I hope every one enjoyed their last day of the work week, if today was your TGIF before the Christmas holidays of course. We are so excited over here for some much needed family time to just relax and have an extra extra long weekend! This week’s Bliss List is a mixture of our favourite current things this week from one of my favourite Instagram accounts to some gift ideas and parenting tips I found and wanted to share for this time of year. Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season, we hope you enjoy this Bliss List as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you!
ONE
You’ve probably heard me in my stories frequently sharing my friend Courtney of the French Country Cottage, her images make my heart leap out of my chest! Her mix of French vintage and farmhouse is in the perfect marriage and this exact image is the reason I’ve added a greenhouse to our project list this summer. Courtney’s Christmas decor is nothing less than perfection as always, magical and we took a moment this week to ask her about the holiday season for her.
What are the holidays like for you and how do you plan your Christmas decor? What is your favourite Christmas tradition! What florals do you recommend in December?
C: Holiday decorating starts early over here! Most of the time- I have jack o lanterns and twinkling trees up at the same time. It is my favorite time of year for decorating and I love how everything seems to be sprinkled with a bit of magic during the holiday season. I don’t do too much play planning as far as decor goes- I kind of tend to see what inspires me each year. Often that is a color on a fresh green or certain ornament that speaks to me and so then becomes the starting point and I bring in a bit of this and that to compliment.
What is your favourite Christmas tradition! What florals do you recommend in December?
C: Something fun that we always did at Christmas when I was growing up was to drive around and look at Christmas lights. It sounds so random but it is something that both my husband and I loved doing as children and that we did with our kids when they were little.Our kids are all grown up now- but my now 20 year old daughter enjoys hopping in the car and going out for a Christmas evening drive to look at lights with us even as an adult. It is a fun thing to do. The other would be to watch Christmas movies- we love Home Alone and the Santa Clause and I always watch It’s a Wonderful Life while wrapping presents by twinkle light.
My favorite flowers all year long are peonies. And every year it is like a Christmas treat that peonies are back at the market for a month or so. I love to bring in the softer side to Christmas decor and so those ruffly beauties are always in my holiday stylings throughout the house and in table settings.
Can you relate to these Christmas traditions? We also love driving around our area to see the Christmas lights and watching our favourite classic holiday movies, this year we loved the new Christmas Chronicles movie on Netflix! Have you watched it? What’s your favourite Christmas movie?
Courtney published a stunning book this year and you can find it {here}!
TWO
While working with Saputo Cheese this year and the yummy winter seasonal ingredients, we were inspired by a recipe we stumbled upon in a cook book in our library called ‘Yum & Yummer’. We of course altered it slightly as we always do and couldn’t wait to try it, it turned out so delicious – even the kiddos LOVED it! I promised all of you the recipe this week so here it is;
Ingredients:
- 4 ½ cups cubed, roasted & cooled butternut squash (about ½” cubes)
- 1 tbsp of olive oil or avocado oil
- 4 cups of cooked & cooled grains (we used barley + black & gold quinoa)
- 1 ½ cup of pomegranate seeds
- ¾ cup of chopped green onions
- ¾ chopped fresh parsley
- ¾ chopped fresh mint
- ¾ crumbled Saputo feta cheese
- ¼ cup of almond slices or chopped walnuts
Combine all ingredients.
Dressing:
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 2 ½ tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tbsp of pure maple syrup
- 2 tsp of white balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp of dijon mustard
- Pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients.
Mix the salad ingredients together with the dressing and let sit to soak up flavours for 15 minutes before serving cold!
THREE
For 2 years now we’ve been giving Ella’s teacher one of our favourite plants with a personalized cute sign in it made by a shop on Etsy, you know me and my plants and I love giving them her teachers something sentimental like this and they’ve loved receiving it. I try to give plants that are easy to care for and sometimes we’ve done fiddle figs, those aren’t easy but so far all of the plants we’ve given are thriving! The text on these cute wood signs say “Thank you for helping me grow”, teachers are trusted with your children and do far more than teaching our kiddos science & mathematics – they are caring for our littles and I wanted her teachers to know that we appreciate them and the role they are playing in the developmental growth of our sweet girl. This Christmas we gave Ella’s teacher an orchid we found in a pretty brass dish, Ella was so excited to give this gift to her teacher and we paired it with a few other goodies for her. You can find this sign on Etsy {here}, it’s a great gift for so many occasions, even for a grandparent!
FOUR
This holiday season I wanted to dress up the kitchen a bit and found these super cute faux eucalyptus wreaths and red gingham ribbon, the fun of having a white kitchen is that it can always be a blank canvas and I can add pops of colour when I want. We put out our red Le Creuset kettle to get all festive too and even put a pretty new kitchen towel from Mcgee & Co on our La Cornue range. I’ve never put a kitchen towel on our stove so this was a first for me, I love this towel though and it’s colours. A lot of you have also been asking about my “Gatsby’s Mom” mug with our dogs face on it and you can find it from an Etsy shop {here} called Type League Press, we’ve featured them a couple of times as they make some pretty cool mugs. We will be sharing more holiday decor with you guys over this weekend, I can’t wait to reveal our front porch!
FIVE
Did you catch our Gatsby boy (our goldendoodle) snuggled up in our new chunky knit blanket we found from a Canadian Etsy shop Handmade by ChrisnKris? We ordered it in this gorgeous navy colour and every one in the house is in love with it, including the dog haha! I have an obsession over chunky knit blankets and I teamed up with this shop to give one away for Christmas, woohooo!! You can get all the details on how to entere {here} on my Instagram or on our Facebook page and it will be open for entries until midnight EST Saturday, December 22nd. Good luck!
SIX
The holidays are a magical time of year for most but for the little ones, as magical as it can be it can also be exhausting. Travelling from Christmas party to Christmas party, visiting family members and socializing, all of the delicious foods and sensory overload, can you blame them for getting cranky and overtired? This time of year is even tough on us adults so try to remember this when you’re feeling a little short on patience over the holidays. And try to also remember that thing I am ALWAYS saying here on the blog too, we will never get these years back with our littles. They will also look back on these Christmas memories one day too! I found this great parenting guide chart titled “Your Words Matter” and pinned it to my Parenting pinterest board, I’ve been pinning a lot of great parenting articles or charts etc to this board and this chart is a great reminder that our words we choose to use play a big impact on our children. I’m sure many of you can find some useful stuff there too, you can check out the full board {here} and I’m adding the chart above! I am always striving to better myself as a parent, always learning and researching as my kids get older in the hopes to do things right by them. Parenting isn’t easy and it can be especially hard over the as I said sensory overloaded holidays, wishfully you can find this chart helpful during this busy season.
){kind=link}