What are you doing New Years Eve?

We made it to the end of 2012! No Mayan end of the world for us it seems (well I guess we already know that a while back)...so onto the year end New Years Eve celebrations! My plans for new years? Something on the line of this:

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Haha. Hopefully I make it past the couch and into a nice cozy bed but since I'm practically border-lining octogenarianism it's early to bed for me! Have fun and be safe out there friends!

You know, just hanging out doin' the splits.

Hahaha! Another wonderful animal expression:

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The majority of my bird watching lately has been seeing all the lovely little hummingbirds pop by my feeder (well...when I'm at home and not on vacation) but this little marsh wren would be a nice treat! Especially if he was hanging out doing the splits! Hehe! 

Surprise!

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Haha! Back to kitties! I just couldn't resist this little dude. Hope you're having fun finishing up December!

Oh yes.

Just in case you were wondering...I like puppies too. Here's one for any of you non-cat people:

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Fraser and I both really want to get a dog but think it will be quite a few years before we're in any position to adopt one. For now the pictures will have to do...

The cuteness continues...

One of my favourite things about kitty pictures are the priceless facial expressions they have. This one cracks me up every time:

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I figure he's thinking, "What Kate! You're finishing 2012 with lame cute picture posts? What about the crafts?!" Yup. Sorry little ginger kitty - I'm sick and the crafts are on hold! I'll be sure to be back with lots of fun soon enough! 

vacation cuteness!

While I am busy living it up (also known as R&R if this stomach flu keeps up) in Vegas I thought I'd take a cue from when Fraser is away and give you all a cute picture to keep you occupied while I am gone! If I was still in town I'm sure I'd be organizing and playing with all my fun xmas goodies much like this girl is with her kitties:

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Nothing says cute quite little kittens hanging in stockings right? I thought so! How was your Christmas? Any big Boxing Day planeroos? 

Happy Xmas!

Happy Christmas everyone! Fraser and I are having a nice quiet day at home getting ready for our big trip to Vegas!! Woo woo! I promised I'd share some finished pictures of our wee little tree in all it's glory so today is the perfect day for it! Check it out:

And now for some close ups - can you tell I like woodland themed ornaments?

Oh, and robots...

Here's one last one pulling it all together once the sun goes down:

How are you spending this Christmas? 

Snowflake Card Clothesline!

I figure I had better put up all my festive decorating pictures quickly before xmas has come and gone (boy time flies!) so today I'm sharing my snowflake and holiday card clothesline! Take a peek:

Isn't it fun? In past years I've set up my cards on top of the tv but since they always end up falling off or piling so I can't see them I bought a card clothesline from Lee Valley at the  begging of the month. I'm sure you could make your own version (since it's just nylon cord and mini clothes pegs) but it was reasonable and came in a cute tin! Yay!

Next I decided to whip out the perler beads and designed and ironed up loads of different white snowflakes! Then it was just a matter of stringing them up with some butchers twine and using more mini pegs to hang them up! I had such a great time making up the snowflake patterns and am really pleased with how it all came together. Here are a few more images of some of my snowflakes:

Hooray! What do you think? What do you do with cards when you get them? 

Festive Date Night

As part of our advent calendar activities Fraser and I had a fun festive date night downtown! We went out for a quiet dinner and then checked out all the decorated trees at the Empress! I loved the fancy gold ornaments on this tree:

and couldn't resist taking a picture of the giant tree in the lobby!:

Heck, even the tour busses were dolled up:

Then it was a quaint little stroll checking out the lights in the inner harbour and at the Parliament buildings: 

Hoho! Aren't those fun? Not quite as adorable as this horse in a wee little santa hat though - he is just darling!

Yay! We finished off the night with hot chocolates and a cider and a lovely car ride home listening to Charlie Brown Christmas! Oh how lovely! Have you been doing any festive sight seeing this year? 

Stockings for Advent

So I was a little late on posting this project - since the month is almost over - but I am so proud of my crafty productivity this December I figured better late than never! I've been drooling over all the cute advent calendar ideas out there and decided to make Fraser his very own using little felt stockings!  Take a peek:

Although I'm sure I could have make my own stockings, I picked these mini ones up from Michaels and wrote the days on them glitter paint pens! Then it was just a matter of hanging them with some stripy butcher twine and fill them up with goodies! I opted for little notes suggesting festive activities to do together, as well as some traditional chocolates, and a few scratch and wins! So far Fraser seems to be enjoying it and I love how they look hanging in our living room! Here's a detail shot so you can see some of the different stocking patterns:

Hooray! I can't wait to reuse this baby year after year - so here's to hoping it holds up! What do you think? 

Holly Jolly Crochet Holly

At the beginning of the month I did a post showing a fun crochet holly gift topper pattern (link) and was extra excited to try it out for myself! I modified it a bit (as I seem to do with all my crafts) and decided to go with three little holly berry poms instead of one! The result? One awesome crochet holly:

I wanted a little more versatility than just wrapping for gifts so I sewed a bar pin on the back and voila! Instant awesome handmade festive brooch:

Yay! I experimented a bit with the pattern and holly designs and ended up making two of the three leaf hollys and two with two leaves crossing over a bit:

I think the two leaf holly pieces would look extra cute pinned to a xmas stocking and love how the three leaf pin looks on a cardigan! What a festive look! I even sewed a hair clip to one of them and am wearing it to work today! Hooray! I'm so happy with how they turned out and love actually completing craft projects once in a while! What do you think? Are you going to attempt your own crochet jolly holly? 

my new favourite ornaments!

A wonderful parcel arrived yesterday and just look at what was inside!

Oh my! Fraser's parents (most likely his Mom I'm guessing) are the best! One of the wonderfully wrapped gifts inside said "open right now" and once we did I was squealing with excitement! Who doesn't want a nice pair of festive sparkly amanita toadstool ornaments? That's right - there's two of them! Take another peek:

Aren't they fun? It's been extra challenging to get good picture taking lighting this time of year (with the very short/non existant natural sunlight and loads of rain) so once conditions are suitable I'll be sure to snap some pictures of how amazing they look on the tree! Yay! What are your favourite holiday ornaments? 

Not completely dead...

Now that the hours of daylight are getting shorter and shorter my well loved (and barely surviving) xmas cactus has decided to bloom!

Hooray! I decided against showing the whole plant since it is pretty charlie brown looking and dismal...but here's to hoping I can find one around town (perhaps even in a different colour) to plant next to this dreary remnant and really spiff up the pot! Yay!

In other news - after three years or daily blogging I'm considering cutting back for 2013. It may just be my stomach flu talking, but I'm finding less and less time for quality blog time and wouldn't want to spam you all with my filler type posts. Everyone likes weeks filled with random internet cats right? No? Well...we'll see how 2013 rolls as far as blogging goes...Any thoughts? 

fun with sparkly pipe cleaners!

The other day after work I took a peek into the dollar store to see what fun holiday themed goodies I could find. I ended up being drawn to a very sparkly bag of xmas pipe cleaners and (of course) picked it up! Who could pass up a big ol' bag of red, green, silver, and gold goodness just waiting to be crafted with! So I brought the sparkly joy back home and decided that these particular pipe cleaners were destine to become xmas candy canes! Yay!

This craft probably qualifies as kid friendly since it is incredibly easy, minor motor skills are required, and all you need is pipe cleaners and snips. It also lands in the "my favourite kind of craft" project because it takes all of one minute to complete. Ready? Let's go:

Step 1: Pick out a nice combination of candy cane pipe cleaners and line them up

Step 2: Twist away!

Step 3: Grab the kitchen scissors and snip your twisted sparkly stick into smaller pieces. I decided to go with three canes per cleaner, but you could easily make them as big or small as you'd like

Step 4: Bend the top of your piece into a festive candy cane shape and you're set!

Step 5 (optional): Go crazy and make yourself an army of canes!!!

Now wasn't that fun? What do you with your masses of festive candy canes you ask? Well those options are endless!  I decided to hang some of the candy canes on my little tree as tinsel and they really add some extra sparkle when the twinkle lights are on. I taped some to some holiday parcels as a little gift topper and ended up decorating a stocking with them too! Finally I sent the remaining canes along with a few xmas cards to some pals who will hopefully have their own imaginative new homes.  If I had a cat I would have happily taken pictures of nameless cat (probably) going wild over how fun they are to play with! Hooray!  What do you think? Any pipe cleaner candy cane uses I haven't thought of? 

ho ho ho photojojo

Until a few days ago I had never heard of Photojojo (link).  If you haven't experienced this lovely piece of internet real-estate, let me fill you in. It's a sweet blog and online shop overflowing with great photography tips, trinkets, and supplies! After peeking in, I was overwhelmed with goodies I have always wanted and never actually been able to find like an iphone remote, fun clip on lenses, and tripods! I jumped on the photojojo train and ordered some fun items and even got a $5 off coupon to share with you: 

l must say the holiday themed dinos really topped off the entire experience and once my order arrives I will be sure to share how much I love my new goods! How about you? Have you heard of this amazing site? What is your extent of photography knowledge? 

secret santa

Guess what? I'm back! I'm still on the mend from this stomach virus I can't seem to kick but I've been busy crafting up a storm so I wanted to pop back in and share some with you! Hooray! 

So what's new with me? Well, this year I landed an easy secret santa partner for our exchange at work!  Since I know she happens to be a fan of my homemade earrings, all I needed to do was whip a few pairs up and put them together nicely on a card. Bring out the crafting supplies and this is what I ended up with:

Take a closer peek at my traditional recycled cardstock with a hint of rubber stamp and some washi tape and bam! There it is

I even got to use my new lovely lowercase letter stamps to personalize the whole things with my secret santa's name (Emily) on the bottom:

Now to wrap it up in an inconspicuous box so she will have no idea what she's receiving (well...until the opens it...):

Yaayyy! What do you think? Do you partake in secret santas? 

Happy Caturday

I'm not sure if Caturday is a regular feature, but it is while I'm running the joint.

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Have a great weekend everybody!

Friday Find: mmmcrafts

mmmk!

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These are too cute!  

Larissa is incredibly talented in all things crafty.  Like our Kate (Sorry to imply that you are an object we posses) she is a pro with felt.  In fact this week alone she has posts on how to improve cutting!  

I need to follow some of her tips!

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Look at those skills! And that detail!

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I do love her little craft patterns, like Little Red.  It sometimes is nice to just follow instructions, knowing that the project will work.  

One more day of rest and I think Kate will be back on the blog.  She has had a lot of craft happenings this week.  I pray cheeses that we have iphones and can picture message our lives!

Shark Attack!

Nom Nom Nom

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Ahhh!  It is so amazing.  Since Kate is sentenced to bed rest she has ample time to study this image and make a pair for me!  They clearly fit well with my 26, and single ways.

If you aren't 'Kate' skilled with a hook you can buy the pattern over at Craftsy.  

It is only a beginner level too! 

Gifts From Home

Do you ever forget it is Christmas?  I am notorious for having the season sneak up on me.  Easter is a tricky holiday, always changing weekends.  Christmas, however is the same day.  Always.

I've been trying desperately to come up with a few simple gift ideas.  

What do you think of these?

Twig Push Pins! 

Anthropologie Confetti Tumblers! 

                  

Clay Plates

What gifts are you making this holiday?

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The Days of Christmas

A couple years ago our tree started as one of those saplings that are given out to save the earth.  My Dad planted it the year before and then dug it out of the ground and plunked it in the middle of my Mom's white living room.  He insisted that it was our Christmas tree- black plastic pot and all.  

My mom took a little bit of wrapping paper and wrapped it around the base.  We looped on some ribbon, and lights.  Mom and I made origami ornaments, and a tin foil star.  

It was wonderful!

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I love crafts that are simple, and bring charm into my life.  So when I saw this incredibly classic craft from BrittanyMakes I thought "of course"!  Look at that gold sparkle! and sharp edges!  And minimal supplies (which could be reduced further)!

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Brittany has a whole site dedicated to sensible creativity, which I simply adore.  If you have time, check out her scarf from pjs!

What are your favorite decorating memories?

PS- While Fraser is looking after our Kate, I will be here until Caturday (or so).