Baby It's Cold Outside

Indigo is a holiday wonderland this year. Their holiday collection is fabulous with so many home decor pieces and gift ideas (hello, look at that gold E!) to inspire the holiday spirit. Sequined throw pillows, gilded trays, effervescent glassware, and Kate Spade paper goods, I want it all!

Since I can't bring everything home I'll settle for sharing the items I'm coveting most.

{1} {2} {3} {4} {5} {6} {7} {8} {9}

PS. In case you're wondering, Christmas is just 37 days away!

What Are You Wearing New Years Eve?

Forget "What are you doing New Years Eve" (though Ella's version is delightful), I'd rather talk about what you're wearing. New Years is one night of the year that requires a little sparkle and I think you can really push the envelope.

My absolute favourite dress up item this holiday is Alexandra Grecco's Karinska Tulle Skirt. This is the skirt my dreams are made of. It's ethereal, feminine and girly but I think you could also get away with wearing it with chambray, a leather bomber or a plaid shirt (like one of my fav bloggers). It sits above the belly button, so how about a cropped bandeau? For New Years I'd go with a simple black tank, a statement necklace and sparkly shoes. It's sold out now, I wonder if I could make my own version?

{anthropologie}

Sequins are always perfect for New Years and I love this colourblock sequin dress from Madewell. It's on sale too!

{madewell}

Nothing says 'holiday' like velvet and this trapeze dress from Aritzia would look gorgeous belted with sky-high booties.

{aritzia}

You know what else is festive? Feathers. This tie-dyed skirt at Zara is really pretty and really reasonable too.

{zara}

I like the idea of being the confetti on New Years with this gorgeously detailed dress by Gryphon.

{shopbop}

So, what are YOU wearing New Year's Eve?

Glitter Deer Silhouette

We had a lovely Christmas get together at a friend's today and I fell in love with an incredible deer silhouette she made in gold glitter for the holidays. It is stunning. The best part? She made it out of supplies purchased at the dollar store for less than three dollars!

Isn't it just lovely?

{pinterest}

Here is what you need to make a Glitter Deer Silhouette:

1. Print off a reindeer silhouette from the Internet
2. Trace onto a canvas (any size!)
3. Apply basic Elmer's glue with a paintbrush to silhouette
4. Cover in glitter!

I'll be making one of these tomorrow, and leaving up all year long. Thanks for the inspiration, Marjorie!

Christmas Cold Season

I always get sick in December. When I was little I would actually make myself sick from the sheer excitement of the holidays: concerts at school, dance recitals and THE biggest day of the year, Christmas morning. Now I just get sick from being worn down. Like everyone else I know, by December I'm simply exhausted.

Christmas cold season struck early this year and I am recovering from a knock-you-off-your feet bout with the flu. I spent Sunday to Thursday in bed, not easy to do while caring for a toddler and working, but as always I had amazing support and my recovery came just in time to take Molly to see the Nutcracker last night. It was her first ballet ever and it was pretty darn special.

Sickness over with, I am now feeling terribly behind in my Christmas preparations. I have not baked a cookie, completed nearly half of my intended crafts and still have most of the people on my list left to buy for. What I really want is to lie down on the couch and have a drink.

Salt Dough Ornaments

Remember making salt dough ornaments in preschool? I do. My mom still hangs them on our Christmas tree.

I thought salt dough would be an easy Christmas craft to do with Eloise so I found a recipe online and invited our friends Ashleigh & Sawyer over with the idea of doing hand prints of the kids to hang on the tree. Except Eloise would not put her hand in the dough ... "No, 's sticky!" she said.

Since Eloise wasn't in the crafting mood I used some cookie cutters and made a bunch of holly leaves, bells, trees and two random rhinos for the tree. Or maybe for gift tags.

Salt Dough

1/2 cup table salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup warm water

Combine all ingredients mix for 5-8 minutes, until the dough has formed and is no longer sticky. Roll dough onto a floured surface, 1/4 inch thick. You'll need lots of flour for rolling. Once cut into desired shapes, bake ornaments at 200 degrees for 4 hours or until dry. I know this sounds like a long time but you want to bake them this long to avoid bubbles in the dough.

Before cutting out shapes I made a pattern on the rolled dough with a Christmas script stamp. My mom has an extensive collection of cookie cutters so I was able to sample from her stash, but you could even use a glass for a simple circle. Use a straw on skewer to make a hole for hanging.

This is one of my almost-finished ornaments. Pretty right? For the finishing touch I'm going to add some gold leaf.

21 Days

There are just three weeks to go until Christmas Day and I wish I could say it looks like the holidays around here, but it does not. Chris managed to put up the Christmas lights on Sunday, but once he had completed the installation he found out that half of them were no longer working. Bah humbug.

We're going to get our tree this weekend and I'm determined to finally get a coat of primer on Eloise's play kitchen, but apart from that I'm not feeling very inspired. Maybe we need to load the PVR with Christmas classics? Actual classics like It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street are always charming, but who doesn't love Home Alone, Elf and Love Actually? And, does Serendipity count?

I took Eloise to the Christmas train in Stanley Park tonight which she loved and I'm hoping to get her to Park Royal to see Santa sometime next week (he's a Miracle on 34th Street kinda guy). Our repertoire of Christmas tunes should set the tree trimming mood this weekend and with that in mind I'll leave you with my most favourite Christmas song of all ...

Snow Globes

{pinterest}

I love the idea of using all the random jars we've accumulated for a fun Christmas craft. These snow globes would be so sweet tucked into garland lining a mantle and I think they'd make a great gift too.

Here's what you need to make Martha-inspired snow globes at home:

Assorted jars (baby food jars work well!)
Animal figurines and miniature trees
Glitter
Distilled Water
Glycerin

Paint the jar lid if desired. Sand the inside of the lid to rough up the surface. Use a water resistant epoxy or glue and adhere the figurine or tree to the inside of the lid. Let the glue dry well.

Fill the jar almost full with the water, a pinch of glitter and glycerin. Add a little more glue to the jar lid threads and screw the lid on tightly, but carefully, so not to dislodge the figurine.

Turn the jar over and watch it snow!

{martha stewart}

40 Days

40 days. That's how many there are until Christmas, so said a sign welcoming me to the grocery store today. There are Christmas decorations on the shelves, Christmas music over the PA and apparently, just over a month to go before the 'big day'. How did this happen? I've just recovered from Halloween.

For the last few years we have been drawing names and following this rhyme for family gift giving:

"Something to wear, something to read, something you want and something you need."

Every person draws a 'wear', 'read', 'want' and 'need' for another member of the family so that they are buying just one gift in each category. This method of gift giving has worked beautifully for us and I look forward to continuing the tradition with Eloise.

Speaking of Eloise, I've got big plans for her Christmas present. This year she will be getting a play kitchen from Santa which I will be making using a bedside table; it's going to have a sink with a faucet, a stovetop, and an oven with a light. I've been looking forward to creating a special play kitchen since before Eloise was born, so I can hardly wait to get started on this project.

Check out my super score from the Salvation Army Thrift Shop yesterday for $9.

She's a little homely at the moment but I've engaged my dad to help with the cutting (you really don't want me around power tools) and I'll be converting this sad looking piece of furniture into a darling kitchen for Eloise.

Here are some of the DIY play kitchens that I've been looking to for inspiration:

{pinterest}

{young house love}

{pinterest}

Little Lion

Eloise's first Halloween was wet. The rain subsided briefly during our quick trick-or-treat around the block but overall it was very soggy. Oh well, I know Eloise enjoyed herself and Chris and I scored a basketful of treats. What? You can't expect me to let Eloise fill up on all that junk, can you? We're just doing her a favour! Haha.

Since I can't resist sharing, here are a few more photos of my Little Lion turned Jungle Cat with a Leopard rain coat this Halloween.

 

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween and with childlike excitement I can hardly wait to get Eloise into her lion costume and see her trick or treat for the first time. We've been practicing "knock, knock, trick or treat!" for weeks and she has the knocking down but the rest has been replaced by a little throaty 'ROAR!' as she gets into character.

I am pretty much tutu obsessed so to start Eloise's lion costume I made a super fluffy gold and brown tutu. Then I used gold lamé lycra to make her a bodysuit (I simply traced a onesie and sewed it together with a zig-zag stitch for stretch) and added brown fringe to the neck and sleeves. Her lion tail is made of gold lamé too, with a lamé tassel at the end and more fringe, of course. I found a pair of leopard print ears at the dollar store and covered them with more gold, adding more fringe and two little gold bows. It's all very over the top, but I'm beginning to feel that our Halloweens are never going to be subdued.

Exhibit A: Eloise's first Halloween Costume, a Bee.

Ba-bee & Gran-bee... get it? (he didn't)

Cute little bee!

 Maybe next year we'll expand on the tutu theme with one of these ...

{boo!}

{snow white}

{pink bunny}

{witch}

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

Perhaps we like our trees just a little fuller...

First there was Norbert, a handsome Norwegian fir. He stood about five feet tall, his live roots wrapped tightly in burlap, housed in a small pot. The intention was to start a tradition with Norbert, a live tree, by decking him out in sparkle at Christmastime then transitioning him to our patio to provide shade and ambiance for the remainder of the year. Poor Norbert, he was dead by summer.

Seriously, how could a man not love this tree?

The next Christmas we opted to look at fake trees since our experience with Norbert was both sad and humiliating, but our search proved fruitless. Since we could not find an artificial tree with the right 'look', and since Chris was dead set against my desire for a pink tinsel tree, we decided to go for the real deal. Our first Charlie Brown tree came from the hardware store and was a beauty that perfectly displayed every Christmas ornament on its spacey branches and glittered with lots of lights. This year we wanted to carry on the Charlie Brown tradition so I am now looking at a slightly 'less' perfect version of last year's tree that is crying out for adornment. I'm going to put on my favourite Christmas tunes by the Vince Guaraldi Trio and get to work. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!