New Year Candle Animation

You must click the link below and watch the video. It's magical.

Happy New Year by Electrabel

300,000 candles.

(via Drawn)

Happy New Year!

Hmm I think I'll need a nap to make it to midnight. And some more cold meds.

Blog Tour: Lost Genre Guild - Day 2

Welcome to day two of the Blog Tour Featuring the Christian science fiction and fantasy site: Lost Genre Guild.

Today I'm going to ignore the site's content and give the webpage a design review. Because as a graphic designer I can't help myself. As many of you know :P


What I liked:
- All the text is easy to read. This should be a given, but tragically is not. So props for that.

- Overall design is simple with a cohesive colour scheme. They didn't try to be clever with background images or other things that make the eyes burn. I like the colours actually, and I've always been a stripes fan.

- Half points for navigation, all the links are easy to understand and are reasonably well organized.

- Good use of content, there aren't any useless pages, and usually a good amount of information per page.

- Hooray for having a contact form! Mailto: links make me (and everyone else using a web-based browser) cranky.

What I'd change (I'm a little nit picky, but it's in love. Promise):

- The banner. It's small enough that it should have been saved at 100% quality, it would look a lot better. Also, Papyrus. Oh Papyrus. Everyone uses that font. It's the new comic sans. I know, I know, it's pretty and easy to read. Trust me though, it's making the site look less professional. I could devote a whole blog post to papyrus. But not today. Go to Dafont.com and find something pretty.

- Something that was probably overlooked, the Guild Review and Bookshelves pages have no navigation bar. They need it.

Wait, I just noticed that the bookshelf have interior navigation above the banner. I've been to the site 5 times and I just noticed now. I'd still give the pages navigation consistent with the rest of the site and put the bookshelf navigation somewhere else. As a drop-down from the main navigation preferable.

- Also, with the banner again, I would just keep the same banner throughout and put the page headers on the pages. If that makes sense. People are a lot more likely to notice them there.

- I was going to post about the navigation links on the main page to the blog and the forum. Those should be with the rest of the navigation. But now they are gooone. Are you guys changing things right now?

- The bookshelf (which I love by the way) doesn't have covers for all the books. Some have bright red squares. I don't know why, but I don't like it.

- The footer is too big and messy. It should just contain a couple lines of text, anything else should be placed somewhere else on the site where you want people to see it.

- Actually the whole first page is a bit confusing. I'd include a brief blurb, a link to the most recent featured book, and maybe a news update.

- I'd also embed the blog somewhere on the site. This makes the search engines happy because you seem updated more often, you'll rank higher and more people will see the site.

Overall Impressions:
Overall the site is pretty good. It communications it's goals well and has a cohesive vision and look. It's not a professional looking design, but it's also not trying to hard. Simple is good. Three Stars out of Five.

Christmas Update

Well we arrived home last night and let me tell you, I am so tired of being in a car. Soooo tiiiiired. So tired that I was a lazy bum all day. Mostly I just read on the couch. I wore pajamas all day. Anyway, here's a recap of my holidays:

Saturday: Worked and then had the Christmas party at my aunt's house. My parents, grandma and cousin's family were all there. As usual we ate waaaay to much amazing food (we do hor d'oeuvres...and we are all pretty serious about food, so it's pretty much my favourite meal all year). We trade names for gift giving, and my aunt got me the Rebar cookbook which I've been wanting (amazing lentil soup recipe). Barb (my cousin) made me a cute set of owls that spell out "welcome" have to decide where to put them...

Sunday: went to church and then work. Work is pretty chill this time of year.

Monday: Finished baking and packing. I've baked so much that I think I won't be eating cookies for at least a month. Pie on the other hand...

Tuesday: Drove to Victoria with the parents. It was a long drive. However, guess what we saw on the way there! A lynx! I have never seen one before, soooo cool!

Wednesday: we went shopping in the rain. Rain on top of a ton of snow? Not so fun. My parent's were finishing their Christmas shopping and I was in need of clothes. I scored big at Value Village (which is usually not at all the case) with a chunky cream cardigan, a chocolate brown velvety blazer, a cute cream knee length skirt, and most excitingly a killer brown and blue wrap dress. It is summer perfection. Too bad it's December... Anyway then we had a yummy Christmas Eve Fondue and Played Big Brain Academy on the Wii. My brain is pretty big but apparently my brother's is bigger. He will never let me forget it.

(Jen and Joel...their kitty loves cheese!)

Thursday: Christmas! I got some exciting gifts including a set of Nicole Bigg Earrings (that match a necklace I have...she is my all time favourite jewelry designer, and local!) from Craig, a bright orange pottery bowl I've been lusting after by a local artisan and an orange cast iron enameled baking dish from my parents. Erm, and tea, and Jen made me a yo-yo garland... all in all it was fantastic. I made eggnog french toast for breakfast and we had a yummy free range turkey dinner. Mmmmmm....


Friday: We went to the Bug Zoo...they have a ton of different bugs and very knowledgeable staff. I held a variety of stick insects and mantises. No cockroaches or centipedes though, there are limits to these things.

Then Jen and I stayed downtown and did some clothes shopping. I got a bunch of long sleeved t-shirts and a pair of wide leg plaidy dress pants. Which I need to remember to hem... I now don't hate my wardrobe! I've been very frugal in the clothes department but really...I only had one pair of casual pants, and all my long sleeved shirts had holes. We had a good girly afternoon including a Starbucks break (thanks to Tanya!)

Saturday: Saturday my parent's rented a van so that we could go up the coast to Port Renfrew.


Unfortunately we had underestimated the snow. Yeah it was impossible to make it near the park. We stopped at French Beach on the way back though, and I filled pockets with pretty rocks as is my habit.

Oh oh and Craig bought me a Momiji doll on the way back! I love her and she now lives by my computer.

We had a seafood dinner of steamed mussels (my cooking, steamed in white wine and herbs...mmm) and scallops and halibut (courtesy of my dad). So yummy.

Sunday: Drove home. Foreeever. Okay seriously for about 13 hours.

Phew. Too much info? How did your holidays shape up?

Blog Tour: Lost Genre Guild - Day 1

Well I'm safely home. Hope you all had a great Christmas. I'll post more later but for now it's CSFF Blog Tour time.



Lost Genre Guild is a site dedicated to promoting Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy books.

In their words:


Lost Genre Guild was founded by Frank Creed in 2006.
The original members, all part of a writers’ critique group led by
Daniel I. Weaver, joined forces to fill a void on
Christian bookstore shelves and together they compiled
an anthology of Biblical speculative fiction.
The Lost Genre Guild's mission is to raise the awareness and respect for Biblical
speculative fiction, and to encourage, educate and support the writers of such fiction.

Our Vision . . .
Welcome to the literary home for artists, editors, agents, promoters, and fans of Christian sci-fi, fantasy, and supernatural thrillers. Spec-fic is the best selling secular genre, but few Christian authors have been connecting with fans. Demographics show that many Christian genre fans are online. The Lost Genre Guild's been laying infrastructure for Viral Marketing, or, word-of-mouth buzz to promote our lost genre.

They also have a blog here: http://blog.lostgenreguild.com/

Come back tomorrow for my review of the website design. You know you want to.

In the meantime, check out the buzz:
Brandon Barr Justin Boyer Keanan Brand Kathy Brasby Grace Bridges Valerie Comer Courtney Frank Creed Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Janey DeMeo Jeff Draper April Erwin Karina Fabian Andrea Graham Todd Michael Greene Katie Hart Timothy Hicks Joleen Howell Jason Isbell Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Kait Carol Keen Lost Genre Guild Mike Lynch Magma Margaret Rachel Marks Rebecca LuElla Miller Nissa John W. Otte Steve Rice Crista Richey Mirtika Hanna Sandvig James Somers Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Phyllis Wheeler Timothy Wise

More Blocks

These were for my nephew for Christmas (we did Christmas with that side of the family on Saturday). They have my artwork on one side, three sides of cotton, one of flannel and one of corduroy. Filled with recycled fill and a bell. They aren't quite as square as the straight cotton ones, but what can you do.



We are currently driving to Victoria...oh the joys of scheduled posting.

Yulia Brodskaya

I've seen these a couple places this week and had to share. Check out the gorgeous paper artwork of Yulia Brodskaya:

Living Room

I finally took some pictures of the living room. Not sure why, it's certainly not going to win any style awards. If anyone wants to donated a couple couches that are NOT BLUE that would be cool. At least these are comfy.



The mobile over the TV usually has photos but is featuring some Christmas ornaments at the moment. The above couch art collage is my favourite thing right now. There are more ornaments tucked in amongst the frames.



Christmas...erm...vase tree? in the corner with presents. Note the bottom shelf of the bookcase. Yes that's canned beets. All the bookcases (6 of them) in the house have canning on the bottom shelf. I have no pantry. There's some on the ledge in the bathroom too. That's not normal is it..



My computer, by the kitchen counter. Correction, my computers. The new one will get dropped off on Tuesday on our way to Victoria.



Craig's computer. Craig would like a new chair for Christmas. Too bad he didn't mention that a couple weeks ago. And that I already have his b-day gift. He does need a new chair though. And a desk. Man our living room furniture is pathetic, all the other rooms have cute stuff, I don't know what happened here...

Please note the stars on the kitchen passthrough. They make me happy.

World's Best Artichoke Dip

1 can artichoke hearts, drained (NOT marinated, just canned)
1 cup mayo (NOT miracle whip...it turns out nasty)
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese (NOT the powdered kind, real cheese)
1 tube (500g) unripened goat cheese
2 cloves garlic, crushed (microplaned in my world)
1 tsp lemon juice

Mix together, bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Eat with crackers, chips or best of all toasted baguette rounds. Leave no leftovers, they don't reheat well. It won't be hard to leave no leftovers.

I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't love this. I would eat it every day, but then I'd be obese and Craig would have to roll down the street. Like the kid in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, only not blue. So it's only for Christmas.

You should make this for your next holiday party or movie night. Do it!

Christmas at the Pool

So tonight was the Santa Pool Party. An exciting yearly event only surpassed by the Halloween Party. The Santa Pool Party is a lot more fun. Partly because there's a few less children (only 100 or so) and partly because they are ingesting less sugar.

We all have to wear Santa hats...which gets ridiculously warm on the pool deck...and I came out of the change room in my hat and uniform. There were a couple girls of about 4 or 5 in there. One looked up and said very excitedly "Hi San..." and then her voice trailed of into confusion as she looked closer "ta?". The hat a Santa does not make.

One of us does have to be Santa however and it's not a fun thing as you have to wear a full suit, padding, and the beard in 25(80is) degree muggy poolness. We had decided it would be Mark as he has the least seniority. Then I saw Nick getting into the suit and I said to Mitch (who was in charge) "Why isn't Mark Santa?" and Mitch said "Oh, Mark can't be Santa, he's Jewish." And I said "We have Jewish people here? Seriously? I guess I should stop mocking the Season's Greetings signs" (a rant for another time, but suffice it to say that there is no one in town that is celebrating anything other than Christmas...so why not just say Merry Christmas?). Anyway, Nick was Santa (he's 17 and Filipino, is that normal for Santa?) spreading joy and cheer while dying of heat. Then I caught Mark in the guard room and asked "Mark, are you actually Jewish, or did you just want to get out of being Santa?" and he said "There is no way I was going to put that suit on."

Maybe tomorrow I'll tell Nick that Mark's not actually Jewish. It should be a fun time.

I was in charge of snowman bowling. It was a pretty big hit.

Also, we had pizza. That is all for now...

Etsy Love

Here's some pretties for you to enjoy:

1) Beautiful handmade Waldorf doll by Fig & Me

Final Fantasy XIII

If you are a big nerd like me you'll want to check out the new trailers for FF XIII. So pretty.

For the main game: link
For Versus: link
For Agatio (cell phone game): link

Oh yes, this is what will get me upgraded to a PS3...once I finish FFXII

Winter Wonderland

I don't think I've shown off the view we have from our place. This is what we see out our big bay windows in the bedroom and sliding glass doors in the living room. Pretty good for a basement! And pretty pretty after the snowfall...

Anyway, did the windows at work again. I actually wasn't planning on it as I'm not exactly swamped with time these days. But then he was going to hire someone else...so I caved. Didn't want to look at someone else's paintings all winter...is that wrong?

Gift wrap theme for 2008!

If you've ever spent a holiday with me, you'll know that I'm a wee bit crazy about the wrapping of presents. I love it. I love presents to look pretty, so that people are excited before they even open them. And at Christmas, I like it all to match. That's just how it is.

Anyway, this year I wanted to meet some criteria. 1) I didn't want it to be gold and white, because I've done gold and white so many years. I mean, I love it, it reminds me of champagne. But enough is enough already. 2) I wanted the wrap to be eco-friendly. Because, well you know. 3) I didn't want to actually buy anything. Because I'm still just not in the mood. I had considered doing fabric wrap, but that's a lot of money and a lot of work.


Here's what I did:
They're wrapped in brown paper (you could use newprint, or white paper as well) and the ribbon and bow are made of magazine pages. I found a magazine page that was mostly one colour (that's the tricky part) and cut it into 1 inch strips. I used one or two strips to wrap around the present, and turned 8 strips into the bow. I used this tutorial from How About Orange. I just mushed the flower up into a half circle. Viola!


Self High Five.

As if we didn't have enough to worry about...

If you haven't heard, the American government is making crazy laws again. They apparently passed a law in August (which unsurprisingly they have managed to hid for a while) which would require all makers of children's items to have third party testing done for safety. This seems like a good idea for your toys made in china, however for small time toy makers like myself it's a death blow. We would have to pay a third party to test all our handmade items, at hundreds or thousands of dollars a test. Obviously not possible. Personally, I'd have to stop selling to the US in February if this goes through.

If you are American, please please take a minute and contact your representative, there are form letters here: http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/how-you-can-help. And you can sign a petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/handmadetoys/

Even if you aren't American, spread the word! It's all explained much better here: http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/ and there's a facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49551386833

Green Beauty

Just wanted to share the photo project I did up for our hallway. Don't mind the slight blurries, the lighting isn't fantastic back there.

I have these big floating frames, and I didn't really like what was in them (japanese art coasters actually) so I did these up. Each frame has an 8x10, two 4x6's and a quote.


The first is photos from the Chinese and Japanese garden's in Portland. The quote reads "We live only to discover beauty, all else is a form of waiting."


The second is photos from our walk out at Boulder Creek this spring. The quote reads "Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it" (it's Craig's favourite saying).


Anyway, they were easy to do and we really like how they turned out. Sharing time over.

Giveaway Linkage

Check out the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway over at Design Mom.



Oh, and I want those ornaments by the way, soooo cute!


Man, I just realized that there are only 13 days left. Eeeeek! Must sew faster!

Christmas Inspiration: Paper Snowflakes

Well I had a bit of a breakdown yesterday in which I realized some things:

1) I hate my fake greenery. Because it's fake. Plastic makes me shudder.
2) My only working strings of lights are missing since the craft fair. I think they went to my parents.
3) The only decorations I still like are my tree ornaments.
4) I'm just not into spending money. Not on new lights, not on a tree. Not that I'm poor (well I am, but I could buy lights and a tree) but that I'm just tired of spending money.

But do not despair! I have started to figure something out. I'll share more tomorrow once my camera batteries are charged and my house is cleaner. I think it will include paper snowflakes. A lot of paper snowflakes. Because, dude, check out how pretty they can be:

Liquid Paper


Bhind Glass


rdelerosa2008


Bugs and Fishes by Lupin

7 Christmas Facts

Well, I was tagged by Amber to tell you 7 facts about myself. I think I've done that a couple times before. So I will try to come up with 7 Christmas related facts about myself, to mix things up a little.

1) When I was 9(?) I managed to get mauled by a cat right before family photos. I had nasty scratches down one side of my face. Thus there are photos of me and my brother in front of the tree with me always looking sort of to the side...very subtle.

2) I love Christmas cookies (big surprise I know) and my favourite is shortbread. I make standard shortbread and cinnamon shortbread. Sooo yummy. Real butter of course.

3) My parent's cat (who was once my cat, you know, when I lived at home), George, is a tree attacking machine. All the lower ornaments have to be fabric, and we always find them around on the floor. My parents wire the tree to the ceiling as he has pulled down more than one tree in his time. We keep thinking he'll outgrow this, but at 13(?) it seems unlikely.

4) I collect gold star ornaments. Possibly a hangover from when I was a teenager and "Gold star for effort!" was one of my favourite sayings. Possibly not.

5) One year I went carolling wearing the tree skirt as a...skirt. Oh yes, I was 17.

6) My favourite Christmas Carols are "Carol of the Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" Something about minor keys.

7) Speaking of which, at my family Christmas Eve party (which is almost never on Christmas Eve) we each pick a carol and how many verses. I always choose to sing all the verses to my carol. Partly because I really like to sing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" but mostly because it always drove Barb crazy as she wanted to cut the singing short and get to the presents. I still do this. It still makes her crazy.

I tag....oh just do it and leave me a comment. It is for the fun!

An Encouragement to Give

Everyone seems to be worried about money these days and unfortunately it seems that the food banks are ending up with more people who need them and less people who are supporting them this year. I just want to encourage you all to support those in your community and drop something in for the food bank this year. Even just buy an extra can of organic chickpeas (well that's what I would want if I were getting food :P) every time you go shopping for your family this year. I think we can all afford that much, and it can make a big difference if everyone tries to pitch in.

Here's my extra note for my Christian readers: I really do think that giving to our local charities is a huge calling from God. Jesus said that the most important things we can do is love God and love our neighbours. That trumps everything else. So as we're getting close to celebrating his birth, remember how we can share his love to those around us.

I made $500 last weekend. $50 of that is going to the food bank today. Soon actually, I should go pretty quick.

Okay, are you guys motivated? Is there anything you are doing to help those in need this year?

Christmas Inspiration: Garlands

So I'm trying to figure out how to decorate my new place for Christmasy magicalness. And I thought I'd share things as I find them, because maybe you guys need some inspirations too. I've been seeing lots of garlands around the blogosphere this year and it's giving me garland making urges. I don't know which kind though, there's so many pretties! Tinsel need not apply.

Peppermint Garland by PatchworkpPottery


Christmas Garland by TwoLimeLeaves


Christmas Scottie Garland by CreativeBreathing


Pompom and beads garland by GoingSewCrazy


Fabric tied around white lights by sparklecandace


And my favourite:
Forest Treasures Garland by knitalatte11

Big Shop Update!

Go to my Etsy Shop: Leaflette to find all my dolls, birds, wristlets, prints, magnetic paper dolls and fabric prints!

If you want a print of something I don't have listed yet, feel free to email or convo me. I have a lot of prints and it's going to take a while to get them all loaded up.

If you buy something, enter "Hannasblog" as a coupon code, and I'll send you a free 4x6 mini print!

Here's some photos to get you in the shopping mood...

Boothyness

So here's some more photos of my booth from yesterday:





And here's some of my market buddies:

Kelly makes awesome purses out of vintage fabric, I did a trade for one, I'll show you later.


And the soap girls, fun times. I had more friends but not more photos somehow. We all bonded with the slow times and general exhaustion.

Speaking of which, I'm off to bed.