O Christmas Tree

My flat is the perfect size for me, but with a tree it might get a little crowded.  Plus a tree would cost money to have and decorate and since i’m a poor student that wasn’t a good idea either.  My Mom suggested a great idea.  She suggested I paint a tree on the big window I have.  So that’s what I’ve done. 


I thought at the same time I would show you the steps I took to make it.  I used acrylic paint since it will come off easily when I want to remove it.  I’ll apologize now for some of the pictures.  They are blurry because it’s hard to take a picture of a window.


Step one:   I took green and mixed it with brown for the darker shades and a little white for the lighter shade.  Then I just painted a tree mimicking the branches.  For the trunk I used brown mixed with black, and then mixed with white for the lighter part.

Step Two: Add lights, just like you were decorating a real tree.

Step Three: Garland next.  I forgot to take a picture with just the garland added. 
Step Four: I outlined the ornaments using the top of a pop can as a stamp.  I also added some ornaments with the copper color.

Step Five:  I filled in the ornament balls with white since I was going to shade them in color.

 




Step Six: Filled in the ornaments with some color.
Step Seven: I added the reflections of the “lights” into the ornaments.
Step Eight: Add Star. (and yes, I made that too.)

Here’s my finished tree:
At Night.

 

During the day:

Merry Christmas Everyone!

How do Canadians Rock? Let me count the ways...

 

This is the main street by the school today.

In case you haven't seen the news, Edinburgh is currently experiencing "arctic conditions" and "extreme weather" conditions.  To us Canadians, it's a regular day in the winter, probably Jan type snow.  Not too cold, the "arctic conditions" is 0C to -7C so far.  We have about a foot of snow in my area and more or less in others.  It does have a few ice layers within it.

 (See the snowman village out there?)

For the last 3 days I listened and cringed at those in my apartment complex getting stuck on the hill (~10 degree slope).  When they get stuck they hold their gas pedal down and rev the engine.  Not only is this extremely ineffective it also makes the hill ice for everyone else.

Today I desperatly needed groceries.  So I went down to dig my car out of the foot of snow it was buried under.  Did I mention that they don't plow parking lots here?  Now it should have been a clue when I was out shopping just before "winter" had started and I saw ice scrapers everywhere by no snow brushes; it's apparent now.  So armed with my plastic dust pan (the closest thing to a shovel I have) I headed to my car. 

First thing that was obvious when I was outside was a guy just uphill of my car stuck and another guy helping to push him out.  I started digging out my car while watching them struggle.  He was also following the "i'm stuck, hold the gas down" ineffective strategy.  After getting tired of watching and listening to "rrrrRRRRR, rrrrRRRRR".  I walked over and told them that it might be better to try rocking the car.  After explaining I was from Canada and was use to the snow of course.  I was going to offer to push but after they completely disregarded any of my advice there was no way I was going to potentially hurt myself by helping them.  So I went back to my car.

Another 5 minutes or so went by and he was still stuck but I noticed that they were starting to rock the car.  (hhhmpft!)  They finally got the car back into the parking space and were giving up trying to get it free.  Then they started questioning why I was cleaning my car off.  I explained that I needed to go shopping.  The guy looked at me and said "you must be brave after seeing what I just went through".  I laughed and said this is nothing.  Both guys then disappeared.

I admit it did take a while to free my car and it involved a few times of getting stuck, cleaning out packed snow and moving forward and back a bit BUT I got it free.  And not only did I get it free I made it up the hill no problem and went on my way shopping.

Here's the parking lot at the mall.  Compared to Canada this is a disgrace!  Parking spots filled with snow and piles of snow.

I ran into a few chatty people in the store and the subject of the weather always came up and they were all astonished that I had not only gotten my car dug out but had DRIVEN it to the mall.

I finished my shopping and loaded up the car and headed home.  I pulled into my driveway; drove down the hill with no problem around the bottom of the building and BACKED UP the back hill so that I could pull into a parking spot with my nose pointed out all ready for future snow fall.

So how to Canadians Rock?
1. dug out own car by myself.
2. didn't give up!
3. got car unstuck
4. drove to mall
5. drove back from mall
6. parked
7. IN REVERSE!!

 

Yeah, Eh!