A Garden Ice Palace

Winter arrived last weekend with a vengeance!  25mm (approximately 1") of freezing rain fell between Saturday and Sunday.  The garden looked like an ice palace!  Everything was covered with a thick sheet of crystal.

Icicles hung everywhere.  Every surface was covered with a layer of ice making going anywhere impossible.

Freezing rain against the window.

 

 
And then the destruction began.  Trees and power lines overwhelmed from the weight of the ice started to break.

Hundreds of thousands of people lost power, many of them still without it a week later.  We were very fortunate.  Living in a relatively new development, our trees are young and power lines are buried underground.  We lost a large section of our redbud and I'm not sure if the tree can be saved.  We'll wait and see what happens in the Spring.

This tree on the boulevard lost a large branch then later that day broke completely in half.  So many trees were shattered and will sadly need to be taken down.  It's heartbreaking to see the damage the storm caused.

This morning the ice has finally melted but it will take months to clean up the destruction.  It makes me wonder how something so beautiful could be so destructive. 

Merry Christmas!

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  

 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  

And this shall be a sign unto you:  Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.   

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.

~ Luke 2: 10-14 (KJV)

From our home to yours, have a very Merry Christmas filled with peace, joy and love.

xo,

Lynda

Creating a "chalkboard" print and a free printable

Hi everyone!  I though I'd share how I made my chalkboard print.  It's so easy and you can make them for the different seasons.  I don't have a video or step-by-step photos so I hope it makes sense.

I created my print in Photoshop CS5 but you should be able to use any programme that uses layers.  I kept the size to 8x10 so I could easily print it at home.  If you want a larger print, you could have it printed at a photo lab.

To make the "chalkboard" I used solid black background with a texture layered over it.  I used Florabella's "Whitewash" on lighten at 20%.  You can also do a search for free chalkboard backgrounds. 

Choose your quotation then start to add the letters.  For this print, I used three different fonts - actually four if you include the snowflake.  There are a wealth of free fonts out there.  Check out The Graphics Fairy for some of her recommendations.  I used two or three fonts that I found there - I think using a couple of different fonts makes it look more interesting. I used white for my lettering but you can also add colour if you like.

Merge the layers and print!  I recommend printing on the highest resolution possible.  I printed mine on white card stock and framed it without glass.  Just add a layer of chipboard or cardboard so your print won't shift in the frame.  Have fun!  These add a nice accent and are super easy (and cheap!) to create.

I've included the one I made for you to download and frame (personal use only please).  Just print it on 8 1/2 x 11 card stock then trim to fit an 8x10 frame.

{To download, click the image to enlarge then right click to save to your computer}

I don't think there's any question whether we'll have a white Christmas this year!  We've had a lot snow with more to come this weekend.  It looked so pretty as it fell last weekend.  The prettiness wears off very quickly and in a few weeks, I'm sure I'll be wishing for it all to be gone!

One more thing - the latest issue of Homebound is now available!  I'm thrilled to once again be a contributor to Heather's wonderful magazine.  Lots of gorgeous photos in this issue along with recipes, decor and more.  Be sure to take a peek!

xo,
Lynda

Christmas decor 2013

It's been fun looking at the holiday home tours going on all over blogland these past few weeks.  Lots of inspiring ideas!  As much as I love seeing the bedrooms, bathrooms and every other room in the house decorated, I've just decorated my living and dining room.  I bought a bundle of fresh mixed greenery on the weekend and have tucked it all over - it smells like Christmas in here!

I've been seeing chalkboard signs everywhere and really like them.  My handwriting isn't that great so I decided to make one using photoshop.  I'll share how I did it in my next post.  I'm happy with how it turned out and it actually looks like it was written on a chalkboard!

To keep the greenery fresh, I tucked a plastic dish filled with water inside this bowl and then added the boughs.  You could also use floral foam but I didn't have any and didn't want to venture out to buy some.  This seems to be working and if it starts to die off, I've got some extra branches I can use to replace it.

My mantel needed something to fill in the vast expanse of mirror so I decided to make this"joy" banner.  It's hung with mini clothespins on jute twine and I used tiny suction cup hooks that I placed right on the mirror.

I made the snow "globes" with Epsom salts, bottle brush trees and mini Snowbabies ornaments.

Taking photos indoors on these gray days definitely presents a challenge.  All of these photos were taken with no sun, no artificial light, no flash and minimal editing in Lightroom.  I've been playing around with my camera to figure out how to take better photos on dark dreary days and found that by increasing the ISO to 400 or higher and increasing the exposure compensation, I can manage to get a decent photo.  The higher the ISO the grainier the photo is so I've found that for me, 400 ISO is the highest that I like to use.  And a tripod is a must.

We bought our tree today!  Once it's decorated, I'll share a few more photos with you.  I think I'm finished my shopping but I haven't baked a single cookie yet.  Bobby had his 6 month CT scan and check up and he remains cancer free!  (My scan is on Monday but I won't get the results until January.)

With all the shopping, decorating and medical appointments, I'm really behind with your blogs!  I'm hoping for a few quiet days to catch up ... see you soon!

xo,
Lynda

A little more progress, ideas and thoughts on decorating for Christmas

I thought I'd share my very minimal progress with the reading room/guest room.  We rarely have people stay overnight so rather than having a spare bedroom, I turned this room into a reading room with a sofa bed.  It gets used much more often this way and works for us.  But I've struggled with decorating this room.  It has a few issues.  The room is long and narrow making it difficult to decorate - and photograph.  (The ceiling light fixture is actually in the centre of the room even though it looks off in the photo.)

This is what it looked like when I first started decorating it back in 2010.  Yup, it's been 3 1/2 years and not much has changed.  

I've replaced the lamps with the orange flowers.  The couch has been moved to the opposite wall.  In the photo above, the wall where the sofa used to be has an indentation in it (barely visible in the photo but if you look closely, you'll see a line down the centre of the wall) that made it nearly impossible to hang artwork above the sofa.  It makes a perfect spot for the bookshelves though.

 One of the bookshelves was moved to my craft room a few weeks ago so I moved the other two to this wall.  With the indentation, I'm thinking built-ins would be perfect here.  I'm not that handy with a saw.  Unfortunately, neither is my husband so we'll see what we come up with.  At the very least, I need bigger bookshelves.  Even though I'm slowly eliminating books from my library and read most books on my iPad these days, there are still a lot of books that I can't part with.

I added this little desk.  I've had it for ages and love it but it's got that orange-y colour that I detest so it's on the list to get a little make-over down the road.  The blanket box is one the same list.

My husband gave me these lamps for Christmas a couple of years ago.  I really like the oil rubbed bronze finish and the style of them.  Better than the orange flowered ones.  And I love the sofa.  It's comfy and a cosy spot to curl up with a book in.  The pillows need to be replaced with ones with some colour.  So does the throw.

I moved the wicker rocker out of this photo.  So much better!   I've definitely decided to sell the wicker set.

Really all I've done so far is move the sofa and bookshelves to opposite walls and added a desk.  It needs so much more!  Colour mostly.  And some personality.  It looks absolutely bland right now but I see it as a blank canvas.  My mind is swimming with ideas!  I'll be sharing my progress as I go along.  I know I've said it before, but I'm really enjoying spending time on my home. 

The pantry is finished and I'm loving the extra storage space!  We had a few issues with it - who knew the builders would decide not to put drywall in the corners but just use tape instead?  When we tried to attached the brackets for the shelves, we discovered there was about a 2" gap with no drywall.  Thankfully, my husband was able to figure out a way to attach the brackets.  (He might not be a great carpenter but he sure knows how to come up with a solution to problems!)  Will I be sharing photos?  Probably not.  It's functional, not pretty.  :)  And the new dishwasher arrived and has been installed.  It's surprising how you get used to having one!  After a week of hand washing dishes, I was very grateful to have a dishwasher again.

And I've started decorating for Christmas.  It's going to be simple again this year but I have to confess I was beginning to feel a little discouraged looking at some of the photos on blogs and Pinterest!  All those rooms in the house decorated!  How long does it take to put everything up?  And where in the world is it all stored after Christmas?  Other than fresh greens and poinsettias, I'm not buying a single decoration, no matter how tempted I am.  We've got more than enough ornaments and decorations.  And while in previous years I've decorated our tree so that it coordinates with my colour scheme du jour, this year it's a free for all.  Anything and everything is going on that tree!  Well, maybe not everything.  But I'm not sticking to a colour scheme.

That's more than enough for one blog post ... I'll save the rest for later!

xo,
Lynda