Christmas Crafts!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! It was a crazy time for us, trying to finish gifts and working through the craziness. Excuse my lack of posts! Some serious blog love is coming up in the new year. Now that December is almost over, there's only 5 and a half months until the wedding! That's crazy! Starting in January, it's all wedding. It kinda started today with the lovely chat I had with Allison about how the invitations will look.

Since all the December crazy is over and everyone has received their gifts, I feel like showing off my hard work ;) I made a bunch of coasters for people, some passport holders (my in-laws are always travelling), and then a holiday light headband I made for myself.

Through the process of sewing everything by hand, I seriously improved my skills. I learned how to untie a bunch of knots in the thread and I slowly figured out which stitch goes best when you're stuffing ornaments with cotton filling. I wish I had taken pictures of all the cute ornaments I made, too. I attempted those river rock place mats and they turned out pretty good. As far as I know, everyone was pretty pleased with their gifts :)

I've got a quick tutorial coming up on how to make a headphone case! I made one for my friend for her gift and she loved it.

xo. Nicole

November Package Swap!

Yesterday I received Amanda's package from the November Package Swap! I just loved it. I love the fact that people from Arizona and Jasper have agreed to participate in the swaps that included taking time out of their days to put together a package. Amanda sent me her favorite hot chocolate, a hand painted mug, and an ornament. It was so sweet! Rob and I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate last night and I thought of how nice it is to make friends like these through my blog.

The mug is just so cute and I love that she put the polka dots on herself. It makes it even more nice to receive. That hot chocolate really is good and I don't know if it's available in Canada or not, but I'm determined to find out ;)

The ornament is a great addition to our tree and it's inspired me to make a new ornament with all of the leftover felt that I have sitting in a box from making Christmas gifts this year.

Thank you Amanda!

xo. Nicole

What I've Been Up To...

Christmas is coming so fast this year! Time just flies by every year that I get older and I'm not sure if I like it or not. The past couple days have been pretty busy. I've received lots of paper work from my 2nd job and I've been getting forms and documents together for my 3rd one (and they all have deadlines!) I've been busy doing that and working but I had an afternoon free to volunteer at the local Food Bank (through Starbucks) and make gingerbread houses with my friend.

Volunteering at the food bank is not an experience I will soon forget. We scooped rice, sugar, and oats in to separate bags for the staff to hand out to their clients and then boxed a ton of flour. Volunteering with my fellow Starbucks partners was what made the process fun. We joked and laughed for the whole 3 hours and got so much done. We formed an assembly line to scoop, bag, sticker, and pack the goods and our barista skills came in handy. The Food Bank supplied us with pizza as a thank you!

We were told that the government only supplies the Food Bank with $55,000 a YEAR, but they give out $30,000 worth of food every month. How does that even make sense?

Have you or will you volunteer this holiday season?

Today I hopped out of bed at 8am to be in downtown Vancouver for 9am. I woke up to SNOOOWWW!! I was beyond excited and it makes me feel like Christmas really is here this year. I made my way on the highway to downtown through the snow and checked out the Great Canadian Craft Fair! There were so many cool vendors and a lot of vegan baked goods that I can show my mom (who's vegan). It's really hard to find a lot of things that have no dairy and no eggs in them. I also found some cute handmade baby stuff for my friend who is expecting :)

Yesterday Rob and I laid on the couch all day and watched Grey's Anatomy. Holy cow. I think I was pretty tired because every episode made me want to cry. We're just finishing up Season 3 and I can't wait to see what happens in Season 4. So many little cliffhangers and weird traumas that happen in that show...

What have you been up to?

xo. Nicole

A Little Bit Of December...

December hasn't been too eventful yet, but I'm slowly getting more and more of that Christmas spirit in me! I'm finishing up all of the gifts that need to be shipped to Alberta and then I can finish up the ones for the people here in BC. I'm so excited to give them! Tomorrow, I'm volunteering through Starbucks at our local Food Bank and I'm excited to see how it all works!

Are you volunteering at all this holiday season?

Our cat, Koshka, got spayed on Saturday and she just hates life right now. She isn't enjoying the cone of shame around her neck, or the meds we squirt in her mouth once a day. She hissed and growled on Saturday when I saw her and I had never seen her like that before. But since she got home and had a long nap, she purrs whenever I pet her and I finally got some morning cuddles this morning.

I've been ordering Christmas gifts online (while still making them!) and I decided to order a few tiny things for myself. I got an amazing crochet headband from Susannabean and then a little cat ring from Saffy Loves. I've worn that headband a couple times and I always get compliments :) Unfortunately, my ring broke while at work and I've only got the pieces :(

I also saw the puppies (again) and they are just so cute! I can't get over them. I wish Rob and I could take all 12 but then they'd get bigger and we wouldn't know what to do them all, haha.

Last night included finishing up making my sugar cookies. I got the recipe from A Beautiful Mess and they are soooo good! I used their buttercream frosting recipe as well, but without the cocoa. So good! We ate them too fast to get a nice picture of them all frosted..

How is your December going?

xo. Nicole

Outside Everywhere Giveaway Review!

Yup, that's right. I won another giveaway. It's an awesome prize too! This giveaway was hosted by Gentri from Gentri Lee! Allison from Outside Everywhere sent me this as my prize :)

I had my pick from the shop and I picked this lovely chevron necklace. I'm so excited to finally have a day off to wear it out and show it off. She even made a little card saying "Congratulations!" Allison was amazing and made sure I got exactly what I wanted. She put a longer chain on it because I prefer long necklaces over short ones. It's beautifully hand crafted :)

You can check out Allison's shop by clicking HERE!

xo. Nicole

Puppies - Again!

And now for the second half of my puppy pictures :) They are a couple days old in this photo and the ones at the bottom, they're almost a week old!

They're a week old today! They're getting stronger as well. I was holding two of them and they just crawled all over while sniffing (eyes and ears don't open for another week). I can't wait to take one home! Our cat just got dropped off at the Vet today, as she's getting spayed. My poor girl.

I hope the pictures of puppies brightened your day! They sure brightened up mine.

xo. Nicole.

I'm a Midwoof?

I don't think I will ever forget this experience. I was over at my friend's house when her dog went in to labor on December 1, 2012. The dog, had been stolen and gone for 2 months. They got her back just over a month ago, but she was pregnant. Rob and I get 3rd pick from the litter! There isn't a whole lot to say except that there were a lot of giggles and love in that house that day, so I will show you in pictures.

Those pictures were all from Saturday, and I've seen them a couple times since then. One even crawled into my hair and got stuck! The first born was white with black spots, and it was a girl! Then came a bunch of brown boys. We thought she was done at 6 and then a couple more popped out. In total, she was in labor for 5 hours and had 12 puppies!

I don't want to make your computer go super slow because of a million pictures, so I'll separate the posts. I'll share an update soon :)

xo. Nicole

I made a Fireplace?

Since this is our first Christmas in our own place, with our own tree, I found it only fitting that we did the whole sha-bang! Our first one together, we were in different provinces! Our second one was at Rob's parent's house, where we lived at the time, and there weren't any decorations as it isn't celebrated as much there. This year we have our own place to decorate and do all the fun holiday stuff that we want! One of my favorite parts of Christmas was always opening the stockings and I realized last week that we don't have a fireplace to hang them from (just now, Nicole...really?) Yes, really. 

So I decided to make one.

It didn't take me long at all! I drank hot chocolate loaded with marshmallows in my elf boot mug (it's a MUST if you decide to do any Christmas crafting) while I put this together. I used some poster board and paint to throw this thing together! The lights at the top are stickers. I doubt that our stockings will stay up using thumbtacks, like the fireplace, so we'll probably put them on the floor when they're full. 

Our first Christmas in our own place, with a tree, sure is coming along and I can hardly wait! Only 21 more days, folks.

Be sure to check out the AMAZING group giveaway going on at Adriana's blog! I'm involved and would love to send you the opportunity to buy yummy treats and to have you on my blog! 

Click Here!

xo. Nicole

December 2, 2012

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Today I went over to my mom's house to finish painting the ornaments that we made (and do laundry). I showed up just as she was finishing putting the tree up! My sister and I decided that the tree looked best with just the lights and garland, so we didn't put any decorations on. My mom did her regular snowman/silver/blue/white theme and I realized how I much I miss it. We turned on National Lampoon's Vacation and ordered take out while we decorated our salt dough Christmas ornaments!

I had such a good time painting the ornaments and spending time with my mom and my sister. I even made a chalkboard one! As this year is the first year that Rob and I have a Christmas tree (and in our own place!) my mom and sister gave me the ornaments that they decorated. 

When I got home, I promptly took our tree out of the closet and put it together. There are some lights on it, but oh boy was that ever frustrating to put together! I decided to make some peppermint hot chocolate (in my elf boot mug) and relax for a bit before bed. 

Rob's not in to decorating for Christmas and he just finished a 24 hour shift, so he's sleeping right now. I think I'll just get him to fix the tree tomorrow as it's a bit lopsided. I am just so excited for Christmas! Tomorrow is going to involve me finishing off some Christmas gifts and cleaning the apartment.

Link me some pictures of how you decorated for Christmas!

xo. Nicole