popcorn shrimp and a chocolate crinkle cookie...less than gourmet, but pretty good anyhow. We did have some laughs...until we howled! Not so much bitchin' and no stitchin! Howl ,eat and drink is more like it!

"The Creator"

Its beginning to look like Christmas!!!

I guess it is nearly everywhere by now, but last night was the first night we had a genuine snow fall! The nice thing was that the full moon was out and it was as bright as could be outside when I took Silky out for a pee. I apologize for not being very attentive to my blog, but I have been getting used to my new laptop and Windows 7. It is going much better now and in a few days I will get my permanent copy of Bitdefender...a top rated antivirus program that I have been trying for a month now. Once that is installed, then I will download Google Earth and I think I will have most programs loaded onto my laptop that I require for now. It has a huge hard drive so I can hold a ton of stuff, but no use duplicating what already comes with the computer. I can log onto most websites with a swipe of my finger so no need to store a million passwords... I like that feature.

Ok...time to head out into snowland... Have a great Friday and I will chat again... Love ya all !

"The Creator"

Kay-wa

Watch for these little squares of code to pop up everywhere in the near future...called QR code or Kay-wa...it is the latest thing( QR standing Quality Reader), from Japan, to be read by your I phone or any number of the new phones( just need to download a QR reader)... it can hold bundles of information and once a person reads the little piece of code with their phone, they are taken to that link or given information about the building that the code is on, the menu, the prices of things, location, you name it... even a business card with your info in that one little square. It can be full of data that is immediately spewed out once it is read with your reader. It will replace barcodes and has started a new revolution. The code you see to my right is for my blog... I think I will start the revolution in Nelson! Get your QR reader and start Kaywaying!

"The Creator"

Happy Birthday Joyce!

Lynn came ouat on Friday night and my neighbour, Alissa joined us on Saturday for a nice little birthday lunch for my sweet sis Joyce! We are toasting with Mimosas...champagne and orange juice that Alissa brought over.



We made it into a real tea party with my vintage dishes and my cutie patootie icecream dishes..no icecream in there, but fruit salad instead...filled with fresh sweeter than ever pineapple from Canadian superstore...It was the best I have had in a long time...must be the season for it!

I made a nice Clam chowder from a recipe used at the Cliffhouse Resort and Spa in Maine..


Check the above link out for other fine recipes...
Lynn brought out Star grocery yummy genoa and fresh buns and I made a cake that was no screaming hell, but we filled our faces and enjoyed a nice soak in the hot-tub... such a nice day.

Of course, the day didn't end there..... Emil and Janice B. returned from Stan's retirement in Vancouver and we all enjoyed some appetizers and a refreshment ,then Janice M. popped in and had a glass of wine and we all had a big blab... Long story short is that it was 8:30 before we ate the Chowmein that Lynn helped me prepare...along with some fried rice and some beautiful Gerard rainbow with Terriyaki sauce on it, that Emil BBQ'd. No lack of food and entertainment around here!
Lynn helped me do a million things which I am so grateful for. Her little doggie, Co-co had a good time trying to get Silky to play...or do anything for that matter! we had a few laughs for sure. Today I managed to get outside and plant some lovely aliums and tulips that Joyce brought me...and a precious bulb called a Frittilaria Persica.
We will put some photos on ,come spring! Frittilarias come in many varieties and bloom in very early spring on stalks around 28" tall. My friend Margo has sent me pics of them blooming right out of fresh snow! I will keep you posted !

"The Creator"

Happy Hallowe'en and Happy Birthday to Joyce!

It all started at Janice and Gord's...our group of witches and cats and oddities all gathered for apppetizers that were more akin to a five course meal !!Janice made the Whitewater cookbook squash soup with spinach that has coconut milk and jalapeno peppers in it...so yummy and warm to the pallet...plus she cooked a roast of beef with fresh homemade horseraddish...and that was spicey hot! Everyone brought delicious foods from sausage rolls and chicken wings to shrimp, smoked trout and various cheeses and pickles... and dips and salsas.One thing about our lovely group of friends...the eating is always fabulous!



Here are the four cats! Francis, Janice,moi,and Debbie. Note, I am the mama cat!


OUR PARTNERS, THE FOUR WITCHES WERE GOOD FOR A LAUGH, ESPECIALLY AS THEIR NOSES STARTED TO DROP OFF ,ONE BY ONE!
from left to right,we have Gord,Emil,and lovely Alison,then Randy and Ashley with the longest nose in the history of witches and warlocks!


One for the record, Emil and moi...the mama cat.My little babies were sooooo cute...everyone loved them, especially the guy that came to the BBi as "roadkill" He had the highway line down the length of him all splattered with little flat animals... too funny! yes, we migrated to the BBI and secured a table for fourteen and it filled up totally.Good thing we arrived when we did, as the people never stopped pouring in. The costumes, once again were phenomenal...my favourite being "blow up" fat lady. A fellow with a red wig on ,stuffed inside an inflatable costume that could easily inflate into a giant "fat lady in a pink tutu" It was all good except he took up half the dance floor, and then someone decided to Sumu wrestle him to the floor... He was rolling around like a big tuna... way to funny!


The other comical fellow ,whom we at first thought was a gal, was at least 6'2" and dressed in yellow grass skirt, black leotards, and those Hawaiian coconut style bras with a Hawaiin Lai, yellow wig and totally blackened face... I am not sure what he was supposed to be, but he looked pretty funny. Now the fellow that dresssed up as a roadside orange cone had flashing lights an his head and a huge square flat base beneath his orange cone... for one thing ..it took up way to much space and I don't think he could even sit down, but he was sure noticable!
the band was Midnight Train, a blues band, who played good dance music all night with the exception of one song that went on for 20 minutes... it tuckered everyone out!
We had a pile of fun and maybe even lost a pound or two on the dance floor and had to leave before the band played the last set.. Our group was fading fast! Kudos to my sweet Emil who drank water all night so he could be the designated driver... He got us home safe and sound! Yea!
Now everyone should call Joyce today and wish her a Happy Hallowe'en birthday! Her and I went out to the Hume on Thursday night for a little nosh and a good visit...We'll do more birthday cheer next week-end when Lynn can come over.

"The Creator"