The Grinch didn't steal Christmas!

I don't do a Christmas tree at my house - mostly because we've never been here for Christmas. I do get that little Christmas decorating urge every year... but never give in to it. *sigh*

However, I would give into this:


A Grinch-style Christmas tree! WooHoo! What a delightful idea. Cedar branches all wrapped up with sparkly wire and a sparkly bobble on the end making it lean over. Billiant, simply brilliant.

From Devine Vines in Vancouver.

PS. And they have the cutest blog ever!

Whew. That was an exhausting week.

My craft fair frenzy has ended. Oh it feels good to be done. I can't even imagine making anymore jewelry right now. Oh, but wait- I still have a couple of special orders to finish up...

I have a couple of pictures of me & my table (and H).

Jack Davis Christmas Craft Fair (Work) with a friend (with yummy bake sale goodies in her hand!)



Heather & I at Camosun College. This was just before we were packing up, so you can imagine how much more we had a week and a half ago!


I have to go to the bank today exchange my $1000 for traveler's checks. Yes, $1000! I still have a couple of more opportunities to sell a few more pieces, so I'm confident on meeting my goal. I never thought this would be possible. And it's all thanks do a wonderful best friend, Heather, who loves this as much as I, and a husband who'll put up with beads being all over the house and me spending lots on beads in the past few years. Plus a wonderful family who buys me beads when they spot them (thanks Eric & Dad!)

*EDIT* I was cleaning this afternoon (see 'ending procrastination' below), and in a drawer I found $280 that I had stashed away! Hurray for being a little squirrel! I'd like to thank my friend (Meg) for teaching me that habit! Huzzah! I Rule! *End EDIT*

Anyways....
All of my energy and free time has gone into preparing for this past week; I haven't concentrated on what these next two weeks hold. But now it's here. Two weeks until we leave Victoria. So much to do! But it's a lot less than it could be, since we're renting out our basement suite fully furnished. We just have to pack our personal belongings and put it in the storage unit here.

Goals for this weekend include mapping out where we want to go, figuring out how much it will cost in each place, and looking at routes. I'm reading the backpacking cookbooks (Val, I'll return the Wellfed Backpacker to you at Christmas), and writing down recipes. We also have to figure out what clothes we're going to bring with us from home, I don't have much that's backpacking friendly. (Hopefully I'll be able to find some sweet pieces at Value Village or the Salvation Army!)

So without further procrastination, I'm going to get on that stuff!

Oh, and two more things....

It snowed! I woke up this morning to a centimeter of snow on the ground. I know, nothing for most people, but in Victoria this is a big deal. It's the first time I've seen snow on December 1st in at least 3 years! WooHoo!

Aannndd... I've been addicted to America's Next Top Model for the last 2 cycles. I can't get enough. Joel makes fun of me.

But episode 10 is amazing! The girls go to China and their challenge is to pose all martial arts style in the air! Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon meet ANTM.

Watch it:

Christmas Craft Frenzy-ing!

Yesterday was the start of my craft fair blitz!

Heather and I had a table at Camosun College yesterday, and it went over pretty well. Students are a hard bunch because we're all broke. Especially at the end of semester. All together we sold $350, $160 was me, $100 for her, and $70 for jewelry made by guys in Africa that H brought back from volunteering over there (She sends 100% of that $ back to them), and $30 for my friend Laura's stuff. So a pretty good day.

This piece sold, I was sad to see it go, but I'm sure it went to a good home!


Monday and Tuesday I'm selling at work. Ahhhh! I hope it goes well. So not only do I want to do well for myself, but this craft fair is my baby! I've organized all of it. I hope everyone else does well too!

Not trying to be full of myself or anything, but I'm so impressed with how well I've done since working! These government women are amazing. I've pulled in around $1000 -- however, I've spend well over $500.... but it's the first time I'm coming out ahead! WooHoo!

WooHoo! First Sale on Etsy!

I'm am so happy! I had my first sale on Etsy. Now hopefully it's the first in a long line of Christmas shopping. *hope*

It was these pretty darlings


And last week at work I made over $400 selling jewelry.

Christmas Craft Fair is coming up in 2 weeks at work, and I have a table twice at Camosun in that time too!

I *really* hope I meet my goal of $1500 for spending money in South America!

Etsy + Moo = *Heart*

Moo meets Etsy

So I must do this. Do I have enough time before my craft fairs? I hope so! But I need better pictures. Oh why I aren't I talented with a camera like my husband or s.in.l? Why!

Perhaps I should make it my mission for the day... (besides groceries, Christmas baking, laundry, post office.... )

Etsy Treasury

Look! I made an Etsy Treasury of pretty BC made things!

Christmas Ideas, Anyone?

I posted Christmas Ideas on Southern Constellations

Happy, Hanna?

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. Maybe it's because I have fond memories of dressing up in hand-made costumes by my mom, or renting costumes from the Capital Theater in Nelson, browsing through racks deciding what I want to be that year. (It's usually something revolving around a princess or fairy...girly and sparkley). This year I didn't dress up, which was sad.

I did however win a pumpkin carving contest, with a coworker. We carved a happy little family of four. Well, perhaps not so happy. One contest we won gift certificates for Tim Hortons, and the other prize is lunch with our Deputy Minister (head honcho). So that will be pretty cool!



I also wrote a poem to go along with it:

Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater,
Had a Wife but couldn't keep her
He developed a taste for the kids one day,
So she took the other one far away.

Oh I am cute. And so are my pumpkins!

So yesterday Joel and I went to get our immunizations for traveling. 4 in all, two shots. Joel went first, he took it like a man, no cringing. Then I hopped up on the bench to have mine, the doctor's back is to Joel who's sitting in a chair, and I'm watching him as she injecting me. I see his eyes glaze over, he mumble "oh no, it's happening", his head tilts back and he looks like a rag doll. The doctor gets the needle out of my arm, jumps over to him, tells me to get a nurse, Joel starts shaking, a nurse comes in, Joel regains consciousness and doesn't know where he is for a few moments, and I just stood there in disbelief. It is a scary thing watching your husband pass out and start convulsing. But they got him laid down, gave him some juice, and we both just went home and rested for the remainder of the afternoon. Our arms are very very sore, but now we're immunized. Hurray!

I'm sorry for neglecting.....

I'm sorry... life was a little more chaotic than usual for a bit there.... But I'm here, for now...

So want a run down on the last little bit? I can even include pictures because my darling husband *finally* bought my birthday present (6 months late- but better late than never!)

So where to start?

Work
Crazy. Busy. I was tasked with a project, didn't receive all the relevant information, basically had to do it twice...worked 9 hour days...I'm a gov't employee, and a coop at that- I'm not suppose to work that! Plus, I'm on salary, so I don't get overtime. Oh well. It's done now, and I'm back to more monotonous work :D

Two people in our Branch have left, they found other jobs in government. Now we're two people short... I don't know what will happen. But I might get to move offices, which would be Super!

AND... I'm organizing a Christmas Craft Fair at work! I'm so excited! I have a group of ladies who are willing to help, and know how to organize things in the Ministry. I'm hoping to have at least 15 different sellers, everything from jewelry (of course!), clothing, woodworking, stained glass, baking, canning, ornaments... basically anything handmade! I'm sure it will be a blast! The tentative date is December 3rd.

Only 2 months of my job left! AHHH!! I can't believe how quickly these 6 months have gone by!

Which brings me to:

Travel
Plans are coming along well, mostly because we're going down to South America without much of a plan. :D I'm really looking forward to summer in January, because it's started raining here..icky.

We renewed our passports. Which was a hooopla in itself. They changed the passport process, so your guaranteers don't need to be in a specific profession, they just need to hold a valid passport. WootWoot. To bad I didn't know that before I hunted down my friend's dad who's a doctor.

We didn't want to mail our applications in because that can take upwards of 4 months, and well, we don't have 4 months. So we had to wait in line. So on a Wednesday morning we got up and went downtown to wait in line. We got there at 8. It was too late. Too late! We could have stood in line until 4:30 that afternoon and *maybe* would have gotten in. Joel and I couldn't afford to do that because we needed to go to work. We were told we had to be in line by 7am to get an appointment that day. So the next morning we caught the first bus downtown (*6am*), and got an appointment for 10am. There was already over 50 people in line by 6:30! So it was neat (*NOT*) seeing the sunrise downtown.

But it's done. Well, we don't have them yet, but they're suppose to be coming soon.

And we're slowly but surely saving money. I hope we have enough! (*hint hint* Christmas presents for Jen & Joel!)

Next:
Jewelry
I'm back in full swing with making and selling (see above: Christmas Craft Fair!) Heather, (a friend who makes & sells jewelry with me), and I had a table at Camosun College on Thrusday. I made $170, so not great, but students are broke and not in Christmas shopping mode yet. But we'll be back at Camosun Nov 30 & Dec 7th. And the work craft fair that Monday in between. Heather and I are hoping to bring jewelry to my work next week too.

I'm putting away all the money I make from jewelry sales into the Jen-Fun-Spending-Money-in-S.Am. It's really good incentive for me to make and sell lots! I'm at $230, my goal is $1500... go big or go home (or starve), si?

Whew. It's been busy.

Wanna see new pretty things? (taken with my shiny new camera!)








And that's just a taste of what I've been making. Jewelry has sucked up all my free time, but I like it that way!

I've been uploading new stuff to my etsy site, go check it out and tell your friends to buy stuff!

Hmmm, what else to tell you?

I'm hungry. So I'm going to deal with that.

I'll try to to neglect you like that again!

Whew. What a fun weekend!

Friday night was the Tegan and Sara concert! They rocked out to their new album, The Con, and to their last one, So Jealous. Those girls have voices that send chills through my spine, and it was so intense live!

I slept in Saturday morning until 11:30. Mmm, I loove sleeping in. Then my friend Heather & I went shopping for jewelry supplies. We have a table at the college here booked on October 18th, and then twice more in November. So we have to get all our displays ready, make tons of jewelry, make bags to put peoples jewelry in, etc etc. It's so much work! But really fun!

Then last night was the Current Swell concert! I danced all night long, and a long night it was. I went with Heather, and her roomate Mandy (also a good friend of mine). Oh fun girly times.... I didn't get home until reeaallly late... And then slept in until noon.

Good times.

AAANNNDDD.... I get to go to FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial). I'm sure that's Greek to most of you- so basically, it's a conference for FREE GIS (Geographic Information System) software. Why is this so important? Because the GIS program I use, ArcGIS, costs around $10,000 for a licence. Which is obviously ridiculous and completely unobtainable for anyone besides governments or corporations who want to use it. GIS is such a useful tool that everyone should be able to use, and not be limited to those who can afford it.

Their websites says The annual Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference brings together the people who create, use, and support open spatial software. No other event brings together members of the open source development, open data creation, and open standards promotion communities like FOSS4G.

This is going to be an overwhelming and incredible experience. I am so lucky for my work to be paying for this, because the fact is that it's not directly related to my job (because I use that expensive software). This is such an amazing opportunity for me, I'm blown away that it's HERE- in Victoria- this year, because next year it's in South Africa...and I definately won't be going. I just hope that I'm can absorb all the information! The conference is Tuesday until Thursday, so it also means my week will probably just fly by!!

WOOT WOOT!

Run Update

Sorry for the abundance of posts this week! Wait, I take that back- no I'm not sorry.

Anyways, just thought I'd give you a quick update on the run status. So Tuesday's 4.2km was done in 40 minutes, and was around 1/3 walking. I was okay afterwards, but definitely sore the next morning. On lunch yesterday I figured the only way to stretch things out was to go for a smaller jog and do a good stretch. So yesterdays quickie was a solo 2km(ish) on my half hour lunch.

But Today was great! The woman, L, who I was with on Tuesday ran again today, joined by a guy D (who's went to school in Castlegar, coincidentally), and he's super fit. So L & I had to keep up, and we did 4.2km in 23 minutes.

Maybe I will be able to do the 8km in less than an hour!!

Who knew that exercising felt so good?

Cardboard Kitty Chair!

Wow! I found this cardboard kitty chair at Treehugger and I'm pretty impressed. Hmmm, I wonder if George or Leilu would like it??

Don't worry, the adhesive is non-toxic. But I have to wonder if there'd be little cardboard scraps scattered everywhere??

But I suppose that can't be any worse than wooden stair post slivers all over the hallway....

Budget Slashing

Anyone who's watched the news in Canada in the last 24 hours will have heard the sad news. The Conservative Government has cut Environment Canada's budget- big time. Am I surprised? No. Saddened? Yes. Frustrated? Extremely.

The damage?

The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Network (the group that monitors ecosystem change): 80% cut

The Migratory Bird Program: 50% cut

National Wildlife Areas (think significant habitats for wildlife and birds): 100% cut

CBC tried to get in contact with John Baird (see my Inadequate People post) but apparently he was not available, and email messages have been sent saying the government is focusing on Climate Change so other areas were sacrificed.

AHH! When will this become apparent to the people in charge that you cannot focus on one while sacrificing the other! Our remaining intact ecosystems is what's saving our world from the point of no return. These natural areas play a significant role (think oxygen production for you to BREATHE!)

I found a study on protecting ecosystems for anyone how's interested: here. This map was in the study:

I have to wonder why, in Canada, the land of plenty, we have so little protected area? Is it because we think everything is so plentiful that we don't need to protect it?

I just have a hard time swallowing the fact that we make these decisions which have huge repercussions on the environment (and inadvertently on us). This world is not ours to use until it's gone, we cannot build suburbs of McMansions onto fragile ecosystems. We are here as stewards of the Earth, it is a gift to us, please don't break it.

Jen, Running? You must be joking.

But No, I am not joking! I have started running, well, as of today I've started. I can't even think of the last time I actually ran (besides quick sprints to the bus!) To change that sad fact I signed up for the Royal Victoria Marathon's 8km run-- which is just a short 3 weeks away. Our ministry has a team put together called Earth, Wind and Fire (sorta energy related). I figured the only way I would actually start running was if I had a goal, so this is it. I really hope to do the 8km in an hour, but that may be pushing it a little too much.

I went on a run today at lunch with a couple of coworkers, it was 4.5km, around 40 minutes of jogging/walking. And for my first run in years, it felt great (I don't know what I'll feel like tomorrow though)!


I went out and bought myself a shiny pair of running shoes, since I didn't even own a pair. If anything will help me run, it's a pair of pretty shoes. See:


Wow, what a changing last few months since working here. I didn't ride a bike, now I do almost everyday. I didn't run, now (hopefully!) I do.

Now if only I can have as much success at my Mom and M.in.L with getting in shape....

Yea! Life!

Hurray. As it turns out, my hopelessness from my last post just *poof* disappeared when I got a day off. Mmm, I looovveee days off! I got a whole lot knocked off my [to do] list.

First, woke up without an alarm at 9am. Perfect. Made myself one cup of coffee. (yea that's right, just one. I've successfully cut my coffee consumption by 2/3rd's!) Then I looked through cookbooks and decided what yummy food J and would be eating over the next 2 weeks. The majority of recipes came from an old Anne Lindsey's Lighthearted cookbook that I found in my mom's basement. Yum Yum!

Then around 11:30 I walked over to Thrifty's, the islands grocery store; which I LOVE & where Joel used to work. Well, he used to work at a different location. I forgot how much joy shopping at Thrifty's brings me. At our last place I Safeway was the closest, and I really don't like them much. Why? I don't really know. It's so big and unpersonal, and not local. Thrify's basically specializes in local & organic, and more wholesome food. It's the only place I can find Annies Bernie O's for Joel- no MSG!

Next, was not such a good idea. I called J to come meet me at the grocery store after I was done and we'd walk the groceries home together. Hmm, it was very hard. My shoulders and back are still hurting. But the groceries got home, and put away, and I made a yummy lunch.

Oh yes, and before I went into the grocery store I stopped in a WIN thrift shop, and found a Beaut-iful-in-perfect-condition-Marmot softshell jacket! For $7.50! Huzzah!

Then we rearranged out living room, and by living room, I mean the one big room that's living/computer/beading/fooseball/dinning. The way we had set it up ended up proving awkward, and now it's better.

And I decided I'm starting a new line of jewelry called Love Again using pieces from garage sales and thrift stores. I bought a bag of costume pearly necklaces (like 10 of them) for $4 a few weeks ago, and they're being restrung and revamped.

To finish my great day off, I baked an apple pie. I had homemade pie crusts in my freezer, so I took one out last night, and made a Granny Smith Apple Pie with an oatmeal crumb topping.

And now it's Sunday, and J has a golf tourney with his work, and I have the day to myself.

La.La.La

Bah! Life!

Why is life chaotic. The more I try out this adult world the more I'm not a huge fan of it. There's not enough time in the day to do the things I want to do, but it gets sucked up doing those things I have to do.

That is not the way God has intended life. At least I don't think so. I could accomplish a whole lot more if I didn't work. Hmm.

My days lately have been sucked up working full-time (since May, until Dec), sitting at an office staring at a computer for 7 hours a day. And then at home I don't ever want to play on the computer and do the things I want to do!

On top of work, I decided taking an evening Biology course at Camosun would be a good idea. Mostly because my dear friend H is in it, and a course at Camosun is half the price as it is at UVic. And a credit is a credit. But it meant I didn't get home last night until around 10. And then had to leave at 8 to bike to work.

And H and I have a jewelery stand booked at Camosun for the 18th of October. Hurray! But it also means I need to make lots and lots of jewelry. Oh my. Which makes it feel like work. I still haven't done the bead order I was planning on doing for the last few months. So I feel terrible because I've promised to trade beads with Hanna for her making Perizada Designs.

Oh right. And I'm still working on learning to save money. Since I have to or J and go to South America with nothing.

Stressed much??

All I really want to do is hide out in the woods and make everything I need.

Green Confession

A place to confess your green wrongdoings!

Me?

Never.

Okay, maybe....

I get Starbucks frappuccino's or a Tim Horton's Ice Cap once every one in awhile, and don't always recycle the cup! Eek!

What's your green confession?

Waldmart Watch

This is too Funny, I had to share!



From: Walmart Watch

Who Knew??

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Who knew it was so easy to change the world?

The next time you pack this all-American sandwich for lunch, you're helping the environment and making a difference in animal welfare. You don't have to change your whole diet to change the world. Just start with lunch.
PB&J

How to Help the Environment at Lunch

A PB&J will slow global warming.

Next time you have one you'll reduce your carbon footprint by saving the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets.

That's about forty percent of what you'd save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan.

If you were going to have a ham sandwich or a hamburger, you save the equivalent almost 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
A PB&J will also save water.

That's about 280 gallons of water over the hamburger. To put this in perspective, three PB&Js a month instead of hamburgers will save about as much water as switching to a low-flow showerhead.
A PB&J will save land.

Have a PB&J and save 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution.

From: PB&J Campaign
Photo from: UncommonIndustries