Looking Back

Well, we made it through the holidays, with full bellies, good times spent with family and friends (even the furry ones), and some post Christmas shopping, we had a wonderful week off!

As we approach the New Year this evening, I always like to look back on the year to see what we accomplished, what we're thankful for and what to do with the year ahead!  It was a big year in the relationship department with our engagement in June. A summer 2013 wedding will likely make the first half of the year fly by! As I take a look at my New Year's post from last year, I see that I' ve achieved a few of my goals, and still have a few to work on:

1. Menu planning was the biggest disapointment on my list this year. I tried for a few weeks at a time, and when I made time for it, I found it helped, but I just didn't make the time. I also found that if I made a plan, I wasn't as flexible as I needed to be to match our busy schedules. I think planning at least 2 meals a week is a good goal for 2013.

2. On the blogging side, I think I met my goal. For me, 3 posts feels about right and I am going to continue with that this year.

3. Despite Chris' objections, I feel I did a great job purging throughout the year. We gave away at least 6 large garbage bags worth of clothes, books and household items this year. We still have a ways to go with our January cleaning, but definitely making progress.

4. I did rearrange the office space, which I am pretty happy with including repurposing an old cart. I'd still like to get our diplomas on the wall before the end of January.

5. I'm proud to say I met my yoga challenge, and I've actually started doing pilates fairly regularly as well. I find online deals are a great way to check out new yoga and fitness studios. I think I've bought 3-4 Groupons this year for fitness.

Looking into 2013, there are some other goals that I would like to work on including finishing my post grad certificate, having a fairly stress-free (for everyone involved) DIY vintage wedding, sewing more and starting a new activity or hobby with my soon to be husband!

What about you, and plans for 2013 you'd like to share?

Holiday Cookie Tray 2013

This is the cookie tray I am bringing to Chris' parents house on Christmas Day! It is a combination of my treats as well as a few from the cookie exchange!

So far, I have made:

Peppermint Patties
Sugar Cookie Cutouts
Homemade Oreos
Homemade Twix Bars
White Chocolate Cranberry Bars
I also found a peanut butter cup recipe that I need to try, so there may just be one late addition!

Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday with your family and friends

Mountain of Oreos

I always have a hard time deciding on my cookie club cookie each year. This year I went with homemade Oreos from Smitten Kitchen. They looked fairly easy to make and my friend Jess also made them recently.

They were quite easy to make, but keep in mind that oreos have 2 sides (who knew!), and that means double the amount of cookies for whatever you are baking for. In my case, I needed to make 6 dozen plus some to share for cookie club, so this meant 3 batches and over 180 cookies!

Our power went out just as I finished making the frosting, so you can picture me piping by candlelight!

They're pretty tasty, although very very sweet, so you may want to reduce the sugar in the actual cookie as the filling makes up for it!

Here they are all ready to go:)

O' Christmas Tree 2013

Last year's post about our getting our Christmas tree and setting it up was by far one of the most popular, and the one in which I really felt I was actually becoming a legitimate blogger. This year's tree process was so incredibly normal opposite to last year, it's really not even funny (seriously, no comedy here at all...read: nothing brilliant to blog about).

1. We decided due to the hundreds  thousands of needles that came off the uber dry ikea tree last year to change our source of supply, so off we headed an hour north of our house to a sweet little tree farm. Ten minutes on the road to said farm we noticed a guy selling trees in a strip mall and decided while not as romantic, they looked good, would probably be cheaper and we could eat lunch sooner #tummyleads theway.

2. The nice man that sold us our tree made a fresh cut on the stump, meaning Chris did not have a chance to show off his lumberjack skills this year #thankmyluckystars.

3. We were able to get the tree in the house in the first attempt, and into the stand (the trusty Omega from last year) in no time at all. There were woops, high fives and all round good cheer that we Chris mandated a smaller tree this year!

4. This afternoon I decorated the little guy (he's still over 6 ft), and enjoyed discovering all of
of my decorations all over again #betterthanchristmas. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I purchased some beautiful red plaid ribbon last year on boxing day. I love how it turned out with my ornaments. It did however mean I needed to cover my new tree skirt with a red pashmina, as the plaids do not match (i.e two very different colours).

Hope you all had a great weekend. Happy Monday:)

DIY Friday: Vintage Frame Card Holder

I really wanted a place to display my Christmas cards this season. At first I thought just about pinning twine to the wall, but because this old guy gets displaced for the holidays (our tree goes in my thrifted corner)- I thought I could put him to use! I love this old frame, it is an Aberfoyle find, and all I had to do was win two lines of twine across the back. I think it turned out pretty great for a spur of the moment project! When it gets full, I can always pin the extra cards around the frame.

The Finished Look:

Happy Friday, we're finally getting out tree on Saturday and I am EXCITED!

On The Weekend

I finally tackled some of my to-do list on the weekend! I decorated the house, did some Christmas shopping, did some gift-wrapping and a bit of baking. I'm starting to feel a little bit caught up. We didn't get our tree, but hoping to make that an evening project for one night this week...I also managed to do a couple projects (finished another grain sack pillow and a special DIY I will share on Friday:)

Hoping you had a great weekend, and checked some things of your list as well!





DIY Friday: Grain Sack Pillow

As promised, here are the details on my Sunday night project! I have had this grain sack that I purchased at Christie for almost 2 years, just waiting for the right time to do something with it. Well that right time came last weekend when I became increasingly frustrated with the current pillow covers, and wanted a brand new option that was big enough to hold the pillow but still fun and worked with the rest of the decor.

I simply measured the pillows, divided the grain sack in two and sewed the bottom (while inside out) to make the pillow. Then to create the closures, I used navy satin ribbon, sewn on both sides and closed by tying  bows. A tip for finishing satin ribbon ends is to cut a clean line and singe the ends with a lighter. I love how it turned out, and I just need to repeat the process on the other end of the grain sack to make the matching pair!

Happy Friday everyone, hoping you all have a wonderful weekend, and accomplish everything you set your mind to! I'm hoping decorating, studying and baking is in my future, with a road trip to pick up our Christmas tree!

Holiday Push

I don't have my Christmas decorations up, I don't have a tree (this Sunday hopefully), I haven't written all of my Christmas cards, and I haven't finished my shopping. Baking...what baking? The list has been made, but nothing has been baked!

That said, when I come home at the end of the night, I have these two sweet little ones to make it all feel ok:) I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished this weekend, and if I don't...that's ok too!

Mr. Boy-Cat sitting on the tub of decorations, it's his new favourite place!

Missy the Ham, lounging on Chris!

It's Not Easy Being Green

Did anyone else catch Cee Lo singing with Kermit the Frog on The Voice a couple of weeks back? I thought it was pretty clever, and it made me smile hence my post title! If you missed it, you can check it out here:

I didn't get much in the way of holiday decorating done this weekend, just the front door mat and holiday dishes have been brought out. That said, I capped off my weekend with a cup of tea and some time with my Singer (who knew I had a matching mug), which was just about perfect. I will be sharing my project later in the week:)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!