Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

The Enticing Aromas of Christmas

You know it's officially Christmas when the smell of baking fills the air! Nothing quite like it brings back memories of Christmases past and creates the anticipation of Christmas present.

My neighbours came over Tuesday to bake tourtières, a typical French Canadian meat pie that is traditionally served during the Holidays. For me, the smell of the cinnamon, clove and allspice flavoured meat baking represents one of my oldest and and most cherished Holiday memories.

I decorate mine by adding dough cut with a cookie cutter.

This beautiful girl was supervising...

Thursday was cookies and squares baking day with my girls.

Rolling out the dough for the shortbread

Adding the condensed milk to the Puttin' on the Ritz squares

Here they are ready to go in the oven

 Here are our jumble cookies. This is a recipe from Dundurn Castle in Hamilton. 

It's a delicious nutmeg flavoured cookie.

Here they are, fresh out of the oven.

And finally, Magic Squares! Hmmm, always a hit!

And of course, the best part of all this? Christmas baking has no calories whatsoever. Zero. Nada. None. So go ahead and enjoy!

A Peek at my Christmas Decor

It's December 21st. The countdown is on, but I'm practically done! A few stocking stuffers to buy, a baking day with my girls tomorrow, some house cleaning and voilà!

I thought I'd share my Christmas decor with you. This year, I wanted a tree in the living room as we have a nice, tall window, because I love to see the lit tree at night from the outside. This one is a pre-lit fake one we got on sale last year. I decided to coordinate it with the soft blue accents in our living room, so the tree is decorated in blue, silver and cream, which creates a very soft effect.

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And on the mantel:

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I got these reindeer on sale a few years ago. I love their shape! The big bulbs I found at the grocery store, the lanterns are from Ikea. I put electric votives in them, but forgot to light them! 

The ribbon I had, and the white fabric is from Dollarama. I must explain that in Canada we have this awesome chain of dollar stores called Dollarama. It has a cult following. Even well known designers have been known to discover treasures at these stores.

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In fact, these snowflakes are from Dollarama. I pounced on them when I saw them! 

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 I used a lot of decorations from Dollarama in my tree as well as expensive ones. I'll leave you to figure out which is which!

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I got this beautiful glass ball at Bronner's in Frankenmouth, Michigan. If you don't know what Bronner's is and you love Christmas, you must go visit it, it is THE quintessential Christmas store. It is gigantic! We went in the summer and by the time we left, I was craving eggnog really badly, lol!

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Of course, all my wrapping is coordinated...

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On the chest in the front foyer, I tied these giant cinnamon sticks with a white ribbon.

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This is a little vignette I created in a cloche on the dining room sideboard:

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This ornament below is one of my favourites because it combines a couple of my obsessions. A bottle brush tree and a cloche:

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Told you I was obsessed with bottle brush trees!

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I went for simplicity on my table centrepiece. A set of Ikea candles on a brown tray and a few glittery greens: 

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The tree in the family room is real and more traditional in colour, red, cream and gold:

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Another obsession of mine, cardinals! Isn't this one so gorgeous?

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I can't wait to show you our baking creations on my next post! In the meanwhile, I hope your week is not too hectic. Take the time to carve out some peaceful moments for yourself and your family, that's what it's all about after all and it's what you will remember when all is said and done!

I'm linking up with:

 

Upcycled Paper Bags and Greeting Cards

I always save nice shopping bags. I'm a bit of a hoarder that way. If they're in good shape and not creased, I like to reuse and repurpose them. It's a shame to throw them out, some of them are very good quality paper, with satin ribbon or rope handles, perfectly reusable.

Same goes for greeting cards. People spend so much money on greeting cards, which get a quick glance, then get forgotten.

So I thought to myself, self, reusing these bags is good for the environment and it helps save money. It's a win win! Since these bags often have a store or company logo though, I thought of reusing greeting cards by cutting the back part of the card and covering the logo with the front part. 

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I try to use a card that is proportionate to the bag's size and compatible in colour.

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Add coordinating tissue paper, a gift tag (these can also be upcycled from cards) and here we are!

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These are perfect for teachers' or hostesses' gifts, or items that are awkward to wrap. Of course, you don't have to just make them at Christmas. You can repurpose birthday and Valentine's day cards and any other occasion.


This is also an easy craft to do with children. Enjoy!

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I'm linking to:

Better Homes and Garden Christmas Door Inspiration

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Well, hello again! I haven't blogged in so long, I'm embarrassed! I could blame it on life in general, but I'm just plain ole lazy. Or I just don't have my act together. Or possibly both.

I started my blog with the intention of talking about everything and nothing, an all encompassing blog if you will, hence the name, but I find myself wanting to shift the focus to home decor, thrifting and crafting, which are things I have always loved. I have been so inspired by so many other fellow bloggers out there. And you know what they say: write about what you love.

So here I go. We have officially entered the Christmas and Holiday season and so far, the following project is all I have done, besides buying a few gifts. I know, you've got me figured out. Procrastinator here. Guilty. I do my best work under pressure at the last minute. So you may see me do 22 posts on Christmas eve. And then nothing for 3 months.

Anyhoo, I saw this Christmas door decoration on the Better Homes and Gardens website and fell completely in love with it, because it was so different.

Better Homes and Gardens

As luck would have it, I found a very similar silver shell platter for $4.99 at the local thrift store. It had just the right amount of tarnish:

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I created my own version, which is a little fuller. I drilled a hole in the top part big enough to thread the ribbons through (I'm so proud of myself, I just recently learned to use a drill. Me. Using a power tool. Gold star!) I knew I wanted an apple green satin ribbon, but I was also inspired to use a darker, olive green grosgrain ribbon for added depth and texture. I threaded the ornaments on the grosgrain ribbon and tied them with a knot.

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Then I found a glittery pick at the craft store in the same shade of apple green. It was large and long enough so I used it as the background. I found some shatterproof bulbs at Wal-mart: two green pinecones with silver accent and a mixture of greens and brown (the brown ties in nicely with the patina as luck would have it), plus some red for contrast and to tie back to the door colour. I put double-sided tape on the back so that the whole thing wouldn't bang on the glass every time we open the door.

Et voilà!

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If you have a similar platter, but don't want to drill a hole in it, it would also look lovely as a table centre with bulbs and pinecones, on a bed of artificial snow. Leave the tarnish on. The whole idea is to show off that lovely patina.

I would have liked to show you the greenery arrangement I made for my urns but it's raining so hard I couldn't even go out to take a pic! Well, there's a post for another day, so I have no excuse to wait so long for the next instalment!

I'm linking up to: