…and I got really (like, insanely) excited for Christmas.  I don’t normally start planning for the holidays weeks in advance (I’m a bit of a last minute holiday girl, truth be told) but that red?  Against that white?  And all that merriness?  Yep.  It got to me.

So off we went (poor Patrick gets toted around a lot these days) (I think he’s developing an appreciation for shopping!) (or just a high tolerance for mommy) to HomeSense (of course.)  And I wandered around the pillow aisle for far far too long.  Did I emerge from all that soft and squishy loveliness triumphantly waving beautiful new red pillows in the air?  No.  But, as I’ve learned, that’s all part of the HomeSense experience.  It’s the thrill of the hunt.  It’s the glory of the chase.  And I, like a throw pillow stalking tigress, will be returning shortly to HomeSense (with my cute little kitten in tow, of course) to continue chasing the ever elusive perfect festive red throw pillows.

BUT, in the meantime, I’ve found even more Christmas inspiration on Pinterest.  Like this super festive living room…

…from HouseToHome.

And this pretty room…

…from SandAndSisal (omg I want that chair!!!)

And this beautiful and comfy looking living room from Four Generations One Roof…

Yes, I’m completely obsessed with finding the perfect new red throw pillows now.  And perhaps even a new red throw.  Patrick just rolls his tiny little eyes over the whole thing.  In his three long wise months, he’s become accustomed to mommy’s obsession with all things pretty.

But really, in this particular case, it’s all Ikea’s fault, you know.  :)

And, over the years, he has truly mastered the finer nuances of decorating for Christmas.  Sweetie’s annual holiday house embellishing tradition goes a bit like this:

-wait for the coldest pre-Christmas day of the year

-get all bundled up (a la Randy from A Christmas Story)

-struggle to secure lights to eavestroughs using highly glove-padded fingers

-heroically throw gloves aside and brave frostbite

-with fingers completely numb and unresponsive, valiantly create a masterful spectacle of sparkly Christmas loveliness

-call it a day, stand back, shiver, proudly admire

-pray that sensation returns to fingertips at some point in the near-ish future

-run inside for cocoa

Ah, yes.  Christmas traditions rock.  :)

And in case you’re unfamiliar with A Christmas Story (one of the greatest Christmas movies ever!), watch this:

I heart Christmas.  :)

The porch at my little 1940s house was tricky.  Because the stairs leading up to the porch were to the side of the doorway, and a rail ran continuously across the front of the porch, it was hard to decorate around my front door (since anything I added to the porch ended up sadly obscured by the railing.)

Here, with no door-obscuring rails and with stairs boldly leading straight to the front door, we have smooth front porch decorating sailing.  See?

No obstructions.  Just a lovely view of my soon-to-be-adorned front door.  :)

Admittedly, this front porch decorating thing is a little intimidating to me.  Perhaps it’s the public-ness of my porch (if it looks silly, our new neighbours will all assume that I don’t know my boughs from my baubles and my ribbons from my wreaths.)  Or maybe it’s because I’ve never truly decorated a front porch before for the holidays, so we’re totally venturing into unchartered Christmas waters.  Regardless, desperately hoping for a perfectly pretty porch display, I chatted a bit with my Pinterest folk to gather a few decorating ideas.  Here are my faves…

I love this simple “wreath + sparkly little trees in urns” option from the lovely folk over at The McLife:

And, speaking of pretty urns, I’d love to try creating something like this this year (although I’m a tad evergreenishly-challenged):

(Original source, sadly, is unknown, but the image appears on THIS website compiling a bunch of Christmas decorating ideas.)

And then there are stars!  I love stars!  (Actually, I’m a bit obsessed with stars, which you might remember from THIS post.)  How pretty is this…

Sadly (again) there’s no source for this image.  So dear gorgeous plummy door starry people: please let me know who you are!  I adore your front entrance!

And then lastly, there’s this one (which is part of an Etsy-listing, in fact, for JustTheFrosting‘s shop):

…the perfect, elegant, simple front entrance (with a super smiley little snowman to boot.)  This is my goal.  :)

So all I need now is some evergreeny-sort of stuff.  And a couple of black urns.  And some pretty red bows.  And a big ol’ green wreath.  And maybe a quirky little snowman too.  Sounds easy enough!  I’ll keep you posted.

But, in the meantime, Christmas?  Bring it on.  My soon-to-be-appropriately-adorned front porch will be eagerly waiting.  :)

At my second knitting class ever last week, having skillfully (translation: with some minor cursing and only one or two tears) mastered casting on and basic garter stitching the week before, we learned to purl.  And thus began my very first project.

Yep.  A scarf!  Cliche, eh?  I know.  But it’s pretty, no?  It’s a bit of a variation on this pattern HERE, and I’m rather ridiculously proud of my work so far.  I’m absolutely infatuated with the colour green right now (dear mysterious and wonderful Pantone people – I am truly your slave), and the pattern is simple (knit two, purl two, sip tea, repeat) but interesting and rather impressive looking too (if you ask me!)  Progress is much slower than I’d expected (this is a few hours’ effort – how the hell does anyone have the patience to knit an entire blanket?) but I’m absolutely loving it.

So, dear friends and family, please be forewarned that you’re all likely getting scarves next year for Christmas.  Surprise!  And if you have specific colour preferences, please let me know now.  Because unless I learn to seriously speed up production (or quit my job and devote my life to scarf-making), I’ve got a lot of work to do in the next 323 days.  :)

Admittedly, there are some really bad dance moves going on in this video (I can almost hear the choreographer: “Oooh!  Running man!  Yes – we most definitely need more running man!”)  And I have no idea why Jon is missing from this performance.  Maybe he was having a bad hair day?  I wouldn’t show up for Arsenio Hall on a bad hair day either.  You think they’d mention it though, no?

Strange.

Then again, Jon was never really my favourite.  If Joe had been missing?  Chaos and woe.  Jon?  Meh.  He never really did that much for me, truth be told.  And Jon eventually left the group anyway, right?  I think?  I might be a little bit behind (by, like, 20 years perhaps) in my NKOTB gossip.

All that aside (although I could ramble on about New Kids for quite a while if you’d like) (Joe? Now HE had good hair) (so dreamy…  swoon!), this post is obviously a little late (since we’re now two weeks post-the-big-red-and-green holiday) but I wanted to show off a couple of my favourite Etsy Christmas purchases (which then became my favourite Etsy Christmas gifts!)

Awesome Etsy Christmas gift #1: Kitty Candles from Kitty Baby Love

I fell in love (at first sight, in fact) with these little chubby cat-shaped crayons.  So cute!  So friendly looking!  And when they arrived, smiling at me happily from their little egg carton container, I seriously wanted to break out my colouring book.

(The little yellow one in the bottom right is my fave.  “Pick me!  Pick me!” he says.)  (And yes, I just assigned a personality to a crayon…  Weird?  Probably.)

I think my niece liked them too.  Well, rather, she liked the wrapping paper I wrapped them in.  (She’s only one, so she hasn’t quite gotten the hang of that whole the-gift-is-the-thing-that’s-wrapped-IN-the paper-not-the-paper/packaging-itself concept.)  And while she’s not yet actually at the colouring stage, she will be soon!  So excited to see what lovely scribbles these happy little balls of kitty-shaped awesomeness will produce.  :)

Awesome Etsy Christmas gift #2: T-shirts for Sweetie from Quasi Science Apparel

I have only three words to describe my transaction with the folk over at Quasi Science Apparel: fastest shipping ever.  Ev-ver.  Seriously.  I purchased three t-shirts on a Monday, and by Wednesday (as in, two – TWO! – days later) they arrived.  I was flabbergasted!  (And thrilled!)  Albeit, Quasi Science Apparel is based out of Canada (like me!), so there were no customs-hoops to jump through or anything like that.  But still?  Two days?  That’s pretty darn amazing if you ask me.

And the t-shirts are fantastic too!  For Sweetie, I bought…

…the Tesla t-shirt (since, well, he is an electrician afterall):

…the “Geek” written in binary t (since, um, he’s also kind of a geek) (which is precisely why I love him):

…and, my absolute favourite (and Sweetie’s too, I think): the SCLF (Schrodinger’s Cat Liberation Front) t-shirt:

The best part?  The back…

Totally makes me smile.  :)

For the record, and in case you were also wondering, I’m not really sure who Tesla is either.  I know he did something important, probably involving electricity?  And he was in an 80′s hair band too, I think.  Does anyone else out there remember (nervously/sweatily) dancing with some (equally nervous/sweaty) boy at some random school dance to Love Song?

Sigh.  Oh, 1980′s… you were tacky, but you kinda rocked.

So there you go!  My post-Christmas (and rather tardy) Exceptional Etsy Gift Review.  Plus a lot of 80′s nostalgia.  Because there’s nothing like a well-choreographed boy band, and a little power ballad-ness too, to perk up even the gloomiest January day.  :)

The cats will be alone on Christmas Day, but they’re not overly concerned – we had our own pre-Christmas celebration here at the house this morning and over the weekend.  There were tiny little reindeer antlers.  There were gifts to unwrap and catnip mice.  And they even snuggled up with us for a bit to watch White Christmas (my absolute favourite Christmas movie ever.)

And, on that note, and in case you’ve never seen White Christmas, I wanted to sign off for the holidays with the lyrics from one of the songs from that movie.  In all honesty, 2012 has been a bit of a bear.  While there have been some really amazing and wonderful moments this year, it’s also been a really hard year for a few of my friends (and, well, for us too at times.)  I think this song is really good advice for us all…

Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)

When I’m worried and I can’t sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep
Counting my blessings

When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep
Counting my blessings

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds

If you’re worried and you can’t sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you’ll fall asleep
Counting your blessings

That Irving Berlin guy was pretty amazing eh?

Sending so much love out to my friends and family over the holidays.  I hope the next couple of days are filled with good food, the lively and familiar company of family and friends, and lots of lovely surprises.

Merry Christmas all!  :)

I didn’t take any pictures of last year’s treats, but luckily my friend (and happy cookie recipient) Shawn did.

And it got Instagram-ed.  :)

(Related confession: I haven’t yet figured out Instagram.  I should probably work on that eh?)

This year, I’m skipping the somewhat time-consuming (yet adorable!) pretzel-antlered cookies, and the crazy delicious (and rather pretty!) chocolate truffle balls, and I’m going straight to the bark.  Partly because it’s everyone’s favourite.  Partly because I haven’t had time yet this year to make multiple Christmas-tin offerings.  (Has the Christmas season been insanely busy for anyone else this year?  Or is it just me?)  (Maybe it’s just me…)

My bark recipe?  It’s Kraft’s.  (Shhhh…  Don’t tell!)  And it’s absolutely delicious.

Kraft’s Chocolate Cookie Bark

In a nutshell, bark-making looks a bit like this:

Melt this…

Add this (plus a wee bit of peanut butter)…

Drop (or dollop, if you prefer) randomly on wax paper…

Make super swirly…

Refrigerate and break into pieces.  Poof!  Bark!

The most important component (that isn’t listed in the ingredients?)  LOVE.  And a dash of Christmas cheer. And a pinch of merriness.

(Cheesy?  Yep.  True?  Yep again!)

But, if you ask me, even more important than the bark itself is the bark delivery mechanism.  If I delivered delicious cookie bark in a plastic baggie, would it be just as delicious?  Likely.  Would it be as special?  Absolutely not!

Last year I packaged up my Christmas yumminess in pretty teal canisters.  And they were cute with a capital C.

(Thank you again to Shawn for immortalizing the pretty multi-tin package I left on his front porch.)  (And yes – I’m a bit of a Christmas cookie drop-and-dash kinda elf.)

This year I’ve moved beyond my tin-lined comfort zone and stepped things up a notch.  I’ve moved on to glass containers.  Fancy eh?  Cue “ooooohs” and “aaaaaahs.”

I found these glass jars at HomeSense for $3.99 each.  $3.99!

And with a wee little bit of yarn wrapped around the middle, and a couple of coordinating pompoms attached (I chatted a bit about my pompom obsession HERE), the once rather utilitarian glass jars become cheery bark-ready vessels.

I think they’re even cuter once filled with super swirly bark…

Yep!  I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out.  :)

So there!  Dear friends, please consider this your 2012 Christmas-baking delivery preview.  Coming shortly to a front porch near you!

Very shortly, in fact.  Only six more days to go!  :)

And I’ve been following THIS pompom-making tutorial, courtesy of Bella Dia.

First pompom lesson learned?  Natural does not equal better.  The red “value” yarn I purchased makes far superior poms to the green “au natural and wholesome and good” cotton (it’s the fabric of our lives, you know.)

Apparently Zooey Deschanel agrees.

The red superstar pompom-making yarn?  It’s 100% acrylic.

Random: does anyone else immediately think of Meryn Cadell’s song “The Sweater” whenever the words “100% acrylic” come up?

I do.  Every.  Single.  Time.

My favourite part of the song:

Now if the sweater has, like, reindeer on it
or is a funny color like yellow… I’m sorry,
you can’t get away with a sweater like that
Look for brown, or grey, or blue
Anything other than that, and you
know you’re dealing with
someone who’s different
And different is NOT what you’re looking for

And yep!  Apparently it’s Youtube Day around here.  Fun, non?  :)

But I digress.  Back to my happy little Christmassy pompoms…

The red acrylic yarn makes perfect perky and fluffy pompoms.  My green cotton pompoms rather closely resemble miniature Oscar-the-Grouch-es.

But, just like my favourite garbage-can dwelling monster, they have a certain cuteness too.  They’ll do.  :)

What am I planning to do with the above-mentioned pompoms?  I have plans.  Don’t you worry about me!  I’m not about to become some strange pompom-obsessed yarn hoarder.  Promise!

And what ARE these plans?  To be announced very very shortly, I hope (since Christmas is only 12 – TWELVE! – days away, and red and green pompoms are pretty holiday-specific, if you ask me.)

Stay tuned!

My favourite part of the room?  Our tree.  :)  Most of our Christmas tree ornaments were either gifts or purchased during our travels (favourite tradition: buying a Christmas tree ornament whenever we go somewhere special.)  Our decorations don’t match.  They’re a hodge podge of colours and sizes and shapes.  But they’re meaningful to Sweetie and me, which makes them perfect for our tree.

We have our stately (and rather smiley!) Queen, who traveled home with us from London…

And this festive little moose in his rowboat came from Newfoundland (my absolute favourite place on earth)…

My friend Sandra gives us a cat ornament for our tree every year (so our tree is full of cats… which is rather fantastic, if you ask me.)

And this pretty glass orb belonged to my grandma Dorothy…

Hanging ornaments that are meaningful just makes our tree feel that much more special.  Yep, even if our tree isn’t carefully coordinated or flawlessly decorated, it’s perfectly us.  :)

There is, however, one Christmas item I DID purchase for myself, willy nilly.  And it may very well be my most favourite Christmas decoration of all time.

Yep.  That’s right: Santa riding a cat on wheels.  It’s completely ridiculous and I love it.

And that displaced green star (poor thing keeps getting moved from room to room) has finally found it’s Christmas fireplace mantel calling…

Speaking of which, my fireplace mantel makes me happy.  It still needs stockings (hung by the chimney with care) – I’m currently on the prowl for new, pretty, grown-up (ie: non-Dollarstore) stockings.  And it still needs some pretty new garland (I’m working on that – stay tuned for a garland update shortly!)  And I have a few other mantel-adornment plans up my sleeve.  But it’s a start.  And I’m so happy to have a fireplace to decorate this year (albeit, a fake one.)  And, well, everyone needs a portal (of some sort) for Santa.  :)

And, of course, kind-faced old Father Christmas keeps watch over the entire room from his place of honour at the top of the tree.

So there.  Those are our halls that have been decked with boughs of holly.  Or cat-riding Santas, if you prefer.  Yep, I am most definitely in the holiday spirit now!  Afterall, ’tis the season to be jolly!  And to roast chestnuts by an open fire.  And to build strange talking (and rather presumptuous) snowmen in the meadow.

Fa la la la la, la la, la, la!  :)

Even my newly acquired little driftwood star got Christmassied up a wee bit…

Yup.  We’re all getting in the spirit around here.  (Pictures of cats wearing tiny little reindeer antlers to follow shortly, of course.)

I’ve now lived with my DIY kitchen art attempt for a week now, and I’m still not loving it.  At all.  :(  I’ve decided that it’s the blue “inner-matting” (I should seriously coin that term, eh?) that’s throwing everything off.  Yep – the blue is making me… well, blue.

So I delved deep into my scrapbook paper pile once again, and pulled out a sheet of lovely Christmassy red paper.  And squealed just a little.  Because that’s what I do.  (Kinda freaks the cats out a bit, but it keeps them on their toes.)

And after a few minutes of cut and paste (I’m president of the International Society of Cutters and Pasters, btw), I had this…

Which looks like this on my wall…

Which makes me a very happy girl.  :)

So am I done with this project now?  Probably.  I mean, I could be really rather persnickety and say that the red is a little more tomato-ey than I’d prefer (which, really, is quite true.)  But it’s BETTER.  Much better.  And I have a gazillion other fun projects I’m just itching to start.  (Do you see that as foreshadowing?  Let’s call that foreshadowing.  :)

Happy one month (less a day!) till Christmas!  Hooray!  Bring on the merry!