Finished Photo Trays...

I thought I would share the finished photo trays before they go into the care of Canada Post to be delivered to Grandparents who live far, far away, but are much loved and missed every day...

You can read more about the making of these projects here.
But here is the empty tray I started with:

The photography is with my digital Canon Rebel at the local greenhouse.

Photo Tip: After years of making my kids shiver outside for pictures...I just had an 'aha' moment when I realized that the local greenhouse was the ideal location~and when I asked... I was told that people "do it all the time" and to go ahead. The dogs were welcome too.

Who knew?

It was the best location ever!

It was warm, full of poinsettias and decorated beautifully for Christmas.

I am super close to finishing many things on my to-do list for Christmas.
In another day or two..... I will be in a sweet spot.

{I haven't been spending any time on the computer at all.}

How about you?

This post is linked to these parties:



Design Dazzle

Terrific Holiday Mantels can be found here:

Organizing for baking....

This week we are getting ready to tackle some Christmas baking projects.

So I took a quick look through my pantry and gathered up all of the Christmas-themed items we might need~

cupcake liners, boxes, bags, candy sprinkles and decorations.

Now we have everything we need front & center...no digging around!

My day today...

...trying to get these rascals to be semi-serious for about 10 seconds for our annual Christmas card photo shoot.

And a little more decorating....

Can you believe that this week will bring us December 1st already?

I am mostly finished the little decorating projects I wanted to do around our house...except for the Christmas trees.

The martini bar in my living room got a little sparkle last week.

This is how everything looked a month ago:

This week I will need to go through the martini bar and do a little sorting & organizing~

you know~ make sure that all our favourite festive ingredients are stocked.

Candy Cane martinis and Crantinis are so fun at Christmas!

This post is linked to these fun parties:

My Holiday 'Mantel'...

Last Thursday I was determined to finish up my decorating for Christmas.

I went to the basement storage room to dig out some ornaments....and this turned into a full 7 hour basement 'excavation'. I ended up taking 6 boxes of stuff to Goodwill and clearing out 2 bags of garbage.

I never did get the decorating done~ I was too pooped.

The decorating had to wait until Friday morning instead~ this is what I did with the 'mantel'.

I have chosen a theme of sparkly white & silver with accents of blue & green for my indoor decor.

And I have to throw in some natural elements...like branches, a basket and a wool carder.

The pitcher was a spray-painted project from the spring. I kept the branches from Halloween.

Remember how I used it here:

I moved it to the mantel, but added some sparkly snowflakes to the branches for the holidays.

{Snowflakes were 6 in a package from Canadian Tire for .99 cents}

The silver cake stand  that holds the blue & green ornaments is from Goodwill.

The lantern is from Ikea. The sparkly white 'Tis The Season' is from Urban Barn.

I elevated the pitcher for a bit more height with books.

The basket you see is my Grandmother's knitting basket from many years ago.

{It's tall because it's meant for holding knitting needles and yarn.It has crossed my mind to fill the basket with yarn... I still might.}

The wool carder belonged to my great-grandparents~who married in 1899.

My uncle very kindly gave these treasures to me~ and I adore them.

Here was what the 'mantel' looked like for Halloween:

And here it is ready for the holidays:

And to all of you south of the border....Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

This post is linked to these great parties: