My stocking are hung by the radiator with care!

Hello everyone! I just thought that I’d get one more post in before Christmas.

Even though I spend Christmas at my parent’s home every year, I always make myself a small tree in my apartment.  So here it is: my very own 2011 Christmas Tree! I also always put out my tiny nativity scene… it just wouldn’t be Christmas without it.  

Here’s also a glimpse at this year’s gift wrapping color scheme. As usual I use plain craft paper as my base. This year I chose accents of grey with these 2 snowflake papers and to top everything off, grey yarn and rough cotton name tags!

I want to take the time to offer everyone my warmest wishes for the Holiday season. May your days be filled with joyous moments sent with friends and family!

One gift a day, to feel the Holiday way!

This year I decided to make a very special Holiday gift to my sisters and my parents. I saw in a magazine this great idea from an Advent Gift Chain, with one small gift to open every day of December leading up to Christmas. 

For each day from December 1^st to the 24^th , I wrapped up a little surprise and tied them one to the other forming a little gift chain. Each day, all you have to do is snip off the present of the day and voila!

I made my sisters each their own Advent Gift Chain, but for my parents I decided to alternate. So day one, a gift for mom. Day two, a gift for dad and so on. They take a long time to put together but I think I can say that everyone was very excited with this special Holiday gift. I think it might just have to become a new tradition of mine!

Let there be light!

Are you all in the Christmas mood yet?

6 days before Christmas, we may not have snow yet, but at least we have lights!

Here are the exterior decorations that we put up at our family home (by family home I mean my parent’s house, the home in which I was raised). This is actually where my sisters and I will be celebrating Christmas with our parents so it’s important that the house is extra well decorated.

The front door gets a special treatment! Welcome home to everyone!

White lights, green wreaths with crisp red bows and a sneaky Santa help to make the decor complete.  

When the sun sets and night-time comes around, that’s when the best part can be seen. White lights twinkling in the dark!

Spreading Christmas Cheer!

I LOVE receiving things in the mail (other than bills… yikes). Since I seldom receive envelopes of joy in my mailbox, I make it a point of sending to others what I would love to receive myself. Every Christmas, I make it a personal mission to make and send out Christmas glee to my loved ones by the mail.

This is actually last year’s Christmas card but I thought I would share it with you all anyways!

I decided to make cards using stamps that I would create myself. This was actually my very first attempt at the technique and it turned out quite simple and fun to do. 

You basically have to carve out the design that you want from a rubber block (it actually really looks and feels like an eraser) with a carving tool. It’s a bit tricky at first but I found that I got into the beat of things pretty quickly.

Then, select some ink pads in the colors of your choice and away you go!

I was rather pleased with the final results and my friends and family did enjoy this treat in the mail!

My Christmas countdown!

Happy December to all! Is everyone as excited as I am for a full month of celebrations and good cozy moments with loved ones? I sure hope so!

The advent calendar has always been an important part of my Christmas celebration count-down. For as far as I can remember, my mom has always bought my dad, my sisters and I a chocolate advent calendar. Oh the joy of starting each day with a tiny chocolate that you have to find amongst the scrambles dates. 

This year, I came across a very special, adultish version of my beloved advent calendar. There is this great tea company called David’s Teas, who specialize in loose tea and tea accessories (and who started out in Montreal, Yeah!!!). This Christmas, they came up with this lovely 24 Days of Tea concept. 

I couldn’t help but treat myself to this great calendar that lets you discover a new tea ever day in December up to Christmas.

24 different teas are described along with brewing instructions so each day you can have the joy savouring a new hot cup of happiness.

I guarantee that this 24 Days of Tea is something that every tea lover would be ecstatic to receive and a fantastic to  introduce tea to those who don’t love it yet!

Enjoy!