Happy Tuesday and a belated Merry Christmas! I always put up a Christmas post, and we were travelling this year, per usual, so I brought my laptop and it just didn't happen. Between celebrating my Dad's birthday on Christmas eve, then travelling to Marco's family that afternoon and back to Ottawa the next morning, there wasn't a lot of down time.
I wore my new fave sweater for birthday and Christmas festivities on the 24th and I'm not kidding when I say I'm in love with this softie. It's such a chic, yet versatile piece, I'm finding myself reaching for it for day, weekend, and when I've been rushing out to meet up with friends. I'm seriously debating the olive green colour!
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Good morning ladies! Happy Monday & post Christmas week!
I wanted to do a round up of Christmas in this edition of the Weekend Recap since it all kind of bled together. We had three wonderful days off, that were busy and relaxing so onto the snaps.
Christmas Eve is my Dad's birthday, and I shared this photo on Instagram...
Merry Christmas ladies!
Hope you are all having a wonderful day. We went out of town yesterday to spend the evening with Marco's family and then came back today to spend the afternoon and evening with my family. We just finished opening some gifts and are now anxiously awaiting turkey dinner--my favourite meal!
Hope you are able to spend the day with some people you love and getting to eat some of your yummy favourites. We have been getting into the Christmas spirit with tons of treats and family time. As an added bonus, it's 10 degrees Celsius and a green Christmas; normally we have at least a foot of snow! Not going to lie, I'm kind of loving the mild weather, although I know some are missing that white Christmas.
Thanks for always reading and sending warm holiday wishes to all of you.
Cheers! xo
I know Christmas seems like so long ago but wanted to share a few of my favourite gifts I received; also, a bunch of the clothing items are still available (and some on sale too!) so wanted to link those down below.
I tend to shop my closet a lot for my outfit posts and am not the best at sharing my newest items when they are still available so thought this would be a great opportunity to grab a few of the items I got if you love them as much as I do.
Thanks for watching!
Items listed after the jump...
Christmas has come and gone but I like to keep the spirit alive by keeping our tree up for a couple more weeks and of course, sharing a few photos.
We had a busy couple days between traveling to see Marco's family on Christmas Eve and coming back to town on Christmas to spend it with mine, but it was great. We opened gifts with his family, exchanged stockings that night between each other and then exchanged our gifts the next day.
I didn't take a ton of photos but we got a few gems including the three trees, dinner and a couple gifts.
More photos after the jump...
This is a little later than I'd hoped but, hello on Christmas! I'm home after a whirlwind of travel, family, and tons of food (turkey! sweets! wine!).
We spent Christmas Eve afternoon with my parents celebrating my Dad's birthday, from there, I went out of town to spend the evening with Marco's family. Then today, after breakfast with his parents, we headed back to Ottawa to spend the afternoon and evening with my family.
I hope you had a great day and spent time with loved ones yourself, eating delicious food and sharing laughs. It's what the season is all about (and dessert indulgences aren't bad either, ha!).
Merry Christmas!
For the past three years, my best friend and I have gotten together to exchange Christmas gifts a few days prior to the holiday. So, I packed up her gift and headed to her place for fajitas, gifts and good ol' one-on-one QT.
Since I've shared our annual tradition before I wanted to share again. Sarah killed it and bought me a top and pair of heels I was coveting, some special ornaments, a candle and a bottle of Essie nail polish. I gifted her with some heels she had been eye-balling (similar here) but yes, clearly she takes the cake (errr, pie) for being best gift giver.
More photos after the jump...
Last night, Marco and I hosted the second annual Secret Santa friends party at our place with a group of 15. What a hoot! Everyone brought a dish for the potluck and let me just say, some of our friends have a passion for cooking (we even call one friend the Cullionaire, he's that good). From gourmet deviled eggs, to spicy shrimp, fancy cheese plates to take-out egg rolls from the best Chinese spot in town, and more--the food table was bumpin'.
We drew names over a month ago and set a $30-no-gag-gift limit. I think everyone was pretty happy with their gifts from cool printed screen tees (like mine below!), amazing hot sauces, a board game, fancy liquor, a customized blanket, jewelry and more. We chatted, drank and ate our way into the night while Christmas music streamed from the speakers. A real festive and fun night leading up to the holidays.
This is a little later than I expected but here she is--a sneak peak at some of my favourite Christmas gifts.
What you didn't see: a few gift cards, iPhone case, jewellery, body lotion, candles, cashews.
Follow me on Twitter & Instagram to keep up with me on in real time. As always, thanks for watching!
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MY CHRISTMAS
Christmas Recap (on my blog)
Sarah and I had our annual gift exchange between us at work this year since it didn't work out to get together over the holidays. I brought the camera, set it up to record a video and didn't realize until now that we only got 2 minutes of footage out of 20! Such a bummer because you don't get to see what we got each other, but I was able to salvage a few fun screen shots from our lunch hour (click over to my Facebook page to see the silly photos).
This year, we decided to lower our limit to $50 and I'm proud to say we both stayed within it and scored awesome gifts (or at least I love my gifts, ha). Scroll down to see our gifts before they were opened a list of what we got each other.
For Sarah:
* Essie Nail polish, 'Come Here'
* Mexx wool coat (in forest green)
For me (hello amazing gift basket):
* OPI nail polish, 'Over the Taupe'
* Smart Set necklace
* Pier 1 jar candle in, 'Ember' (my fave)
* Four decorative Christmas plates
* Mighty Leaf peppermint tea
* Guess leopard wallet/change-purse
| See last year's gift exchange HERE.
Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, I know I shared the little video from Christmas Eve and Christmas day but thought I would recap with some photos if you'd like to see.
On Christmas Eve, I travelled with Marco to Kingston to spend the evening with his family. We had a great meal and opened gifts late into the night. This was the first time I'd ever been away from my own family at this time, but I had a great time. After the gifts were done, the nieces and nephew gone, everyone got ready for bed. Marco and I decided to do stockings for each other this year--a first--and did that in private around midnight. It was fun and perhaps the beginning of a tradition.
The next morning we woke up and had breakfast with his parents. From there, we packed up and travelled the two hours back to Ottawa to spend the afternoon and evening with my family. My parents were busy cooking in the kitchen upon our arrival we settled in with some drinks and snacks to pass some time.
Around 4pm, my sister, her husband and my nephew arrived and we opened our gifts--also a first for this sort of thing as we normally do this Christmas morning--which was really fun. We didn't finish before my grandparents arrived for dinner, so we took a break to visit and eventually eat a turkey dinner (my fave!).
I'm going to do a full post and video on some of my favourite gifts but here is a really cool one my sister and brother-in-law gave me: a mini pie maker! As some of you know, I'm a huge pie lover and this baby whips them up in 10 minutes. This could be dangerous, but I'm really excited.
Later on in the evening, we finished opening our gifts and spent hours chatting, eating and trying to solve little metal mind-twister game puzzle things (above) Santa gave us. We left after midnight, tired and happy.
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
Other posts you may have missed:
* Christmas 2012
* Christmas 2011
I made a little video of my Christmas that spanned over the 24th to the 25th, which included travelling to Kingston with Marco to see his family and then back to Ottawa to see mine. Thanks for watching! xo
| Vlog stands for video-blog, so if ya don't know, now ya know.
Merry Christmas!
Today we travelled from Kingston to Ottawa for a celebration with my family. I'm currently hanging out, waiting for my sister, her husband and my nephew to arrive. We are going to open gifts and then my grandparents are coming over to join us for dinner.
I'm surrounded by treats, wine, and baked goodies. The photo above was taken this morning when we stopped at a service station on our two-hour drive from Kingston. The ice store that hit Toronto and more made for a beautiful backdrop so Marco and I took advantage and snapped some photos with the DSLR.
Hope you're having a great day. I'll be back tomorrow evening with more photos and and stories about my Christmas holidays. Sending love and a big hug to everyone!
Outfit deets:
* Urban Planet sweater which I have in baby pink & maroon (and you saw all of them in my Colour Pairings video), and you've seen outdoors with denim and boots.
* Urban Planet pants--my go-to black skinnies, they are the Brazil fit, $20 and perfect. I own three pairs (hello that price!).
* H by Halston cap-toe heels that I picked up in Vegas which I wore during Toronto Fashion Week this year, also with my favourite maroon waxed pants & in my How To Wear a Sequin Skirt post last year around this time.
* Accessories: Sirens necklace, F21 wrap bracelet & MK watch.
So the good thing about blogging is you don't need a voice. The bad news? When you're sick you don't feel like taking pictures of yourself. Fortunately I had this one that was taken earlier this week with this beautiful tree.
So I have Laryngitis; I've been fighting something all week and woke up on Wednesday with no voice. I didn't realize this until I got to work and someone came to discuss something with me…Oh my! Where is my voice?
It progressed and got worse through the day, until I was whispering only when necessary and my vocal chords felt very strained. I went to the clinic and she confirmed, viral Laryngitis which means the only cure is rest--ie. no talking--and that I'm contagious. That said, I'm home today, resting and missing my Christmas party lunch with colleagues #wahwah.
How's everyone's Christmas shopping going? Mine is not even half complete so I'm hoping to finish up this weekend and meet my goal of wrapping everything by Sunday night. I always tend to shop right up until the last minute anyways, so, this is pretty normal. Any last minute shoppers out there like me?
As always, thank you so much for reading and coming to my little corner of the Internet.
The night before, the tree at my parent's house all lit up and ready.
My sister always insists we get up uber early on Christmas morning
(confession: I snoozed two more times after this initial alarm).
Our Christmas breakfast tradition: Mimosas & cinnamon buns (and croissants!).
Stocking time.
New perfume I wanted.
With my sister's dog, Piper
(a little blurry, but she was excited about her new ball, and too cute not to include).
Earrings I have been coveting for over a year.
The family Gingerbread House (I didn't help, but took photographs, ha).
My favourite little girl, Peanut. 
After dinner treats (mostly home-made by my mom).
Opening presents with someone special later on that evening (outfit deets HERE).
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Outfit deets:
* Dynamite faux leather blazer which you have seen many times, like with this black and white striped dress and of course was a gift from my parents last Christmas.
* Ardene dress (new!); I picked this dress up for $15 (!) the week before Christmas and they also had it in gunmetal sequins with a black chiffon bottom. Run to your closest Ardene (if you're in Canada) to scoop this baby up as they are 50% off.
* Accessories: Ardene (rose gold) belt, unknown tights & Aldo bangle (and again, not wearing shoes this year because I was at my parent's house and we stayed in for dinner).
Merry (belated) Christmas!
As I sit here and type this, I'm recovering from one of the nastiest bouts of flu I've ever had. Sadly, I have been bed-ridden for the past two days, barely able to keep anything down or even climb out of bed (so fun!). I'm finally starting to feel on the mend, but still stuck in bed and that's where I will be ringing in the new year.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and/or holiday, I absolutely did, and will share more with you 'next year' (hehe). If you are planning a night out tonight, please be safe and have a ton of fun.
...Annnnnd, if you still don't know what to wear tonight, here is some inspiration!
Upcoming posts:
* Christmas Gifts.
* Christmas Recap.
* 2012 Recap.
* Cirque du Soleil Recap in Montreal (we made it there and back in a horrible snowstorm!).
* Annual Girls' Christmas Exchange Gifts.
* My new glasses (sneak peak!).
On Thursday night, Sarah and I got together at her place for dinner and an early Christmas gift exchange. She made pasta, I brought poorly wrapped gifts, and we had a merry time.
Sarah had (ahem) bragged that she got me 'the perfect gift', which stressed me out to the max trying to return the favour, so to speak. She ended up getting me a beautiful (over-six-feet-tall) wooden and metallic giraffe (to replace this guy) and it really was the perfect gift. I got her a couple pairs of shoes (Guess & Dolce Vita), a few pieces of costume jewelery, long gloves and a nutcracker she was coveting (which turned my gift, as well, into 'the perfect gift'; or so she said).
I'd love to share some photos with you...
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