Advent Calendars

It’s December already? Where did the time go?

December spells the end of the November blues and the start of the Christmas spirit! And how better to get into the mood than with an advent calendar.

Traditionally, Advent is a season of the Christian church calendar that begins four sundays before Christmas and is all about celebration. In European countries to mark the passing of each of the four weeks, one candle is lit each of the four Sundays. This advent candle set is a perfect example and wouldn’t it look beautiful on a coffee table?

For information on how this is made, click on the picture to visit Sweet Paul's blog.

How about something that’s simple and you can easily make with only a printer, paper and scissors? Mibo Studio provides with a simple and beautiful Advent Calendar you can download from their website.

From Mibo Stuido

Perhaps you are looking for something that will satisfy your sweet tooth? I know mine is always nagging at me to fufill it’s needs. Here is another adorable advent calendar from Sweet Paul. I might start using matches so I will have enough empty matchboxes to make this next year.

Another lovely advent calendar from Sweet Paul.

How about all of you? How are you celebrating or marking the first of December and the rest of the days before Christmas?

Soft Molasses Cookies

It’s getting into the time when my desire to bake is on an all-time high. I just adore cookies, and if they are Christmas cookies, then that is even better! Some friends and I regularly hold a cookie exchange for the holiday season, which is lovely fun. I’m trying to decide on what to make for it this year. Last year I made Italian Sprinkle Cookies, and I’ll be making them again this year anyway ’cause they are so delicious, but I want to do something different for the cookie exchange. I’m thinking of these little beauties – Molasses Cookies.

Since I was little my mom has made these cookies every winter. They so soft and melt in your mouth delicious! When I moved to Vancouver and started working here, I made these cookies and took them to work. Homemade cookies brought to the workplace, or school or anything of the sort, are a great way to meet new people and give them a good first impression of you. Ah, the friends I’ve made over homemade cookies. So, without further ado, here is the recipe!

Soft Molasses Cookies

Makes: 3 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

½ cup of butter, softened

½ cup of solid vegetable shortening (not margarine)

1 ½ cup sugar

½ cup molasses

2 eggs, lightly beaten

4 cups of flour

½ tsp salt

2 ¼ tsp baking soda

2 ¼ tsp ground ginger

1 ½ tsp ground cloves

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, shortening and sugar until light-coloured and fluffy. Beat in molasses and eggs; set mixture aside. In another large bowl, combine flour (no need to sift), salt, baking soda, ginger, cloves and cinnamon. Blend thoroughly with wire whisk. Gradually mix flour into creamed ingredients until dough is blended and smooth. Roll dough into 1 ½ inch balls. Dip tops in granulated sugar (or roll whole ball in sugar); place 2 ½ inch apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350°F for 11 minutes *Do not over bake!* Cool on wire rack. Store in tightly covered container to maintain softness.

Freezes well.

NOTE: When mixing the flour, the dough sometimes ends up feeling crumbly, like there is too much flour in it. Don’t worry, just grab a handful and roll it into a ball, or mash it, squish it, whatever. Perhaps this means I’m doing something wrong with the recipe, but no one has complained yet, quite the opposite, so I guess it’s all good.

The end result is a cookie that’s a bit harder on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle. Mmmmm… so good!

What Christmas cookies or winter cookies are your favorites? Do you bake the same every year or try and mix it up?

Monday Blues

I just spent the last hour listening to Christmas music, drinking pomegranate Black tea with honey, smelling the lovely aroma of vanilla candles (with one evergreen thrown in the mix) and painting my nails a very deep red. Why? Because it looks so grey and icky out and I felt all grey and icky inside.

Now I am feeling considerably better and have the courage to get myself ready to go out and face the world. Also, meeting up M. at work for coffee makes me happy. I love seeing him in the middle of the day, it’s such a treat.

I hope all of your monday’s are going well and I will be back later this week with more posts. Specifically a very special cookie recipe! Look forward to it!

Cheers!

The Last Vestiges of Fall

The further into November we get, the more excited I get about December, about Christmas, about parties with friends, about going home to visit family and more friends, about snow…. yes, even snow!

But at the same time part of me is trying to hold on to fall for a while longer and not let winter come. Where I grew up, fall was more of a blip on the radar if anything. You might get one or two nice fall weekends with that perfect sunny fall weather, but more than likely you got snow in September which continued on and off again until about mid October when it finally stuck. Fall was such a brief thing that you only really got a short taste of it, enough to love it, but not enough for it to cling to you.  Where I am now, in this temperate rainforest, fall, lasts. And not just fall, but the PERFECT fall. Leaves, colours, warmer days but still with a bit of a nip to them. The perfect kind of days to sit on a cafe patio and sip a mug of hot chocolate. These perfect days last from September and well past October. Beginning of November still feels like fall, but by mid november, while the temperatures don’t drop that much and there isn’t any snow, the rain has come to stay. The dark dreaded rain that covers everything in a sheet of eternal grey. Grey sky, grey sidewalks, grey buildings, even the evergreens look more like evergreys.

Today is one of those grey days, which leaves me dreaming of Christmas and lights and cookies and cozy things.

So, in honor of cozy, here are some cozy links for you!

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A delicious apple cider recipe from A Field Journal’s Apple Week.

The most delightful blog I’ve discovered recently written by a very talented lady who lives on a farm in Vermont with her sled dogs. – Cold Antler Farm. Read it, so delightful!

A laugh-inducing dada-inspired calendar from Nichole at littlebrownpen.

A bubble-popping calendar from Urban Outfitters.

A new snazzy way to enjoy hot chocolate – on a stick! from Giver’s Log

A Heartwarming Snowy wedding from One Love Photo.

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(Don’t astrix’s look like snowflakes!)

I hope all of you are having a good Wednesday.

(PS. Still working on my NaNoWriMo novel… it’s going very slow. I don’t think I’ll reach the goal of 50,000 words by the end of November, but I will reach my goal of finishing a piece of writing. I won’t quit now!)

The Small Things

I do believe this is my most successful shot so far with my Polaroid 104.

Life has been crazy busy for me lately… well, I got sick, so that wasn’t busy so much as just stopped me from doing all the things I wanted to do and zapped me of alot of energy. I’m on the upswing now, and M. isn’t sick anymore so as long as our cat doesn’t get sick I think the household is in the clear. Until the next bug comes around.

Today I find my thoughts are all muddled and going in everywhich direction and yet also in a constant circle. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t sleep last night, maybe it’s because of stress due to life things outside of the internet, maybe it’s just ’cause I’m getting over being sick. Who knows. All I know is that I just want to go home and curl up in a big fuzzy blanket with my kitty and my boy and drink hot chocolate. Sadly, my evening will probably consist of me trying to clean the apartment as much as possible and then writing my butt off because I’m behind in my Nanowrimo writing. Also… trying to plan Christmas presents (and I do handmade Christmas presents if I can), so I’m hoping what I have planned won’t take ages and ages ’cause I haven’t even started and it’s almost half way through November!

The mountains this morning were all nicely capped in snow and glistened in the first sunlight we’ve seen in about a week. It made me smile. Sometimes you gotta take the small things that make you happy and hold them close to you. Like a morning cuddle, or snow on the mountains, the cats purr as you pet him and the feeling of a warm cup of tea in your hands, those are good things.

Hurray for the good things!

How about you? What are your small things that you hold close to your heart as your day goes by?

‘Roid Week Favorites

Oh goodness! So many polaroids! So much wonderful-ness!

Polaroid week is now almost over, and while I still have a couple more to post, here are my favorites so far from this week.

1. Slice, 2. Leaves over the path, 3. Lilly, 4. Untitled, 5. sometimes they whisper, 6. infinity pool, 7. Happy Roid Week!!!, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled, 10. goodbye, summer, 11. spy, 12. Untitled, 13. , 14. merrily did we drop, 15. morning light pumpkins, 16. It started feeling like October, I got stranded on the road…

For even more beautiful polaroids, check out the Polaroid Week Flickr Group.

Pain, Agony and Hope for Tomorrow

Or… how my NaNoWriMo novel is going.

In a word (or two), it’s going. Sort of. Sometimes? Not well, but moving forward.

It’s been almost 2 years since I have written anything longer than a poem or a journal entry. I used to write all the time and I thought it would come back quickly, like riding a bicycle.  Only problem is… I was never very good at riding bicycles.

Sometimes it feels like every word or sentence is like pulling teeth, then in the next instant I’ll hit a flow for about 500 words. Then the flow will mysteriously dry out and it will be tough again. In the last three days of writing I have noticed that it has felt like it’s getting easier… or at least less hard. But it’s still hard. But so is life, so is anything worth doing. I keep telling myself that so I don’t do what I usually do on big personal projects, quit halfway through and feel ashamed and then pretend it never happened.

I am very determined not to let that be the case this time. Even if I don’t reach 50,000 words I am going to write the perscribed 1167 words EVERY DAY, until the end of November. I am not going to feel like a quitter anymore, I won’t be the person who always gives up on her own dreams and desires. I will prevail! I will survive! I will survive!

If you are Nano-ing (I think I just made that up) and looking for some more inspiration and support, here are some other bloggers response to NaNoWriMo.

The Birth of Characters – Bits of Beauty

You are What you Read (or Write) or a Love Letter to NaNoWriMo – SeaKisst

Thirty Days and Nights of Literary Abandon – The Romantic

 

 

Late Night Link Love

A late Friday post, but a post none the less. This week felt really long for me, perhaps it was because it was raining almost non-stop. Or maybe it was that the cat decided to meow non-stop every evening (is there a full moon out?).  Who knows, but the weekend is here in all it’s sleeping-in glory. So, in honour of sleeping in, mid day naps, hot chocolates with friends, and getting all my chores done, here is some friday link love for you.

Speaking of remenicing childhood… do you all remember the view-master? Did you know you can get CUSTOM view-master discs made? I didn’t till I read it over at You Are My Fave.

I hate to admit it, but I’ve always been really aweful at keeping a journals. Perhaps though if I had this One Line a Day Journal I would be able to keep up. Via Bits of Beauty.

The whole blogosphere has been buzzing with the opening of a new Anthropologie store in London. Zoe Yule writes about it over on Pia Jane Bijkerk’s blog, and Susannah Conway (of Ink on my Fingers) writes about it on Decor8.

A beautiful, beautiful wedding posted today over at One Love Photo, which, I found out just the other day has a link on their page to here! I’m so flattered and happy since they are one of my favorite people photographers. The way they capture people’s personalities and the beautiful little moments is amazing!  Big hugs to One Love Photo!

Speaking of weddings, here is another gorgeous one shot by Gucio Photo based here in Vancouver! When I found these ladies photography my heart skipped a beat. It was all I could do to not call up my boy right away and tell him I found our wedding photographers. Seeing as we’re not even engaged yet, this have been awkward for all involved. None the less, love you Gucio Photo!

And to end this post on a sweet note, here is a candygram from Inchmark.

I hope all of you have a lovely weekend. I think I will make cupcakes tomorrow… right after I do all the laundry that is starting to form it’s own country.

Reclaiming a moment from Childhood

The other day I saw a caboose.

It was the first time I had seen a caboose since I was 7, living in the Alberta prairies across from the train tracks.  The caboose I saw was not a decoration or a monument sitting on the lawn out in front of a museum, it was attached to a train and chugging along like it had no idea that above it, chugging along on the sky train, my heart was doing little flips of joy.

What is so special about a caboose? The memories, my dears, the memories.  When I was 6 years old my family moved to a village in the Alberta prairies. Our house was on the edge of town, and across the gravel road (where I learned to ride my bike), and just beyond the small marsh pond, was the grain elevator and the train tracks. In the summer, when my friends and I would play in the tree fort we made next to my house, one of the constant sounds was always the trains going by. Not all the time, but once a day at least, and every time the train would go by, we would run out onto my front lawn. Then we would count the cars (a habit I still do) and when the caboose came up at the end we would wave our arms wildly and jump and cheer. And then out of the caboose we would see the silhouette of  the caboose man come out and toss us a calm, off-handed wave. This would of course make us cheer and wave even more, and we would keep waving until the train had disappeared from view.  Then laughing and exhausted from our front yard interpretive dance, we would collapse into giggles in the grass.

At 6 and 7 years old, one never imagines that anything will ever end, though perhaps I knew more than others my age since my family moved often when I was little. But despite the many moves, and having to make new friends and even the big change of having a baby sister after being an only child for 6 years, this one, small change has always stuck with me. One day the train came, but there was no caboose, no caboose man to wave at, no point in waving or cheering or anything of the sort at the train. It changed instantly from something personable to an object, cold and unfeeling.  I still remember standing there with my friends and all of us looking at each other, confused.  Instead of a caboose, all the train had at the end was a flashing light.

The decision to remove the cabooses, downsize the railway staff and implement the flashing rear-end devices that are now used on trains was made by people so far removed from my little world, but it had such a memorable impact on it. It was shortly after this that my family moved again and this move turned out to be much harder for me to deal with than the others, likely since I was older and had to actually change schools rather than just babysitters. It was a big growing up moment, a moment that you don’t even realize was there until you look back on it. In hindsight, some of my child-like hope and wonder began to fade that day.

So when I saw that caboose the other day, it was like a piece of my childhood was handed back to me and the world was saying “what is gone is not lost forever, and even innocence and hope can be reclaimed.”

How about you my gentle readers? Have you ever had a “caboose moment” before and refound something from childhood you thought lost?

Autumn Planning for Winter Projects

October is my favorite month, well… maybe it’s a tie with April, but anyways. I love October. I love the crisp air and coolness on my skin. I love the colours, the leaves and the fog. I love just about everything about October… EXCEPT… when I get sick. Which sadly is what I am right now. I woke up on Sunday with a sore throat and it hasn’t gone away. It’s actually starting to migrate into my sinuses. blech! I know it isn’t anything serious, but it makes my head feel all fuzzy and according to M. I’m flight and floofy enough as it is!

October is also when I start making plans for what I’m going to do during the cold Canadian Winters. (Okay, I live in a temporate rainforest right now, but it gets really wet! I will take snow and dry cold over rain and damp cold any day of the week.) Sometimes I accomplish these projects, often not, but I always make plans for them anyways.

This year I have a couple of BIG projects that I’m hoping to work on.

The first one is… *drum roll* National Novel Writing Month!

I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo before, though once I did try out it’s script writing sibling – Script Frenzy – which I didn’t finish. The not finishing is something that scares me and that I tend to do alot with anything I write. I start something and then don’t complete it, whether it be a poem, a story, a journal entry, a blog post, whatever! I’m notorious for not following through with my goals, so I’m really hoping I can change that and keep this up and finish something! Cross your fingers for me!

My second big project that I would like to try is to crochet an afghan. Specifially, a really really pretty and girly one like this:

(via Ohdeedoh)

I have found the pattern I need, I just need to get all the supplies. I haven’t crocheted since I was in middle school, so I might have some trouble starting… but I hope not too much. Even M. thinks it’s nice and so I have the go-ahead on all accounts!

Shall I get these done? we will see… we will see…

What winter projects do you have for yourself?