Come on in for a Visit

I'm so glad you stopped by for a visit - welcome.   

The front porch has a few Christmas touches - twig stars, shiny balls hung on twigs and placed in the lanterns,

and touches of white on the wreath and the little girl's skates.

 Come on inside out of the cold.  Would you like a cup of tea?

some cookies?

Let me show you around.  


I kept the mantel pretty simple this year - just the spindle Santas and some pine cones.  Can't get much simpler than that, but I love it.  Those spindle Santas are near and dear to our hearts - each one has a special story which you can read about here.

I did something a little different in the dining room.  I've never done a colour scheme before, but really wanted to try doing the sideboard in red and white this year.  I love how simple and fresh it looks.  (You can read more about the sideboard and see more pictures here).

I've been meaning to show you how I created the plates.  I wanted to let you in on a little secret about how easy they were to do.  They really depended more on my ability to copy designs and do some good Googling than on any actual inherent talent.  Oh, and it definitely helped my psyche to know that I could wash the Sharpie off the plates - I'm not sure why it would scrub off as usually Sharpie is permanent, but when I found out I could remove it I felt a lot freer to experiment and try designs.


The Christmas lights were from an image I found online.  The first time I drew the bulbs they were all different sizes and shapes and looked ... well ... not right.  So I made a little stencil out of cardboard and used that so the bulbs were similar to each other.

Lighting Pictures

The idea for the Christmas balls came from a Folio Society ad that we got in the mail.  I knew I couldn't draw the gorgeous designs they had on the balls so I improvised.

The snowflake picture came from an embroidery design that I found online.  I simplified it as well as you can see below.

Green Crafts

And the Christmas tree was a modification of the many scribble trees you can find online, like the one below.

Want 2 Scrap

I'm so glad you dropped by for a visit.  We're putting our tree up this weekend so pop back to have a look.   We would already have it up, but Kate isn't back from university yet and she's a Christmas-loving girl so we thought we would wait for her.

Linked to Virtual Christmas House Tour at The Inspired Room,
Holiday House Tour at Hooked on Houses,
DIY Ornaments Holiday Crafts Link Party at Centsational Girl,
Christmas Crafts at Bower Power

The Toronto Christmas Market

We recently went to the Toronto Christmas Market at the Distillery District with our friends, Kim and Paul.  The Christmas Market is still on until December 18th so if you haven't been yet there is still time.  


I had never been to a Christmas market before and was looking forward to seeing what it had to offer.  It is modeled on the European ones and was everything I was hoping it to be.

There were twinkly lights

and more twinkly lights.

And pretty lanterns festooned with wreaths and bows.

There were little shops along the street 

that had Christmas goodies for sale, like these German glass ornaments,

and these glass birds - and an alligator (do you see him halfway down near the right side).  How did he get in there with all those birds - looks like trouble to me! 

I bought an ornament from the Netherlands.  After 35 years I have an ornament from the country I lived in as an exchange student.  I always regretted not getting one when I was living there and I've never been back since.  I'll show you the Delft-blue glazed ball I bought when we put our Christmas tree up.


There were these strange lights that looked like they were made out of bubble wrap, but they slowly turned different colours and were very beautiful so I forgave them for looking so odd.

There was a ginormous beautiful Christmas tree in the open square

right near the ferris wheel.

There were outdoor fires for sitting by to warm up.

There was beer to drink.  And for the first time in my life I tasted some beer I actually liked.  I think I need to go back to university as I would be a much better party girl now that I like beer, don't you think?

There were lattes inside a cafe to warm us up (forget the lattes, anyone else taken with those ceiling beams?).

Amazing the difference a few months can make - have a look at where Kim and I where four months ago (here).

Even the CN Tower was in a festive mood.

p.s. Some of the photos in this post were taken by my friend Paul as we took turns with my camera - and to be honest I've now forgotten who took which ones (although I do know this last one was his).

Dribble Drabble - It's for the Birds

Let me tell you about an obsession of mine.  I’m always searching for flocks of birds, especially in the fall and winter - this year I’ve seen a bumper crop of them.  

I love how chummy they look lined up on overhead wires.    

I love seeing swooping swirling clouds of birds

Kate and I once saw a murmuration – a living cloud of flocking birds - as we were driving to a mall and couldn’t quite determine what the strange dark moving shape was until we got closer and realized it was birds.  

I adore this video of a murmuration .

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

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Ever heard of a drabble?  Nope, neither had I until William had to write one for English class - it's a short story consisting of exactly one hundred words.  William challenged me to write a drabble blog post and that is what you just read.   It was a good challenge as you have to be concise and interesting in only a few words.  It was also a challenge loading the murmuration video - thanks to Lisa at Wicked and Weird for introducing me to it and filling me in on how to load it on to my blog.

WISH Wednesday #8

Do you know what I love most about this photo - it's the unusual contrasts.  The most obvious mix is the combination of turquoise and red for Christmas, but there is also the rustic branch hung with shiny dainty ornaments, and the modern clean-lined chairs mixed with the rustic vintage table.  It's totally a look I would do although I don't want to put ceiling hooks in the ceiling to hang the branch and my table isn't turquoise, but apart from that count me in.

Country Living

Are you a dyed-in-the-wool red and green for Christmas type or do you branch out (get it - branch out...) to unusual colours like turquoise.  Do tell?

We are all a Twitter

I'm glad you liked the 13 Trees of Christmas as much as I did (you can read about them and see lots of pictures of them here).   I found all the trees so inspirational and fun.  I was surprised by your votes, though.  I had assumed everyone would love the same trees I did, and I was interested at the range of choices everyone made.  It goes to show you that there was something there for everyone. 


Here's how everyone voted (1 point for each vote and a 1/2 point when someone said a tree was their second choice):

#3 Ecosphere - 1
#4 Ships of the Desert - 2
#7 Twelve Dogs of Christmas - 1
#8 We are all a Twitter - 2 1/2
#10 James Herriot - 1
#12 Uccelli in Cielo - 1/2
#13 Partridge in a Pear Tree - 1

And the winner was the beautiful "We are all a Twitter" tree.

Without further ado (drum roll, please) the two trees I liked in equal measure were:


#4  Ships of the Desert - I loved how the train of camels wound around the tree and each one was decorated with a different saddle.  I loved the gold and stars and how everything centred around the nativity.

#10 James Herriot - this tree reflected all the fond memories I have of reading his books about being a vet in rural England.  I thought it was very imaginative and had such nice touches like the balls filled with feed, his dog waiting faithfully for him, and the book tucked into his jacket pocket.

And do you know what my second choice was - that's right, the people's choice "We are all a Twitter"! 

My previous post was too long and too loaded with photos to tell you where we ate dinner, but it was such a hit I wanted to share it with you now.   We went to the Okonomi House which is a Japanese restaurant near the University of Toronto (23 Charles Street West  Toronto (416) 925-6176).  

This was a walk down memory lane for me.  When my husband and I were University students we lived in the married students apartments on Charles Street and the Okonomi House is right across the street so it was a favourite haunt of ours. 

The place has been up-dated a little since our time though.  You will be glad to know that after thirty years the plastic food in the window is gone. 

Not only is the food fabulous, but the prices are budget-friendly.  My friend and I both had chicken okonomis which are delicious savoury Japanese pancakes.   At $6.35 each they were also quite the deal!

Sorry folks that's the best I can do to fix the picture of the okonomi.  There's nothing like the look of food under intense orange lights.   Here's the original photo -

If you live in the Toronto area it is well worth checking out.