Weelife Paper Dolls Getting Out and About

My Paper Dolls have been playing at The Daily B's house. Nothing makes me happier to see these guys getting in some quality play time with friends.

Take some time to pop over to The Daily B for fun projects and beautiful photography. And for my original Paper Dolls post click here. To download your own, click here.

(Image: The Daily B)

Evidence that Santa Was Here

I guess he liked the cookies!

And his reindeer went to town on the apples and carrots!

And every year, he leaves an ornament on the tree, always of himself, often on some form of transportation. This year he clearly knew Spud's passion for trailers.

A magic day to you all.

Holiday Shortbread Cookies #3

Inspired by A Cozy Kitchen, this year's Santa cookies are Salted Caramel Thumbprint Shortbread. Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

(Previously Santa enjoyed Black Forest Chocolate cookies and Peanut Butter Cup cookies.)

Pasta Snowflake Ornaments

KID-FRIENDLY CRAFT   |   TEACHER GIFT

METHOD
1. Hot glue wagon wheel pasta into "snowflake shape".

2. Spray paint white, front and back. We used a paint intended for plastic, and we managed to do it in one coat. Check out katy's post for tips on regular spray paint. If you aren't careful, the pasta will start to get wet and lose its shape.

3. Let dry. Hot glue pompoms. You can see that where you decide to put the pompoms changes the character quite a bit.

4. Dip the front in watered down white glue and sprinkle your heart out.

5. Attach ribbon. Done!

  This project was inspired by katy elliot's blog.

Holiday Shortbread Cookies #2

Today's rendition of shortbread is Shortbread Sandwich Cookies filled with lemon icing. These ones are going to special teacher on Spud's last day of school before winter break.

Holiday Shortbread Cookies #1

We have 8 shortbread dough logs* in the fridge just waiting to be baked and decorated. Yesterday we cut some thick slabs to bake and topped them with royal icing. Spud was the festive sprinkle guy. These found their way to some special aunties. Reports so far are big thumbs up.

*While it probably would have made them even more fabulous, we didn't happen to have the scrapings of a Tahitian vanilla bean in our pantry so we made a substitution, you guessed it, to vanilla extract.

Snowflake Curtain Behind the Tree

Spud and I were very busy last night and this morning. Snow making machines, I called us. A wonderful way to get into the spirit. The idea came from Free People, which I gushed about here.

Holiday City Gift Tags

FREE DOWNLOADS

I've been busy creating more gift tags. This time, partly directed by Spud who currently has a passion for architecture ("Put buildings on them!"). OK, Spud, here you go!

Please help yourself. And feel free to share and leave a comment.

Help yourself to my Holiday Tree Gift Tags too.

Photo Friday #33

GROUSE MOUNTAIN'S "THE PEAK OF CHRISTMAS"  |  WEE WANDERINGS WITH KID

Snowshoeing around the frozen lake, outdoor ice skating with unexpected mini lesson from THE Karen Magnussen (Canadian sport hero), sleigh ride pulled by snow cat, Santa in his workshop, 2 of Santa's real live reindeer!, warming by the outside fire pit ... a very memorable day. All of which made up for one long line up after another and the mediocre, expensive food. Really. We would do it again.

Delicious Baby hosts Photo Fridays each week. Check it out!

Pompoms for the Tree

Our tree has a lot of sparkly, shiny, glassy, porcelain ornaments and I wanted to add a bit of warm-fuzzy to it this year. Pompoms it is! And I found the perfect yarn, with specks of holiday gold in it.

They turned out a little ragamuffin but I kind of like them all the same.

I started with a simple template cut out of a box. This saves the fingers some pain and keeps them a pretty consistent size.

The cutout slot helps at the tying off stage. Once it's tied, it's time to cut the loops on either side.

Time for a little haircut.

Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans

Jelly Belly's version of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans are called "Bean Boozled".  St. Nicholas must have a bit of a sense of humour it turns out, because Spud found these in his shoes this morning.

Spud has braved the toothpaste flavour over and over again — yet to find the Berry Blue flavour. Poor Hubs has had Skunk Spray, Centipede, Baby Wipes, and Pencil Shavings so far which has been wildly entertaining for the little one. I'm afraid it's going to be my turn next. I don't know if I can stomach it. Eeep.

Tree is Trimmed

Nothing makes me happier than the glow of Christmas time.

Photo Friday #32

THE VANCOUVER AQUARIUM

A favourite haunt of ours: the Aquarium. And Spud's all time favourite exhibit is the jellyfish one. I think it's beautiful too. But I can remember spending hours of my childhood admiring orcas, seals, and sea otters. In fact, I remember my 6 year old self trying to negotiate the acquisition of our own personal Harbour Seal (don't worry, it didn't work out). Spud, on the other hand, likes watching the jellyfish more than the dolphins, belugas, and sea lions combined.

I suppose it's similar to our experience at the zoo. We were a little surprised, while visiting the San Diego Zoo that the only time he was truly engaged was at the reptile house. Not with the pandas. Not with the elephants. But the snakes. In fact, when we were gushing over the brand new baby gorilla, Spud warned "you have 2 minutes, and then we have to go". We got the 2 minute warning! He's just not a mammal kind of guy I guess. And one of these days, I'm going to get used to that.

Delicious Baby hosts Photo Fridays each week. Her post today is a moving reminder of how lucky we are and how we can help those who need it.

Ooooo. Testing the New Colour Printer

Testing the new printer with some of my lunchbox notes. Spud's going to be surprised tomorrow. If you would like some too, I'm sharing them here.

wee love on wednesdays

Some pretty good holiday gifting ideas this week.

1. Adorable Wax Paper Balloons

2. Mini Designer Chairs

3. Home on the Go Dollhouse

4. Kids Festive Messenger Bag made to order, on Etsy