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Merry Christmas! We are here, what a day! Thank you for following along with my version of Blogmas, I did what I could during this busy season. I had so much fun with all the preparations, crafts and activities of the season this year. I wish you all the very best for this holiday season and all the best for the new year! Happy crafting!

Day 24 Advent Calendars The kids were very excited yo reach the end of their advent calendars. This is what they got in their calendars this year. Little Miss' Paw Patrol Calendar These little action figures and accessories make up a cute winter camping scene, complete with tents and a camp fire. Little Man's Guardins of the Galaxy Lego calendar There were a lot of characters in the advent calendar this year. Little Man was only expecting 3 characters because of the pictures on the box but all the guardians of the galaxy characters were in there. There were a number of cute little builds as well including a spaceship and  Christmas tree.  Even though i didn't make the advent calendars this year, the kids liked them and the were well worth it. Happy holidays, only one more sleep !

Day 23 teacher presents This year we made the presents for the teachers. Little Miss has a teacher and an educator in her class. My Mom made these winter scenes, Little Miss and I added the words and decorations using the cricut. Little Miss' teacher likes flamingos so we came up with this, Little Miss was singing    fa la la la la la la la mingo  for the rest of the day.  Little Man brought whisks that my Mom made the are filled with Kisses, the tag read "We whisk you a Merry Kissmass"  I said earlier in the post that we made the teachers presents this year but my mom really made most of the teacher presents this year. We are very lucky to have a crafty mom/grandma to help us out! Happy Holidays and Happy Crafting!

Day 20 Baking Day Candy cane cookies,they look like candy canes but they don't taste like candy canes.  These are a family favorite. I make them every year. The recipe is from an aunt, she gave it to my mom when I was little (I'm pretty sure because I asked for it.) They are a bit fussy to make and they were never my mom's favorite to make. When I was in my teens my mom handed the recipe over to me. They have been my Christmas cookie tradition ever since. The recipe card is worn and stained as any good recipe card is. I have thought about re-copying it, but it wouldn't be the same. The old card in my mom's handwriting is part of the tradition. I hope you are all enjoying the season and your own baking traditions. Happy Holidays and happy baking!

Day 19 Christmas Spa Day Some of the activities that I find the most fun are the ones that happen spontaneously. We were having a lazy winter weekend morning, enjoying a quiet weekend before Christmas, and Little Miss came up with the idea for a Christmas spa. The boys were not interested in a spa day so it was a mother daughter activity. Little Miss and I set up our spa in my room, we had candles, Christmas lights and a YouTube instrumental Christmas music. It was very atmospheric and relaxing. Our spa treatments included: face masks, a lavender foot soak and manicures and pedicures. We also had spa snacks, Christmas cookies, I can't think of a better spa snack, can you? Happy Holidays don't forget yo take some time to relax!

Day 18 Christmas Movies I have three Christmas movies that I watch every year, along with all the romantic Christmas movies. I watch all of these movies and their various versions every year. 1. All the Grinch movies. I like them all equally, my kids like the newest version the best, we've already watched it twice this holiday season. 2. These three versions of Little Women. I watch the 1994 version with my sister every year. I remember watching the 1949 version at my Grandmother's with my cousins when we were little. The 2019 version wasn't my favorite but it has grown on me.  3. These 2 versions of A Christmas Carol  the Alistair Sim one on Christmas Eve while I wrap presents Happy Holidays and happy watching!

Day 17 Family Games Night I got an early Christmas present today, the second edition of the Blockbuster board game! Little man and Hibby bought me the first edition a few Christmases ago. We were playing the first edition on the day of the power outage. I said oh I'd like to get more cards for this game, since we have been through the whole deck. Today Little Man brought me a present saying that he wanted to give it to me before I bought it for myself. It was the second edition, with all new cards! These are the two editions of the Blockbuster board game. I love the nostalgic vibe of these games. It reminds me of all the time spent looking for movies to rent and later working there.  We were able to play as a family, creating our own rules and only using the family friendly movie category. I can't wait to play with the family this Christmas. I would definitely recommend this for the movie buff on your list.  Happy Holidays and happy game night!

Day 16 Snowy Day It has been a bit of a snowy stormy night and day here.  Unfortunately, it's not fluffy snow thats good to play in, it's the heavy wet snow that takes twice as long to shovel and soaks through your gloves and boots.  The heavy snow knocked out the power in our neighbourhood, including the school. We had a pajama morning before heading out to shovel and get some coffee and hot chocolate.  We were gifted this story telling flashlight with slides from a friend and I was saving for the right time.  Each slide has 8 pictures that tell a story. You project the images on the wall and make up a story as you go. It was the perfect activity for a stormy winter morning! Happy Holidays, stay warm!

Day 9 Elf on the Shelf I never did the elf on the shelf thing. I feel like I could have got into it but it just wasn't one of my traditions. The kids have always wanted one though. My Mom bought Little Miss this Elf stuffy. Little Man and hubby have taken it upon themselves to move the Elf around the house at night, or during the day.  I found the Elf before I went to bed last night. In the morning Little Miss saw the Elf and we took him down. She told the Elf that he was in time out for climbing on the mirror lol!  Happy Holiday! 

Day 8 Special delivery! I got my Chriatmas cards today. Every year I make a family Christmas card with a picture we took during the year, usually during the fall. This year, Little Misse's class was holding a fundraiser. Each student drew a family picture. Little Misse's was so cute, including  Sunny Bunny, that I decided to make that our family Christmas cards. The rest of the family thought it was great since I didn't make them pose for a picture. So, this card joins our family Christmas card collection, I think it's my best picture yet! Happy Holidays!

Day 7 Christmas Lego Book Review Little Man bought this Lego Holiday Idea book with some birthday money he had saved up.  We bought the Halloween one this year and it was full of fun activities and building ideas. The Christmas edition did not disappoint. There is something for everyone. There are seasonal builds and games, even some fun facts. Hubby made this elf shirt ornament, it's so cute hung up with a clothes peg. If you are looking for a present  for a Lego lover on your list, I definitely recommend this book! Happy holidays and happy building!

Day 6 Since my last post was about family tree ornaments and the post before that was about a cricut project i made, here is a combination if the two. A cricut decorated tree ornament.  This ornament was given to me by a friend for my birthday. This was a little project I made with some left over peices of sparkly iron-on vinyl. Unlike the was it shimmers with the lights on the tree.  Happy Holidays and Happy Crafting!

Day 5 Family Ornaments Like many families, we have a tradition of getting a family ornament every year. I didn't start this tradition on purpose, like many traditions it started with family. When we were married and again when Little Man was born we were gifted family ornaments, the kind you find in the mall and they personalize for you while you wait. They have become some of my favorite ornaments. In recent years I have started to buy or make my own. Last year I painted a snowman family for my birthday ceramic painting outing. This year I found a fun gingerbread themed family ornament at from a fellow vendor at the craft show I dis in November. The fun of this ornament is that you can personalize it. The vendor had the great idea to sell 'make your own family ornament' kit. The kit came with a cooking sheet ornament and 6 adhesive ginger bread figures, 3 girls and 3 boys. I like this addition to our family ornament collection. Happy Holidays and Ha

This is just a fun little craft that I made one night when I was feeling creative. I had 3 wooden blocks left over from a craft and some peices of permanent vinyl for the cricut. I looked up 3 letter Christmas words and went with: ICE, BOW, JOY and ELF. I replaced the O in joy with a snowflake and the O in bow with a bow. I printed off some small pictures including two more snowflakes, a Santa hat, a fox and a bunny. They turned out pretty cute. I like the different pops of colour and the contrast of the natural wood and black vinyl. I'm happy with how they turned out. Happy holidays and happy crafting!

Day 3 This year we welcomed our newest family member Sunny the Bunny. Which means that he needs a stocking. Little man and I made this cute Bunny-sized stocking, using a dollar store stocking and my new cricut joy. I'm really enjoying my cricut joy, and so is Little man. He has figured out how to use it and is coming up with great creations. For this stocking we used white iron-on vinyl. I was afraid that it wouldn't stick well to the felt stocking but it went on very easily without any peeling.  I've only had my cricut for a few month, i think I'm going to get good use out of it this holiday season! Happy holidays and happy crafting!

Day 2 Our yearly advent calendar has become one of my favorite traditions. Ever since Little Man was an actual little guy I've loved coming up with creative ideas for advent calendars. This year I made 'advent' calendars for Valentine's Day and Halloween but we're doing store bought ones for the kids this year. But I did take out my pretty advent calendar village and filled it with chocolate for the adults. Here are some ideas from past years. I have made DIY Lego  advent calendars , Pokémon card advent calendars, sticker advent calendars and of course chocolate advent calendars .  Happy Holidays and Happy Crafting!

Day 1 It's Blogmas time again! I'm going to give this a try again this year. One post a day until Christmas.  Last year I had a great time posting our family's Christmas traditions, activities and of course, crafts.  I look forward to sharing our festive season again this year. Happy Holidays and happy crafting!

This month I participated in my first craft show. I have not been involved in a craft show since I was a little kid and I would help out my mother and grandmother with their craft shows. My mom would let me make my own crafts to sell.  I wanted to sell the book I wrote with my sister with some related items. I really like the look of crafts made with old book pages. For this craft show I made some signs and bookmarks from old book pages.  It was a great craft sale and I had so much fun with my helpers, my mom Little Man and some friends. 

Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month. I have participated for 10 years now. The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month. it is challenging, some people use October as Novel preparation month, taking the time to prepare their project for November.  I am going to participate again this year, mostly just writing for myself, I'm not working on anything serious right now (our second installment of the Tidy Planet Adventures is in the editing phase right now!) This month I am also participating in my first ever craft fair.  My vibes for this month is very much about books and book related crafts. I am going to share some crafts made from book pages and ways to make your own books in my next post and if you're going to participate in Nanowrimo, good luck on your word count.  Happy Novel Writing Month

One of the great things about crafting with the kids for over 10 years now, is that I have amassed a fair amount of craft materials. After we make a craft and the kids play with it or display it for a while I like to save any craft materials for a later date or recycle any paper or cardboard that we can't use again.  This weekend we put up our Halloween decorations, no surprise we go all out for the occasion. Hubby asked me to make a sign for the entrance of our  haunted graveyard. I went through my craft supplies and found this wood arrow. I used this for my gender reveal for Little Miss back in 2017. It was already painted in black chalkboard paint, I gave it a quick paint refresh to cover the words, then added the words 'ENTER IF YOU DARE' in gold vinyl.  I nailed the arrow to a piece of wood, sprayed the sign with a coat of weather proof spray and set it out to add to our decorations. It looks great and I am glad that I was able to r

 Well, I did it, I made a Halloween countdown calendar! I got started a little late, ideally, if you start on October 7th  it will take you to October 30th.  But if you start it later, you can eat more Chocolate all at once, which is not a bad thing! I picked up a couple of Advent Calendars from Walmart (yes, they're out already!) I chose ones with dark colors that I could easily change to Halloween themed. I chose simple Halloween colours, black, orange and yellow. Tip: paint very light layers and wait until the paint is dry before adding another layer, so you don't go through the cardboard.  I painted a simple pumpkin and a haunted house for the kids countdown calendars. I used the back of the paintbrush dipped in paint to add the numbers after the paint dried.  The kids loved their calendars, they were even surprised that the chocolates were in Christmas shapes so I guess I did a good job making them Spooky. Happy H

Halloween is big at our house! Over the years the kids have loved playing trick or treat with their toys and dressing them up in little costumes. These are two crafts that we made for the kids to play Halloween with their toys.  We made this trick or treat street set-up last year for Little Misses Little People. We played with this setup for a long time, definitely the whole month of October. It was easy to make and decorate. It is also easy to store (fold up) when you're not using it and it is recyclable when you're little ones are done playing with it.  This craft is a little older but it's a classic. We made these dress up masks for Little Man's Transformers. He was very much into Super Heroes at the time. We used egg cartons and paint to make these Super Hero masks. The egg cartons are the perfect size for little toys, it worked well for these Transformers but it would also work for Little People or other figurines.