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: Knitted Stockings Hung Up, and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I am getting very excited for Christmas to come now, which is only FIVE days away! I still feel like I have a lot to do before that day comes. I need to buy some more gifts,  wrap the gifts, and finish knitting a gift. I have a feeling in the next few days I will be doing a lot of knitting and wrapping while watching Christmas movies. On Monday, I finished my final exam for my courses towards my certificate in Office Administration. I will be job searching after the holidays and into the new year. I am happy to be done and can move on to this next stage in my life.

I finished knitting the second Christmas stocking a couple of days ago and have added the loop to hang it up and sewing in some ends and getting them ready to be hung. I also sewed the cuffed down in four points on each cuff so they were still stretchy but stayed cuffed. I originally sewed the whole cuff down but then it was too stiff and I couldn't stretch the cuff out too much. I thought this wouldn't be great if we wanted to put in some larger gifts into the stocking. I was happy that my second attempt worked out better just sewing parts of the cuff. To knit the stockings, I used the pattern Jumbo Christmas Stockings in a Jiffy- Striped by Jennifer Jackson from Ravelry. I am looking forward to filling my boyfriend's up soon with all the goodies I bought him.

 I used Command hooks on the windowsill to hang them up. I used the larger hooks which are more sturdy to hold the stockings. Which is needed especially once they are filled with gifts. The stockings are so big and cozy and I found another way to make them even more festive by putting this plush Clarice inside at the top of the stocking. She looks so cute peeking out the top!

 Here is a view from entering our living room. I love the way the stockings look from this angle and make the room look even more festive and cozy.

My boyfriend bought me this festive bouquet of pine and holly. I love how it smells! I added it to the corner of our living room beside the couch. 

I finished reading My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella last Thursday. I really enjoyed reading this book because there were funny parts and sad and serious parts of the book. I really liked that the story line took place in both the city and country. I liked the protagonist Katie, she was funny, creative, and sassy. I would definitely recommend reading this book if you are looking for a quick and fun read. I am currently reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. I am really enjoying reading this one too. I have a feeling it will be a very inspirational and reflective book to read. I am at the point in the book where she has just started her hike along the Pacific Crest Trail and I am interested to see where it takes her emotionally. My progress is 8/10 books read to complete my goal of 10 books read by the end of the year. Once I finish reading Wild, I will be at nine books read. I have decided that I will also be finishing the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo and that will be my tenth book read. I am almost done reading it. I had been reading it as I was moving through the steps and organizing, but I will work on finishing it up before the new year begins and also finish organizing and decluttering my apartment.

What are you working on and reading this week?

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday

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

Have a great day!

Blogmas: Decorating Our Christmas Tree

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I finally got my Christmas tree yesterday and my boyfriend and I decorated it today. It is a bit smaller and lighter than our tree last year which was good because it was easier bringing it in the apartment and will be easier to clean up when Christmas is done. We used the same garland as last year and we bought some new lights. They are Noma lights and are in the colors white, red, and green. I am very happy with how the tree looks in our living room now, it definitely feels a lot more like Christmas now.

My boyfriend and  in front of the tree

Take two

My boyfriend decorating the tree

All finished!

Below are a few of my favorite ornaments I have been putting up for the past few years. The first ornament is a knitted red car with a Christmas tree on top that my mom bought me for my tree last year from Ten Thousand Villages.

The next ornament is the two marshmallows wearing Christmas hats and holding a heart that says "Our First Christmas" that my mom bought for my boyfriend and I because it was our first Christmas last year living together. The knitted mouse was a purchase I made while at the Christmas market in the Distillery District a few years ago. It is so cute and I love that it is knitted most of all!

 We also put up some Christmas lights in the window this year. They are up on the inside of the window held up by using command sticker hooks. I am happy to have some lights on the front window now to spread a bit more Christmas cheer along with others in our building who all have lights up in their windows too. We are looking like a very festive apartment building now.

Thank you for visiting my blog! This week I will be working on finishing knitting the second stocking, Knitting the Wool and the Gang top, and working more on knitting some Christmas gifts. I will also be working on finishing course work and finishing up this semester. If you would like to keep updated on when I post, please follow my blog through Bloglovin', Google Followers, or you can subscribe by email at the top right corner of the blog.

Have a great day!

Blogmas: A Bit of Decorating for Christmas and Knitting Updates

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I decorated a bit for Christmas yesterday and today and it feels wonderful to have decorations around in the apartment now. Christmas decorations always make a space feel so much more cozy and inviting.
I put up a wreath on the door of the closet at the end of our hallway and then hung up some ornaments and the bow on it. I also added the cute reindeer onto the hook as well to add something extra to the wreath this year.

Wreath on the closet door in the hallway

 I decorated the small tree that sits beside my desk in our office. I added ornaments and garland and the pretty angel on top from Ten Thousand Villages.

Small tree beside my desk in the office

Below is  one of my favorite ornaments on my little tree. It looks like my red car carrying lots of Christmas presents on top!

I just purchased the two green cushion covers below from Dollarama for $3 each and I am really happy with how they look on the couch. I also love the cushion with the writing 'Merry Christmas' on it that I purchased from Michael's last year. So glad I did, I love it! The gray and red blanket is a Beaver Canoe blanket from back in the day when I worked at Target Canada. I remember passing by it so many times while working and thinking when it goes on sale I will buy it! I am glad I did because it is so comfortable.

That's it for now for decorations. I have a bunch of little Santa figurines and other small decorations which I did not both to take pictures of each of them. I have also shared many photos of them throughout the years if you would like to look back here. I still have all of them and scatter them around each year. I will be getting a Christmas tree this Saturday December 9th, so I will be sharing photos of the tree next week. I am so excited to finally put up the tree!

I got to knitting the Wool and the Gang Farrah Billie Jean top again. I had stopped because I realized I made some sort of mistake with the knitting. It looked like a tension issue to me.. I frogged back the work and took it away because it was pretty obvious even in the front of the piece that the stitches in that row were all looser and would look bad in the front piece of the top. I always feel better once I frog the work and just start knitting again. I find I always feel like putting it off and procrastinate a bit on ripping it out hoping I don't have to but in the end it is for the best! I finished knitting the heel flap for the stocking and beginning to work on the final part of the stocking, the foot. I am looking forward to being done and hanging both stockings on the wall for Christmas. I will be starting to knit a couple of secret projects very soon as Christmas gifts which I will share after I gift them.

Thank you for visiting my blog! If you would like to follow my blog to keep updated on when I post, please follow me on Bloglovin', Google Followers, and you can subscribe by email at the top right hand corner of the blog. Also I added a list of other ways you can follow me on social media on the side panel of the blog under the title Find me.

Hope you have a great day!

Blogmas: Finished Knitting Mitten Ornament, Knitting Updates, & Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope that you are doing well. I have been working on finishing up with my Office Administration courses. They are all done next week which is hard to believe and I have started the job search process and will be looking for a new job in the new year. I have also been busy finishing up knitting my mitten ornament to decorate the Christmas tree. I used the pattern called Mitten Ornament by Red Heart on Ravelry.  I have been working on finishing up that second stocking as well. Today I enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate while I was knitting and writing my blog post.

Finished mitten ornament and stocking in progress

Love this mug I got around Christmas last year 

Mitten ornaments on the tree

Obsessed with the cinnamon buns I got from IKEA, there aren't many left!

 I have not knitted much on the Wool and the Gang Farrah top because it is hard to tell from the photo but I think I messed up the tension halfway through because there is a space at the back so I will be frogging about half of this. I need to figure out the technique of how to put a needle through just to before the mistake happened so I don't have a lot of work to do finding all of the stitches again.

Wool and the Gang Farrah Billie Jean top front piece progress

 I did not really post a progress post on the vegan challenge, so I will just update quickly in this post. I did the Challenge 22+ last month for 22 days and it went well. The final day though, I did cheat and had cheese. I enjoyed the challenge because it showed me how many options there are other than animal products to eat and that I don't have to order food with cheese all over it all the time and make some small changes. At this time however, I do not think I will be going vegan anytime soon. I love the whole vegan community and what they are working towards but it is hard giving up so many things that I love. I am still currently vegetarian and am happy with this for now.

I started reading My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella again because I got the loan back on Overdrive, I have been reading it so much lately. I am on page 488 of 728 on Overdrive now. It is at a very interesting part in the book right now and I want to read on to find out what happens. This is the best kind of reading in my opinion, when you wonder what will happen next and it interests you. I always think back to the level of obsession when I was reading the Twilight book one Christmas. I remember that Christmas when I could not put the book down it was too good. I would love to be so into a book to that level again. I am also still reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed and it is also a page turner. I am looking forward to reading both of these books this month. It seems that books always come in two's for me lately, but it is because I lose my loans, then get them back again when I am already reading a new book then it is hard to juggle both. I am determined to finish My Not So Perfect Life this time before I lose it again. At this rate it is very possible. I am currently at 7/25 books from my goodreads goal now. My newer goal is to try to get to 10 books read this year. This may be possible if I finish some of my outstanding books.

I found this Santa hat in my Christmas things today and had to take a selfie with it! Ho Ho Ho!

I have joined A Blissful Lemon again with another link up. This one is called Blogmas: Naughty or Nice 2017. I am excited to do a link up again. In November I did the NaBloPoMo challenge where I wrote a post everyday. This one does not require us to post everyday but when we have time and it has to be Christmas related. I love this because around this time of the year all I want to talk about is Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, I have started decorating and will be posting an entry this week about decorating the apartment for Christmas. I am getting a Christmas tree this Saturday! Can't wait to decorate it and share photos with you soon.

Photo source

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On, and AsKatKnits for Unwraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog, if you would like to keep updated on when I post, please follow me on Bloglovin', Google Followers, and subscribe through email at the top right corner of the blog.

Have a great day!

Why Christmas is So Special to Me & Childhood Memories

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I had a good weekend visiting family and going to a march with my friend. Today I enjoyed having some time to relax today and get a few things done. I was planning on decorating for Christmas, but I think I will be doing that tomorrow. This time of year is always so special and I find myself listening to music way earlier than I need to and most people do (October) and get excited sometimes even earlier in the year. This year I did Christmas in July posts and felt excited even then. I decorated my desk a bit around that time too with my elf and some other Christmas decorations. I am pretty Christmas obsessed and around this time of year I listen to Christmas music everyday, eat chocolates from the advent calendar, and decorate as much as I can.

I was thinking one day that I love Christmas especially because of how much effort my parents always put into making it special for my sister and I. They would put a lot of Christmas decorations up and we would all decorate the tree with Christmas music filling the room.  Growing up, we always had the same traditions every year too which made Christmas so special to my family and I. We would go to church on Christmas Eve, then go to my grandparent's house and open lots of gifts. When we were there, we would always have After Eight chocolates so even today I think of those special moments at my grandparents house when I have those chocolates.

This weekend when I was visiting my parents, they got out many boxes of old photos from years past. They had retrieved them because I asked to take some old Christmas photos for this blog post. Of course, my dad, mom, and I ended up looking through the photos for a couple of hours reflecting, laughing at funny expressions my sister and I had, and looking for some Christmas photos for this special post.

Me on Christmas Eve at my Grandparents '94 (Age 6)

Excited to open gifts

Already playing with my gifts. I remember loving to play with this barn

I have always loved the night before Christmas just as much as Christmas day. When I was a child, the anticipation of Santa coming was exciting and I was so excited to see what presents I would receive. When my sister and I were growing up, my parents used to leave some gifts unwrapped that were from Santa. When my sister and I would go to the tree to open our presents, we'd be so excited to see what Santa had brought us.

Throwing it way back to when I was around two

I love the retro television in the back

'93 (Age 5)

I remember going to the Christmas bazaar held in the gym at my elementary school and being given some money to go shopping for gifts for my parents and my sister. There would be tables set up with items we could buy and I enjoyed looking through to find the perfect gifts for my family. This was always a special memory my sister and I have of being able to go around and shop without our parents at that age and being so excited to bring home the gifts for our parents and then wrapping them.

Around 9 here, loved my denim dresses

Christmas is so special because of all of the family time we have at this time of year and traditions old and new. Every year there are new memories and traditions made and I keep the old ones like visiting my grandparents in my heart and memories. I still love to spend Christmas day with my family, opening gifts for hours, having a big breakfast, and then lounging around all day looking at our gifts.

My dad, me, my sister, my mom, and our first cat Pookie '93

I have memories of bundling up and going outside to the backyard and spending hours building snow forts and having snowball fights with my sister. We would sometimes come back inside from being out in the cold and have hot chocolate. I also remember all of the times my dad took my sister and I sledding and skating. I also went skiing with him a few times. I loved all of these outings and always had so much fun.

My dad's aunt knitted these cute sweaters for my sister(left) and I(right) 

There is so much joy that I feel around this time of year spending it will my loved ones. My boyfriend and I are also making new memories together such as seeing A Christmas Carol the play last year, decorating our tree, going to the Christmas market, and visiting his family. This year I will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my parents and sister like old times which will be so nice. We still go to church on Christmas Eve, open our one gift of pajamas, open Christmas crackers and have some treats. Of course we end the night with watching the classic It's A Wonderful Life every year. Christmas day morning is busy and fun, looking in our stockings and opening lots of gifts. These traditions make Christmas special to all of us in our family, and I always look forward to the time we spend together.

Thank you for joining me in remembering some of my special childhood Christmas memories and traditions. What are some special holiday traditions you share with your family and loved ones around this time of the year?

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

Have a great day!