Blogging, Crafting & Adulting

Anyone else feel like they blinked and all of a sudden it was Friday?! Tuesday evening we had an 85th birthday party for my great-aunt, Wednesday I helped with set up for an event at church this weekend, yesterday I spent the day making cards for the craft table at said church event and today I need to finish those up and bake some cookies for the bake table. 

The Back to Blogging Challenge wrapped up this week and Alyssa compiled a list of some of her favourite responses. I was pretty excited that one of mine made the list and I loved getting to read some of her other favourites that I had missed over the course of the challenge. 

And in other blog related news I hit 100 followers on Bloglovin'!

I totally recognize that 100 is peanuts compared to a lot of bloggers but 100 was the number I wanted to reach this year based on my 52 in 52 list. So it's a milestone worth celebrating.

I had grand plans to take lots of cool photos of the Super Moon but it was so foggy that that my ambition was short lived. This week it's really started to feel like fall, it's been rainy and foggy and when it's not actively rainy it still feels damp. I've gotten to wear my rain boots on a daily basis though so I'm okay with the weather. 

Last night I made a quick trip to Michaels and determined that the only thing better than a good browsing session at Michaels is when the weather outside dictates you get to stroll the aisles in your rain boots. I was on a specific mission since the Project Life albums were on sale for buy one, get one free. I scooped up two of those to use for 2017, in 2016 I ended up using one album to document life monthly and then another that I did session by session during the summer. I (probably) won't do it exactly the same in 2017 but I think I am a two albums per year documenter which was a happy surprise. 

Another happy surprise is a follow up to something I mentioned on Monday regarding a job application I was working on this past weekend. I got everything finished and sent off and yesterday got a reply along with some potential interview dates. I'm still a little  a lot overwhelmed and panicked about the thoughts of moving across the country but it's not worth getting myself worked up over until it's an actual possibility. Keep the prayers & good vibes coming through because it is an awesome position and I'm uncharacteristically optimistic about the whole thing.  

I was supposed to be at a Guiding event all day Saturday followed by a lot of Guiding on Sunday but the event on Saturday was cancelled due to poor enrolment I might brave the mall and finish off my Christmas shopping. I ordered a few things online so I'm keeping my fingers crossed they get here on time but figuring that I should be safe since I ordered from within Canada and there's still over a month to go before things need to be under the tree. This is the first time I've done any sort of 'bulk' online shopping and it kind of makes me feel like I've unlocked another level of adulting! 

Linking up here & here. 

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2015 Loose Ends

I fully intended on blogging between Christmas and New Years but obviously that didn't work out. Before the clock strikes 12 and everything switches to new years goals and resolutions I did want to post about Christmas and tie up a few loose ends before I jump into 2016.

My Christmas first started when Alex's package showed up! Alex blogs over at Whitehall & Rose and we were paired together for the Blogging Elite's Christmas Cheer Swap. I had the best time exchanging e-mails, reading her blog, following her on social media and getting to know her during the month leading up to the swap. Alex put together an awesome box and included scrapbook paper, stickers, an alpha stamp set, pretty metallic markers and two of my favourite treats - Reese and dark chocolate. Plus an adorable card. I can't say enough wonderful things about Alex. It was probably the easiest swap I've ever participated in and I really wish we were closer and could arrange an awesome blogger date! 

Christmas Eve afternoon J. and I had our own unconventional but awesome Christmas. 

Originally the plan was to go out for lunch when he finished work and then go back to his house to exchange presents. He ended up working a little later than anticipated and town was absolutely crazy by the time he was finished. We opted for McDonald's take out back to his house and a fast food lunch before presents. It wasn't the least bit fancy but I kind of love it. I'm positive that McDonald's lunch on Christmas Eve will not become a forever tradition but in this moment, when it's just the two of us it felt fitting. And knowing that I want to focus on documenting the everyday moments during 2016 this felt like a good start. Anyway, after we had finished our fries we got to presents. We had already determined that Christmas would be small since we're going away next month so I was pretty darn surprised when I opened my FitBit. Thankfully J. was equally as happy with the somewhat random assortment of stocking stuffers and gifts I had compiled. Shortly after gifts we went out separate ways to spend Christmas Eve night with our respective families. I headed to church and my aunts and was happily in bed by 11 p.m..

Christmas morning we opened our gifts, Peyton had the time of her life playing with wrapping paper, jumping in and out of boxes and bags and generally causing as much havoc as possible. We had Christmas dinner with my Dad's side of the family and then visited with my Mom's side. On Boxing Day (which I've only recently learned is mostly a thing in Canada and the U.K. and not so much anywhere else) I woke up bright an early and headed to the city to be reunited with H. & R.!

As per usual our time together included wine, Twisted Teas, hot tubbing, shopping (purchasing matching t-shirts) and a snow storm. My drive home on Monday was pretty sketchy but it was worth the time we got to spend together. 

Since I got home I've been visiting relatives, colouring in my adult colouring book, organizing my supplies to tackle both Project Life and One Little Word in 2016 and squeezing in time to stay caught up with The Curse of Oak Island and Top Chef!

I don't have any big plans for New Year's Eve. J. and I are going to make supper at his house (or go to his parents for Chinese that part is to be determined) and then spend the evening watching Harry Potter movies (we started the first one last night after homemade pizza) and playing boardgames. There is a supposed to be a fireworks display in town at midnight so we might check that out but it really depends on the weather. I have no interest in being outside in the cold for hours, especially in the snow. 

TWOsday!

Every Tuesday Stephanie  hosts a "TWOsday" link up and every Tuesday I forget about it and wish I would remember to participate. And lucky for all of you today is the day I remembered.

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Last night was our last Spark meeting until the new year. I wanted to do something fun with them but also something that wasn't overly Christmassy. Girl Guides of Canada isn't a religious organization and even though all of the girls in my unit celebrate Christmas I still wanted to do something that was holiday neutral. So they each decorated a mini-gingerbread house and two gingerbread people and were the happiest five year olds in all the land as they piled on the icing and put gummy sharks in their front lawn. I snapped a 'Before' picture before the girls started and some in progress but I missed taking an official "After" shot. Just imagine the same set up but with much fewer sprinkles in the bowl and a lot more icing on the table. I also wanted to send them home with a little keepsake. I found gingerbread shaped tree ornaments at Michael's for 75 cents each and decorated them to look like each of the girls. I used sharpies to draw on their uniforms, used the hot glue gun to adhere some gems on their sashes to look like badges and then fashioned some hair our of yarn and called it a day. I'm super happy with the way they turned out! 

TWO

There are only 10 days until I am reunited with H. & R. (as long as the weather cooperates). And 11 days (as long as the weather cooperates) until we're reunited with N.. I was working though last Christmas so I didn't get to partake in the Christmas/New Years reunion, which meant I went a whole year without seeing anyone in real life. I still saw a lot of them on my computer screen, but it's just not the same. I am so excited to drink wine in the hot tub, bravely adventure to the mall for boxing day sales and eat excessive amounts of snack foods. 

That's all I've got for today. We may or may not be getting the first winter storm of the season today/tonight/tomorrow so I'm going to spend the day getting gifts organized, making to do lists and getting things done! 

'Twas The Day After Christmas

I had such a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. God is good. 

Christmas Eve we had supper at my aunt & uncle's before church then we went to church where my cousin's baby was baptized. Afterwards we all went back to my aunt & uncle's and just enjoyed each other's company. Watching the excitement of my three year old cousin A. was the absolute best. We had given baby M. a present for her baptism and didn't want A. to feel left out so we brought a little something for her too. (And by little something I mean a single Christmas ornament that we found at Wal-Mart for under $5.) When she found out she was allowed to open it then she carefully but enthusiastically tore off the pink paper and squealed with delight and yelled "A decoration!" then she ran around the room to show everyone her new "decornation" and simultaneously offering up a "sank you". I also loved watching her in church as she proudly stood up on the pew, hymn book in hand and sang her heart out. I am so thankful for her and pray with every fibre of my being someday it's my little girl keeping everyone entertained Christmas.

Christmas Day we opened presents and I was seriously blessed. My biggest surprise present was a Magic Bullet Deluxe set with a bunch of different blades and attachments for the cups! I haven't gotten a change to try it out yet but I see A LOT of smoothies in my future. And homemade salsa. And iced coffee. I may even attempt to recreate Second Cup's Frozen Hot Chocolate! 

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I also got an amazing gift from my friend who I met through church back when I was in university. We send each other a Christmas package and I was so excited when I opened this on Christmas morning. At this point you all know how much I love words of affirmation and I love how much thought went into this gift. I'm using a lot of willpower not to read all those little notes right away but I really do want to save them and read one each day in 2014. I've also been thinking about how I need to get back into journalling with a real pen & paper. The next time I'm in town I'm going to pick up a notebook and for each day of 2014 I will glue in the quote I pick from the jar each day and scribble down a few words about the day, draw a few doodles, and by the end of the year I'll have an amazing scrapbook. I think I even have a blank Smash* Book that might be perfect for this project. That's a post for another time though...back to Christmas!

I got some great new clothes including this hoodie that has been on my wish list for months! 

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I also got some new make up, a supply of body washes & lotions to last well into the new year and a few gift cards to spend once things quiet down a little. 

And of course the kitties got some new toys too. 

We enjoyed Christmas dinner with my Dad's side of the family and then spent the evening with my mom's side. I can't put into words how thankful I am to have so many aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. And that family really is a priority. I can't imagine growing up without cousins and aunts and grandparents, but I know that for so many it's hard to imagine growing up with that kind of extended family. Mine certainly isn't perfect and there was the usual arguments about how many chairs we need and the uncles probably had one too many glasses of homemade wine but that's life. 

I'm off to spend the rest of the day enjoying the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives marathon on the Food Network making homemade pizzas for supper and visiting with a family friend this evening. I hope everyone is enjoying time with family & friends! 

'Twas The Weekend Before Christmas

I spent most of Friday & Saturday finishing up Christmas shopping, wrapping and checking things off my to do list.  When I came home Friday night I realized I ran out of the brown paper I had been using to wrap gifts so I had to switch to more generic wrapping paper. I was disappointed for all of three minutes then gave myself a reality check and accepted it was not the end of the world.

I made gift tags with my Cricut for the ones I used generic paper for so there was still a little touch of homemade. 

Saturday morning I got outside and played with my camera. I had a lot of fun experimenting with the settings and trying to capture the perfect snowy image. I didn't realize until after I got home that I'd taken over 500 photos in just a few hours. I also didn't realize I no longer have iPhoto on my computer...based on what Google tells me I'm just going to have to suck it up and pay $15 to download it from the App Store. Which is really freaking annoying and if anyone has any alternative suggestions I would love to hear them! I also need to invest in an external hard drive to store these giant photo files. So much to learn!

I've still got a long way to come before any of my photos are "Pinterest Worthy" or I get specifically get asked to take pictures for friends but I'm happy with quite a few of them and I was able to pick out a few favourites.

I really like trees in general and I recently discovered I love trying to capture details. I just like the way you can see all of the needles on the tree and you can kind of tell how weighed down it is by snow.

Squirrels are my absolute favourite animal! I could hear this little guy long before I finally spotted him hanging out in the tree. I wish I could have gotten closer to him but every time I moved my feet would crunch in the snow and he'd run away. 

Yesterday my cousin was supposed to get baptized but we had an ice storm (our fourth storm in seven days) so church and the baptism was cancelled. Instead I spent the day at home doing a whole lot of nothing, which after a busy few days before and what is sure to be a busy Christmas week wasn't such a bad thing!

I've got a few posts planned between Christmas and New Years including a my Year in Review, Blogging goals for 2014 and I will be guest posting over at A Beautiful Exchange  to share some advice on how to set goals for the new year! 

I'm linking up my weekend recap with Showered With Design and Dateless in Dallas.

Stormy Sunday Social

My original plans for the day included going to church for my youngest cousin's baptism and then celebrating with a family lunch after church. However, we're currently getting hit with our FOURTH winter storm of the week, so church was cancelled. (To those of you reading this from warmer climates, unless you're currently buried under 30-40 cm of snow and are about to be pummelled by 40 mm of freezing rain I do not want to hear about your "Snow Days" resulting from an inch of snow.)

Since my plans for the day have now become jogging pants and episodes of The Pioneer Woman I thought I'd join in this week's Sunday Social. 

This Weeks Questions:

1. What is your favorite holiday season tradition? 

I love the emphasis on family we have during the Christmas season. As I get older I realize that not everyone has this and I just can't imagine not celebrating Christmas with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins!

2. Do you have a certain holiday movie you watch more than others? If so what is it? 

My immediate family (Mom, Dad & Brother) don't watch many movies but the one we do sit down and watch year after year is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I'm also a big fan of Home Alone!

3. Show us your favorite decoration or pinterest decoration you wish you could have. 

I happened to come across this one on Pinterest and I want it so bad! 

4. What is your favorite holiday song?

I'm not someone who starts listening to Christmas music on November 1st, but Christmas in Kilarney is my absolute favourite Christmas song. It perfectly captures what Christmas is like aroun

5. What is your favorite holiday dessert? 

It's not technically a dessert but Candy Cane Hot Chocolate from Tim Horton's is my favourite sweet treat around this time of year! I also love gingerbread cookies though! 

6. What is on your wish list this year? 

I wrote about my dream Christmas list back here! Since then I ended up buying a camera, so I'm hoping for a case for it! 

Faith, Fun & Food on Friday

{one}

I blogged back here about how much I love words of affirmation, usually I get all my word lovin' during the summer months at camp where writing "warm fuzzies" is a widely accepted & enjoyed activity. During the fall/winter/spring I rely on reading through old warm fuzzies, random messages from friends and of course your sweet blog comments! This week however I got the best surprise in my mailbox. A letter from a girl who was in the youth group I helped lead during university. We hadn't really kept in touch over the past year and although I think of her fondly I wouldn't say we were overly close during my time with the group. I never would have guessed I made any sort of impact on her life. I won't share the contents of the letter but it made me tear up and reminded me that even when we don't know we're making a difference it someone's life, we are. 

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Speaking of youth and making a difference, yesterday I did something brave. I e-mailed a Christian camp in Texas to inquire about employment opportunities they have from September-April. It may not sound like a big leap of faith, but I've always said I'd love to experience living in the south and that I'd love to travel and work at larger Christian camp while I'm young. I've never taken any steps to make this happen though, because it's scary. Yesterday though I was browsing camps, (which is a pretty common activity for me) and I came across this particular camp and I just got this feeling. I can't explain it really, but it was just a huge push to send an e-mail. Even if nothing comes from the e-mail it's a step.

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I've been re-watching Dawson's Creek lately, hands down one of my all time favourite shows since I first started watching in jr.high. I think it speaks volumes about how much I've changed/grown as a person that once upon a time I was a die-hard Dawson & Joey fan. There was just no other option. And now at the ripe old age of 23 (almost 24), I get it. Team Pacey & Joey all the way. I am embarrassed that I was ever 'attracted' to the whiney, dramatic and all together annoying Dawson Leery. 

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Psalm 25 has been on my mind & heart a lot lately. I'm not exactly sure why but it started with a thought about footprints, steps and paths which lead to me read the entire Psalm and as I read with my Bible on my lap, highlighter in hand I couldn't decide what part to highlight, it all just feels so relevant right now. 

Especially verse 5 as it's written in The Message:  

Take me by the hand;Lead me down the path of truth.You are my Savior, aren’t you?Psalm 25:5 (The Message)

I am little to no idea what my plans are for 2014. It's incredibly scary, stressful and worrisome but it's also kind of exhilarating. Even if I don't know what my plans are, God does.

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Ending things on a lighter note, it's officially Candy Cane Hot Chocolate here in Canada. And during last weekend's road trip to the City I discovered the amazingness that is the Gingerbread Donut. As depressing as it is not to have unlimited access to Vanilla Coke, cheap clothes and Trader Joe's Tim Horton's kind of makes up for what's lacking. If I could figure out a way to stock up on gingerbread donuts and keep them all year round I would be a happy person. And on a related note, putting egg nog in coffee is also one of the tastiest treats of the season! If you haven't tried it yet, make it happen. I usually just drink coffee with sugar and no milk/cream but once egg nog goes on the shelf I'm all over it. 

Linking up here! 

Weekend Update: Extended Edition

Thursday night as I was packing I got the above messages from H. She has a hot tub at her house which we planned on putting to good use during the weekend hence the bathing suit. And with a major snow storm in the forecast we thought we might have some outdoor winter fun, so I packed my snowsuit too. I was ready for anything. 

Friday I headed to the City as planned and for the most part the roads were in pretty good shape! I got to the city by early afternoon which was perfect timing since H. & I had a chance to put some finishing touches on R.'s birthday present! I thought I got a picture of it but apparently I didn't. It was a Pinterest project made from a bulletin board with a photo of the 3 of us in the middle and then we cut out 24 circles from pretty paper and on each of them wrote a reason why we love R. (she turned 24 this weekend). 

We went out to supper with a few more friends to celebrate R.'s birthday at a cozy little restaurant downtown. I'd never been before but I ordered the Santa Fe Chicken Burger and it was super yummy! After dinner H., R. & I headed back to H.'s for wine & birthday cake! H. made the amazing tie-dye cake! The cake itself was a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of graham cracker cake and a layer or marshmallow fluff icing, I'm not sure where she found the recipe but it was extremely impressive! After cake & wine we spent the rest of the evening catching up and planning the rest of our weekend.

Saturday we headed to the mall, along with everyone else in the province based on the traffic that we encountered on our way there. We kept trying to take a picture but we couldn't get a good angle to truly capture the ridiculousness. Once we got to the mall we continued with the ridiculousness when we headed to the grand opening of Forever 21. So much crazy. We bought a few things there but after the experience we'd had enough of the mall so we headed back to H.'s for our fun evening plans!

Two other girls that worked at camp this summer came over Saturday night and the five of us spent too much time in the hot tub and drank too much wine in the process. We were still in the hot tub when the snow storm started which was a pretty neat experience!

Sunday the snow storm was in full force so we spend the whole day bundled up indoors and recovering from Saturday night's wine & hot tubbing. 

Monday the roads were still pretty sketchy to make the 5 hour drive home so the three of us spent an extra day together and tackled the mall once again! This time we powered up before hand with pizza & garlic fingers and then headed out. Our second trip was much more successful and enjoyable and we all managed to get a bunch of Christmas shopping done. Yesterday evening we played with H.'s new puppy. She is the sweetest and even though I'm not much of a small dog lover, it's hard not to love that little ball of fluff!

I was up early this morning and set out for the drive home. The roads were still pretty sketchy in some places but I made it home safe & sound! I am now going to spend the rest of the night reading the 166 unread posts on my Bloglovin' feed and replying to a bunch of e-mails that have been neglected over the past 4.5 days! 

Holiday Favourites: Family Tradition

I had so much fun linking up with Hayley & Lauren last week for The Girl Between the Lines I can't wait to do it again! This week everyone is sharing their favourite things about the holiday season.

I'll let the blogging world in on a little secret; I don't LOVE Christmas. Now before you close the window, unfriend/unfollow/delete me from your life just hold on a second while I explain. It's not that I don't enjoy Christmas and all the family traditions and festive spirit, but there are things that I enjoy more. And right now there aren't a whole lot of children in my life who are really into the whole Christmas thing so as sad as it may sound, a little bit of the magic is gone. I can't wait to someday have my own family and babies to celebrate the season with, but that's just not where I am in life right now.

I am thankful that my family has really great Christmas traditions. On Christmas Eve we all go to church and then to my aunt & uncle's house for finger foods. When all of us cousins were younger we would run around the house playing and being SO excited Santa was coming. These days we're all grown up (the oldest four have babies of their own) so there's a lot less chaos and a lot more wine. When we were little after we left there and went home brother & I would be allowed to open one gift under the tree. There was always a lot of painstaking present shaking and examination trying to decide which one to open. One of my favourite memories was the year Brother opened a package of batteries. He was not amused. 

Christmas morning we wake up and open our stockings first! Then it's kind of a free for all opening presents, we have calmed down since we've gotten older though. After presents we have breakfast and then get ready for Christmas dinner. We do Christmas dinner with my Dad's side of the family and then after dinner we head out to my Mom's parents house for Christmas dinner leftovers from Mom's side of the family Christmas dinner. They have dinner a little later so we usually arrive just in time for dessert! Santa is also nice enough to leave all the grandchildren presents for us there too. 

 I know how lucky I am to have so many aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents and I'm so thankful that I get to spend time with them during Christmas. Even if it's not my most favourite time of year and I am already dreading answering the "Do you have a boyfriend?", "Have you met anyone yet?" questions. I hope and pray that someday soon I will have someone to take to all these family events with me and in the not so distant future my own babies will be running around the house on Christmas Eve. Because family really is my favourite part of Christmas!

Runners up to my favourite thing about Christmas include; Christmas Movies (National Lampoon, Charlie Brown, Elf & Rudolph) and Christmas Treats (gingerbread, candy canes, Coffee with egg nog). But in the end family comes first! 

One Hundred & Five

{one} {ONE HUNDRED!}

This is officially my 100th blog post!! Hurray!! I know it's a pretty small milestone, but I'm celebrating all the same. Everyone has to start somewhere and I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made over the last 100 posts.

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Canon

I took the plunge (and got a great deal thanks to reward points and a sale) and bought a "fancy camera" the best deal was on a Canon Rebel T3 and it has really good reviews on Amazon so I went for it. I'm on a huge learning curve but I'm hoping to play around with it some more this weekend and I've been pinning tips & tricks like mad. 

{three}

I'm not sure if it's that I've been getting more comments lately (which I love by the way!!) or if there's been some sort of setting change but it seems like everybody is a no-reply blogger. Which makes me super sad because one of the best parts about getting a comment is commenting back and making new friends! There are lots of easy peasy tutorials (including this one & this one)  on how to fix this issue so if you've been commenting up a storm and getting no replies this might be your problem. Now go fix it, and then come back and comment because I want to be friends! :) 

{four}

My director messaged me this morning with a message saying "23 weeks until we move to camp!". Crazy that summer (well, spring) is that close. I have a long list of projects I want to get done for this summer; revamping the Jeopardy game, new binders for each of the activities, a pile of easy sample crafts for rainy days...thinking about it kind of stresses me out. It also makes me super excited though! I can't wait for camper registrations to start coming in and staff applications! So exciting!

{five}

I need to get dressed and venture into town in hopes of snagging some of the winter tires that are on sale this week at Canadian Tire. I would rather stay spend the day in my sweat pants but I'm motivated by the thought that getting snow tires means that next week end I will be able to go to the city! We're celebrating R.'s birthday next Friday and then Saturday a few of the staff from this summer are getting together to drink wine and catch up! I am super excited! I've seen H. & R. separately since camp camp ended and the three of us group chat and Skype all the time but we haven't actually been together in the same room since August!

December Goals

I'm a few days late but I wanted to make sure I linked up with Erica to blog about my November goals and make a few December goals.

November Goal Recap: 

Blog 20 Times.

Check! I published 25 posts in November!

Read 3 Books.

I didn't read a single book this month. I picked up a few and read the first couple of chapters but I never got around to finishing them!

Do Yoga 4 Times.

I did probably did a full yoga work out once or twice this month. I have been doing really good with stretching and doing a few poses either in the morning or the evening before bed. I'm going to give myself half marks for this one.

Make progress with 3 of the things on my 25x25 list.

I published one post about the 50 Questions to Free Your Mind and wrote another one that hasn't been published yet. And I got rid of one bag of clothes in preparation for the new clothes I know I'm getting for Christmas. So again, half points. 

Not as big of a success as my October goals but even if I didn't fully complete them all I did make progress on each of them so that's something. I'm going to go pretty easy on December goals, it's a busy time of year and I know I'm probably going to set some more long term goals in January. 

December Goals

Make 5 Blog Related Goals for 2014. 

I'm not sure what this will entail yet, it might be related to posts or followers or link ups or something totally different. I just want to identify a direction for the blog. I've never been good at directions though so maybe that's not the way to go.

Christmas Shop without breaking the bank. 

I don't have a whole lot of Christmas shopping to do, just immediate family and a few close friends, but I don't want to go overboard on anything. I'm a big believer that you don't have to spend piles of money to give nice/meaningful presents. I picked up a few things on sale and have some DIY projects planned so I should be able to get it all done without spending a small fortune. 

Playing Catch Up

Oh my, I didn't plan on taking so many days off from blogging but Saturday night I came down with a stomach bug. Sunday I was absolutely miserable, I couldn't eat or drink anything, I just slept all day. Yesterday I still felt crummy but I had an appointment in town at 9 a.m. to complete some more paper work for the never ending grant project. I managed to to pull myself together to go in but it took longer than I was expecting and the whole time I just wanted to sleep. When it was finally over I high tailed it home, took some Gravol and slept until supper time. I managed to crawl out of bed long enough to sip some tea and eat some crackers. Today I'm feeling better, but I'm still exhausted. It's barely 11 a.m. and I'm already anticipating bedtime. Not a great way to start off December!

While I was busy being sick I got way behind in the blog world. When I checked Bloglovin' last night there were over 60 unread posts! I'm looking forward to a lazy day snuggled on the couch with a cup of tea catching up on everyone's Thanksgiving celebrations! Before I get to that though I want to link up for the last instalment of "These Are A Few of My Favourie Things" Link Up with Elise & Jen to share some of my favourite gifts that are under >$100! As a matter of fact, all of these gifts are under $50!

Who doesn't love a new mug to sip tea or coffee out of on a cold winer day? I really like filling the mug with K-Cups, individual hot chocolate packages or a gift card to Tim Horton's! I think it's the perfect Secret Santa gift and depending on the mug & what you put inside you can easily keep it under budget!

I adore board games! Apples to Apples is one of my favourites. I think board games make great gifts because it's something you can play during holiday gatherings, but you can get lots of use out of it all year round too! I always have at least one board game on my Santa list!

The past few years TV Shows on DVD have been a bit gift in our house! We've all got favourite shows that we like to re-watch and Dad loves DVDs of the shows he watched growing up (think, M*A*S*H).

I have yet to meet a female who doesn't love new pyjamas! And if you want something a little more expensive, you can always pair it with a mug/gift card or DVD and give the recipient all the ingredients for a cozy night in!

One of my favourite parts of Christmas is admiring all of the ornaments on the tree and reminiscing about where each ornament came from and who gave it to us. Christmas Ornaments  can make great really personal presents, either you're lucky enough to stumble upon the perfect one in store or you find a great DIY to make one or you are able to purchase something generic and add a monogram or engraving.

I mentioned before that one of my favourite gifts to give to friends is to fill a stocking with a whole bunch of their favourite things! I'm working on gathering things to make a few of them right now and it's so much fun to just pick up little things that I know they're going to love. 

Check back tomorrow when I link up with Erica to recap my November Goals and publicly declare goals for December!

Stocking Stuffers!

I absolutely love stockings. Some people dream about going to the pumpkin patch to take family pictures with their husband and babies. I dream about monogrammed stockings. I can't wait until I can hang stockings over the fireplace with mine and my husband's on either side and 3-4 stockings in between for the kiddos. 

Etsy

As kids (and even know) my brother and I always opened our stockings first before any of the other presents. Santa also took the time to wrap all of the individual things in our stockings, which I love and plan on doing with my own kids. I had all kinds of pretty pictures for last week's wish list post but I quickly realized my favourite stocking stuffers don't make very interesting photos. So, this week's post will be in list form!

Favourite Stocking Stuffers

Lip Chap & Lip Gloss 

Mascara

Nail Polish

Hand Cream

Face Wipes

Hair Accessories

Candy

Fun Socks

Stickers

Pens

Tape

Notebooks

Ornament 

I think stockings are so much fun! There's lots room to be creative (one year my stocking was entirely scrapbooking supplies and another it was all camp things). I've even put together stockings as gifts for friends before and they've been very well received!

Don't forget to link up your favourite stocking stuffers here or here!

Grown-Up Christmas List

Call me old fashion but I try to stick to the rule of holding off Chirstmas celebrations until December 1st (or at least the first Sunday of Advent). HOWEVER, I had to break my rule so I could join in with this link up being co-hosted by one of my favourite bloggers! Elise blogs over at  Cheers Y'All and is married to her summer camp sweetheart (which of course makes me super happy!), she is so sweet and has the most adorable dog. Everyone needs to go check out her blog and link up! 

The theme for today's link up is our own Christmas Wish List. I may have went a little over board with mine, and am definitely not getting everything (or anything?) on this list, but a girl can dream. 

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I would love to have a KitchenAid Mixer. I go back and forth  between wanting it in yellow or in orange. And sometimes red is my first choice. Luckily, I don't have to decide quite yet because before I get a KitchenAid I should really get my own kitchen...

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I joke about it all the time, but I'm also pretty serious when I say that I want to be Ree Drummond when I grow up. I mean, she's married to a cowboy, has four beautiful kids (2 boys & 2 girls), lives on a ranch and her job is to blog, take photos and film a cooking show about her delicious food. I know you can get her recipes online but there's just something nice about having the actual cookbook. And I love a display of cookbooks in the kitchen! (Again, maybe I'll work on getting a kitchen first.)

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I have been eyeing these boots for almost a  year now. I love them and I really want a pair. I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on a pair of rubber boots. I wear my rubber boots at camp and in the woods and in barns. While wearing my rubber boots I jump in puddles and walk through mud, so spending over $100 on a pair of boots just seems ridiculous. 

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I had a chance to play with a good DSLR at camp this summer and ever since then it's been on my ultimate wishlist. I have a point & shoot camera now that is also really great because it's shock proof and waterproof, which is awesome for the wear and tear it gets at camp but it would be nice to have something a little better quality. 

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And to go with my fancy camera, a fancy camera strap! There are so many of these on Etsy (I really love this one though) I would want to buy a different one for every day of the week. 

Of course, gift cards are always a welcome gift too! To be honest I hate giving giftcards alone unless they're paired with something, but I do like getting them. It's nice to be able to pick out your own thing, or combine gift cards and get something a little more expensive. I usually find gift cards from Chapter's, Michael's, Subway and Tim Horton's under the tree Christmas morning!

What's on your Christmas list?