details : food, games & family

I know those of you who read a lot of blogs are probably sick of hearing about the holidays, but indulge me a little on this one, okay? I'm not quite ready to share my intentions for the new year. Plus, my boss surprised me today by saying that the new office is not quite ready yet, so we have until Monday off. If you're back at work right now: I would hate me too.

The picture above is one of the Rifle Paper Co holiday postcards I picked up from the paper & other handmade goods emporium Inkwell Boutique. I had big plans to do our first holiday postcard complete with a personalized photo of D, Abby and I, but when I saw these postcards, I decided they would work perfectly. Less of a time-crunch, less stress and postcards are always fun to receive.

My grandmother made this ornament for me and my sister when we were younger. The other side has another photo of us together. Nearly all of the ornaments on my family's tree have always been handmade or gifted to us by family, friends and family friends. I love that each one holds a memory and reminds me of special times. I'm looking forward to having room to put a tree up, so I can mix in some handmade ornaments with the store-bought ones. I love a tree that's coordinated, while also being sentimental. 

Yes, just like last year, we played Scattergories again. We played a couple of games actually. The second one was LOUD and I kind of needed an Advil, but that's Christmas with my family... Haha.

Cake baking with my mom for our last family dinner of my stay. Her icing recipe is yummy and crazy easy. Shortening, icing sugar and cocoa. Mix it up and it's done. So easy.

Testing out my brother's gift to me - a raclette! It's kind of like a fondue, in that you prepare all of the raw ingredients. Then you fire up the grill which has an element that runs along the bottom. When you're done cooking your meat and/or veggies on top, you put rice in these little shovel things, top with sauce and cheese and then heat it up underneath the grill. So delicious! Mom couldn't stop raving about how great it was that we could sit down and cook our supper. All of that Christmas hosting had her feeling a little wiped.

And we topped off my last night with a game of Mexican Train. There are many different versions of how to play. In this one, we use little tokens or figurines to signal that others can play on our "train". Mine was a miniature angel, while my Grandmaman had a donkey and my mom had what looks like the big bad Wolf. I have no idea where these came from, but thought they looked cute and oddly enough their hands (and paws) are in the same pose.

I think these pictures are a fair representation of my holiday. A lot of food, a lot of games and relaxing time with the family. I'm feeling pretty lucky. 

I hope you had a great Christmas holiday too!

The series: Life is all about the details - the moments. Over the next few months I'm going to test out a series called details. Since I don't have instagram or a smartphone to capture my daily life, I'm going to rely on my trust Sony P&S and will share the photos here. I hope you like it!

a Christmas surprise

This is what happened when I surprised by parents by coming home a day early. They were expecting me home on the train in the evening on Dec 21st.

Backstory: So that night we cleaned the kitchen and dining room and the plan was for me to hide in the spare room and then come out and say "what's for supper"? Instead, what happened was Mom and Dad were so surprised by the house being clean, that they thought something was up. E & M (my siblings) could not stop smiling. So this lead my Mom to ask where all of the clutter was and for my Dad to suggest that they had put it in the spare room. Here comes my Dad sauntering into the room to find me crouching in the dark in the corner. Instead of screaming or laughing, he starts clapping and tells Mom that they did put all the stuff on the bed. Mom's reaction is the best! When my mom is excited or happy she just laughs. It's the cutest thing.

Hope you're all having a great weekend.

merry christmas & a virtual hug

 

I hope Santa found you and that you're all enjoying time with family and loved ones today. We hosted our annual Christmas Eve celebration and are hosting Christmas dinner in about an hour or so. I'm hoping my man and Abby-dog will be able to come up for the weekend, but a storm is brewing. Northern NB always gets hit hard with snow around this time of year, and 30cm is nothing to laugh at. We're trying to work something out so that we can keep our plans to celebrate New Year's Eve in Moncton with some of our closest friends.

Speaking of friends, a big congratulations to my "sucia" Em & her new fiance (!!) on their engagement yesterday. To quote my favorite Christmas movie, love really is all around.

4 Step DIY Glitter Garland - with no mess!

When I posted my Christmas decor sneak peek a few weeks ago, I had no idea what to do with the supplies. All I had was a colour scheme, paper, some ribbon and a strict budget. Inspired by the image of "c'est noel" posted on someone's front door, I decided to make a glitter garland with the same expression.

I grew up in a French town in New Brunswick and my father's parents are/were Francophone so we have always kept traditions, customs and carols from our French culture. Apparently, my French spelling skills need some practice though, because on my banner the two little dots are supposed to be over the E and not the O. Oops! This year, I decided that I would like to try to work this into our own (me & D's) celebrations and what better place to start, than with decorating? 

The trick to keeping this glitter craft mess-free is to use pre-made glitter paper, instead of gluing loose glitter to plain paper. I bought a large sheet of gold glittery gift wrap (made by the adorable Rifle Paper Co) from my favorite local stationery store Duly Noted. Rifle Paper Co doesn't seem to be carrying any in their online shop at the moment, but you can find some at Paper Source or at your local paper shop. Read on for instructions!

Step 1: Once you've decided on your words or expression, make template letters out of bristol board or cardstock. 

Step 2: Trace templates on the backside of your glitter paper. Remember to place them backwards, so that they read properly when turned around!

Step 3: Glue glittery letters to templates.

Step 4: Measure your ribbon to fit the wall or doorway where you want to hang it. Starting at the center, tape letters to the ribbon.

Hang it up and you're done! I've found that it hangs well if you leave a bit of slack between the letters and while hanging it. The garland may take a bit of time to make, but the best part is that you can use it over and over. In January, I'll pop mine in a Ziplock bag to keep it safe until next Christmas.

If you want to add a 3D star, like I did, this tutorial by Grey Luster Girl is handy. Why buy one when they're so easy to make? I only made one piece and not two, like she did. Just sketch or trace a star on the back of a piece of thick cardstock or heavy paper, then draw a line connecting each point to the opposite side, as if you were going to fold it in half. Then score along the lines you drew on the backside of the paper using a ruler and a butter knife. Then just fold each point individually. I hung mine with fishing line so it looked like it was suspended in thin air. Magic!

Sidenote: After I made my garland, I came across this Lauren Conrad tutorial for a similar one using a different method.

What do you think of the garland phase in the blogworld? Have you ever made one? If so, feel free to link it up in the comments.

stormed in?

Today was an unexpected day. A big kicker of a storm put a wrench in my travel plans, which meant that I suddenly had an extra day with nothing to do. So, I did stuff. I'm a Maritimer. No storm is going to keep me inside.

Abby needed to go get a routine "procedure" at the vet, so I called to see if they had an opening and two people had cancelled because of the weather. Around ten, I bundled up, zipped up my rain coat, pulled on my rubber boots and we were on our way through the rain, snow and slush to the vet's. I think it's quite amazing how in the span of ten minutes, the weather in Halifax can pass through almost every type of precipitation/cloud cover. Oh, and top it all off with some heavy winds. It's not so fun to walk through, but I do enjoy listening to a good storm rage while I'm inside under the covers.

Once I was back inside, I took a few photos of myself hoping you would be able to see how cozy I was in my gray sweater, favorite heart shirt and sweats but they turned out blurry. This was the best one. Here's what I look like with my hair up while I'm loungin.

After a bit of blog browsing, I followed through on my plans to bake some cookies. Some to bring to my family's home, some to give to D for his parents. Okay, a lot to bring home - probably about 30 cookies. I made a double batch!

Once all of the cookies had come out of the oven, I set out again to pick up my brother's gift from a local shop. While downtown, I also swung by the library to pick up a few books for the slow moments while at home.

Tonight, once D came back from work, I decided to finish up the rest of my wrapping. I'm happy with how it turned out. We had the snowflake wrap left over from last year and I bought a couple of rolls of kraft paper, some washi tape and some teal ribbon to go with my Christmas colour scheme. I didn't have any gift tags, so I just cut some letters out of card stock and wrote my nickname on them. Done and done!

I tackled my wrapping in three short spurts. Although I confessed to enjoying wrapping last week, it still takes a bit of time to get the packages ready with all the embellishments, tags, bows and ribbon. Time well spent though, it was fun.

What did you guys do today? Any holiday adventures?

Currently | the holiday homestretch

a pic from an october training session

Watching: Nothing right at the moment. I am very much looking forward to watching Dexter later on tonight though. I won't spoil it for you, but the past few episodes have been picking up. Shit is gonna go down very soon and I can't wait to see how it will play out.

I've also started watching the Mindy Project (Canadian friends can watch here!) and am hooked. Mindy Kaling (aka Kelly Kapoor from the Office) plays a bubbly, ditzy private-practice gyno living the single life. To be honest, the first few episodes are not so great. Stick it out though! Episode 4-6 are laugh-out-loud funny - this coming from a girl who rarely laughs during TV shows. I rewound the opening scene of episode 7 an embarrassing amount of times. Even D watched a few episodes with my friend, C & I.

Listening to: All Ellie Goulding, all the time. I can't help myself. Her new album, Halcyon, is really, really good. Figure 8 is the best song on the album, I think, with Hanging On (ft. Tinie Tempah) a close second. I like the tone of her voice and how she uses it as an instrument in many of her songs.

I'm also enjoying Nicki Minaj & Cassie's new collaboration Boys. It makes me want to get my ass back to hip-hop class.

Planning: Christmas gifts! I love shopping for other people, more than I like shopping for myself. Today I took advantage of my lunch break to pick up a few things for my sister downtown. I have my mom & brother left to buy for and then I'm done.

My favorite part of the gift-giving is wrapping. I miss working in retail for that very reason. I once wrapped 100 ornaments in one day - and loved every second of it. Anyone need help wrapping? Haha. This year I'm going to do kraft paper wrap with gold glitter tags & teal ribbon to tie in with my decorations. No one notices these things, but I do it just for myself!

Thinking about: Work stuff. There are some pretty big changes going on right now and I'm trying to tie up loose ends before our last day of 2012. Lots to do, but it makes the days go by quickly. I can't complain.
 
Reading: In The Falling Snow by Caryl Phillips, a novel on race, family and love set in Britain. I'm not quite a quarter of the way through but I'm invested in the main character already. In the most recent chapter, the protagonist is asked to take a leave of absence from his job in the public sector. He put an end to a romantic fling with one of his employees and as a result, she forwarded all of their personal (ie. explicit) emails to everyone in their department. I now realize that this makes it sound like a cheap romance novel, but it's not at all. The novel serves to examine the complexities of interracial relationships and how they can test familial loyalties.

Making me happy: Being cozy. Now is the time of year when I crave comfort. Give me a meatpie & some wool socks and I'm set. I spent last Saturday night curled up on the couch with my Christmas pajamas on, S'mores hot chocolate in a tree mug, a fluffy blanket, my dog at my feet and some candles. It was so relaxing, just what I needed.

There is nothing I love more than coming home on a rainy/snowy blustery night and putting on some warm sweats or leggings and cozying up on the couch. As much as I say summer is my favorite season, I love the Fall/Winter, before it gets too cold. Just chilly enough to make me appreciate my nice, warm bed and a hot drink.

What have you been up to lately? Have you been enjoying any snuggly nights at home?

Thanks to Danielle @ Sometimes Sweet & Megan @ meganislove for the post idea!

decking those halls, baby : sneak peek of my Christmas color scheme!

 

I have a rule that I cannot listen to seasonal songs until Dec. 1st. The idea stemmed from the thought I had that I will have to listen to Christmas tunes for the rest of my life - the same 30-ish songs, by various artists, year after year, for the rest of my (hopefully!) long life. If you're thinking I don't have to listen to those songs, you would technically be right, however, I do some shopping around this time of year in malls & local shops; places where most managers that seem to think that November is the perfect time to start playing said songs. Okay, so I guess my rule should read: I will not play Christmas music until Dec 1st.

All this to say that tonight, I'm breaking my own scrooge-y tradition.... by one day. Tonight I will twist D's arm into helping me decorate our little apartment with garland, stars and general Christmas cheer.You know I'm going to blast Boney M's famous album while sipping hot tea and dancing around the room. It's going to happen. We are going to be decking these halls alllll night. That doesn't sound right. How about this:

Warm sweaters, hot drinks, cuddles and a dog licking glitter off the floor. 

Here are a few of my inspiration pics from Pinterest:

Flickr via Ticklish From A Distance

From The Right Bank via Apartment Therapy

via Canadian House & Home

via Matchbook Mag blog

Did you decorate your place yet? Leave your links in the comments, I love some holiday eye candy.

games, traditions & all-around craziness (Christmas Eve)

 Looks peaceful doesn't it? Don't be fooled.

My family is loud. Now I'm not talking about loud, like "oh, yeah I know a family like that." I mean loud to the point where you can make out words when you're standing outside of the house. Everyone is shouting over each other to be heard, laughing, complaining or trying to get someone's attention.

16+ people. All at the same time. 

Most of the time I love it. It makes me feel at home. But usually people usually have one of two reactions. Laughing uncontrollably or covering their eyes and praying for it all to stop.

Exhibit A:

I clearly am enjoying myself and my sister looks like she needs an Advil. 

So, we're rowdy, excitable and competitive but we're a family and Christmas Eve holds some pretty important traditions. Since as far back as I can remember we've been getting together for Christmas Eve. It used to be at my Grandmaman's every year but since she moved to a smaller apartment, one of my uncle/aunts & my parents have been switching off each year. Here's how the night usually pans out.

Around 6-7pm those who went to church arrive & we put out some snacks. We have everything from veggies to pizza dip to cookies and sweets. While people are eating we chat & catch up with those who we haven't seen in a while and then the games begin.

We've played dozens of games over the years, not board games, but more of the 'social games'. People usually try to pick up a new game or two to play with the family come Christmas eve. Some of our favorites have been the Dice Game, Bag Game, Toonie up the Butt, Oranges & Pantyhose, 4 on the Couch & Sitting on Laps. There are so many more though. This year a big favorite was the Mafia game, taught by my cousin and her husband, Joelle & Alec. 

Once we've played a few we do a dollar store and a $10 gift exchange. There are always some interesting gifts. This year the car mats & alcohol were the most popular I'd say. French people love their wine! Haha.

After the gift exchange there's more games until midnight. At midnight everyone hugs & wishes each other a Merry Christmas/Joyeux Noel and then we have a buffet of hot food including Pate (meatpie), pizza rolls, bread, appetizers and lots more. In French tradition this is called the Reveillon. (Links to a very basic Wiki description.)

Have a look:

Some of the family from 2008.

Another 2008 shot. Dad's poem.

Christmas Dinner 2009.

Christmas Eve 2010

Thanks for visiting the blog. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your holidays!

Steppin Out Saturday: Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you're all having a great day surrounded by family & loved ones. I promised you a Steppin Out Saturday outfit and here it is.

I've been noticing lots of oversized sweaters with sequined dresses/skirts lately.

Like this one on Refinery 29 found via Pinterest.

And this one from Zara also via Pinterest.

I'm not usually one to wear something just because it's trendy, but I really wanted to give this one a try because 1) I love BIG, comfy sweaters and 2) I had the perfect sequined dress that I had not worn in years... 

The dress was too big for me. All the belts I tried to pair with it competed too much with the sequins. But when I added an off-white belt from a silk shirt and puffed the dress out a bit, it didn't look bad... Now that it's not so baggy, I may actually wear it more often! 

I love finding new combinations in my closet. Free shopping!

The gray sweater was $2! I couldn't resist buying it last summer. One can never have enough gray sweaters... Pairing it with a fun, festive skirt dresses it up a bit. Comfy, warm & cute (at least, I think so).  Christmas Eve outfit done. 

Money spent: $0.

----

Sweater: Joe Fresh
Dress: Fairweather
Belt: Le Chateau
Tights: Forever21

*I also think I need a new pose for my outfit photos... the 'pencil' is not cutting it anymore.