Merry Christmas, Tiffany!

Merry Christmas, Tiffany!

This entry is my Christmas gift to Tiff, since she'll wake up on Christmas Day by herself and won't have family around until later afternoon after she gets done with her work shift.

Tiffany, not shown above, is my Little Sister and truly one of the greatest joys in my life. I love her more than she can possibly know. We were matched through Big Sisters more than 10 years ago and she's been a beautiful part of my life pretty much ever since. Even now, just typing this entry I've got a grin on my face from ear to ear because it's hard not to think of Tiff without a smile or laugh bubbling to the surface.

Tiff has had some detours along the way, at times her family situation wasn't the greatest. We lost touch for a while when she was in her late teens due to some of these detours and family tensions. She resurfaced about three years ago, a phone call out of the blue where she started chattering to me as if time had never stopped. All the while I'm listening wondering "who is this person talking to me?", because it hardly ever occurs to Tiff that you don't recognize her voice. She actually sounds very much like my friend, Janice, which can make things doubly confusing at times since Janice doesn't always introduce herself either. This is Tiff in a nutshell. We picked up like it had been only yesterday since we had talked.

Tiff waited until she had turned her life around before calling me (not something she needed to do, but I understand the reasoning). She had gone back to high school, had a new and very wonderful boyfriend, and was planning on entering a veterinary technology program. She'll be graduating from that program in May 2010 and she's still with her very wonderful boyfriend (I really do like him). We've kept in touch through Facebook, phone calls, e-mails and visits. I'm so proud of her my heart feels like it's going to burst at times and we'll be cheering her on at her graduation.

As Big and Little Sisters we did many things together. Some of my favourite memories are getting dressed up for Halloween, she as a mummy and me as a witch, taking her to Glamour Shots and getting her all done up for a celebration of a milestone, movies, Canada's Wonderland and the video of her lip synching to Brittany Spears, and a whole host of other treats.

The photo above is of her dog who recently certified to become one of the types of dogs that goes into nursing homes to bring joy. Tiff brought this dog from a cringing unpredictable quivering lump to a disciplined, happy, and terrific pet. In her other spare time she volunteers with Girl Guides, tutors others at school, and works with laboratory monkeys. Listening to her sometimes makes me tired, but mostly proud.

Tiff, I wish I could be with you on Chrismas Day as Christmas is about family and you are definitely part of my family. Instead, I publicly proclaim that you are the greatest Little Sister ever. Joe agrees as well and you know that that's not easily earned.

Merry Christmas, Tiff. I love you!

Sandy

12th Day of Christmas

Christmas Cakes to feed 12

Hi Everyone,

On this last entry before Christmas I thought I'd post some miniature Christmas cakes that I purchased for my mother for Christmas Day. These are made by our guild's very own Jacey Culham. She's a generous teacher and I've shown her work before here.

Jacey and her husband, Francis, have a website that's under development and will be fully operational in February. You can still click on it now here, and if you click on home a few times you'll get some different images of Francis' work. I'll post an entry when their website is fully operational.

A note on the holly wreath cake... Jacey has a lot of good short cuts and I was hoping she'd have one for me on the holly leaves. Nope, not to be. She had her husband manufacture a wee little holly leaf cutter for her. That's the type of detail that she and her husband are known for.

This concludes my 12 Days of Christmas. There is one posting tomorrow and then I likely won't have anything until the New Year.

Seasons Greetings to All and may there be moments of brightness for everyone during the holiday season.

Sandy

11th Day of Christmas

11 pieces of clay make a penguin.

OK, so that one was a bit of a reach.

My friend Barb loves penguins. I was going to make her a penguin cane but simply ran out of time. However, as I was conditioning scrap blue clay, I noticed after one of the passes that the colours were beautiful and that there was a hint of an iceberg in one section which you can see in the upper left of the ornament. For once I stopped where I should have and at that point I decided that it would be possible to do a penguin ornament.

Barb appeared to be quite happy with him.

I probably should stop with the googly eyes, I used a lot of them this year.

Maybe for next year I'll get on the ball sooner to do a penguin cane for her.

Cheers,

Sandy

10th Day of Christmas

10 ornaments from the Clayamies 2009 ornament swap.

Hi Everyone,

These are the ornaments that I received in this year's ornament swap. They'll on my small tree with all my other Clayamies ornaments from previous years. They've done a stint at my office already where they decorated my cubicle. Many came by and oohed and aaahed. What's so great about claying is that everyone would have a favourite and then on their second trip by it might become another ornament because there's something to notice each time.

It's always a treat to get ornaments in the mail and Georgia is a saint for her organizational skills. She's been coordinating the swap for the last several years and does a wonderful job.

Two more days of Christmas to go. Not sure what 11th day is going to be but 12th was easy.

Cheers,

Sandy

9th Day of Christmas...

There are 9 letters in the words "Elvis Ball".

Hi Everyone,

I have a friend, Karen, who in the last couple of years has become endearingly obsessed with Elvis. This year she's decided to have an Elvis tree.

I had been making an ornament for her with the idea of the lights and the snowflake ball, but my attempts at making a teddy bear weren't working out and I ended up ruining the ornament before I was able to give it to her. Once she mentioned the Elvis tree, though, it became so obvious what I had to make her.

The good thing is that there's no such thing as too tacky in Karen's mind and she likes bling. A few hours of mucking about with clay transfer paper, several coats of Future floor polish, and here's the finished version of the ornament.

If you press a button on the back of the ornament three lights start dancing around Elvis in red, blue, and yellow. I got the lights from a Dollar Store drinking cup.

Anyhow, I'll be giving the ornament to Karen today and I'm almost positive that she'll like it.

Cheers,

Sandy

8th Day of Christmas...

8 Beads to make angel earrings

Hi, Everyone,

One of my claying friends, Barb, does a lot of beadwork and is quite talented at it. This year's present from her, to me, is a pair of angel earrings.

Here's the photo of them.

They're quite fun to wear and I'm thrilled to be a recipient of Barb's talent.

Cheers,

Sandy

7th Day of Christmas...

7 Ingredient Lemon Squares

Hi Everyone,

I'm pretty sure I posted this recipe last year, but just in case I haven't, here's a recipe for lemon squares that is simple and now a command performance at my office Christmas Pot-Luck.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup melted butter
1.5 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/3 packed cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda (seems to be optional, since it comes out OK without it)

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix first four ingredients together, press into 9 inch pan. Do not bake yet.
3. Mix lemon juice and condensed milk in separate bowl until well mixed.
4. Add vanilla.
5. Pour juice/milk mix over crust.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes. It might still look a bit runny.
7. Cool or at least wait until warmish rather than hot to eat so you don't burn your mouth and can't enjoy them.

I've been tempted to add a thin layer of dark chocolate between the graham cracker crumbs and the lemon filling, but my husband can't have chocolate.

Recipe from "Company's Coming, 150 Delicious Squares" by Jean Pare which you can buy at their website here. This is one of my favourite books for desserts and I haven't had a bad recipe from it yet. In general, the Company's Coming series of books are wonderful, spend some time browsing if you like.

While I was looking for a photo to make the blog entry somewhat interesting, I came across the following recipe which eliminates the baking and is something that I might have to try at my sister's house at Christmas. The hard part appears to be waiting 24 hours to eat.

Cheers,

Sandy