December 6th 2009

We decorated our tree yesterday! After picking it up, I wanted to get decorating it straight away, but Chris had to work that night. So instead I dragged Chris out to the living room first thing yesterday morning, unpacked the ornaments and we got to work. It looks so pretty, and smells so fresh and lovely. I love having a tree in the house. I've been making ornaments, but we also had some pretty ones from Chris' family. (I especially love the one in the above photo! His grandma made that one when he was young).

I'm making presents today, so I can't post any photos! I've got so much on the go, but I can't say a word or I may give away surprises! After the holidays, I'll post about all of the things I've been working on.

I met up with Celine and Charlyn for brunch at Le Sélect Bistro yesterday morning. I hadn't been there in ages, and had almost forgotten how delicious it is there. I had a the best sweet pea and ham soup I've ever had. Charlyn brought the best cookies for us from the St. Lawrence Famer's Market. She said that there was a man there every week who baked and brought these cookies, and was always sold out first thing in the morning! I can see why... mmm. It was so nice to visit with those two! Hopefully we'll have another fun girl-brunch soon!

Time to get back to work on surprises!

December 4th 2009

Christmas came early this year!

I was running errands last night down Queen Street in Toronto and while walking past Urban Outfitters, noticed something truly wonderful; they have Polaroid film! I know I'm always posting "Polaroids" on my blog, but they're actually digital photos that I've reformatted using Poladroid, a program you can download from the internet. It makes a nice effect, but there's nothing like the real thing.

My Mom won a Polaroid camera in a contest when I was younger, and I marveled at it. I thought it was amazing how quickly the photos processed, and now that I'm older I love the nostalgic look of them. In 2008, Polaroid ceased production of instant film. I own my Mom's old camera now, and when I found out that the film wouldn't be available much longer, I began looking for some of the last of the film before it disappeared forever. I recently found out about something called the "Impossible Project", an organization that bought old Polaroid equipment and a factory in the Netherlands. As of the beginning of next year, they will reproduce instant film! I'm so excited!

The Impossible Project collaborated with Urban Outfitters to distribute the last packages of instant film, and that's how I got my hands on some.

In other festive news, Chris picked a tree up for us today! I'm so excited to decorate, but promised to wait until tomorrow because he has to work tonight. I can't wait! Maybe I'll take a Polaroid of the finished tree.

Варежка

This has become one of my favorite Christmas movies over the last few years. I found out about "Mitten" (Варежка) while working at Magic Pony, and fell in love!

December 3rd 2009

I woke up to the pouring rain this morning. Where is our snow? We haven't had a flake yet! I'm starting to crave wearing my big wool jacket and clompy winter boots, but it's too warm!

I'm still getting into the holiday spirit by making lots of ornaments for our tree. We're picking one up tomorrow, but have to wait until Saturday to decorate because Chris will be at work tomorrow night.

Above is the Muji Christmas Catalog that nikki picked up for me in HK last week. It's amazing! It's really tiny, and bound so beautifully that it feels like a picture book rather than a catalog. I LOVE YOU MUJI! Now we just need one in Toronto...

I'm going to go make myself a hot chocolate and pretend that it's cold outside.

December 1st 2009

It's the first day of December! Yay!

I've been starting to get in to the Christmas spirit a little early this year, (which is surprising since it's been warm with not a sign of a snowflake to be seen). I started making presents as early as August. Ridiculous. But I wanted to make as many presents as I could this year. There's no harm in getting a bit of a head start on things, right?

Chris and I started doing reference image research for our Christmas card design a couple of nights ago and noticed a startling trend...

Loads of vintage Santa smoking ads! Funny, but a bit disturbing.

For the record, we didn't end up going with Chris' (amazing) idea to draw Santa as a vampire for our Christmas card this year... maybe next year? I'm sure everyone's all vampired-out.

Once they're all sent out, I'll post a picture of our card design. I don't want to spoil any surprises!