I'm in Canmore!

But just for the night. Even though Stephan is only gone for 4 days/3 nights, I thought since I only got Stephan for 2 nights between shifts (and since the winter weather was good) it was decided that I would come visit him in Canmore for the night. Canmore is only about an hour or so from Calgary. It's a short visit, but it's nice to be here with him. 

Especially since he surprised me with a 6-pack of 

my favourite local Canmore beer! 

Weekend Recap!

This weekend was pretty low-key.

Stephan was still stuck out of town on shift, working 12 days instead of 8, so after work on Friday I went and finally got started on my Christmas shopping for my family back in Ontario.

Saturday I slept in, or tried to.  Usually its Leo who wakes me up howling for food in the morning, while Anna cuddles in my arms.  Not so.  This time it was Anna.  She was knocking things off the dresser, the bathroom counter, the night table.  And she wouldn't stop!!  I threw a pillow to scare her away (because if I lock her out of the room, she'll scratch the door apart), and then she made it clear for the rest of the morning that she was ticked off.  So that made 2 grumpy person/cat in the house that morning!

After I lazed around for a bit, I went back out to finish the last few presents for Ontario.  I also picked up Stephan from work, FINALLY!  And then, found out he's only getting 1 day off before leaving for work again on Monday (HORRIBLE!).  Luckily, he only has a 4 day shift and is back home Thursday.  I feel bad for him though, he's exhausted and would have liked the week off to recover.  He barely had time to get laundry done before today.

So we just relaxed before heading to bed.

Sunday I had church in the morning.  I spent the afternoon cuddled up with Stephan on the couch, napping.  And then watched the Grey Cup (Canadian football equivalent of the Superbowl) and made Chili for dinner.

This weekend, I also worked on getting a facebook page started for my artwork.

Feel free to check it out!

www.facebook.com/JessicaErinCreations

How was your weekend?!

Cold days call for...

Cold days call for a big bowl of tomato soup (or any kind of soup!!) and crackers. 

See, I knew this Christmas bowl would come in handy!!!! 

It's Cold!

We're in the middle of a really cold week.  Like -27 degrees Celsius cold!  I don't mind so much :) I really do love winter, and the cold doesn't bother me that much.  Don't think I'd be out hiking in this weather though!

I was off of work early because of an appointment, and ran a few errands in the afternoon to the butchers and then the grocery store.

I splurged on Salmon for dinner

I glazed it with maple syrup and a bit of soy sauce.

And added a Ceasar salad, and a baguette with Balsamic vinegar and oil.
Baguettes with vinegar and oil are to die for right now.  LOVE IT!

 And I finally, FINALLY got my laundry done! And the floors! (I was very productive).

Yesterday I got back into my Zumba routine. I've neglected it for the past couple of weeks getting things ready for the craft show.

Speaking of the craft show, it didn't go that great.  We had a big snow storm the morning of the show, and combine the bad weather with the location being out in the country a bit, there wasn't a lot of people there.  My friend did well with her bows, but our Christmas blocks and my artwork didn't really sell, although I did get a lot of compliments on them!

We're hoping that our next craft fair at the end of November, which is right IN Calgary, will go better. 

I did get a few ideas from the craft show though, as a few people thought that my smaller 4.5x6" prints were cards (since they were mounted on foam board, they looked a big thicker).  So it might be a good inexpensive and quick idea to make some of the prints into cards, as well as some of my scenery and bird pictures, which I could then hopefully sell.

I haven't totally decided if I'm going to do that yet, but I need to decide soon, by this weekend!  I like the idea, but I'm reluctant to spend more money until I sell a bit of stuff. 

How was everyone's weekend?!

Its a double miracle!

Last night, a sister at church told me about a place downtown that might have the bags I need.  After spending all night and morning searching online for something, and my break today, I called them.  Low and behold, they had the bags! And in a variety of sizes, all of which would fit my prints.

It also worked out well that I had to go into work early today, as someone was sick, and so was out of work in time to make it downtown to this art shop (which I otherwise would not have been off in time for). So I decided to buy the bags, because I had been checking the status of my order online all day and it still said "In transit", and was not yet out "for delivery". Not willing to risk having NO bags, and not able to come back to the store tomorrow, I made the purchased the bags.

And then I got home.  And checked the mail.

Guess what was in the mail?!

THE BAGS I ORDERED!

But it actually worked out well, funnily enough, as I had measured one print wrong which would not have fit in the original bags I ordered, BUT did fit in the NEW bags I just purchased tonight. 

I also designed and printed my labels for the bags, and the picture of me on the labels turned out darker than I had wanted, but I was unable to correct at.  It was bugging me a little at first, but the more I looked it, the more I liked it.  Even though it was dark, it kinda had a silhouette-looking-feel to it, and it grew on me.  I might still fix or change it later on, but I'm happy with it.

I'm all ready for the craft fair on Saturday, and I'm super excited now that I have the finished product in front of me.

Take a look!

My picture in the top right is not quite that dark, but still a little more dark
then I like.  You can kinda make out facial features on the actual label.
However, I still think it looks fairly good, although I may adjust it
later down the road.  

Thanks for all your support, well-wishes and thoughts yesterday! 

-Jessica

Canada Post, you are stressing me out!

So everything is ready to go with my art prints for the craft show on Saturday. THIS Saturday.

Except. The. Plastic. Bags.

The special, acid free, sized-for-each-print, adhesive closing plastic bags I specially ordered.

3 WEEKS AGO!

They were supposed to be here last week.

Then they were supposed to be here Tuesday.

They are still not here.

And there are only 2 days left in the week.  I'm starting to panic, for  Postthe fact alone that there is no where to purchase these specific kind of bags in Calgary that I've been able to find.  Hence why I ordered them online.

Now just to clarify, there is no fault with the company.  They shipped it less than 2 days after I ordered.

The fault is with Canada Post.  Its sitting somewhere in Transit.  They usually put a little thingy on the door knob and you pick it up next day.  If they put it on the door knob on Friday, its too late for me to pick it up on Saturday.

So it HAS TO, HAS TO come tomorrow.

Or I am going to be thinking of something last minute fast.

Worse case I would go without the plastic bags, but that is so disappointing.  Because I have a beautiful label to stick on the bag that I designed. :(

PS: Canada post is horrible all the time.  A few years ago, Stephan's Dad sent us a package.  It was sent from Germany, and arrived in Canada 1 week after it was shipped.  We received the package at our door 5 MONTHS LATER!  No lie.

So please, just this once, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pull through for me Canada Post!

Weekend Recap

It was a long weekend, woohoo!!  Here in Alberta, Remembrance Day is a holiday (in Ontario, it is not). 

I had a great weekend!

Friday I met up with my friend to finish our Christmas ornaments for the craft fair this coming Saturday, the 16th.

After I was done that, I went home and cuddled up with Stephan to watch a movie in front of the fireplace, and fell asleep there.  We are really loving cuddling up there, especially now that its winter! Its the best room in the house :)

Saturday morning I headed out for a choir practice at church, and then ran a few errands after.  I even got started on my Christmas shopping, and this is really late for me!  Usually I'm pretty much done by now. 

Later in the evening, Stephan took me out to a nice steakhouse for dinner.  We had trouble finding a place that didn't have a huge wait, but we finally found a really nice place.  We lucked out too, and got a table right in front of the fire place, very romantic!  I had Filet Mignon for the first time, I've only started eating red meat again the last 2 years.  If I ever had any doubt about how tender meat could actually be, there's no doubt now! It was so tender, that I just touched it with a knife and the meat fell away from it.  So delicious!

Sunday I had church, and I came home to a very angry Stephan and two cats in trouble.  Turns out, they'd been fighting for the spot on the PVR on top of the fireplace, and had knocked over Stephan's X-Box!  OOPS!  Needless to say, he was not impress.  The X-Box still manages to work, but it makes a lot of funny noises so I don't think it will work forever.  The game however is kaput, so we had to go out and get a new one (Stephan plays that one almost constantly).  Luckily, the new X-box system comes out before Christmas, which Stephan was wanting to get.  We might just have to get it sooner than later.

After I dealt with that, I did some cleaning around the house, and then Stephan headed out with the boys while I headed over to Alyssa's and my Calgary parents' for some wine and a games night.  I learned a great new card game called 9-cards, and enjoyed playing Monopoly for the first time in years. 

I spent the holiday Monday cutting the foam board for my art prints and getting them ready for the craft fair.  All I need is the plastic bags I ordered, which were supposed to arrive today and haven't .     :( I hope they are here on time!

But here's how they look so far!

I decided to go out for dinner last night, and made a chicken roast.  The best part of that is using the bones after to make home made chicken noodle soup, YUM!!

How was your weekend?!

I might be in trouble....!

I went grocery shopping last night, because Stephan is unexpectedly coming home from work on Thursday now instead of next Tuesday (more time with me, YAY!).

I had a list and everything!!!! A list that I was supposed to follow.

I may have deviated from the list a little bit............

I need this to eat Christmas cookies off of

And I need this to eat stew out of on a cold winter night

See?  Its a set!

I wanted a snowman.  They had none left.  I will get one from
another location hopefully!  But this is to hold the stirring spoon
when I make the stew on a cold winter night

I make 3 traditional kinds of cookies each year.  This has 3 sections. 
Need I say more??

It was also a very good price.  So you see, it was all necessary!!!!....................right??!!

I also may have forgotten to buy the carrots, which were on the list.  Ummm.....oops?!!!

-Jessica

Weekend recap

This weekend was very busy, but awesome and very productive!

Friday night I just spent the night hanging out with Stephan, cuddled up on the couch in the man cave with the fireplace on.  This has to be our favourite room in the house now, mostly because the huge couch is super comfortable.  And the fireplace just perfects it!  We actually slept down there on Friday night, with the fireplace on (its electric!), and Stephan was so cute enough to put on some country music on quiet for me.  We had a snowfall warning in Calgary, so we were hoping to fall asleep to the snow falling around us, but sadly, no snow until late Saturday morning.

Saturday morning we had pancakes for breakfast.  Then Stephan headed out for coffee with one of the guys while I showered and got ready.  As soon as he got home, we did a few errands such as going to the butchers to pick up schnitzel meat for dinner that night.  (I want to point out that it started snowing while I was making pancakes, and we got a whopping 26cms, so me, being the big freak that I am, was in seventh heaven with all the snow!)


AND, the big errand was going to pick up my art prints.  The print shop actually cut my costs in half by placing a bunch of different sizes on bigger sheets. I was really happy and thrilled with how the art prints turned out. I won't show all of the prints, but I'll show a few of pictures I took with my camera (before), and then their professional scan (after), so that you can see the difference.

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

After errands, I relaxed a bit before I made dinner: schnitzel, dumplings (NOT home made) with jaeger sauce, carrots in honey and brown sugar, and steamed broccoli. DELICIOUS!

After dinner, I quickly cleaned up, and headed over to Karina's to work on our Christmas decorations for the craft fair.

getting set up

figuring out how to put it together

the end product!

We got 6 done in just over an hour, and were unsure how they would work out, but we are thrilled with the end result!

Sunday morning was church.  And then in the afternoon I decided to work on a painting.  This was the end result:

Sunday afternoon project!

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet.  We just had left overs for dinner, and relaxed in front of the TV in the man cave.  (Have I mentioned how comfy the couch is, and how much I love that fireplace?!)

How was your weekend? I want to hear about it!

-Jessica