little things

Now that our house is decorated for Christmas, Nate and I are in full-holiday mode.  I'm always keeping an eye out for little gift ideas for friends and family and I found these on Etsy.  Take a peek.

 

 

 

 





This handmade calendar.  These screen printed, birch tree, organic cotton napkins.  This natural soap and washcloth set.  This monogrammed iPhone case.

lately

I took some unannounced time off from the blog. The end of October through this past weekend was awesomely uneventful. It made me realize just how quickly the next few months will fly by and I wanted to absorb all I could of the restful past couple weeks before the hustle and bustle of the holidays. 

We took advantage of the downtime and dug out our Christmas decorations. It felt strange to me, as though it were too early. But only because I'm used to decorating after the American Thanksgiving near the end of November. In Canada, we celebrate in October so it's fairly common to see Christmas pop up all around you right after Halloween. Let the Christma-fy begin!

In other news, we booked our flights to Raleigh, North Carolina! My cousin, Michael, is getting married early December and the entire Honkanen-side of my family will be in attendance. It will be a great celebration of marriage and Christmas all at once. We couldn't be more excited! And of course, we are always searching for any excuse to escape the snow for a while...

     Nice to see you again Mr. Nutcracker! 

last week's best

We are nearing the end of October and like clockwork, the snow fell in Alberta. I'm not sure if I am ready to hibernate just yet. I still want to wear sandals; boots and socks weigh me down both literally and figuratively. And yet, I found myself digging out our snow gear with a smile on my face. Hmmm... Here is a very late recap of my past week.

1. We very successfully hosted a grand dinner in our teeny, tiny townhome with 14 of our closest friends here in Edmonton. We served rustic Italian with an antipasto platter and cheese plate to start. Our main was Giada's famous stuffed shells in aribiatta sauce with a side plate of Caesar salad with homemade dressing and crisped prosciutto crumbles. And dessert was a classic tiramisu. A lovely evening.

2. We spent the weekend in. Which never happens, we usually have a thing or two in our schedule. Sure, we ventured out of the house, but had no purpose. That too, was lovely.

3. I took a nice walk outside today and inhaled deep breaths of the last bit of air to unharm my lungs. I think that's a big deal. The next five months of winter will bring the coldest air and undoubtedly knock the wind right out of me. Here is a little photo from that walk. I hope you had a great Monday!

this week's flowers

My favorite flower. Always reminds me of our wedding. A lovely grower's bunch of alstroemeria. Do you freshen up your home with a fresh bouquet every week?

Happy Friday

Another week has passed all too quickly. We enjoyed a long weekend here in Canada to celebrate Thanksgiving. Among the many things I am thankful for, long weekends are on the list. 

As I mentioned last week, my duty was to bake the pies. I experimented with a new pie crust recipe and was very pleased with the end result. I slightly over-cooked the pies in a failed attempt to multitask, but ya know it only deepened the flavor and made them all the more delicious. Here are the before and afters.

I hope you all have a prosperous weekend. Next week, I will recap the past few days as well as share a post about my day job! See you on Monday!