Blogmas Day 13: Decorated the Christmas Tree

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Tonight I decorated our Christmas tree. We decided to buy an artificial tree after a couple of years of buying real trees. We thought it would be easier not to have to water it and lug it into the apartment and sweep up the needles. I do miss the real pine tree smell though. So far it has been a lot easier and I really like how it looks. It is not fully decorated yet, but I got a lot of the decorating done tonight. I noticed I have a rustic theme going on with my decor which I am enjoying.

The tree is a 6 1/2" Kawartha lighted tree we bought it at Canadian Tire. There are some great sales on trees there right now if you are also looking. 

The tree we we bought 

 I bought some more things from Michaels last night. I wanted to go there to buy a gift and then I got busy browsing the Christmas decor and gift wrapping section. It is okay right now since everything is half off in price. I might make another trip closer to Christmas to see if there are more sales. I picked up these two bags below that came as a set of two. I will use one for gift I got for the secret Santa gift exchange at work. I also bought a cookie tin to bring cookies to work soon. I will share a photo of the tin in a later post.

I bought the sign below it was only $7 pretty hard to not buy it. I like the style with the rope and tin. It is a bit hard to read but you can make out it says "Have yourself a merry little Christmas".

Have you put up your Christmas tree yet? How early do you put it up? Now that we have an artificial tree, I will have it up and decorated before December from now on! haha

Thank you for stopping by for the 13th day of blogmas. Please join me again tomorrow for another blogmas post. Please post a link to your blog if you are also participating in blogmas and I will visit.

Have a great day!

Blogmas Day 12: Quick Gift Ideas to Knit or Crochet in Time for Christmas

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. With Christmas quickly approaching and only 13 days away now, many of us knitters or crocheters are wondering if we have the time to fit in one more small handmade gift for our loved ones. I have one gift on the go for my mom, but I realized I have not thought of the rest of the family and maybe some of the ideas will inspire some quick knitting or crocheting for you too. I looked on Pinterest for some cute quick projects that can be made in both knit or crochet and would be a fun addition to put in a stocking or attach to a gift.

1. Knitted or crocheted coasters. These are such a fun knitting or crochet project to do and to give as a set as a gift for the holidays. I love the packaging that Party Inspiration, they used the pattern originally from Purl Soho. I would like to give these a try they look so cute.

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2. Coffee cup cozies or mug hugs. These would make the perfect stocking stuffers and as they suggest on Pinterest, it would be a fun idea to pair them with a gift card to their favourite coffee shop like Starbucks or Tim Hortons. You can find the pattern to make these coffee cup cozies on Ravelry.

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3. Scrunchies. I keep seeing these all over the place, especially on Instagram. They must be THE thing to crochet right now. Not sure if we can knit them, but there are probably also patterns out there to knit these up too. The Snugglery has you covered for a free crochet pattern to make these for a quick fun gift in three different ways.

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4. Cable knit headband is a fast knit and looks amazing. This pattern is by Michelle Greenberg on Ravelry.

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5. Pussyhat. Give the activist or feminist you know a pussyhat for their next march. I wanted to make one of these to wear to a march last year but never did. It would be a fun gift to give to those who do get out there and take a stand for women. You can find the pattern here on Ravelry by Kat Coyle.

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6. Fingerless mittens. I have made these mittens twice already this year. They are fun and quick to knit up, so they are perfect to give as gifts. The pattern is on Ravelry by Kathy North. 

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7. Knitted or crochet basket. These baskets are fun and quick to knit up using jumbo weight yarn. You can use this pattern for the Sandhills Basket by Winnie Marie Designs. There are also a lot of patterns for crocheting baskets. 

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8. Washcloth with soap set. These would be nice if you knit up some soft washcloths and added a bar of soap along with it. Pattern posted on In the loop knitting website.

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Thank you for visiting my blog today and reading another post of my 25 days of blogmas posting from December 1st until Christmas Day December 25th! I hope you found an idea in this post to knit or crochet for someone you know and that you will have enough time to knit it up in a hurry. Please join me again tomorrow for another day of blogmas.

Have a great day!

Blogmas Day 11: Knitting, Reading, and Big News

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have been enjoying blogmas, it has been fun coming up with ideas to share and I am thinking ahead of things I can post about. I have finished the scarf I have been knitting using the Juniper Moon Farms yarn. I made it into an infinity scarf after all. I was on the fence about whether to just leave it as a regular scarf or to connect the ends, then this morning I made the decision because I love the look of infinity scarves and also thought it would look better since it is a short scarf. I am looking forward to wearing it now that it is finished.

I started knitting a gift for my mom last night and I am hoping to knit it up fast since Christmas is quickly approaching. I will also be starting to knit the Santa Gnome ornament and work on some other crafty Christmas projects soon that I will share with you. 

I am still reading Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis. I will be done reading it very soon and I am looking forward to diving into reading The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben. It looks very interesting and I hope that I learn a lot from it and it makes me think about how animals have their own world and ways in communicating with each other.

So for the big news I was talking about in the title... I wanted to let you all know that I got engaged! It happened a couple of weeks ago and I am so happy that I can share the good news on my blog now that our all of our family and friends know.

 He popped the question one evening when I came home from work on a Monday night. He had music playing, candles lit, and the table was set for dinner. He said some very sweet things that made me teary eyed and then asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes! We had shopped for the ring a couple of weeks before at Michael Hill and I chose one I loved. It was good for us because we had been talking about it for quite awhile so we both knew it was coming so shopping for it did not give away any surprise.

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On, Small Things for Yarn Along, and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you all for visiting my blog for blogmas day 11 to read about our big news and updates on my knitting and reading. If you have a blogmas post you would like me to read please let me know in the comments below and also please let me know in the comments what you are working on and reading this week!

Have a great day