You might not believe how excited I was/am about the mitten contest I entered. I was so excited when I entered it, and I couldn't wait until the next Monday when we were supposed to find out who won. Well, Monday came and went. I checked the Cafe Cartolina blog with bated breath. There was a list of names. What is this?! Is that my name?! I was in a slight state of shock. As a result of this shock I checked the blog address next to my name 2 or 3 different times. Sure enough. It was me. Allison - allisonjw.blogspot.com. I WON A PAIR OF MITTENS!!!!! 11 people were awarded a pair of the fun red Vancouver 2010 Maple leaf mittens. Do you want to see them? Ask me later....

JUST KIDDING!! I have stalled far too long to make anyone else wait to see the amazing mittens.

New post coming soon. Be ready. Be very ready.

I am entering a contest to win a pair of awesome canada red mittens with a maple leaf on each palm, and the back of the hands say Vancouver 2010 with the olympic rings. One of the ways to enter was to blog about it, so here I am.

http://cafecartolina.blogspot.com/2010/02/come-one-come-all-to-great-canadian.html?commentPage=2

Pretty cool stuff here. You all probably know by now how much I like Canada and love going there. This is just a fun way for me to share some of my Canada knowledge (another way to enter is to list up to 2 facts about Canada), and maybe win a pair of great mittens.

These were my facts:

1.) In 2002 a special quarter was released that is silver with a red maple leaf in the center of it. The Canada Day quarter celebrates Canada's 135th anniversary. It is beautiful. It was designed by Judith Chartier. (If any of you want to see it just let me know and I will gladly show you.)

2.) Also, the Calgary Stampede is held in July every year. It is 10 days long and has been going every summer since 1912. I haven't ever been to the Stampede, but I have been to Calgary and know that my friends from Calgary enjoy it every year.

Another fact is the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel is called Canada's Castle in the Rockies (according to a video I have about the hotel.) Talk about beautiful. I have pictures of this dream land as well.

Ok, I will stop for now.

p.s. if you want fun facts about Canada go back to my post for July 1, 2009. aka Canada Day.

Tonight the sun is scheduled to set at 5:29 pm and rise tomorrow at 7:30. This is wonderful news!

Tuesday night after the majority of our snowfall I decided to go outside and try to capture what I could. I also wanted to experiment with different shutter speeds. I haven't done much night photography and figured this was a perfect time to get in some practice.
One of the silly things I did was I forgot that since I had the camera on manual that I had to focus the picture myself. I caught this well before I was halfway done, but if any on here are blurry that is why.

Overall I am pleased with how they turned out. I am excited to take more night pictures and experiment. I am also excited for more snow. Maybe Christmas morning. A girl can hope.

I like this one a lot.

Can anyone guess what this one makes me think of?

Junction City was my home away from home for the weekend. I went to stay with my Dad, step Mom and step Grandma. They are a fun crew. I definitely had my fill of Lifetime and Hallmark channel Christmas movies. (extremely cheesy santa characters who had even more ridiculous ho-ho-ho's. I enjoyed spending time with them though.

Saturday morning I met with my uncle Ronnie who is amazing. My whole life I have looked up to him and have learned so much from him. We spent three wonderful hours talking about work, life, the L-rd, and so much more. I cherish every second I get to spend with him, and I hope for many more years of intelligent, loving, real life conversation.

After my hang out time with Ronnie I decided to drive around Junction to find a place to take pictures. I decided to drive out to Milford Lake-Grandma Jan told me it is the largest lake in Kansas. I was there once before a couple of years ago. I didn't where I was going. It was fun to wing it. The place I found probably wasn't a very popular spot. There was a little dock and a cool rocky point that I walked out on. Other than the wind the day was beautiful. The sun was shining bright and the sky was dotted with clouds. I took a lot of pictures out there. I am excited to go back to other locations at the lake to take more pictures. Freezing temperatures + water = icy rocks on the point. While I was taking pictures on the point I noticed a large white area over on the little beach. I figured it was something covered in ice. Was I correct? Yes I was.

It was actually pretty cool. This was the only spot like this in the whole area.

I finally uploaded pictures of the macaroons that I made a few weeks ago.

I also did some baking for Thanksgiving.

I used my Great Grandma's recipe for the dough. It was a lot of fun to make it from scratch. I made this cherry pie and a pumpkin pie.