Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! In my world, it's a perfect day for celebrating bunnies, cute baby spring animals, and (of course) binging on easter candy! Hooray! Since my parents are down visiting for the long weekend I thought I'd turn the tables on them and make a special surprise ma and pa Easter egg hunt for them! However, unlike the egg hunts of my childhood I didn't buy a single panned egg (we always got those, and they are pretty gross):


Nope this year I bought some custom "sugar free for mom" and "anything candy like for dad" bulk treats that I've packed up in some plastic eggs I got in Langford (don't worry, I washed them first). To differentiate mom and dad's eggs I put little pink hearts on the ones for my mom (and hope the will be good enough). Take a gander:


I don't know why more people don't do egg hunts like this! You can fill them with your favourite candies and don't have to worry about getting melted chocolate or candy crumbs all over the house! Hurrah! I hope my parents are excited for their early morning egg hunt! How about you? What sort of traditions does your family have at Easter? What's your favourite candy to hunt for? Anyone else smart enough to stuff those fun coloured plastic eggs?

Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone! Hopefully jolly ol' St. Nick was good to you last night and while I am busy sharing in the holiday festivities with the family (well...most of the family since my sis couldn't make it...) I finally get to share something with all of you! While Fraser was hanging out with his brothers I sneakily made a present for him and am so thrilled with the results! Take a peek:


What's this? Felt, hand stitching, pinking shears, and a hint of yeti? My favs all combined to make Fraser a special stocking:


I originally wanted to embroider one of Fraser's favourite animals on there, but quickly realized that Fraser really only likes orange animals (which would look terrible on the red felt). With the xmas deadline ticking I decided to whip out the 2.25" button maker and make a "big yeti with little friends" button trio to help finish it off! Throw in some matching light blue letters and we've got ourselves one personalized surprise! Take a look at the stocking next to our little xmas tree to see it's full festive glory:


Oh man, I've been dying to share this with you for a good 10 days now and am pleased I didn't manage to spill the beans. Hopefully Fraser likes it as much as I do! How is your xmas going?

After all there's only one more sleep til Christmas

One more sleep until the big day and just in case you're in need of some furry holiday spirit - here's some festive cats to bring you some xmas cheer:


Ah! So cute! Now if only I could convince Percy to dress up this year...

Decoration Roundup!

It may seem a little last minute to still be making decorations - but that is what christmas vacation is all about (okay...not necessarily ornament making, but crafts anyways...). I actually came across so many ornament tutorials this year that I just had to show them to all of you! Let's go:

1) Embroidered Felt Friends (from Wild Olive c/o Sunshine and Carousels)


You know I can't resist a good felt and embroidery project! Especially one letting me anthropomorphize cute little smiles on things! Wild Olive is a girl from my own heart, and her patterns are just darling!

2) Ball Ninja Ornament (via the Cheese Thief)


Another project showing us that simple is better! All you need to do is paint a little skin path on some usually drab decorations, then grab a sharpie and you're done! Who doesn't love ninjas (and super quick craft projects!)?

3) Painted wooden circles (from Apartment Therapy)


Another quick and simple project to help you festive up the joint just in time for Santa! In this tutorial, you just need to buy some wooden disks, attach some eye hooks, and get painting! The best part of this one? Once you're done you could always stash the hook with the decorations and turn your masterpiece into a pendant! What fun! I think some geometric shapes and jewel tone neutrals are calling...

Well, chances are I'll be too busy this holiday to get to these, but you never know, they are quite appealing! What do you think? Do you ever make your own xmas decorations?

Tartan Scotty Dogs!

While searching through old posts from the Fossil Blog (which, I totally love btw), I came across these wonderful tartan wrappings and scotty dog ornaments:


After seeing these I promptly stopped by the fabric store to find a sad lack of anything tartan (at all). They didn't even have plaid flannel! Fabricland! What are you thinking? Oh well, looks like this will go on the back burner for next year. In the mean time I will continue loving everything Fossil comes out with (and their blog current obsessions) and keep dreaming of a reason to buy myself a third (this time in gold) Fossil watch....any suggestions? Can you get tartan fabric where you live?

Holiday Invaders

Confession time - I have a not so secret love for tacky christmas sweaters. Nothing says "bring on the festivities" quite like a hand knit snowy scene, but unfortunately I haven't managed to land my hands on just the right one yet (or even better - his and hers matching sweaters for future Kate and Fraser xmas card photo shoots). Well, when I saw the non-itchy and incredibly geeky silk screened space invaders take on the ugly xmas look, I just had to share it with all of you:


Isn't it awesome? I may be a bit young to actually enjoy the full novelty of space invaders (that can be saved for those born in the 70's) but I do love the geek reference. I also really enjoy the white, grey, red, and green holiday colour scheme! Unfortunately the black tshirt colour may be a bit much for my ultra pale red-headedness, so perhaps I should think about investing in one of these silk screened holiday tees from Vardagan instead:


Ooohooo! What a perfect combination of classic xmas knit type pattern with the joys of a layerable (and not used) tshirt! It may be a bit late to jump on this train for 2011, but watch out 2012 (and Fraser)! How do you feel about ugly christmas sweaters? Anyone up for a sweater party?

xmas cookies!

Fraser and I decided to start our own holiday tradition this year and spend the day baking xmas goodies together! Six batches, and loads of xmas tunes later and we've got ourselves quite the selection of cookies to share. Check them out:


Oh what fun! Looks like that little round dish is quickly becoming my go to cookie display for blog pics (also seen with my healthy oat cookie recipe) but it sure seems to do the trick! As far as the goodies go, we made red and green sugar cookie squirrels, sugar and spice cookies, my own interpretation of chai eggnog latte cookies, shortbread, and (gluten free) angel sweets! Yum! Such a lovely selection of some of my (and Fraser's) favourites! How is your holiday baking going? What are your fav go to cookies?

Need some nuts cracked?

My old boss Dean loves nutcrackers. Each Christmas he covers his piano with loads of festive nutcracker friends to make one impressive (and sort of creepy) holiday decor! Although I do appreciate their interesting detail and handcrafted appeal, I've never been compelled to jump on the nutcracker collecting train like Dean has. When I was busy swooning over the glittery platypus ornament from Curbly, I quickly got redirected to their simplified nutcracker post and fell in love! Take a peek at these lovely modern and minimalist crackers:


Oh ho! There is something to be said about stripping kitchy over detailed decorations into white spray painted simplified works of art! Looks like I've got yet another holiday craft to add to the list! I think a small grouping of these would be just perfect on our living room book shelf, but I think I'd rather skip the whole de-be-dazzling step and just spray some unpainted nutcrackers instead! I am fairly sure I've seen them at craft stores before, so I'll have to keep my eyes peeled once xmas vacation rolls around! Just a few more days to go too! What do you think? Are you dreaming of a white nutcracker christmas?

Painted Plastic Animals - Holiday Edition

If you're a regular on the blog I'm sure you know how in love I am with plastic animal crafts. I've got four DIYs piled up on my crafty to do list (link) and as soon as I saw these glittery animal ornaments I knew the tally would go up to five. Who could resist a sparkly stegosaurus, platypus, rhino, or octopus?


Oh man these are awesome! Looks like I definitely need to find a good source for little plastic animals so I can get creating. I did manage to buy a few woodland creatures I'm going to make some adorable storage out of, but I think the bizarre clash of random animals works best for the xmas ornament project. The folks at Curbly (the makers of the project) found their plastic friends at Michael's (on sale!) so I guess I'll need to follow the flyers and watch for a good deal. The animals I picked up were a tad pricey, so I would love to find some thrifty pals to continue with my painted plastic animal crafts! Anyone have any suggestions on where to pick some up? Are you drooling over the glittery pink dino as much as I am?

Let the festiveness continue!

Well xmas is in full swing around here so I thought I'd take a moment and show off our little three foot tree! It looks very similar to how it did last year (link and link) , with the already placed white lights (can you believe there are 135 on there?), bargain red bells and blue and silver mini balls, handmade yeti tree topper, and sporadic purchased ornaments we've accumulated over the years. I am so thrilled with how the little guy looks all lite up on his doily in the apartment:


I even put a few spare xmas balls on Bob the ficus to continue with the festive decorating (you can see him in the background in that last image)! I am also really loving our new decorations we've got this year too! You may not be able to spot them very clearly, so here's another shot for you:


The kitties were a gift from Fraser's mom (Fraser got the black kitty and I got a brown one) and I bought a few glittery acorns as an early present for Fraser this year. I am really loving how much the tree puts me in the magical xmas spirit and am also enjoying my new xmas house fragrance oils I picked up from Escents. I'm not sure about you, but there is something extra special about the smells associated with this season and I love the house smelling cheery (and not like the deep fried felafel balls and tzatziki I made for our xmas party last night...). How is your tree trimming coming along? Have you got your decorating started?

Elf on the Shelf

While searching around on Pinterest I've seen lots of pins about "elf on the shelf." I was wondering for a while what the heck this whole elf thing was about and (for reasons unknown) I finally decided to google it yesterday. Although I feel this tradition is 100% American, I am a little intrigued by the whole idea! The idea stems from a book explaining how Santa knows which kids and naughty and nice with the help of an elf! After reading the book your family can adopt it's very own elf that with a bit of Santa's Christmas magic, the scout elves keep an eye out for Santa! Just look how cute the little elves are:


Each night your little elf flys back to Santa to report on how your kiddos are doing on the whole "naughty/nice" scale and then get up to mischief around the house! Just look at some of the wonderfully delightful and imaginative things these elves have been up to from Pinterest:

(in this one the elf on the shelf painted each of the kids' noses red)

Aha! I love it! I am sure I would have loved waking up each morning and trying to find what the little elf was up to the previous night! And boy do those elves ever have some shenanigans! Look at all the amazing elf on the shelf ideas from Flickr! Yup, I'm pretty sure if I ever have children of my own we are definitely adopting an elf!

The only thing I don't really like about the whole thing is that he arrives from just after Thanksgiving until Christmas eve. Sure that is fine for American's and their late November festivities, but here in Canada I doubt I'd want to start getting ready for the holidays before Halloween even happens. I guess you could try to modify the tradition to just take place during December (which is much more doable in my mind), but that doesn't really follow the book which kind of takes away from the magic of the whole thing. Alas, I have many years to figure out the details before jumping into that boat. What do you think? Anyone out there take part in the hide and seek elf fun? Are you thrilled to get started now (i.e. Leslie?)? I'd love to hear from you!

double bacon

A few weeks ago I asked all of you for help coming up with ideas for my polar opposite to me secret santa partner at work. I went with the "gag gift" theme everyone suggested for me and searched downtown for a suitable present. I ended up finding the perfect humor book full of unusual and odd facts (something my coworker already does all the time giving him further fodder)! Aha! I thought I'd throw in something handmade to spice up the gift giving a bit more and made some bacon ornaments:


Aren't they cute? I just can't say no to some wide set eye smiles and felt! Plus, the bacon ornament I made last year was such a big hit at work I'm hoping he is this xmas too! Only time will tell though, the party is tomorrow night. Looks like I need to get wrapping! How is your weekend going?

Something is missing...

Well the holiday festiveness is growing here at the ol' Fraser and Kate pad! Not only have I managed to (more or less) finish off the bulk of my xmas shopping, but I've also got all my holiday cards in the mail, my sister and nieces' presents shipped out, and a wreath on the front door! But wait! That's not all! The other day Fraser was kind enough to "chop down" (a.k.a go to the storage locker downstairs and take out of the plastic bag) a little tree for us! Then all we had to was throw on the Charlie Brown Christmas cd and get decorating! Hooray! I am totally in love with having a fake table top tree (and the fact that I left the lights on it so I didn't have to painstakingly attempt that again)! We even have a few new ornaments this year (two kitties from Fraser's mom as well as a few acorns to go with our house's "squirrel" theme) to jazz it up even more! We are, however, missing one live decoration that would add some much needed fuzziness...behold - kitties in christmas trees:





Ahahahaha! Serves us right to bring a tree inside, cover it with shiny things, and then yell at the cat now to play in it! What a bunch of meanies we all are. Too bad we're still very much cat-less as we have not cured Fraser's allergies and still live in (an amazing but unfortunately) pet free building. Alas. Looks like I will have to settle for this blog post of holiday fuzz therapy instead! Any cat owners out there ever struggle with their own indoor tree climbing incidents? How are everyone's holiday preparations going?

Grab the pinking shears!

Nothing like some good old fashioned homemade bows to bring out the holiday festiveness! Who knew you could make brown paper packages look so good? Just take a peek at the gauze, canvas, and burlap awesomeness from For the Love:


Aren't they just lovely? I totally need to whip out the pinking shears and give them a try! Heck, don't stop at the burlap - could you imagine these in...say...felt!?!?! Ack! Looks like I need to start rethinking my xmas wrapping plans! What do you think? Have you ever successfully made your own bows?

oh martha...

It may be a while before the end of October, but after chatting with my mom this past weekend (someone who loves all things halloween) I really wanted to share these fanged pumpkins with everyone!


Ah! Aren't they adorable! And surprisingly simple too - just cut a hole big enough for the plastic fangs, carve out some of the pumpkin guts, then insert teeth and push some pins in for eyes! Perfect! Who would think of such an ingenious spooky new take on pumpkin carving? Why Martha Stewart's team of course! I don't know how they do it, but boy do they ever come up with some amazingly awesome craft projects - especially around halloween! Looks like I will need to try my hand at this one a little closer to the 31st, but for now I'll stick to smiling over this picture instead! What do you think?

Bunny Weekend

With the easter bunny's arrival just around the corner (except not really in my case since I doubt there will be an egg hunt in my household), I thought I'd share this adorable bunny garland from hello clementine:


I just love the fun characters and colours of each bunny and I think this would look great in a kids room year round! I am especially fond of the little glasses wearing bun:


Hehe! So cute! Best of all it's sold as a pdf printable meaning you almost instantly receive it with no shipping cost! Then you can mix and match all your bunny outfits, accessories, and patterns to create a garland just right for you! Hooray! Plus it's only $6 so it won't even break the bank! What fun! Do you have any big plans for the easter weekend?

singles awareness day!

It appears as though we've managed to make it to yet another february 14th and day dedicated to gushy love crap has arrived! I'm (clearly) not big into the holiday (if valentines even counts as one) but I do enjoy appreciating those around me and I am rather fond of hearts! I am also quite fond of dinosaurs and this card from the regional assembly of text pretty much sums up the level of romance I can tolerate (mind the terrible picture - I planned this post late last night when good lighting apparently wasn't available):


Hooray! But I wouldn't say I'm a complete love grinch - after all there are a few things I really enjoy about today - like cinnamon hearts! and that glorious influx of mail! Oh! And I also really enjoy the morse code necklaces from coatt! Just check out this one that spells "love:


That's my kind of love declaration - simple, gold, and amazingly subtle! Woo! How do you plan on spending your valentine's day?

Hello February!

Another new month and another new playlist for the blog! So far 2011 has opened me up to a plethora of new albums to enjoy (very much needed after what seemed like a never ending musical slump) and hopefully this trend will continue! Hooray!

February also seems to be the month where I get really tired of winter and snow and remind myself that spring is just around the corner (at least I hope so)! It also has a few landmarks including my mom's bday (only 20 shopping days left) and (of course) valentines day! I've decided to break out of my usual anti-valentines ways and embrace the fact that february 14th is, if nothing else, a really good excuse for some added craftiness in our lives. It also gives me the opportunity to stop failing as a pen pal and send out some belated snail mail replies! Perhaps even some science themed valentines? I'm loving the darwin card from the intersection blog:


Hehe! Ok chances are I'm more likely to buy valentines and spend that extra time I saved preparing for my next craft show! Yeah! What does february hold for you?

eye spy

Do you ever read a magazine or blog post and get overwhelmingly excited when you see something in an article that you own? I certainly do! It's like the world is telling me that I am extra awesome by being on top of the trends! Well, the other day I was reading an article on winter greens over at poppytalk's blog when I spotted an ornament that I just happened to pick up this winter in kelowna. Let's take a look at the images:



Wait a minute...back that up. Is it true? Let's take a peek at that owl again:


Why yes! It is true! Cute little owl I found at funktional and is currently chilling out on the side of my tree:


He may not be the easiest bird to spot (I did that on purpose since I bought my mom the exact same ornament for xmas and didn't want to spoil the surprise prior to the big day). Let me point him out in case you missed him:


There he is! Hooray! I hope this means that I'm just as awesome as all the ladies over at poppytalk. Oh and house and home magazine (where the images originated)! What fun! Anyone else rejoice when they own something moderately famous?

Happy Xmas!

Hello Xmas! Hope everyone is having a wonderful day with their friends and family and enjoying all the loveliness that comes along with the season! Hopefully santa was good to you today as well (I'm sure he was good to me too!)


No more sitting around the computer for me! I've got a jam packed day of xmas festivities and family time to spend! What are you up to today? Oh and happy xmas everyone! See you tomorrow!