No, not ME, silly. I passed that milestone awhile ago…! I was thrilled to come back from my holidays out west to find that I’d sold a few items on etsy… so I’m now up to 29 sales online.

I’m offering to whomever is my 30th online sale: if you purchase a shirt or tote, you will also get your choice of any EIGHT greeting cards from my shop — as a ‘woohoo! thank you’ gift.

For anyone who isn’t already familiar with m chen wears or totes, here are a few samples:

And as for the cards, you can get a view of them by looking at this listing, though here are a few samples (there are eight designs in total):

Happy new year, y’all :)

etsy.com, m chen wears giveaway

It was a jam-packed holiday visit to Calgary, with loads to see and do. Here’s just a taste of it.

Buffet pants were very much in order for this delish breakfast; John’s sis whipped up some pumpkin waffles with cream cheese, maple syrup and flax seeds:

We took a walk by the partly-frozen Bow River:

We stumbled into the famous Giant Mini Wheats Farm… couldn’t resist trying them!

The funky chandelier made of fallen deer antlers, overtop the dining table — and me being reflective ;)

Oh yes… there WAS po’ boy again:

Beautiful hoar frost… this was taken from the driveway:

I met my cousin’s 18-day old son, Ashton:

Check out what John spotted in the fire — on the left side of the log…!

We made it up to Banff again… Crazy to be able to see the mountains from just about anywhere in town. Another wondrous sight — John wearing my new mitts from his Mom, the way all the cool kids are doing it now:

And deer deer, everywhere were deer… quarreling bucks, then a mum and kiddo:

John’s sis and bro-in-law are the hosts with the mosts — there just ain’t no arguing.

good peeps, in the memory bank Banff, Bow River, Calgary, Christmas, deer, food, giant Mini Wheats, po' boy, pumpkin waffles

I tried this past Christmas to buy all my gifts from other artisans — whether online or at craft sales. It was challenging to exclude all the typical electronic gadgets and scratch ‘n’ win cards from my ‘to get’ list, but it was actually a pretty fun exercise. I did cheat and get a couple of books, but most everything else was indeed handmade.

Here were some of the biggest hits…

My brother got these amazing lego cufflinks and a matching tie clip, from a terrific geeky shop called Cufflinks:

My cousin’s wife, who loooves a good pedicure, got these flip flop socks — to keep her heels warm while her toes are being painted — made by KritterKnitter:

John’s sis got this gorgeous weekly planner from fellow Nova Scotian MyHandboundBooks:

… as well as this heavenly-smelling clover & aloe from MadHatterPottery, who makes the pottery and hand pours the soy-based candle:

And Meredith got an ‘m’-engraved necklace from the very talented Simag:

Thanks to all these talented artists for helping me get terrific gifts this year!

As a big bonus, I was pleasantly surprised to see that three items from my shop had been snagged over the last couple of days. Woohoo!

etsy.com Christmas, Cufflinks, handmade, KritterKnitter, MyHandboundBooks, Simag