Each year we have an outside movie party before Christmas , this  year it was Elf starring Will Farrell.

I love a theme and I try very hard to make the kids smile even though it’s generally really cold! Beanies and blankets are the requirement to attend , and the ability to eat your weight in sugar from the candy buffet.

I wanted to have a selfie with an elfie board made but having left it too late , and the cost of someone making it on short notice prohibitive, I set about it myself.

Grabbing the DVD box and a sharpie marker I made an outline. My husband used a jigsaw to cut out the face hole for me , dropped everything bless him. When he says ‘when do you want it?’ He knows ‘right now’ is usually the standard answer. I don’t wait, I cannot wait, I shouldn’t have to wait….yikes , I’m that person.

 

Anyhoo.. The Elf, was drawn and face cut out. I found my acrylic paints and painted it like I was in 1st grade again colouring in a picture for my family. It was very relaxing and pleasing to my senses.

A lot of people chose to have a photo as the Elf and I was very pleased with the results.

Who knows which movie we might choose for next year , but I do believe I’ll start my planing a little earlier than the week before !

One of the appealing features in this little old farm house that we bought is the wood burning stove. It looks old, it is old.

Unfamiliar with this type of stove and chimney we called in an expert chimney sweep.  It just happened to be before Christmas and he bore an uncanny resemblance to Santa Claus!  When the kids came home from school I told them that the gentleman had stopped by to “check out the chimney  to see if he would fit  “.  They made their own assumption !  It was very sweet (  and naughty on my part ).

He was a great sport letting me take his photo!

My next step was to clean the rust  off this old stove.  I googled the how to’s  and found that using Crisco and steel wool  was the best option. Well really ,those were the ingredients I had readily available.

 

 

The only problem I had with this, and it had been discussed online, was that the first few times your fireplace is lit , it smells  you are cooking on a frying pan!

 

My way , I found to combat this , was to place a cast iron kettle on top of the stove with Trader Joes mulling spices in the water. Not only did this make the room smell amazing, but also brought some much needed moisture into the room. See photo at the top.

I am still experimenting with which kind of wood to use because I find that  freshly cut wood is too wet to burn ,and some woods are harder than others.  The pine burns quicker than walnut.

Being a firefighter’s wife sure helps  when you want to be a firestarter !!