Snow day again! Yippee

 There's something so architectually stunning about snow covered trees. I can't seem to take enough pictures of them.

 My favorite garden gargoyle.  Don't you feel sorry for him?

 And if this isn't a snow sky... what is?

 I love the vista from my backyard.  It's like living in a tree house... looking out to the tops of the giant westcoast maples.

And my neighbors house, as warm and inviting as they are!

It's starting to look at lot like Christmas

What says Christmas to you?  For me it's always been little things, like a bowl of fresh walnuts.. or some beautiful Clementines.   Can you ever get enough of these lovely morsels?

Yummy!  And how about those delicious juicy Pomegranates! 

Then come the decorations.....

 And up goes the Christmas Tree !!!!

And if you're really lucky, along comes some beautiful soft fluffy snow to cap it all off!

It's magical to see the snow covering the moss draped maple trees through the lights of the Christmas tree.

Serendipity

I'm adding Serendipity to my blog description.   It's so fitting. If I'm searching for something special to jump out at me for a photo opportunity, it never really happens.  Then I open the front door and there is the tiniest little tree frog stuck like glue!  It was dark outside so the photo was extremely under lit, but look what happened when playing with Picaso.  It looks like the most amazing pencil sketch.

Serendipity is a propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated. The word has been voted as one of the ten English words that were  hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company. However, due to its sociological use, the word has been imported into many other languages.

When was the last time you really looked at clouds?  Remember when you were a child... it was so great to spend an afternoon just laying on the grass looking up, your imagination set free.  I see the profile of a Roman God... what do you see?

Spiders so totally creep me out that I won't crop this guy any closer :)  I didn't notice him at first, I just liked the blurry edges of the grey/blue background against the color of the maple tree.  That's some set of legs he's got there.

First Snow!

Our first snow happened on November 19.  It didn't last long, it never does this early, and I think that's one of the reasons I love the first snow of the season!   It's so nice to still have some leaves on the trees so we can enjoy the oranges and greens peaking out.  

 The arbutus tree really shows off it's lobed leaves with a dusting of snow.

 This plant with the "finger" type leaves is a Choisya, or Mexican mock orange, native to Mexico and the American southwest.  I bet it's wondering what the heck!!!

 As always, one on my favorite views is round the bend of the driveway, when the snow is fresh and unbroken.  Once we drive up and down a few times it loses it's appeal!

Snow makes whiteness where it falls,

The bushes look like popcorn balls.

The places where I always play,

Look like somewhere else today

~Mary Louise Allen

Holed Up ~ making Christmas cards

I've been "holed up" in my craft room making Christmas cards. At least that's what Sweetie calls it. I moved my laptop out of the way, then piled paper, pens, glues, stamps, inks and so many other things I can't see the table top. For a highly organized individual (read: anal retentive) this mess I find oddly comforting.

A wonderful youtube video I stumbled across lead to the two 3D cards above.  It was very easy and I really enjoy the results.  If you are interested check out this link: Origami Christmas Trees

The three cards above are the result of cutting up some old cards I've had laying around for years.  This was fun, and what a great way to recycle!

I had to do something with this lucious paper I found at The Papery in Victoria..  I doodled on it with one of my many gold pens.  I think I have a pen addiction....

I'm not sure about this one... so I haven't glued it down yet. I think it needs more pizzazz.

The cardinal is from a stamp set I purchased at Michaels last week.  The snowflakes too!  LOVE IT!  And it looks particularily pretty in person as it's highlighted by a Jelly Roll pen... "copper star"

This is one of my many attempts at wire words.  So cute... but I need to wrap my pliers as they removed some of the lovely color from the wire.

Talisman ~ the Hummingbird?

Have you ever noticed that certain things...like an animal or say a bird... will appear to you as you go through the daily rituals that make up your life?  Well this summer when we were doing a little driving tour of BC I noticed that everywhere I looked I saw hummingbirds.  Not live ones mind you... those had migrated by the time I really noticed what was going on.   What I saw was depictions of hummingbirds. It started with the sun catcher that sweetie bought for me in Merritt. 

I just had to bring home the temporary tattoo & matching rubber stamp I found in a little hardware/gift store in Lillooet, BC. Both are by the same BC native artist Maynard Johnny Jr.

A few weeks later at the Filberg Festival in Comox I stopped to admire the most beautiful rubber stamp collection by Lisa Yang.  She immediately hooked me by demonstrating her beautifully designed original stamps.  She picked out of quite a pile .... if you look on her website, well over 200 different sets .... the hummingbird.

So I decided a little research was in order.  I found many sites that explained the symbolism of the hummingbird as a Totem animal or Talisman as it were.  Here is an excerpt of one I quite enjoyed.

"The hummingbird symbolizes many different concepts. Because of its speed, the hummingbird is known as a messenger and stopper of time.

It is also a symbol of love, joy, and beauty. The hummingbird is also able to fly backwards, teaching us that we can look back on our past. But, this bird also teaches that we must not dwell on our past; we need to move forward. When the hummingbird hovers over flowers while drinking nectar, we learn that we should savor each moment, and appreciate the things we love.

It is not commonly known that the fluttering wings of the hummingbird move in the pattern of an infinity symbol - further solidifying their symbolism of eternity, continuity, and infinity."

So as far as symbols go this is one I can embrace.  It seems as if we are bombarded with the idea that we must live in the moment, don't get caught in the past with "what if's" and "if I had only ..." or maybe worse yet, always thinking the future holds whatever it is to make us happier, more sucessfull, thinner :) ... you know the "one day soon" that we like to tell ourselves.  I think that we should savour the moment, learn from our past, and look forward to the future all at the same time. How hard can that be?