Merry Christmas - Blogmas Day 25

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I know many of you will be busy today and I will be too. I am visiting Liam's family and my family today. This Blogmas has been wonderful, because I really enjoyed working on my blog and thinking of developing content that will be engaging and interesting. I always think about what I would like to read about when I am posting these Blogmas posts. I loved posting every day and some days I found it a bit tiring to be honest, but that is the good thing about it, that you have to come up with something and it can be a challenge sometimes. We only grow from challenges in our lives, and some you bring on yourself. I try to post more regularly throughout the year, but life gets busy and I let a week go by without blogging here and there. So I enjoy when I can do Blogmas and be more present here.

What Blogmas does for me, is it really gets me to be more organized in my plans for the posts and motivates me to plan ahead. When I don't have a plan I feel more anxious and when I do have a plan, I feel calm and focused. That goes for a lot of things in life, when we have a goal or idea of what we want to achieve, it is so much easier to get things done because we have a direction. I want to keep on doing Blogmas every year and I hope that you have enjoyed my posts this holiday season.

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I will not be posting for a bit now that Blogmas is done and will be celebrating with family the next while. I will be back to share some posts about my Christmas and the gifts I got as well and how it all went. It feels good that now the shopping, wrapping, and baking are all done and we can just enjoy Christmas finally. I love December and all the build up and excitement, but it does sometimes feel like I am focused on a million things at once. I do look forward to Christmas day surrounded by loved ones and having everything done. I hope that today you feel the same and thank you so much for joining me today or whenever you can get a moment to read this post, I really appreciate you visiting. 

Merry Christmas! x

Christmas Eve & Finished Knitted Ornament- Blogmas Day 24

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Today I worked from home until around 2 pm. I was so excited to get started on celebrations for Christmas Eve once we got the okay to sign out. I started wrapping gifts after I was done. First, I would like to share the finished ornament I knitted over the holidays. I used the Merry Fair Isle Ornament pattern from Yarnspirations Design Studio. It was a fun and challenging pattern and there are three other designs that I would like to knit. I used size US 3,3.25 mm double pointed needles to knit and used Joy DK yarn by Loops & Treads in the colorways of white and red.

 My parents gave me a few more pieces for my village. I got some cars as you can see below the red vehicle and the taxi cab are new. I also got the lamp post in the center of the town.

 I was also given the train seen below. This train used to go all the way around my parent's village.

 My parents also gave me this reindeer that we used to have at home. I really love this reindeer so they gave me one. It is now holding some Rudolph stuffed animals beside my couch in the living room.

Reindeer passed down to me from my parents

Me around 5 years old with the reindeer

After I was done work I got to wrapping many gifts for Liam and my family. It was a long task but always enjoyable when I have the Christmas music on.

All wrapped and ready to go

 I was gifted this cute yarn ball and needles from Liam's Dad and Step mom. I really love it. They also got me some other knitting related items like small scissors, a pin for my knitting bag, and stitch markers. They always get me nice pins and knitting related gifts I really appreciate it.

 After I was done wrapping, I made some sugar cookies. I went for the recipe that said "easy sugar cookies". The recipe was pretty simple and so I made them and they were pretty crumbly. Eventually I added more butter and then they became easier to roll into balls and then I make cookie shapes. I had bought some whipped frosting and some green food coloring and mixed it up in a Ziploc and cut a hole at the bottom to make the trees. They taste pretty good!

My plan for the rest of the evening is to watch the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life as I do every Christmas Eve. I will eat some cookies and drink some wine. I am so excited for tomorrow and I hope that you have a wonderful day too. I hope you are finding some peace before the busy Christmas events tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Traditions at Christmas - Blogmas Day 23

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I love traditions. I think looking forward to traditions makes Christmas so fun and all the more special. Today I am sharing some of my favourite Christmas traditions that I take part in each year from events to what I eat and drink. There are so many traditions involved in Christmas and each family has their own special traditions that are unique to them.


Christmas crackers on Christmas Eve or Christmas day
Growing up, my parents would always have Christmas crackers for all of us to open on Christmas Eve. It was part of the fun we opened the crackers, then read out our jokes and got our small gifts and we'd put on our crowns.

My dad and I after opening our crackers a couple of years ago

Baileys in my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day coffee
On Christmas day, we like to put some baileys alcoholic beverage into our coffee to give our coffee that extra kick. It is so delicious. Liam bought some tonight and I was so happy because we were missing it for our tradition.

Hot drinks and warm knits

Opening and wearing new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve night
Every year we have to get those new comfy Christmas pajamas to wear to bed on Christmas Eve and then wear Christmas morning. It makes it feel so much more special having new pyjamas to wear. I bought Liam some this year and my mom gave me some to open Christmas eve as our tradition.

Liam and my pyjamas wrapped up last year Christmas 2018

Eating After Eight chocolates Christmas Eve
When I was young, we used to go to my grandparent's house on Christmas Eve and I have fond memories of eating After Eight chocolates whenever we went there. I like that I have this memory of my grandparents that I think of each year.

Cards first, then stockings, then gifts
Whenever I got to my parents for Christmas day, we each give out cards, then we can open our stockings, then we go to gifts last and we open the gifts one by one and watch each other open the gift.

Stockings hung and filled last year Christmas 2018

Santa Claus parade to kick off our Christmas celebrations
Every year my family and I like to go to the Christmas parade as a family and this is usually such a fun time watching the floats go by and dancing to the high school marching bands music. We always get our Starbucks festive drinks as well to keep us warm.

Santa passing through

Decorating my parent's Christmas tree
Every year my sister and I go over to my parent's house and we help to decorate our parent's Christmas tree. This is on the same day as the Santa Claus parade in the middle of the month of November. We have fun listening to music, drinking eggnog, and eating treats.

Moo checking out the tree

Going to the One of a Kind show in Toronto
At the end of November there is a One of a Kind craft show in Toronto and my mom, my sister, and I like to go and browse the stalls. Once and awhile we will find something to take home. It is so fun spending the time together and getting ideas for gifts.

One of a kind show 2018

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What are your favourite Christmas traditions? I can't believe Christmas Eve is tomorrow! I worked today and work half the day tomorrow, so I think I will get more into the Christmas spirit once I am done work for the holidays. Blogmas has been so fun, I am kind of sad it will be over Christmas day. I will continue posting blog entries more often after Christmas though. I also enjoy talking about New Year's resolutions and plans, so that will be fun. I hope to see you again tomorrow for my Christmas Eve plans Blogmas post!

Have a good day!

Gingerbread Man Decorating and Secret Santa- Blogmas Day 22

Hello Friends,


I hope you are doing well. At work last week we did a few different activities such as having a team lunch, a secret Santa gift exchange, and decorating gingerbread men. I enjoyed doing these activities because I feel like it brings the team together. We did a gingerbread man decorating competition on Thursday last week and I was so happy to win the competition. I got a Tim Horton's gift card as the prize. It is so fun to participate and nice to get the extra gift and time having some laughs with coworkers and participating in the activity.

The Gingerbread man I decorated

The pile of gingerbread men waiting to be decorated

My coworkers decorating

The celebration committee in my department put these adorable festive mugs together for us. It was fun receiving it and inside was a candy cane, chocolates, cookies, and mini eggs, my favourite.

Gift received from celebration commitee

 We did a secret Santa gift exchange on Wednesday and I received this Twinings teapot with english breakfast tea. I can't wait to have some tea and relax during the holidays. I bought a mug and hot chocolate gift set and a brownie mix and pan as the gift I was giving out. Instead of picking a name this year, we did a story passing game. Someone read out the story and when she said right, we passed the gift to the right, and when she said left, we passed it to the left. Here is an example of a story you can use for the gift exchange it is a different one than we used. She read out one about Santa's reindeer.

Secret Santa gift

 

Christmas is a great time to get to know your coworkers better and participate in all these events. Sometimes it feels so busy this time of the year to take some time out, but when we receive cards and gifts from others and spend time together,  it makes it feel more special and you feel appreciated. I hope that you also had a good time at work this holiday season. Thank you for visiting my blog for Blogmas day 22 and see you again tomorrow for another Blogmas post.

Have a great day!

DIY Yarn Tree-Blogmas Day 21

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Today I went to spend time with my Fiancé's family and we exchanged gifts and had dinner. I enjoyed our time together catching up and sharing stories. It was a busy day and I finished up this DIY yarn tree this morning before we left. I found the idea from Dear Lillie Studio. It is perfect for both a winter theme DIY or a Christmas theme. I like its simplicity and there is room for creativity in adding decorations to it to dress it up, or you can leave it as is as a simple tree.

Materials:

1. Foam tree. I got one at Michaels but they are sold at many craft stores or dollar stores.
2. Craft glue. I used clear craft glue
3. Yarn: in the color and texture of your choice. I used Loops & Threads Impeccable worsted weight yarn in the colorway 'Deep forest'.
4. Scissors to cut the yarn

 I placed a napkin down to protect my table. I put glue down on the cone, then wrapped the yarn on top of the glue as I kept wrapping it around the cone. At first it got quite messy as I added the glue then placed the yarn on top, then I started putting the glue down and gently patting the yarn down and that worked better. On the Dear Lillie Studio blog, they put just a bit of glue at the bottom then wrap up and put glue at the top, then wrap down and add more glue if you would like to use less glue you can also do it that way.

 Once I got to the top of the cone, I added some glue and then wrapped the yarn in a circle until I got to the middle and it was fully covered. Then I cut the yarn and glued the end into the middle.

 I let the first part dry overnight as the glue was still wet. Then I added yarn to the bottom of the cone. You can leave the bottom of the tree and not add yarn if you would like. I added glue in circles and then just winded the yarn around in circles until I got to the middle, then added glue and cut the yarn and stuck it down in the middle.

Then you have your finished tree! You can make more trees the same size, different sizes,  different colors, and then group them together to make a bunch. I might buy more for next year to have more together and in different colors. It was a fun project and very nice to make while listening to Christmas music leading up to Christmas.

Thank you for visiting my blog for Blogmas day 21! We are 4 more days until Christmas now and I am so excited for the day to be here. Christmas is my favourite day of the year and I really try my best to savor this time. I hope that you are enjoying Christmas festivities with family and friends.

Have a great day!

Reflecting on 2019 and Resolutions for 2020 - Blogmas Day 20

Hello Friends,

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I hope you are doing well. Welcome to Blogmas day 20! We are 5 days away from Christmas day now. I am so excited for Christmas day to arrive. I finished my Christmas shopping today with five days left to spare. I am so happy I can just enjoy some time before Christmas to relax and wrap gifts and spend time doing other things other than shopping. It was very busy today in the stores even though it is a weekday and it is bound to get busier leading up to Christmas. I took today off work and Liam was off work too so I did some errands, and then we did some Christmas shopping together.

2019 Reflection

This year was pretty good, there were some bumps along the way, but I can say now that I am pretty content with how the year has gone as a whole. I got a job transfer in May and that took  some adjusting. I got to know a new team and now I feel like I am part of the team and comfortable. I learned a new job and was training most of the year every few months. Also this year was busy for wedding planning. We secured all the vendors we need for the wedding. We are still thinking of transportation and honeymoon location. But other than that, we are pretty set. It was fun finding the vendors and meeting with them. I had my hair and makeup trial in October and loved what they did. Next year will be busy with the events leading up to the big day and preparations.

As far as resolutions go, I think I did pretty well, but I didn't meet them all. I worked on each one this year, but maybe not as much or as well as I had wanted. It was definitely helpful for me to have this list and to keep it in my mind all year. I feel like it drove a lot of what I did and focused my time on. I reviewed the list below and wrote some notes on how I achieved or did not achieve the resolution. I shared my resolutions for the new year below.

1. Use less plastic 

I definitely used less plastic, but I still used a lot. It is a hard habit to stop and this coming year I will continue to work on this goal and make it a priority.

2. Knit a shawl 
I started knitting a shawl but I have not finished it yet. You can see how I am doing with it in this blog post: Knitting an Ornament and Reading On - Blogmas Day 10.
3. Read 15 books 
I did not finish reading 15 books this year. I finished 9 books. I will work on this again next year. I am always reading though and that is the main focus on this goal is to be reading and always have a good book on the go. I love reading and will always make reading a goal for myself.


4. Complete 12 knitting projects 
I went through my Instagram and counted 12 projects this year. I am happy I met this goal and continued to make knitting a priority this year.

5. Find and secure a venue for my wedding 
We found the perfect venue for our wedding and I can't wait to get married next year!

6. Get to my goal weight
I did not get to my goal weight this year sad to say. I did well at maintaining and dropping pounds here and there but always gained it back. I hope to work even harder in the new year and drop some pounds before the wedding.

2020 Resolutions

I feel like 2020 will be a great year and a busy one and I have a lot of life goals and milestones happening this year. I think it will be so much fun and a fulfilling year for Liam and I and our families.

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1. Get Married
This year Liam and I are getting married in May. I am so excited to get married and I think we will have such a fun day and it will be the best day of my life.

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2. Buy a house or condo 
This year we would like to buy a home. We currently are renting in Toronto and we would like to put down some roots somewhere and have more space to start a family one day. I really like townhouses and we have been looking at some in the Greater Toronto Area.

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3. Get to my goal weight 
I would like to lose weight for the wedding. I did lose some this year and would like to continue with this focus in the new year. I am getting happier with how I look and want to keep working towards my goal. I still have time to get to my goal weight before the wedding if I work hard.

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4. Read 15 books
This year I would love to read more and get to my goal of reading 15 books. This past year I almost made it happen but was about 5 books off. Reading is one of my favourite hobbies and I would really like to hit this goal. 

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5. Knit 12 new projects
In 2019, I knitted 12 projects and it was great to knit so many both big and small. I really like to continue working on my knitting skill and developing as a knitter. This year I would like to challenge myself to knitting 12 projects I haven't knitted before.

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6. Improve blog 
I love to see my blog grow and develop over time. I really enjoy seeing new people follow my blog and I would like to try to increase my traffic. I would like to visit other blogs more and meet new bloggers. I would also like to try more blogging challenges and come up with a new addition to my blog this year. I was thinking of bringing Stitchy Saturdays back and maybe another initiative.

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My word for the year is Shine. I want to shine bright this year and make it my year to be my best self! I will revisit this word throughout the year and try to find ways to stand out and be my best self all year long. I saw a Happy Planner that said "It's your year to Shine" I hope to get this from my mom for Christmas. It does feel like this is my year to shine.


What are your New Years Resolutions or words for 2020? 

Thank you for visiting my blog for Blogmas day 20. It was fun writing this post and I love sharing my reflection of 2019 and the resolutions for 2020 with you. I hope that your year was awesome and hope 2020 is even better for you. Please join me again tomorrow for another Blogmas post.

Have a great day!

My Christmas Village - Blogmas Day 19

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Over the years, my mom and dad bought a lot of little houses, people, and trees to create a Christmas village. My sister and I really enjoyed them through the years. I would look at the lit up house and the snowy roads and people building snowmen, walking, standing and feeling the warmth of this charming, picturesque town. I loved watching the small train go around the village. This year, my dad gave my sister and I the village so we split it evenly so we each got the same number of houses and people. We chose one by one in a fair way so we each got some of the best ones. I was happy with my selection. Below are some photos of the village I set up this year at my apartment with my parent's pieces.

Christmas village

 I bought the snow from Michaels this year and it has some glittery pieces in it to give it the shine that snow usually has. The roads were my dad's as well. I like how I had enough so that each house could be infront of the road.  I also was given a string of lights that you can place under the houses. The one my dad gave me lights up five houses which explains why in the photo above half the town is in darkness and half is lit up. I want to get more lights in the future so the whole town is lit up.

My favourite house - I like the greenhouse

The garage

Thank you for visiting today! I am so happy to have put the village together and it is now on our end table in the corner of the living room. I like to turn the lights on when I turn the tree lights on and enjoy the cozy town. I would like to add to this town and maybe get a train to go around it one day and add more roads, houses, and people over the years. Please join me again tomorrow for Blogmas Day 20!

Do you put together a village for Christmas?