Blog Break

I'll be taking a blog break for a couple of weeks to enjoy some family time.  Wishing you all a Happy New Year when it comes!

This video is too cute!  It's called 'Golden loves guitar', dogs are amazing.

I got this in an email and had fun with it, maybe you will too!

Try this.....

You won’t believe what happens after you draw a stick man!! I wish I knew how this works!!! Even let the kids try its cool!

 http://www.drawastickman.com/

Have a great day

Creative Tuesdays - 12 Days of Christmas

Hope you all had a warm and lovely Christmas!

For Creative Tuesdays, the theme this week was 'The 12 Days of Christmas'. I chose to do a 'Partridge in a Pear Tree'. Hope you like it! I'm also including my preliminary pencil sketch. I did that to see if I thought it would work as an acrylic ACEO.

Here is my pencil sketch:

Boxing Day 2011

Are you going Boxing Day Shopping?  Fantastic Deals out there, all you need is time and money!  I don't think we will brave the crowds.

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas/Holiday weekend.  On Christmas Eve, we went to my mom and sister's house as usual.  A cousin joined us over there around lunchtime.  We took photos, decided to take some multi-generational shots featuring me, my mom and my daughter.  Then we took some with my sister, her daughter and my mom!  Then came the group shots, so the boys wouldn't feel left out.  It was nice to get together with all the kids around, they are growing up so fast.

I made this jerk trout for my mom as I thought it was healthy and she likes the peppery taste. I didn't add any extra salt and it was fine, so I think I'll stop adding salt to this dish in future. The jerk sauce has some salt already.

Jerk Trout

We opened gifts Xmas morning and went to M's family gathering in the afternoon. It was fun to see the new babies again, M's great nieces and nephew. His sister's food was delicious, moist succulent turkey and lots of other fine dishes. I took some mini cupcakes from Costco and made a fruit tray. It was enjoyed among other lovely desserts. We caught up with all the family gossip and it was a nice evening, a late night in fact.

Oh, it was a green Christmas, 3C and quite 'balmy' for the time of year.

Sweet Saturdays - Puppy Christmas

Here's a sweet video to share today on Christmas Eve!  Linking to Diana's Sweet Saturdays!

I won't post tomorrow in honour of Christmas Day! Have a Merry one!

Here are some photos I took the other night when we got my daughter L from the train station.  We went to a lovely Teppanyaki dinner downtown at Benihana's then dessert at The Marche.  And look at some of the pretty lights in a downtown building! 

Benihana Chef

Le Marche Mincemeat Tart, Fresh brewed coffee

Superrmarket Display

Awesome Lights

Festive Tree

Paint Party Friday - Grape Ornament

Welcome to Paint Party Friday!  All the best for a wonderful Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa etc!

I saw this pretty ornament in the store the other day and decided to take a photo of it and draw it. It's an acrylic ACEO .

Grape Ornament

Food For Thought Thursdays - No-Yeast Pizza Crust

Linking to Robin's Food for Thought Thursdays.

Pizza Dough

Baked Pizza

Ready to Eat!

I got a hold of this neat recipe from 'The Guelph Student Cookbook'.  The non-profit cookbook was featured months ago in the newspaper and its aim is to help students on a budget eat nutritiously, often with the help of the foodbank located on that particular campus.  (www.csaonline.ca, foodbank@uoguelph.ca)  Fortunately, I managed to get a copy of the cookbook via email, but they don't have a facility in place to market the cookbook.

Anyway, here is this neat and delicious recipe that we enjoyed on the weekend:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup plain soy milk (I used milk)
1/4 cup oil
1 egg

Makes 1  pizza crust
total time 30 mins

1. Pre-heat oven to 425F(220C) and oil baking sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper)
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, spices and salt.  Stir in milk, oil. and egg
    until well-mixed
3. Place the dough on a baking sheet and shape to fit sheet (put flour on your hands if it gets sticky)
4. Bake for 5-7 minutes, add toppings, and bake again for 10 minutes.

It says you can turn this recipe into dinner rolls too.

Ground Breaking Vaccines

It's the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year!  I like when the days start to get longer.

Here's a sweet (cheesy?) video about paying it forward.  Anyway, it was trending yesterday.

It's a lovely time of year, Christmas music playing on the radio. I think I'm receiving less cards than last year but I do get the odd newsletter or email wishing us Happy Holidays. Indeed, a good friend came by with cookies and chocolates yesterday. It was cold and sunny but it may be a green Christmas this year.

I got my son K a CAA gift membership (Canadian Automobile Association) for my peace of mind, as he is a new driver.  It provides emergency roadside assistance, etc.

Here are some interesting news articles. They are making such strides in the fight against cancer. I marvel that they are treating it like a virus with various ground-breaking vaccines that teach our immune systems to fight it. I made my kids get the HPV vaccine (Gardasil) as soon as it became available. For girls it helps guard against cervical cancer and other types of cancers for boys.


Canadian researchers close in on vaccine for ovarian cancer

Canadian scientists get green light for trials on groundbreaking HIV vaccine