Valentine's Day Round-Up

Valentine's Day is one of those polarizing holidays that people either love or detest.

Personally I love it. But I love any reason to celebrate.

While I understand (and support) the "you should treat every day like Valentine's day" argument, you better actually be doing romantic things on the reg to back up your argument.

But since I love to celebrate, I've rounded up 5 of my current favourite Valentine DIY ideas.

Let me know if you have some good ideas of your own!

1. Black, White & Glittered Valentine's Day card

The card is simple and elegant. I'd follow the Style Me Pretty lead and glitter my hearts in gold either by gluing then glittering them or by tracing them with glitter pens.

Then be sure to print out the envelope liner below to jazz up the way you present your card.

(The link for the card is here)

(You can open the link for the envelope liner here)

2. Rose Body Scrub

If you're looking for a DIY Valentine's Day gift I recommend this rose body scrub from Oh So Pretty.

You can follow the step by step instructions on the website here. Just go out and grab yourself some coarse & fine sea salt, rose essential oil & jojoba oil.

3. Less Mushy, More Silly

Because sometimes "There's no one else I'd rather lay in bed & look at my phone with" is way more accurate and heart felt than anything else.

The PDFs can be printed here

4. For the Book Lover

This is such a cute idea.

Follow the DIY valentine's day dust jacket tutorial over at Juniper Books here.

5. Talk Cake to Me

 

The idea comes from All You and can be found here

I love the different use for he conversation hearts and might make a few individual cakes like this.  

What are your thoughts on Valentine's  Day?

Last Minute Christmas Printables (and ice storm 2013 pictures)

It's Christmas Eve!

Our beautiful city was pummelled by an ice storm over the weekend and many people are still without power (including my parents).

We've been lucky and haven't been without power & heat but my parent's have been wrapping themselves in blankets upon blankets to stay warm since Sunday morning. 

I finally convinced my mom to come over yesterday for a shower and dinner but I haven't been able to talk them into sleeping here yet. 

Hopefully tonight.

Freezing rain and high winds caused a lot of trees to snap and pull down power lines all across the city. Roads and walkways were turned into skating rinks seemingly overnight.

Driving home on Sunday morning we saw a lot of the damage first hand:

This is the dog park we frequent. John took the dog but wisely didn't stay long as the trees were making ominous creaking noises and the possibility of having large branches come crashing down was too great.

This was a common sight on the roads.

But despite the destruction and danger, the ice has actually been quite pretty. 

I snapped this picture of John last night on our walk back to the apartment.

As a result of the lack of power we're switching up our Christmas Eve tradition this year (also cause my dad is working) which, as a big fan of traditions, I find really sucks. But I'm sure tonight will still be as magical as every other year.

Christmas Eve is hands down my favourite day of the year. 

Hopefully everyone is finished their shopping.

If you're struggling for some last minute gifts you could whip up some bacon jam, knit mittens (that post to come), or bake a batch of Christmas cookies (with Bailey's icing on those snowflakes)

And if you're wrapping up your gifts, why not print out and use these adorable rustic gift tags? I've been using the gift tag templates found HERE or you could use the tags found  HERE

If you're throwing a party why not make some props for people to take photos with?

Simply save and print this image to size, cut out and attach to sticks.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVERYONE! 

Christmas Craft: Advent Jar

As most of you are aware, Pinterest is the greatest thing ever to happen to the internet.

Need fashion or hair inspiration? Pinterest.

Need an inspirational quote or funny picture to get you through the day? Pinterest.

Need a craft idea? Pinterest.

 

When I work nights and it's quiet, the wee hours of the morning are often spent scrolling through hundreds of pictures on Pinterest.

 

On my recent Christmas kick I came across this cute idea and have decided to make one for John.

 

 

I'm planning to attach numbers to chocolates and candies in the jar.

Every 5 days (December 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, and obviously the 25th) there will be a little present instead of chocolate. I've already picked up a bag of Lindt chocolates and a Tim Horton's gift card. I'm thinking some of the other presents can be things like new boxers and other items under $15.

 

I found a template for the numbers here (I might trim off the 'more days' part)

 

I'll keep you up to speed on how the jar goes.

I also fell in love with these DIY advent ideas:

 

Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

 

 

All you need is adhesive magnet sheets to cut to cover the holes. Plus candy to put in each spot.

 

Advent Calendar Wall Chart

(from thepaintedhive.net)

 

Full instructions plus free templates for this idea can be found at The Painted Hive website here!

 

1st Anniversary Gifts: Part 1

**For some reason this was saved in my drafts and was never published! Oops!

Enjoy belatedly :)

 

As the big day draws closer I've been putting the finishing touches on John's anniversary present.

Sticking to my theme of the paper card encompassing the 5 ways to show your love, I present to you my 'Acts of Service' contribution.

 

I made a few coupons for John to use to 'get out of jail free' with respect to household chores.

I tried to pick some of the more common ones that we do.

 

I google image searched for the famous Monopoly card and opened it in picmonkey to customize it.

 

Tada!

 

 

The other gifts I'll be keeping secret until after the big reveal for fear that John will read all about them before hand.

Some of his co-workers have been reading the blog [Hi! I promise to keep stuff more impersonal ;) haha] and I fear he's worried about what I'm posting for them to read and therefore might pop on to see what's new.

 

Feel free to copy and print these coupons if you think you'd use them.

I can make more too!

 

Thanksgiving: Some decor ideas

Not one to let myself only be all-consummed with finding suitable recipes for turkey and side dishes, I've also decided that for my thanksgiving dinner I will create some cute turkey place holders.

I'm torn between two but think I'm leaning more towards the first, depending on how much time I have.

First up: Turkey Trivia

Using this template you fill out trivia questions (samples found here  - U.S. based questions though) on the turkey's tail feathers.

This works so well for my trivia-crazy family. My dad used to always read us the trivia questions from the Toronto Star's Sunday paper and it would be a race to see who could answer the most correctly.

Second option is for a less interactive but more eye-appealing turkey.

You'll need a supply of crafts and this template that will leave you with a pile that resembles this.

Following these instructions, you should hopefully end up with something that looks like this!

(All photos from marthastewart.com)

Upon closer inspection of the length of time it will take to make these and the fact that the trivia option is way more fun, I'm going with the first idea!

Let's hope it actually pans out.

Wedding Wednesday: Bridal Shower Edition

On Saturday my amazing friends and family threw me a bridal shower.

It was so much fun and I wish I could do it every weekend...but realistically by the 3rd weekend I'd have no friends left.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the gorgeous afternoon!

With my giant "I'm the Bride" pin

A delicious vanilla cake with a layer of custard

Flowers arranged by the talented Ms. Marion

The table with prizes and favours.

The favours - an adorable mug and spoon combo

My bounty at the end of the day - so many amazing gifts. I'm so lucky.

We played a how well do you know the couple trivia game, a wedding traditions trivia game, taboo words on clothespins, made toilet paper bridal gowns, and much more. Every minute of it was amazing.

To thank the party planners (and for something to do since they wouldn't let me plan/cook/bake/bring anything) I put together small jars of jelly bellies (colour coordinated) and a bag of sweet strawberry tea leaves.

The template for the tea card came from Martha Stewart - click here to get the PDF file, then customize it to fit your needs!