Christmas Crafts

This year I've decided to do my best to make some gifts and decorations for the holidays rather than buying everything. Although I still have to purchase materials to make these lovely items, it's cheaper in the long run and I'll be able to create more than just one thing. The bonus is that Q is incredibly creative and I have a stockpile of odds and ends that we already had many of the base materials required. Anyways, here's a little sneak peek at one of the crafts:

For all my Instagram friends, this is old news. For those who are not following me on Instagram, here it is! We are hosting a Christmas party this week and to give it a bit more jazz, we are setting up a photo booth (photos to come once complete). I've been gathering props and made these little signs. Tedious (I have to figure out a better way next time), but so worth it. I love them! Especially the fonts. You like the fonts too? Here's where you can find them: www.dafont.com

This site is fantastic! An ungodly amount of fonts that are free! FREE! Very easy to download and install, plus they're extra fun for graphic and photo editing projects. The ones I used for this project were "Happy New One" (Nice) and "Christmas on Crack" (Naughty) at 200 and 160 point font size respectively. All I did was print them out, use an artists blade to cut them into stencils, trace onto scrapbook paper, and fill in with a black marker. Simple. But tedious for sure. 

Are you trying your hand at little projects like this? What are you making? Share!

More crafts to share with you in the coming weeks!

breathe

xoxo

I Found A Few Little Things

I thought I had cleared off the memory card in our camera but it appears I cleared out most of it. What was left were a few shots of our Thanksgiving weekend trip to Surrey/Vancouver, a bit of Halloween and this year's Christmas decorations. For your viewing pleasure...

These fun guys were at English Bay, the tip of Stanley Park (I think).

The Tree of Gondor!

On the drive home.

The majesty of Mount Robson. Damn clouds.

More on my pumpkin later.

One of my new ornaments, but this is my favourite one of 2012.

xoxo

Gasp!

Pretty sure Q would shake his head at me if I ever did this for Christmas:

via

I think this is fantastic! We all know that I love Christmas and decorating for the season. In order to make this happen in my house I would have to move the sofa out of the living room. Guess I have to think of something else. :)


xoxo

PS: There is an element of this photo that adds to my decorating inspiration for this year. Can you guess what it is?

Christmas Day!

Then it came! Christmas Day! And what a wonderful day it was. We got to see a pretty good handful of family in three stops. First "stop", stockings and gifts at home with Momma, Seestor, Q, and the kitties. Everyone received fun gifts, beautiful gifts, useful gifts, and surprise gifts. Such a nice morning and very glad to be home for Christmas. :)

Second stop, the aunt and uncle's house, the one with the amazing backsplash that I had mentioned before and never got a photo of, well friends, I got one!

Ok so it's not the best photo, but I really like this backsplash.
It's so pretty in person.

Necklace from India. From Me to Seestor. Pretty sweet lighting.
Guess how.....give up? It was the refrigerator!

New dress cape from Momma. How cool?! I got a cape! Thank you!

Christmas outfit! New cardigan from Seestor (Thank you! I love it!) and new
tights from Momma (Super comfy, thank you!). Black Friday boots and Wal-Mart Skirt.

Third stop, Christmas dinner at Q's family's house. It was a delicious meal and a fun evening. Nephew was there. And for the first time, I was referred to as Auntie. That felt so good I nearly cried. I'm an Auntie! Now I have to work on being super cool, or just cool. Nephew said I had goofy glasses and he was very encouraging when we played Super Mario. He said, "You're doing really good" when I really wasn't. He went back to the beginning of the game so I could play with him. He is clearly better at Super Mario on the Wii than I am. I'm good at that game but on Super Nintendo. Old school. 

The English family's tree.

Q chose well. This gift was a huge hit.....with everyone. We all wore it or tried to wear it. 

Mum as Ironman. IronMum. Q was thrilled, this was a moment to behold.

This moment melts my heart. I love you Q.

Cool Uncle Q.

The story of this shot is: Nephew got a pirate ship which Q and I
happily put together for him. Once it was whole, I had to take a test shot with
our new camera. Me future Mum and Dad got Q and I a fancy dancy camera.
Totally unexpected. Thank you!

All in all, a great Christmas, wonderful gifts, warm hugs and good food. Many laughs and smiles, and best of all, I gained on official title: Auntie.

Happy Holidays friends!

xoxo

Time To Catch Up!

Alrighty, here it is, the big post with the holiday photos to catch up. I have also decided that there won't be a tour of the new place because a) it's been busy and too messy to photograph, and b) I'm a little lazy and I forget about it every now and again. Sooooo.....sorry! But here's some other stuff for you to feast your eyes on:

Seestor's birthday cake: a coconut cheesecake with an oreo cookie crumb and coconut crust. Homemade by yours truly.

It was tasty (thank goodness!).

I decorated various trees this year.

The tree in the House of F (pre-baubled).

Seestor's crazy.

The Bee tree. This is what I imagine an acid trip to be like.

Some casualties along the way (and many afterwards due to curious kitties).

Momma's 2011 ornament.

Q (Jack) and myself (Sally). Our 2011 ornaments.

Seestor's 2011 ornament.

Christmas Eve: A Frost Carnival.

You were given 2 tickets to start with when you arrived. Two tickets and
whatever you thirsted for. In order to eat from the fantastic menu, you had
to play carnival games to win more tickets. I managed to eat half of the menu.
It was the best carnival food I've ever eaten.

One of me BFFs and the host of this fun Christmas party.
I heart you Petros!

Q won some tickets on this one. I won more. Just sayin'.

The largest of the pups in the Carnival house: Jewel. A beautiful and friendly briard.
I fixed her ponytail so she could see the party. Isn't she pretty?!

Q's sweet steal in the tacky gift exchange.

Mine and Q's tree etc.

Next post: Christmas Day!