Blogmas: Christmas Eve and Christmas

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well and hope you enjoyed your Christmas and holidays. Today was the last of the Christmas celebrations for me for this year. It has been busy and now I can have some time to reflect,blog, knit, and read. On Christmas Eve I drove to my parent's place and we went to church, then drove around to look at lights in a neighborhood close by. Then we had dinner, I had a vegetable lasagna which was delicious. After dinner we open crackers and we ate treats and opened pajamas. I got a waffle pajama set from Joe Fresh and some pajama bottoms with cats on them from Old Navy below. I love the cats, they are so cute playing with the lights and stockings.

Love these Pj bottoms!

My dad and I wearing our crowns from the crackers

Christmas day was fun, we each opened our stockings and gifts. We do a lot of rounds of opening gifts. It was probably a few hours of gift opening to go through five of us each opening tons of gifts. My sister's Fiance joined us again this year which was nice to have him with us.

I gave our cats a couple rubber balls with bells on the inside and they did not really play with them too much. They picked up the balls in their mouths and batted them a bit, but then moved on to the next gift.

Moo and Roo investigating my gift bag

Which they loved! My parents bought them a new enclosed pet bed from IKEA. They enjoyed sitting inside the enclosure and getting cozy. Moo (the black and white one) first jumped right on top of it from the coffee table. Then we propped it back up and he went inside. He was the first one to explore it and then got out and then Roo (the ginger cat) got his turn to sit inside.

New gifts for the cats, the ball I got for them and the cat bed

Moo in the cat bed

Roo's turn in the cat bed

On Christmas evening, I went for dinner at my boyfriend's dad and step mom's home and celebrated there with their family and her children. It was very nice to spend time with them. I received a project bag from Fringe Supply Co. from them for Christmas. I love this bag and I am so excited to use it! It will make bringing projects with me travelling a lot easier and I will enjoy knitting with this bag.

Waxed canvas field bag - Fringe Supply Co.

I finished knitting a hat as a gift for my boyfriend on boxing day. I was really trying to finish it to give it to him on Christmas day but did not finish in time. I used the pattern "Man Hat" by Haven Ashley that I found on Ravelry. I enjoyed the repetition of the two rows K1,P1 and knit the second row. Knitting that pattern for 7" then decreasing makes it a simple and quick hat to knit up.

Finished "man hat"

"Man hat" finished

I received a lot of wonderful reading material from my family and boyfriend for Christmas and thought it would be fun to share what they got for me. I got the book Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and a book of poetry called The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur. Both of these books won best books in their categories of fiction and poetry for the year 2017 on Goodreads. I also got books on vegetarian living and cooking which I am excited to read. I got Stuff Every Vegetarian Should Know by Katherine McGuire from my sister which looks so fun to read. My boyfriend got me a cookbook called Vegetarian Any Day: Over 100 Simple, Healthy, Satisfying Meatless Recipes by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming which offer more great recipes to try out in the new year. I had asked for the Q&A a day notebook from Indigo and so excited I got it from my family. I am looking forward to answering questions every day and seeing how my answers change from year to year over a period of five years. I love reading the magazine Psychology Today, there are always interesting articles in there on self-help, relationships, and the mind. I am looking forward to flipping through it.

All the gifted books/magazines/notebooks that will keep me busy

I have still been reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed and I am really enjoying reading about her journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. I have also started reading the sun and her flowers by Rupi Kaur. I am really enjoying it so far. The poems have been about break ups and the heartbreak of ending relationships. They are so well written and beautiful.

This Christmas was so busy and went by really fast. I am looking forward to the next few days being somewhat relaxing and hopefully having more time to look over my gifts, read my books, knit, and do some much needed tidying. I will also be catching up on reading what you all did for Christmas and the holidays.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesdays.

What gifts did you receive this Christmas, I would love to know!

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you come back soon. If you would like to keep updated on when I post, please follow my blog on Bloglovin', Google Followers, and you can also subscribe by email at the top right corner of the blog.

Have a great day!

Blogmas: Christmas Market Trip and Happy Planner Christmas Layout

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have been busy getting ready for Christmas, finishing knitting the stockings, knitting gifts, going to the holiday market, and buying gifts. There are only three days left until Christmas now and time is running out to get all the things done. I went to the Toronto Christmas Market in the Distillery District last night with my boyfriend and my family and my sister's fiance. It was so  nice to see all the lights, look around in the stores, and get good food and drink mulled wine. It was my first time drinking mulled wine last night and I really enjoyed it.

There were so many lit up words around the market this year. They had joy, love, and there was also family which were all very popular spots for photos. I saw a big family huddle under the word for a group picture.

I feel so much joy for this time of year and spending time with those I love

All you need is love

Christmas countdown!

The beautiful tree that is in the center of the market. It was THE selfie spot last night

Liam and I joining along with the many people taking selfies last night

beautiful lights above the market

Naughty or Nice lights display by the bar

Under a giant mistletoe and with my mulled wine!

 We had such a great time going to the market with my family and having dinner at Mill Street Brewery. We always have such a nice time at the market with so much to see and I enjoyed the Christmas lights most of all this year. I can't wait to go back next year!

I planned out my spread in my Happy Planner for this week and the beginning of next week for the around Christmas and to keep organized with the busy schedules. I was excited to use the Christmas and holiday themed stickers from the seasonal Create 365 Happy Planner sticker pack. The photos below are mostly "before the pen" photos, which means they are photos of the sticker layouts before I write in my plans. I will add the details now that I have finished placing the stickers.

December 19th-20th

As you can see from the photo below, I left the remainder of my Christmas shopping to today. I had been planning on finishing earlier but of course that never happens! I still have one or two gifts to buy tomorrow.

December 21st-24th

I really love all of these stickers, the girl and the dog on the sled sticker is so cute. I love the "have yourself a merry little Christmas" sticker as well.

December 25th-27th

I will be getting a new planner for 2018 and I am looking forward to another year of planning in my Happy Planner. I really had a lot of fun this year using the planner. I love the vertical layout because I like the way I can organize my days using the squares in the planner and plan morning, afternoon and evening. 

Tonight I was working on knitting a gift for my boyfriend and got a lot of it done. I am keeping it a secret on the blog since he reads it. I am excited to share the finished project with you after Christmas and share the pattern I used as well. I hope all of your knitting and crochet projects are coming together nicely too! 

Thank you for visiting my blog today. If you would like to keep updated on when I post blog entries, please follow my blog on Bloglovin', Google Followers, and you can also subscribe by email at the top right corner of the blog. 

Have a great day!

Knitted Jumbo Christmas Stocking

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have had a good weekend, went to another wedding dress appointment for my sister. She is getting married about a year from now. She did find a dress and I am so happy for her, it is beautiful. I also did some shopping and caught up with my mom and sister for lunch with her friends who came to the dress appointment. I am happy it is feeling cooler now, and I am looking forward to upcoming holidays, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, I have just completed one of the Christmas stockings way ahead of time. The pattern I used was from Ravelry called Jumbo Christmas Stocking in a Jiffy - Striped by Jennifer Jackson. I am so happy to be done knitting the first stocking, now I can start the next one and have them both finished in time for Christmas.

Knitting the loop

To make the loop to hang the stocking, I casted on three stitches, then knit until the piece was 14 inches long, then just looped it into the back of the top of the stocking once I folded the top over.

Knitted loop to hang the stocking 3 stitches for 14 inches

What knitting projects are you working on? I am thinking of knitting something for Halloween coming up, since it has gotten cooler out I feel more inspired.

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On

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Have a great day!

Knitting for Christmas in July Part Two

Hello Friends,

I hope you are all doing well. I decided to do a continuation of yesterday's Christmas in July post because I knitted more of the Christmas stocking. It is looking more like a Christmas stocking now and I wanted to share my progress with you. I also want to continue this Christmas topic a little longer.

Some of you commented that you love Christmas too and that you celebrated Christmas in July already, which is so great to hear! I can't wait to celebrate with you once Christmas is here and I have something special planned for around that time and I am looking forward to it!

I knitted more of the stocking yesterday and today. I am following the pattern Jumbo Christmas Stockings in a Jiffy-Striped by Jennifer Jackson which I found on Ravelry. Today, I learned more about the traveling jog-less stripes that I was not aware of before. It is so much easier than cutting the yarn each time, then having to weave in the ends afterwards. I watched a few videos on the technique including the video "How to Knit Traveling Jogless Stripes in the Round" by the YouTube account New Stitch a Day: Knitting and Crochet Video Tutorials. It was so helpful to watch and follow along with the videos while learning how to do it. Using this technique for knitting stripes made it look so much tighter and cleaner than when I was cutting the yarn when I was finished with each color. It was loose because of having the strands sticking out and harder to tighten them. While I am knitting the stocking, I am thinking of all the Christmas goodies that will be filling the stocking and getting more excited about Christmas.

Stocking with the cuff rolled down which is how it will look when it is complete

I pulled out these two plush Christmas decorations that I love today to take photos of the stocking. This really made me feel like it was Christmas in July. All of the things I have collected over the years brings me such joy and I love pulling it out and decorating my home with them. Last year we had people over and they called my elf friend here, "Elf on the Shelf" as it was sitting on our windowsill. It does resemble Elf on the Shelf, but hopefully not as creepy.

I am happy with the stocking so far, and working on my jog-less stripes technique. It still looks a bit obvious where the change in color begins. I will be working on this technique as I knit along.

While thinking of Christmas this morning, I came up with a list of some of the things I would like to accomplish before the Christmas season begins. I usually begin my celebrating around the middle of November, so this gives me some time to think about what I would like to do and get these things done. I will go into depth closer to Christmas about these goals on my blog, but these are just a few things I would like to think about earlier on before the rush begins.

• Knit Christmas gifts for family, friends, and boyfriend
• Knit Christmas stockings
• Knit some decorations for the apartment
• Research new cookie/Christmas treat recipes
• Start Christmas shopping early
• Think of ideas for gifts 
• Create Christmas gifts budget 

Thank you for visiting my blog for the second post in Christmas in July, you can Click here for the first post I did yesterday for part one of Christmas in July! If you would like to follow me to keep updated on when I post blog posts, please follow me on Bloglovin' or Google Followers.

Have a great day!

Happy Halloween & How to Knit a Pumpkin!

Hello Friends! 

I love Halloween and all it comes with, costumes, decor, candy and watching Halloween related . movies. I also enjoy seeing all the cute knitting creations on other people's blogs and Instagram. It is a lot of fun to see what you all are knitting and crocheting. Today I just finished knitting up a pumpkin just in time for Halloween! I will post photos of my completed pumpkin below and a video made by Studio Knit which I used to knit up my pumpkin. I loved following her videos on how to both knit the pumpkin and the i-cord which was new for me, I love knitting I-Cords they are fun and quick and turn out really nicely. Tonight I am going to stay in with my boyfriend and watch a cute Halloween movie like Hocus Pocus and eat chocolate and candy.

Here is the video I followed to knit the pumpkin by Studio Knit: 

Happy Halloween, hope you all have a good one!

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Getting in the spirit and knitting Christmas gifts

Hello Friends,

I am so happy today because I am finally finished the semester at University. I finished my last exam today and I am so thrilled I will be able to post here again I really missed blogging and visiting your blogs! Here's what I have been up to for the holidays...

Santa waving hello in the Christmas parade

Decorated our Christmas tree! 

Distillery District Toronto Tree at the Christmas Market

Milo says "meowy Christmas!"

Rupert wants to say Merry Christmas!

 I have started knitting my sister a scarf as a Christmas gift. I will be also working on knitting some socks for my mom.

Thanks for dropping by!

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