Homemade Christmas

Mark made some "Zen Blocks"—wooden rocks—for my dad who loves stacking rocks.

Stitched notecards like this one I made earlier.

Mark also made toy chests for the nieces and nephews (and I put their names on them).

Hot Cocoa using this recipe, scaled up. And scented sachets filled with lavender and pineapple-coconut tea (mmm, tropical!). For the tropical scented sachets I used the same upcycled sheet with the spring-floral pattern that I used for the belt on this dress. I still would like to make a vintage-style apron from the rest of it...

Printed notecards following this ingenius tutorial. Using only a styrofoam tray and a pencil, printed on salvaged paper samples. Quite possibly the first time I followed through on making something after pinning it... Almost forgot to spell joy backwards; though it would have been funny to wish people a Christmas full of YOJ.

Festive

The Christmas spirit has been late settling into me this year. I feel as though I can't keep up, and have been running out of time with everything. We finally got a tree last weekend, but it sat, undecorated, for nearly a week. And the rest of the house, as yet, remains undecorated. Sigh. It's probably been the lack of snow and strangely mild temperatures (if only my bike tire wasn't flat, I could have ridden through most of December!), and also that this candle I have is on fire at both ends...

But last night was my super-fun and festive work party, and today I woke up to a nice blanket of snow; thin, but enough to hide the brown and green grass and make everything oh-so-pretty. It just doesn't feel like Christmas without snow.

A super-fun scavenger hunt led us around our work-neighbourhood and finally to the Hintonburg Public House. But not without being made to carol for cupcakes, solve an anagram (thankfully the master of anagram-solving was present!), and have a professional photoshoot with Santa, among other things.

Leaving early today and having the immense treat of walking home in the light.

Wishing there were more old stone buildings like this.

Whiskers and soft kitty feet.

A few of my favourites.

Sage words from my tea.

Perfect weekend

A great weekend spent with great friends. Birthday celebrations. A hike among the trees and newly fallen snow (which melted the following day — it was 9º yesterday!). Beautiful lookout over the white fields below. A thrilling owl sighting; this beautiful Barred Owl gazed down on us from his high perch. Silently, curiously looking from one to the next. A steam and a soak at Le Nordik. Relaxing with our books and some Fireside Martinis while Mark prepared a delectable feast of homemade pasta in carbonara sauce, followed by some rousing rounds of Boggle!