Monday, November 26, 2012

A Tip for You

Hi Everybody.

It has been so long since I posted last.  I am so tired of renovating and packing and moving.  But the end is in sight.  Only have the kitchen floor to finish and that will be done this week.  The big stuff will go on the weekend and then I will be in my little house.

Most of my crafting stuff is already moved, but I wanted to do something creative so I thought I would print out some pics of my beautiful new granddaughter to pop inside a clear Christmas ball and make a "Baby's first Christmas" ornament.  Well, guess what.  The picture I printed turned out horrible.  There was no yellow ink left in the cartridge.  I was not sure if it had dried up or was empty.  So I checked the cartridge by setting it on a moist paper towel for a few minutes.  Yep, it was empty.  No yellow at all.

So here is my tip for you...

If you have a tricolor ink cartridge and one of the colors is used up, you can still get use out of the cartridge.
I have a lot of background images saved on my computer.  I went to the background file and found images that were pink or blue and printed them out on light weight, white cs.
Here is a pic of some of the papers that I printed. 

This cost me next to nothing because I have an endless supply of cardstock that I bought a few years ago when the store that I worked for went out of the printing business.  Worked out to less than 1 cent  per sheet.  And I used up the ink that was otherwise useless.  
Even if you had to buy cs at reg prices, you can get a ream of lightweight cs at Walmart or Staples very reasonably.  Or you could use 24lb or 28lb text paper and still get the same results.
I got about 40 sheets of background paper out of the ink that was left in the cartridge.
The pic just shows some of the papers.  I did duplicates of the ones I really liked.  My favorite is the denim and that was hidden in the pic.  I have the retired Stampin Up pocket and use the denim paper for that all the time.

 I just kept printing paper until the image came out grey.  So, now my cartridge is completely empty and I did not waste any of the ink.

BTW
Here is one of the pics that I wanted to print.  Isn't she adorable?

That is about it for today.  Once I have moved I hope to have time to post regularly.  I have so many cards that I have made and super tips for all of you.

Happy Day to you all. 

Theresa in Kitimat

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Just checking in

 
 
Hi Everybody.
 
I am so tired of sorting and packing and all that stuff.  And it will still be a while before my little house is ready to move into.  The fellow who is doing the mudding on the gyprock has been dragging his heels.  What was supposed to take a week and a half is now a month and a half.  I am not a happy camper.  And then we have to paint and do the floors and install the bathroom fixtures.  It just goes on and on.
Oh well.
 
I decided to take some time this morning and make a quick card (before I pack up the stamping room).  I think I may have seen a card similar to this somewhere during my web surfing, but can not remember where.  If I cased this from anyone you know, please let me know so I can give credit.
 
I had a bunch of circles left over from a previous project and this card emerged from that.  Pretty simple and straight foreward.
I embossed some of the circles with my CB folders.  The white background is embossed with a Sizzix folder(maybe Tim Holtz).  The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch and the sentiment is from Stampin Up.
It did take a little while to get the circles just in the right place.
 
 
 
That is it for my post today.  Hope you are having a great hump day and the rest of the week goes by smoothly.
 
Theresa in Kitimat
 
BTW
Mom and Baby are doing great.  Little Ava has gained over a pound and she no longer has that "little pointed head".  Her Daddy's "little pointed head" was so pronounced when he was born that it scared me. :-) 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, August 9, 2012

No card-jsut exciting news-for me

Hi Everybody,

Ok, with all the things that are going on in my life, we have just added another very special extra thing.
My youngest son and his wife had a beautiful baby girl yesterday.
Welcome to the world, Baby Ava.  She is gorgeous and looks almost exactly like her daddy, when he was born.  How great is that.
Here are a couple pics.


 




Daddy seems to have fit his role quite easily.  It is amazing for me to see my baby being a Daddy to his own baby.  Gotta love it.

Here is the banner that I taped to their house this morning.   They came home and were very pleased that I did that.



I am heading in to town as soon as the casseroles that I made are ready.  Mom needs a little time to get back to normal before she has to start cooking.  Hope they like them.

That is it for this post.  Hope you are all having a great day.  I am.

Theresa in Kitimat

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Christmas Challenges.


Hi Everybody,

Well, I have finally found a few minutes to blog.  Things are moving along, slowly.  Renos will be done in a couple weeks, hopefully.  I have a fellow in doing the mudding on the gyprock and he should be finished in a week or so.  Then painting, new flooring and then the bathrooms.  OK, maybe it will be more than a couple weeks :-).  I have been taking boxes in to town with me nearly every trip and storing them in the Big Room (my name for the partially finished part of the basement).

The garage sale went well.  Made close to $500 when all was said and done.  Now I am gearing up for the next one.  This one will have fishing gear and tools.  I am also selling on our local Face Book buy and sell.  Some of the bigger ticket items.

Anyway, enough of my life.
 
On to the card I made for a couple Christmas challenges.  This card was so much fun to create and I really like how it turned out.  This is the first shaker card I have ever made.  I go through an amazing amount of double sided tape from the Dollar Store.  And I have been saving the blister packs that it  comes in.  Perfect size for this card.  The image is my all time favorite Christmas stamp from Penny Black.  It was one of the first stamps I ever bought.  The white layer is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.  I used my fiskars circle cutter to cut the circle, 'cause I did not buy the Spellbinders circle die.  I am still trying to use up all the turquoise ribbon left over from my daughter's wedding so I used turquoise for the base card.  And the bling is from a package that my little granddaughter bought (with her own money) for my birthday because we both love Shiny Stuff.  I used a lot of double sided tape to assemble everything.
BTW, the inside of the card says "Friends make Christmas Special".  It is part of a House Mouse stamp that I only inked up the sentiment.




These are the challenges that I am entering.

Christmas Card Challenge-  use somethin new. 
 I may be stretching it but the new thing I used was the technique.  Oh and the bling.  I have had it for a while but this is the first time I have used any.  My granddaughter on the other hand,  who loves to play in my rubber room and like her grandma, loves anything sparkly, has used quite a bit.  Gotta love it.

Crafty Hazel Nut- use your favorite color.
My absolute favorite color is blue, any shade.

Unique Crafters-use sparkle on the card.
That is a given.

CCAYR-Make a card for a kid.
I think the image on this card is very Kid-worthy.

So that is about it for me today.  Back to cleaning and sorting and packing.

Hope you all have a great week.

Theresa in Kitimat

Friday, July 6, 2012

Life Changes

Hi Everybody,


It has been forever since I posted last and I appologize for that.  I have been very busy and have had little time for anything let alone computering or crafting for that matter.  I did manage to make a bunch of thank you cards a few weeks ago and if you want to skip the story of what is happening in my life, you can scroll down to see the cards.


I have decided to downsize.  I live a large 2600 sq. ft. (plus basement) house on an acre of land.  This is far too big for just one person.  Guilt and expenses have gotten the best of me so I have decided to sell this home and move into my small rental house.  It is about half the size.  It will be hard to move and leave my home that we designed and built over 25 years ago.  I love the quiet and privacy that I have here.  On the up side, my daughter and son in law are buying the house.  I do not know if I could do it if it was not staying in the family.  There are so many memories here and trees planted for special happenings in our family and memorial trees.

So now, I am in the process of getting rid of 40 years of accumulated "stuff".  And I really mean 40 years.  While cleaning the crawl space part of the basement,  I have found a couple wedding presents that were still in their original unopened boxes and boxes that were moved from our last house to this one.  I don't need that stuff.   Having a large storage area sometimes is not a good thing.  I have always been a bit of a hoarder (not TV hoarder, but I have kept stuff that I might use sometime) and my late husband was the same.  He had started collecting tools for when he retired.  Many are brand new and still in their boxes.

Anyway, I am having a garage sale and this is what my dining room and living room look like right now.   And this is only the start and doesn't include the bigger items.





Look at all those canning jars.  I used to can a lot and found 40 dozen jars.  When I had a batch or fish or relish to can, I guess it was easier to go out and buy new jars than to go into the crawl space and find the ones that got put there.  What was I thinking?

This is a slow process.  Like the TV hoarders, I have to go through everything.  Unlike them, I can easily junk stuff that is no longer useful to me.  We have made many, many trips to the dump.  Nobody has a use for old outdated polyester double knit clothes :-).

I have promised myself that things will be different after the move.  My storage area there is smaller and is in a full height, bright area.  I already have set up shelving units so that I can see what is stored there easily.

So, while all this was going on, I attended a baby shower.  Both my daughter in law and her sister are expecting within a couple weeks of each other, so there was a joint shower.  We are having a girl and the sister is having a boy.  Part of my shower gift for them was to make some thank you cards.  I made 20 for each of them.  They had to be different for each because they both were sending them to the same people.  This is what I came up with. I made 5 different designs.  I copied the fish card directly from Beth Prout.  You can see her card here.  And I saw a similar  onesie card somewhere on the net but can't find it now.  The other cards were my ideas.  They are all pretty straight forward.  Some are Stampin Up.  And the middle one is a digi stamp made by Pink Gem. Sorry for the odd angle, but I wanted to get them all picture at once.



That is about it for today.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Theresa in Kitimat


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Christmas cards all year round challenge

Hi everybody,

I have been so MIA and I appologize for that. 
 Couple reasons.  I am selling my home and downsizing.  I will be moving into my little house in the next couple months and am busy purging stuff and slowly moving things I want to keep.
 
Second reason is that as much as I plan on  taking  part in challenges, and posting what I make, I never seem to get the cards done on time and so just do not post them.  Hopefully that will change after I move and have more time to devote to crafting.  That is why I like monthly challenges.  It gives me enough time to get something posted.

Anyway, this is a card for CCAYR challenge which is- to be inspired by a Christmas song.  My song is
"Christmas Star".  It was featured in the movie "Home Alone"




This is such a CAS card and I love it.  I had such fun making the stars.  I cut them out of chip board and then just kept adding shiny stuff with UTEE.  There are micro beedz, glitter, gold leaf, pearl seed beads, and anything else I had that was blingy.
I used pop dots to add this to an embossed panel that I made using a sheet of dimentional star stickers.  I used my tan sheet for this.  I used a retired SU image for the sentiment and embossed that with Gold tinsel ep.  I sponged the edges with gold and glued everything together and I was done.

I was having so much fun making the stars, I did not stop at 5, but made 10 of them, so I now have 10 cards to add to my stash.

Only problem with these cards is that they are too thick to go through the "slot", so they will be for my intown friends.

I hope you like the card I made.  If you have any questions, please email.

Happy day to you all.

Theresa in Kitimat

Monday, March 26, 2012

challenge card

Hi everybody.   I have a quick post today to show you a card I made and want to enter into a couple challenges.


This is a very simple card that is folded at the 5 1/2 inch mark.  The image is one that I won from Teri at Delicious Doodles.  Don't you just love it?  She has the most amazing digi images for sale.  You should check out her site.

I printed the digi on white cs and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  I added the two layers of white punched (Martha Stewart) paper and glued that to the blue cs.  Added the sentiment using a Dollar Giant set of baby stamps.  I inked the edges with the same blue ink and added the bling.
And I was done.  How easy is that.

The challenges I am entering are:

Delicious Doodles Challenge blog -The Woner of Life (you do not have to use her digis to enter)

Unique Crafters Challenge Blog - Anything goes (new blog with a great prize)

Pattie's Creations - Anything goes (must use image digi or stamped)

That is about it for today.  Hope you are all having a good one.

Theresa in Kitimat

Friday, March 23, 2012

Finaly, posting again

Hi everybody,

Sorry I have been mia for so long.  Life happens.  I spent time preparing for a card workshop I presented at our Seniors' Center and then had a Birthday bash for 2 of my children.  I have also decided to sell my house so am in the midst of cleaning and decluttering for the appraiser who is coming next week.

Anyway, I have been creating during this time and want to share some of the cards I have made. 
I have been bit by the "challenge" bug and the card I have today is for a challenge.

I am submitting this card to the Do You Stack Up challenge blog (use plaid).
I have made a masculin card, which is hard for me.  The card is pretty straight forward.  Navy cs base card, layer of grey plaid background paper printed from the computer, layer of red cuttlebugged paper which was cut with nestabitities.  Cut the white paper with nestabilities and left the metal die on to sponge the blue color.  The image is a retired Stampin Up image.  I used a piece of plaid ribbon over this.  I used my cuttlebug to cut the letters, glued them on the white piece, sponged the edges, added some bling, glued over the ribbon, and I was done.

I have nearly a dozen cards that I have created over the last little while, so hopefully I will be posting them over the next few days.

Happy day to you all.

Theresa in Kitimat

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

SAS4K challenge

Hi Everybody,

Today I have a card that I made to enter into the SAS4K challenge.  This challenge is to make a Spring or Easter card suitable for a child (as always).  I made several of these and they will be added to the cards I will be sending to Lynnette to take to Stollery Childrens' Hospital in Edmonton.


I love the way these cards turned out and they are easy peasy to make.  I used a center step tutorial on Split Coast Stampers for the base.  Beacause i wanted the center panel to be a little wider, I changed up the measurements a little and made the side panels 3/4" instead of 1".
I used an oval nestability to make the mask and sponged around it to highlight the area where the little chickie goes.  Also used nestabiltiies for the sentiment label. 

I have seen many variations of the chick and so not sure who to give credit for that.  I used Stampin Up punches- large oval and scallop circle and sponged the edges.  And of course, googlie eyes and a tuft of feather.  The eggshell is a Hot Off the Press clear stamp called Small Easter Chick.  I used markers to color the stamp, stamped it, used the same oval punch and then trimmed off the top chick part.  Put everything together, and I was done.

Hope you liked my card today.

Now I am off to get the SAS4K package ready to mail.

Wishing a Happy Day to you.

Theresa in Kitimat


Sunday, February 19, 2012

Finally, CCAYR challenge cards

Hi Everybody,

Well, I have finally finished my cards for the CCAYR challenge.  Since it is Valentines month, the challenge was to use a heart somewhere on the card. 

I started these cards right after the challege was announced and just finished them today.  I used a free digi from Beyond the Fringe Crafts.  I am adding a link to the actual digi here.  If you use digi stamps, you really should check out this site.  Carmen is a Canadian gal and she has a lovely site and the most delightful digis.  Thank you Carmen for all the digis I have downloaded from your site.
The cards I made are really straight forward.  I printed the digis, colored them, cut them out and used a black paper for matting.  I then found matching papers for the base and more matting paper.  Added some bling and/or glitter and I was done.  Oh, and amazingly, I only used one little piece of ribbon.   I do love to use ribbon. 
Not sure why it took nearly three weeks to finish these cards :-).

So, that is my post for today.  I hope you are all having a super weekend.  Mine has been good so far, except it is snowing.   Please, please, no more snow.  I NEED sping to come soon.

Happy Day to you all.
Theresa in Kitimat

Sunday, February 12, 2012

What was working, is not working now.

Hi Everybody,

In regards to my last post, I checked out the links I gave for the Nickjr. spin art site before I posted and it was working well, to both print and email.  When I tried the site this morning, the image I created would neither print nor send.  I am so sorry if I sent you on a wild goose chase.

I will email them and see what is up.

I do hope your weekend is going well.  Mine is (other than the Nickjr. site not working).
 
My son is coming over this morning for breakfast and we will skype with his family, who are living in Switzerland for a year.  What a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.

Happy day to you.

Theresa in Kitimat

Friday, February 10, 2012

I'm a kid, at heart.


Hi Everybody,
I am busy finishing off my card package to send to Lynnette for Stollery Hospital but I want to do a quick post to show you the card I am adding to the SAS4K challenge(anything goes).  You should check this out.  There are prizes to be won :-).


I always try to add masculine cards for the boys, even though they are somewhat hard for me to make.  These cards are a lot of fun, though.

The images are from Stampin Up.  The slider tag was cut with my CB and the ep is Black Opal from Judikins.

And now, the fun part.
 I remember the spin art kit my kids played with when they were young.  Well, when I was watching my granddaughter (before she started school), we would spend some time playing on the computer.  One of her favorite places was nickjr. and we found a spot where you could generate spin art.  We made sheets and sheets of spin art and printed a lot of them.  I have since made a few of these on my own and found that it is better to email them to myself and then print from the image I save from the email.  I can get two spin arts on a page and resize if I like.  If you check this site out, you have to move the bottle around quite a bit to get it to put down color.  It is a lot of fun, even if you are a tad older than a Nickjr.

Here is another site I found to generate spin art.  This one is cool too, but you are limited to the colors you can use.

So, that is it for today.  I hope you all have a great weekend.

Theresa in Kitimat

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Cst challenge

Hi Everybody,
Happy Thursday to you.
Here is a card I have submitted to our weekly CST challenge.  This week is winged things.

The focal image is a cut out design.  I saved this image ages ago and I am sorry, I have no idea where I got it from, but I do have the design saved.  I printed the dragonfly and then used the template to cut out the black silhouette, being careful to leave the outline in tact.  I used the outline to sponge the background color.  I sponged the brown and then the blue with pigment ink and then added sparklie ep to the wings.  Then I glued the cut out black design over the background, offsetting it just a little.  I added the sentiment (actually, I stamped the sentiment first) and then lined everything up.  I added a few layers of matting and I was done.

If you have any questions or would like the template, please email me.

Hope you are having a great day.

Theresa in Kitimat

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

CST challenge

Hi Everybody,
Well, I fianally got busy and did some crafting.  I needed a Birthday card this month for a good online friend so I decided to enter it into the CST challenge (make a birthday card).
This card is a little larger than the regular size, maybe about 5 X 6 1/2, not sure anymore.  I used a SU canvas backgound stamp and close to cocoa ink.  Sponged the edges.  I used a nestability for the scallop circle and my fiskars circle cutter for the inner circle and a nestabilities die for the leaves.
The sentiment is a Fiskars clear stamp set designed by Cloud 9.
I made the flower from pink paper and the how tos are from a video that is in the link further down the page.
I use a Fiskars clear stamp designed by Heidi Grace to stamp the flowers.
The little stamens are made with a Punch Bunch punch.


Here is the inside of the card.

This is a 7 flower pop up and here is the link on how to make it.  The video in the link shows how to fold the paper to make the flowers.
This card is a little time consuming, but the end results are really worth the effort.

I hope you liked my card today and try to make one yourself.  If you do, and have any questions, please email me and I will try to answer them.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a great week.

Theresa in Kitimat

Thursday, January 19, 2012

CCAYR January challenge

Hi Everybody,
Hope your week is going well.  It is very cold here so I have been staying inside, doing some creating.
These are the cards I made for this months challenge at Christmas Cards All Year Round.  The challenge this month was to make cards using non-traditional colors.
Since all the cards are different, I decided to scan them individually instead of taking a pic of the whole bunch together.

This first card is made using the old label technique.  I started by sponging the labels while they were still on the backing paper.  I used an anti static bag and stamped the tree (retired SU stamp) with versamark.  I then embossed with white ep.  I then carefully transferred the labels to the purple background paper.  After that was done, I used my stamp positioner and overstamped the second layer of the 2-stamp set with versamark and embossed with gold ep.
And it was done.



 The next two cards were pretty much done the same way.  I tore a couple large postit notes and masked the front of the card, leaving the center area showing.  I sponged this area with blue, green and purple.  Then I stamped the larger snowflake with Tempting turquoise and then the smaller snowflake with versamark and embossed with a purple ep.  I removed the masks, stamped the sentiment and used the same purple ep.  I added the ribbon and fibers and mounted on a purple base card.
The intensity of the colors on both cards is about the same.  I am not sure why one scanned lighter than the other one.


 This next card uses up some mistakes, er...leftovers, that I had from the cards I made for the November challenge.  You can see those cards here.  I used a Sizzlets die for the sentiment.


 And the last card is pretty straight forward.  The medallion is from SU.  The small image in the center is a small part of an old lovely stamp made by Stampendous and I do not know who makes the sentiment.
So, these are my cards for today.  Hope you like them.

I hope everybody is keeping warm.

Theresa in Kitimat

Saturday, January 14, 2012

SAS4K cards

HI Everybody,
Here are a few of the cards I sent to Lynnette this month for SAS4K Canada.   The cards are pretty straight forward, so I won't give long descriptions on how I made them.  I really tried hard to include cards for boys.  This is a stretch for me because I am much more comfortable with flowers, butterflies, fairies, etc.  I did add bling, not so much for the boy cards.
The rest of the cards I sent were made using card fronts from swaps and some sent to me by Sue.  Once again, thank you Sue.

The sentiment on this first card was made using one of the first stamp sets I bought, many, many years ago.  It is a foam mounted set of words that can be put together for different occasions.  I can't remember who made it.

 I made the next card a long time ago when I was doing a lot of paper weaving.  The bear stamp is from a foam mounted set made by PSX
 This card was made with nesties.  It folds up at the top.  I stamped the sentiment and embossed with gold and then used a white jel pen to accent it.
 This card is made with an image I got in a swap and I am not sure who makes it.  The inside says "Happy Birthday"  It is colored with prisma colors and the wings are glittered and the ladybug has glossy accents on it.
 This card was made in 2003, when I joined Stampin Up.  I used one of the sets I got in my start up package.
 Here is one of the boy cards I made.  The zebra and background stamp are made by Stampendous.   The zebra is stamped on acetate which is mounted under the circle cut in the front of the card.
 This one is nearly the same as the last one, using a SU image.
 Here is a girly card using lots of bling.

Another prisma color card.  Finished with glitter and glossy accents the same as the other one.
 
 Another birthday card for a boy.  I think the image is from Penny Black.
 And finally, I used a card front I made over 10 years ago.  The image is PSX.  I actually embossed the outline on the colored fish from behind using a template I cut out from chip board.  I was cuttlebugging long before Cuttlebugs were invented :-).

I will be entering one of the Valentines in the SAS4K (US site) Valentines challenge.

That is about it for this post.  I have a couple more challenges I am entering today and so will post about them later.

Hope you are having a great weekend.

Theresa in Kitimat

Friday, January 6, 2012

Christmas at the Fredricksons

Hi Everybody.  Happy New Year to you all.
Hope your holiday was everything you expected (that is unless you were expecting squabbles and fights and hurt feelings.  You know how families and Christmas can be :-).)  Seriously, we had a wonderful Christmas.  Like I said before, it was very low key with some of the family being away.   We had a lot of fun with our annual brunch and gift opening.  Everything centered around Camryn.  She enjoyed opening gifts from Uncles and Aunties-and Grandma.  Coen is too young to be much involved but just the same, it was wonderful to have a new little person here for Christmas.  And next year, we will have another.  My youngest son and his wife are expecting their first baby.  I am so excited for them and me.

I don't have any cards to show you in this post.  I just wanted to post some pics of the decorations I put up this year.  It is the first time in quite a long time that I really went to town and brought out most of my stuff.
I put up two trees every year.  One family tree that we put the prezzies under and one decorator tree in my foyer.  This is the family tree.  I usually make new decorations for it every year, but didn't this year.  I decided to go retro instead.  I went through my little Christmas room in the basement and found all the old ornaments that I had made in  the early years.  Can you say HOARDER?
 This is a close up of some of those decorations.  String macrame snowflakes, blown and glittered eggs, paper geometric shapes, styrofoam and toothpick glittered ornaments and the stringed styrofoam popcorn package filler.
 This is a picture from 1972.  First year in Kitimat and my first Christmas tree.  It was the first and last spruce tree we ever got.  Always had spruce trees in Alberta, but the needles on BC trees are way sharper than Alberta trees.  All our other trees were pine.  I was so proud of this little tree.  I had made all the ornaments except to the star at the top.  The little guy in the pic is my oldest son.  He is  40+ now.
 This is my foyer tree.  I change it up every year.  Last year it was red and white.   Next year, I have already decided that it will be red and gold.

 This is my Santa display by my front door.  There is a set of mini lights going all through the Santas so it looks cool in the dark.
 This is my Willow Tree Nativity that my daughter started for me a few years ago.  She adds to it every year.  I think it is almost done, except for maybe an angel.
 This is a lovely nativity that I bought quite a few years ago.  It was damaged so I got it for almost nothing (I think about $5.00).  All I had to do was repaint some of the figurines that had lost some paint.  My DH made the stable out of cedar.
 I have one more nativity set up this year.  Forgot to take a pic.  It is a nice one with a music box that I bought at a garage sale for cheap.  I set it up for the little kids.  A few years ago, Camryn was looking at this nativity set up (below) and asked "Can I play with the Jesus house."  I really did not want her to so I told her I would get one that she could play with.   And so I did.  I will remember to take a picture next year.
 Because all of our family was not here this year, we could all fit around my kitchen nook table so I decided to decorate my dining room table.  I made all of the little bird houses and they were the decorations for my family tree last year.  They open up and I have put flameless tealights in them. 
 This is what they look like in the dark.
 This is a picture of my fiber optic village.  Love it.
 Sorry, this picture is blurry, but I wanted to take a picture without the flash so you could see how pretty it is when it is plugged in.
 This is a pic of my other village I have set up in my kitchen.  I have one more smaller scale village with about 18 houses that I did not set up this year.  Could not find the right spot for it.
 And finally, this is a picture of my sweet Camryn.  I have taken a picture of her every year with this Santa since I got him.  When we started, she came up to the bottom of the ribbon.  How they grow.  This is a tradition I will keep with all of my grandkids from now on.
I hope you have enjoyed this visit with me as I have shared some of the Fredrickson traditions.  (The tradition I enjoy most--I do not cook Christmas Dinner.  Stopped doing that about 1995 or 1996 and have never regretted it for one moment)

Happy Day to you all.

Theresa in Kitimat