Happy Holidays

All my best for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011!

Thank you for being my guest in 2010 and I hope you will stay with me for 2011. I’m looking forward sourcing and sharing more inspiring design photos with you and reading your comments. I hope you will meet me back here in January... see you in 2011!

Wendy xo

Christmas decorating {a favorite}

This festive dining room is a favorite of mine. Candles, fresh flowers with simple touches of the season… I love it!

This house was part of the Appleby College Christmas House Tour 2008 and was featured in the November 2009 issue of Canadian House & Home Magazine. The house was staged for the holidays by Interior Designer Tracy Ray from Unique Ideas with furniture provided by Cocoon Furnishings. Here are a few more snapshots…

Photo Credits: Canadian House & Home & Cocoon Furnishings

Peppermint Bark

Every year I do a little holiday baking for us to enjoy with family and friends. While I often try a new recipe or two, or three, I have two staples for the season; Magic Santa Bars and Peppermint Bark. I make double Peppermint Bark since it’s become what we hand it out to neighbours and bring along when visiting friends and family at this time of year. You can also buy Peppermint Bark at Williams Sonoma or other retailers but when you see how easy it is to make, I doubt you will.
Here’s what you need…

Step 1: Melt the 500 gr of bittersweet chocolate… when it’s almost completely melted, add 8 drops of peppermint flavouring.

Step 2: Spread the melted chocolate on parchment paper. Place in fridge or cold room and let it cool.

Step 3: Melt 500 gr of white chocolate… when it’s almost completely melted, add 8 drops of peppermint flavouring. While it’s melting, break up the candy canes into tiny pieces.

Step 4: Here’s where you need to act quickly otherwise, your dark and white chocolate will marble together. Layer the melted white chocolate on the bittersweet chocolate and spread evenly. Immediately, sprinkle with candy cane. Place in fridge or cold room and let it cool.

Step 5: Break into pieces and enjoy!



PS. These pieces ended up a little thicker than usual because I used a round platter instead of the typical rectangular baking sheet. Oh well, more chocolate!!!

Christmas Decorating {Home}

Christmas decorating has always been challenging for me. I love so many colour combinations! Silver, white with touches of clear acrylic ornaments has been a long time favorite of mine and this year, I’m loving gold, silver with hints of either aqua or lime. The collection we started years ago was gold, silver with red… who knows, maybe next year I’ll change it up some.

The Grinch Tree is from Fresh Floral Creations. Originally I chose a blue ornament, it broke -

 

Found the Ho Ho Ho print from Leah at The Way We Are

A little Christmas DIY…

I had a box of old Christmas cards so Liam and I did a little Christmas bunting. He loved gluing the flags to the ribbon. Now, he talks about it almost daily… it was fun! I would like to add fresh garland to the mantel but I haven’t been back to the garden nursery yet.

Inspired by Megan’s DIY Christmas Tray, from Home We’re Home, I did this tray for us… it was fun too!

My favorites from the tree…

Added a little boyish flair… I bought this red airplane from Pottery Barn last year and B’s aunt made these boy ornaments… aren’t they cute? The red dot represents the Canadian flag for B.

Now, to fill the empty tree bottom with presents!! That’s on the list for this weekend. 7 days until Christmas… are you done your Christmas shopping? Happy Weekend everyone!

My Holiday Wish list {part 2}

Last week I shared one item on my holiday wish list via “The 12 days of Holidays” blog series hosted by Shannon at What’s Up Whimsy. Here’s a few other items on my wish list this year… funny, usually I don’t have a wish list.

1) Married to an Olympian drives my effort to celebrate and support Olympic athletes. I would love a pair of these Olympic Red Mittens… aren’t they fun? 2) I would also love a new purse, one that I can strut when I’m sans kids. I’m fancying this one from COACH but the price tag is something I would never pay for a purse, which leaves me thinking - I’ll just wait to until our trip to Florida in the spring and visit a COACH outlet as I did last spring.

3) Our existing Jamie Oliver T-Fal pots are showing their age so I’m hoping for a new Jamie Oliver Stainless Steel pot set. I also like the Gordon Ramsey set by Royal Dalton but the price tag is over the top. 4) This initial coffee mug seems like a fun way to enjoy my morning cup of coffee ~

Finally, we all know that it’s better to give than to receive and this year we are giving to two charities. We are donating to Yellow Brick House.

We always like to donate to local charities in an effort to help, some way, to those who are near. This shelter provides emergency shelter and outreach services to women and children of abusive relationships… so it just seems like a good thing to do. We have donated to them before.

We are also contributing to Staci’s, from Staci Edwards blog, “Fill A Stable For Christmas” Donation Drive.

Last month, Staci started an amazing donation drive through World Vision. Her goal is to raise $3,600 to purchase three stables of farm animals for a community in poverty, in Uganda.  What a great way to share the some holiday cheer… to donate, visit Staci’s blog here.

What’s on your wish list this year? Are you donating to any charities?

Stylish Shelves… Library Ladders

This Stylish Shelves series has taken us through the living room, dining room, kitchen, familyroom and home office so far… have you added photos to your inspiration files yet? We have a few more rooms to explore but I’m tweaking the series today by showcasing library ladders. I love library ladders! Here’s a collection I’ve come across as I’ve been pulling together this Stylish Shelves series.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

I’ve collected too many library ladder photos for a single post so stay tuned for a follow up in the coming weeks. As you can suspect, I’ve also collected library ladders around the house but of course, that will be yet another post! Have a great Monday!

Sarah 101 | Coming January 2011

The flu has put me under the covers for a couple of days and I’m finally feeling as though the cloud is clearing from my head – thank goodness! Checking email today and to my delight I see Sarah’s back… that’s right friends, Sarah Richardson and her talented sidekick Tommy are back in January with a new show – Sarah 101. Think, design school “Sarah-style”… I can’t wait! 

It all starts Tuesday, January 4th on HGTV… I’ll be watching!

Christmas Decorating {Potted Trees}

I’ve never noticed so many potted Christmas trees as I have this year… have you you? Perhaps it’s a new trend in Christmas tree decorating, don’t know. Here’s a round up of potted Christmas Trees I’ve come across as I’ve been pulling together this Christmas Decorating series. Enjoy!

Photo Credits; Lonny, Country Living 2,4,5,6,7, H & H blog, Martha Stewart and Eva Lindh

The Home Depot

You really never know who's reading your blog. A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a member of public relations team that works with The Home Depot Canada to let me know of about a variety of home decor items The Home Depot is trending in their stores. I spent last night browsing The Home Depot website, here’s a peek at some of the things I found.

Martha Stewart Living Collection

The Martha Stewart lighting collection introduces lamps which work in a variety rooms and decor styles.

 

 

Lanart Rugs

The Lanart Rug collection includes machine made and hand made rugs in natural or synthetic fibers, produced in Canada and imported from around the world. Visit their website for more.

And, for that DIY candle project I keep meaning to tackle -

Next up, a trip to The Home Depot to touch, feel and perhaps buy something new. Stay tuned!