Just Add Stickers

At the beginning of the Christmas season I bought a Christmas Collage and Sticker book from Grabie. I have just discovered the Grabie craf website. They have beautiful paint sets, paper and stickers. The book I bought was, the Holiday Magic cut out and stick it collage book. We have been using it for so many crafts and with 200+ pages I think we will be using it for years to come, or at least for next year as well.  Some crafts we made are these festive bookmarks. On day December 21st, Little Miss' activity was going to a coffee shop to read Christmas books (definitely her mother's daughter!) I thought that we could all use some new festive bookmarks. We used some of the punch out paper shapes from the book along with some of the stickers with self adhesive laminating sheets. I love how cute they turned out! Only two more sleeps, happy holidays!

We are officially on Christmas vacation! The kids are off from school, all the exams have been written and all the crazy themed days are done! All my Christmas work parties and celebrations are done. It is family time!  The first order of business was to write a Christmas to-do list. Little Miss loves the book 5 more sleeps 'til Christmas (and the show too, but we can't find anywhere to stream it.) In the book, the little boy plans out and countdown the days leading up to Christmas. Our list includes, Christmas baking, reading Christmas books at a coffee shop, looking at Christmas lights, wrapping Christmas presents and our little family Christmas before our bigger family celebrations. We have lots to do in the next couple of days but I am sure that we will enjoy every minute of it! Happy countdown, only 3 more sleeps 'til Christmas!

This week I opened boxes 9 and 10 of my Gilmore Girl advent calendar.  In box #9 was a cookie stamp with a beautiful snowflake carved on the bottom. It says I smell snow on the top with a picture of the snowflake.  I don't think I will use it for cookies because I am not sure if it is food safe. I am thinking that I will use it to make salt dough ornaments.  Box #10, only 2 boxes left! Today I got a pen. It matches perfectly with the Chilton notebook, probably because it's the plaid pattern of Rory's school kilt, which I love! I am very happy with the surprises that I have gotten with this advent calendar so far.  Happy countdown! 

Crafting and painting and beading oh my! We had some friends over this weekend and we crafted up a storm. It was wonderful and now I feel very creative, I was in a bit of a creative slump and this weekend has me wanting to create some more!  Happy Holidays!

I am a little late posting this because life has been lifeing lately. It's that busy time of year when work is finishing up for the and all the Christmas activities are starting. I started writing this post on the 10th and didn't get around to finishing it so here goes.  Day 9 I got two dragonfly napkin rings. They are so pretty and they feel very solid and good quality. Dragonflies are special to me, we used a dragonfly as one of the main characters in our Tidy Planet Adventures book series, his name is Doug and he is a lot of fun.  On day 10 I got this cute coffee cup. I like it a lot but it is very small, maybe it's an espresso cup but in this house it's going to be a doll cup, because Little Miss' dolls like Gilmore Girls too! I have 3 doors left to open, I am making it last by opening an advent calendar surprise everyone other day. Saty tuned and I will share more Gilmore Girls goodies along with some festive crafts we've been doing.  Happy Holidays!

Time got away from us and we didn't open our advent calendars tonight. Instead, I thought that I would share some of Elf's antics this weekend.  Our Elf's name is Elfa and her pet (cat or squirrel, we're not sure which one) is called Sparky. So far they have wrapped Little Miss' door, used my door for bow climbing and taken a bubble bath. Little Miss is getting older and I don't think I'll have many years left playing tricks with the Elf but I will enjoy it while it lasts.  Happy Countdown!

Today's Advent Calendar surprise was a Gilmore Girls pencil case. This fits in perfectly with the notebook I opened yesterday. I also bought some new gel pens and highlighters yesterday. It all looks so good together and makes me want to start my planners and journals right away! Happy Countdown!

Day #5 of the Gilmore Girls advent calendar was a very nice 'Chilton' notebook. I am in the process of choosing the notebooks I want to use for 2026. So far my Happy Planner and Blog notebook are both Gilmore Girls themes, so this one fits in well.  At the beginning of 2026 I will share my planner set up for the year. In 2025, I couldn't decide on which planner I wanted to use. I tried a new one but it was too big and the paper was very flimsy, I found a coloring book planner, which was cool in theory but it didn't have enough writing room. I ended up using a few different ones throughout the year and now I have a pile of half finished planners. Finally, I am just going back to my classic Happy Planner and use notebooks for extra planning. This one will be perfect to bring on the go. My advent tree is starting to look more and more festive. Some of the ornaments that I have gotten over the past couple of days are different colors and sizes of Christmas balls and a cute ...

  It's Day 5 of our countdown to Christmas 2024 and Day 4 my advent calendars. I was glad that I waited to opened this present for when I had time to appreciate it. Day 4 in the Gilmore Girls calendar was a Luke's Dinner sugar bowl. I am very impressed with the quality of the presents in this advent calendar.

This has been a long day, I came home late from work and decided to wait for tomorrow to open my advent calendars.  I did come home to a little present though, the kids and hubby  bought me a cute Harry Potter squishmallow.   It was a nice surprise at the end of a busy day! Happy Countdown to Christmas!

Day 3! We didn't light the tapered advent candles last night, so we caught up at lunch today. Little Miss helped me decorate the little tree tonight. She deliberated for a while on where the best place for the ornament was. She decided that the best place for our little snowman was next to the other figurine ornament.   Day 3 of the Gilmore Girls calendar was a very pretty tea towel, with all the classic icons and quotes. It's so pretty I don't want to use it and risk staining it. I might try to make something out of it, it would make a nice book cover. Keep an eye out for a craft with this material next year. Happy countdown to Christmas!

  Advent Calendar Day 2! Today's surprise was a key chain in the shape of Lorelai and Rory's house.  Keychain Lorelai's house in front of advent calendar Lorelai's house. The second ornament for the tree was a cute little guy, maybe soldier, not sure what he is supposed to be but he's cute.  Happy Countdown to Christmas!

  December 1st is here! Finally! I have been staring at my Advent calendars for days now and I have had this great idea to share all countdown to Christmas fun with all of you! We started by lighting these tapered candles at supper. I placed them in my mom's brass candle stick holders, they were so nice and very nostalgic. The first decoration for my little tree was a cute red Christmas ornament with gold accents.  Day one of my Gilmore Girls calendar were two coasters with the classic I am the Rory to your Lorelai and I am the Lorelai to your Rory.  Happy Countdown to Christmas!