Social Saturday | January 14

Nicole social saturday

Happy Saturday, Dear Reader.

Here we are, well into the New Year by now…have you gotten used to writing “twenty twenty-three” yet? It always takes me a while! Here are some of the things I’ve been up to lately.

Do you make goals or resolutions for the New Year? While of course we can create resolutions at any time, there is something nice about turning the page and starting fresh, isn’t there? I drew some illustrations of my goals this year and hung them above my desk so I am more likely to look at them…. and hopefully remember them!

One of the biggest goals I have for this year is to create routines. I finally, after many years, created a good morning routine in 2022, so I’d like to extend that to other areas in my life. Things such as intentionally stopping in the afternoon and having “teatime” rather than always having a cup at my desk as I work, or unplugging an hour before bed and using that time to read and journal. I want to create simple, but flexible, routines that have a big impact when done consistently.

Another plan for this year, is reading all of the books on my list!  I always have a never ending TBR list, but then never actually get around to reading those books… so I have pulled all of the unread ones off my bookshelf and sat them on my nightstand, compiled a list of 16 books that have been on my list for a while, purchased the ones that are not available at the library, and finally put in a few requests through the library. I hope to read more than 16 books this year, so once I get through that list I will add more, but at least this way, I won’t have any 1/2 finished ones taunting me, and as soon as I finish one book, I can dive straight into another.

Another project I’ve been working on lately, is my hard drive. I have mentioned this “to-do” in past years, but this truly is the year! I’ve made some good progress already organizing my photos and folders. My goal is to finally get some photo books printed, so I’ve been busy organizing and sorting. I love to organize physical spaces, but the digital realm is another story altogether….

Here are a few projects (in the physical realm) that I’ve made. I recovered this sketchbook using a tutorial by Miss Mustard Seed. (I used Mod Podge) I haven’t ever really liked this sketchbook, so I hope that recovering it will inspire me to use it more often. We’ll see…if not, then I will pass it on and use the recovering techniques I learned from this one for another journal or sketchbook.

I also made a tiny embroidered necklace over Christmas…I made my sister one last Christmas and it took me an entire year to get around to making one for myself. I’ve got a couple more frames left; hopefully it doesn’t take me an entire year to make another!

Though tools are supposed to be utile, isn’t it so much nicer when you have pretty ones? I received these lovely iron scissors and a wax seal kit for Christmas. I haven’t used the wax seals yet, so I think it’s time I wrote some letters. And the scissors are so cute; I’ve always loved this style and shape. They are from Wicker and White Co. on Etsy.

Well, that’s pretty much all for this week. Oh, and I took this photo below one morning as the sun was coming up and tinting the frosty trees pink. Paired with the blue shadows, it was a stunning pastel ombre effect. I’m so glad to live in a world where there are beautiful scenes like this.

Hope your week was excellent and that your weekend is even better ❤︎

This & That (Aka. Social Saturday, but on a Wednesday)

Nicole social saturday

Happy Wednesday Dear Readers! It’s not Saturday, but I only had bits and pieces of things to post, and since some of the things I wanted to share are Christmas related, I didn’t feel like waiting until Social Saturday. (It kind of reminds me of The Lego Movie, where they change the name of the day from “Taco Tuesday to Freedom Friday… but still on a Tuesday!”)

Anyway, enough about Lego and onto the Christmas content.

Firstly, the baking has begun. Today, we’re making Christmas tarts, which is our family’s main seasonal tradition. Pretty much all of our traditions revolve around food. That’s pretty grand, now that I think about it. We make Cranberry Tarts, (also called Mock Cherry Pie) and Coconut Tarts. Discovering that I am sensitive to gluten was so sad, because I couldn’t eat the tarts anymore, until we found this excellent gluten free pastry recipe.

The other recipe we make every year is my mom’s excellent Mincemeat Christmas Cake. Our house is divided on this, with people either loving it or hating it. I love mincemeat, so I’m firmly in the “Love It” camp. Do you like spiced mincemeats and Christmas cakes?

New this year, we also tried making our own chocolate covered cherries. They’re still full of everything that’s bad for you, but they did turn out very good! They have more of a Creme Egg style centre, rather than a liquid centre, but apparently the longer you wait, the runnier they get. We followed this recipe, which was really easy to make, and we had everything on hand already.

In other Christmas news, we have started a new Advent tradition. We were a bit late to the party, only getting these hung up on the weekend, but we purchased the printable “Truth for The Day” Advent Cards from Home Made Lovely, and strung them across the mantle with mini clothespins. I absolutely love how they look- the illustrations are adorable- and it’s so fun to turn over the card each day as we approach Christmas.  I also just love how we decorated the mantle this year! My Grandma gave my mom these silver deer candlesticks she had, and they look so great against the stone fireplace. And of course the fairy lights on top of the garland add such a nice sparkle.

Another download, a free one this time, is this adorable printable from Sincerely Marie Designs for 12 Days of Christmas ornaments. I haven’t printed them yet, since I want to see if I can transfer them onto small wood cookies. I saw a set of ornaments like that earlier this year, and I think that would be so cute.

Onto other topics, I’ve been making baby headbands again. We’ve got so many little ones on the way in my church, so I’ve been working on making these yo-yos and bows and have been listening to The Silmarillion audiobook as I stitch.  I tried reading the book, but it was so dry I had to give up. Then I thought to get an audio book from the library, which is so much more enjoyable. (The copy I got is voiced by Martin Shaw).

I also made a brown felted wool flower to add to the wool beret I made a couple of years ago. I never wear this hat, because it’s too stiff to maneuver and “flop” and so it always just looked like it needed something; the felt flower is the perfect touch. I also made some felted wool mittens to match earlier this year, but I don’t think I ever posted them, so here they are now. If you want to make your own, here’s my tutorial.

I also made a few more headbands and hair clips for my Poshmark shop. That pink flower is one-of-a-kind. While I love how it turned out, I won’t make another out of that pink satin, because it was so hard to singe the edges! Once they started melting, they kept going, and I had to throw away so many petals with holes in them. It would look so pretty tucked into an updo for a formal occasion, wouldn’t it? I also added some more photography and other artwork, including some of my favourite mini art cards and paintings.

In other topics, I also recently reorganized my closet; the way I had set it up last January just wasn’t working for me anymore. Basically I had categories too spread out, with some things on shelves, some in drawers and some hanging. I have now separated it, putting all of my loungewear and working clothes (as in grungy work) out of the closet and into my dresser drawer. I took all of my sweaters and cardigans off of the shelf and hung them on padded hangers. Then I put my large purses on the top shelf above the rod, my berets on my shoe shelf, all of the winter hats on stands on my dresser, and my scarves and fur collars on the back of my door (except for one that is too big, which is hanging). It is working so much better for me to be able to clearly see at a glance all of the pieces in my winter capsule wardrobe, without being distracted by loungewear and other things that don’t go in that capsule! I have found over the years that if I don’t have things out where I can see them, I just won’t remember to wear them, so it’s working so much better to have out-of-season items stored on the side shelves in my closet, and the in-season items out in front.

Not related to closets entirely, but sort of, I enjoyed this post by Gillian Dunn, about using your special items everyday.

I also was going to share this post about Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s fashion inspiration in my last Social Saturday, and I forgot, so here it is now. I love how classic her looks are. You can obviously tell it’s the 90’s and yet it’s still elegant. (And I absolutely love her neutral palette.)

And finally, unrelated to anything, this post about the themes in A Tale of Two Cities (one of my favourite books!) is very good. I read the book back in May, but didn’t see this blog post until a while later. It’s a very good article, but DO NOT read it if you haven’t read A Tale of Two Cities, since there are major spoilers!

Well, I think that’s all that I have for today. I hope your week and your December is going well…there’s only 11 days until Christmas!