happy holidays!

photo credit: My Fine Garden by SLG Designs

As the year comes to an end, we are grateful to all of our readers, followers, friends and family. We wish all of you and your loved ones a happy holiday season and a happy new year. 

We have a few new things in store for this coming year including a new blog and of course, a big adventure to the UK! Looking forward to a bigger, and even better 2011!

xo

Andrea and Robert

it's only november third

I can't believe it is already November. Time seems to be flying by. Everybody already seems to have their holiday decorations ready to go. This year, Robert and I will not be getting a Christmas tree since we will be gone to Hawaii for most of December. I'm a bit sad about that, but we'll still do everything else and hello! Hawaii!

Found this on Jenny's blog yesterday and spent mucho time decorating my gingerbread house rather than replying to emails. Whoops. If you haven't tried it yet, click here to make your own version.

christmas

(Super easy using the Pate Brisee recipe from Martha Stewart)

This Christmas was one of the best ever! We made shortbread and nanaimo bars and I even (finally) attempted apple hand pies to great success! Rob and I brought home a tree for the first time and made a display for our Christmas cards. Plus, we actually put in some thought to our presents ... Rob received a belt buckle made from broken skateboards by Billy Would Designs. Do you know how hard it is to get a belt that takes buckles?! I looked everywhere in Vancouver and San Francisco. The only place that I could find it was at the Levi's Outlet in the US and through Naomi at Flight Path Designs... and I received a WII! Yes, it has been out for two years. So what? We are late adopters! This thing is dangerous I tell you! A huge time suck, but oh, so fun! Virtual hula hooping? Yes, please! The only sticking point is that we don't own a TV. So on Boxing Day, we went out and found ourselves a 22" flat screen for a good price especially when we still had our gift card from the previous Christmas.

Rob figures that this holiday was extra special due to us doing some planning instead of relying on others. You see, when it comes to Christmas, my family gets a C+. We have Christmas lunch where we show up at Noon, eat, open presents and leave. This year, it lasted for a total of 1.5 hours. Which, surprisingly, seemed longer than the previous year. It wasn't always like this. Growing up as the only child in the family for the first 11 years, it was pure bliss. We brought out the tree, made decorations, went to see the lights, made lists for Santa and so on and so on. Now, we eat off of paper plates and drink out of plastic cups which look like they are from the hospital that my Aunt works at. Of course, each holiday lunch is not complete until my Aunt tells us how much she wished that she could be called into work on Christmas Day so that she could make double time and a half and the rest of the family ooooo's and ahhhh's.

Don't even get me started on the presents which have included ... used hair gel (bottle opened), medical masks (since we travel so much), random sheets of cut scrapbook paper (I have never scrapbooked), used gift cards (with odd amounts such as $7.23 left), thrift store clothes covered in sequins or lace (both that I would never wear) and I'm pretty sure I received a hair crimper once from the 80's which was passed down to me when I was in high school and left downstairs when I lived with my family. It's the thought that counts right?

VanDusen Gardens

Growing up as an only child means that everybody wants to take you for the Christmas light tour each year! We used to load into the car and do the usual drive to VanDusen, Stanley Park, through the Crescent and then a general jaunt around the neighbourhood.


In the past few years, the full size gingerbread house (somebody decorated their entire house) on West 4th disappeared as well as most of the holiday scenes on the Crescent. Nevertheless, VanDusen is still a must stop. Vancouver had its first snowfall last week and we thought it would be the perfect time to take a stroll through the park. Of course, by the time we got there, the snow had turned into a wet rain / snow mix.


I love roasted chestnuts and often make them at home myself. I was excited to head out to the park and pick up a bag, but they were nowhere to be seen! Is this a thing of the past? Roasting chestnuts over an open fire? They were selling baked potatoes and wiener waffles, because that is what I always think about during the holidays * note sarcasm *.


VanDusen was also always a must stop as I grew up right behind it. When I say right behind, I mean we lived in the townhouses that shared a fence with the gardens (red dot). When I went to bed at night, I could sometimes hear coyotes from the park or teenagers that trespassed into the park. No, we never jumped over the fence and explored the gardens free of charge. As close as it looks on the image above, the gardens are huge and there is a lot of empty space between the houses and the gardens where VanDusen kept their supplies and garden machinery.

The Festival of Lights is on until January 3, 2010 except for Christmas Day from 4:30pm to 9:00pm. For more information and a listing of highlights, please visit their website and remember to bundle up! (I seriously wore 3 shirts, heavy winter jacket, gloves, scarf, knee socks, boots and two pairs of pants.)

Christmas

It took us five married years to finally get a Christmas tree. Remember the story? Well Rob's mom came over the other day with a tub of Christmas decorations for us to pick through. Rob chose the ones he made when he was little and those that had special childhood memories and I picked out all of the vintage glass ornaments. The ones below are my favourite.


For garland, we went to Daiso and bought four packs of pom poms that we strung together. Our tree was a bit sparse even with the two strings of lights we picked up, but it looked good!


We have our snowman from when I was a kid and the Christmas decorations (set of five plastic figurines that screws over the lights, but we just made hooks for them) that we bought from Green Hearts at October's Blim market.


However, a thrifting trip to Seattle and Portland and we are back with so much treasure! Wow. I had to start restraining myself.


Vintage bottle brush trees from Magpie Ethel. I only had a limited supply of cash at Crafty Wonderland, but I should have bought the big tree she had and more little trees. I can't find these anywhere in Vancouver and I love them!


Wooden ornaments for 19 cents plus 25% off. Dude! How could I resist?


My stocking. My aunt had a co-worker make this for me when I was little. Isn't it beautiful? Look at the detail. All of it is hand beaded. Amazing!


More vintage glass ornaments. I think I have a problem .... :)

cleo

For the past five years, Rob and I have disagreed about what our Christmas tree should look like.

R: Green
A: White (but now I want green)

R: Fake
A: Real

R: Big
A: Small

R: Coloured lights
A: White lights

After being together for 8.5 years, we finally settled on a green, small to medium tree with white lights. We picked up a used stand from the local thrift store and brought everything home last week. Of course, Miss Cleo aka super nosy, had to check it out and decided that she was thirsty. It was late and dark, but it was a super cute moment!