Tree trimming time!

So I've made you wait long enough! Here it is a week from Christmas and I've yet to share this year's tree with you! I've had the tree up for a couple of weeks now...but in between all of the holiday fun, craziness in the office and chocolate eggnog drinking (that's right I found chocolate eggnog!!), I haven't had a time to tell you about the crazy fun that is my tree.

Since November I've been giving you sneak-peeks of some of the ornaments that I've picked up along the way....and also told you about how I've randomly picked up different pieces on my way home from the grocery store over the course of a few weeks (seriously - I swear I was just going in to pick-up more chocolate eggnog and bananas....).

Decorating was reasonably easy...it was putting up the stupid tree that took forever....I'm one of those anal guys that needs to make sure that the lights are perfect - we're talking about taking three and a half hours to wrap lights around each branch as I'm building the tree...it turned out looking pretty spiffy though, so I guess it was worth it in the end!

After finally deciding on going with a blue and silver theme this season, my goal was to make my tree look kind of fresh and exciting, but at the same time make it look cozy and 'Dan like'...if that makes sense. A bit of bling, a bit of glass, a bit of fun and some burlap....(I don't get how the burlap makes it 'Dan like'....maybe it has to do with me coming from the farm....hmmm....).

After getting a bulk of the decorations onto the tree over the course of a couple of evenings (tying fishing line onto ornaments takes a long time....), I still didn't have a tree skirt to complete the look. In the past this fact hasn't bothered me....but in past years I've been a bit more on my 'A Game' having wrapped my presents early....this year that hasn't exactly happened....so there I was left not knowing what to do, not wanting to drop anymore coin on a skirt, and apparently not ready to wrap everything up. So out came the burlap!

Not too bad huh? Actually....the pic doesn't really do it justice but my $3.99 roll of burlap that I picked up at work looks pretty snazzy - it's so simple and the complete opposite of everything else that's going on....but it seems to make sense! No sewing, just a lot of fluffing....

And here you have it! The big unveiling! It might not look like something you'd find in a showroom or in a swanky design magazine, but I love it! It's goofy how much I find myself sitting with the lights turned out just admiring the tree....a couple glasses of wine (or chocolate eggnog)...some people do yoga & meditate...I look at my tree. What are yah gonna do? 

There yah have it!

Stay tuned for a couple more shots!

D-

Where did I snag everything from?


Tree - Value Village (Martha Stewart)
Silver owls - Walmart USA
Frosted & sequin balls - Zellers
Tin press birds / stockings / snowflakes - TBS! The Bargain! Shop
Standard-sized solid coloured balls - The Bay / Walmart Canada
Sparkle 'Merry Christmas' - Walmart USA
Swirled blue glass ornaments - Walmart USA
Over-sized coloured balls - PC Home Collection for Superstore / Loblaws
Rolled burlap - McDiarmid 
Christmas lights - Target 

Around the house...

I love lazy Sunday afternoons around Casa Dan. Except for me, lazy Sunday afternoons usually involve me spending a couple of hours scrubbing down my kitchen, dusting my living room and vacuuming everything, plus finishing up my holiday decorating. That said, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Here are a couple of the projects that I tackled - 

I picked up three mini cedars from Safeway earlier this week and finally got around to planting them in a couple of my vintage milk glass planters. While digging around though some drawers I came across a bag of old keys that my Mom gave me awhile back....lo and behold, I ended up with this.

After tackling the cedars, I ventured out into the cold and stole a bunch of branches from my neighbour's tree....(I'm sure that they won't miss them). A bit of fake snow, some balls, one hound's tooth reindeer and a bunch more old keys later, and I ended up with this. I love the way the skeleton keys look on the branches! So unexpected, and not Christmas-y, but still, neat!

Bulb watch, day ___ (like I can remember stuff like that) and they're still growing! I must be doin' something right! I also went digging thru the closet and found yet another vase which ended up being filled with more....balls.

Let's have another glimpse of the trees! When I was scooping up the milk glass left, right and centre this summer, I wasn't too sure what I was going to do with them. I'm soooooooo happy that I finally figured out a unique and different way to showcase them.

And guess what else I did! I figured out the chandelier!!! As you may remember, earlier this week I tried to decorate my chandelier and ended up having a mini meltdown. The ribbon that I was using wasn't working out, I was tired, frustrated not only with decorating but with everything else and basically said "eff it" after three balls. However, new day, new ribbon, better mood and it turned out looking out pretty stellar!

I went digging through my totes and found some of the decorations that I hadn't used on the tree....and then snagged a few more from the tree. My fave pieces have to be the mercury glass double-ball & teardrop ornament that I snagged this summer from The Bay (reg. $12.99 on for $1.99) and the mercury glass bird that I picked up couple weeks ago at JYSK.

A busy day, but a great day! What do yah think?

Stay tuned for the great tree unveiling!

D-

What Dan's watching. Holiday edition.

Everyone that knows me knows that I'm a sucker for old movies. There's just something about them that makes me light up. Sure there's no CGI or product placement and the stunts can sometimes be a bit goofy (as can the storylines themselves), but I love them none the less. I'd rather spend two hours watching something with a couple years on it vs some Hollywood blockbuster...

And when it comes to the flicks that I end-up watching during the holiday season I can say the exact same things! I may have seen a few of my favourites 20-25 times over the years, and I might remember some of the corniest of dialogue, but there's just something about them that resignates with me...and has be turn to them again and again.

So, that said, I figured it would be fun to share with you a list of my fave holiday films / shows. And you MUST promise me that you'll check out at least one or two...

10. Singin' in the Rain - 1952

So it's not exactly a Christmas movie....but Singin' in the Rain was a staple during our Christmas season. I swear there were certain years where CBC broadcast this flick 5-6 times during the month of December.

9. Holiday Inn - 1942

A group of musicians gather at a quaint inn during the Christmas season. Lots of song, dance, and goofy jokes....and the introduction of the classic song 'White Christmas.' Bet yah didn't know that the song appeared years before the movie of the same name. In-fact, when the flick was released 'White Christmas' stayed at the top of the music charts for 11 weeks. Imagine still hearing Christmas music in February? Oye.

8. The Bells of St. Mary's - 1944

Another tear-jerker revolving around a priest, a nun, a bunch of school kids, a school that faces closure and a Christmas pagent. I haven't figured out why, but as a kid, this was the VHS tape that my sister would gravitate towards whenever she wanted to watch a movie...it didn't matter if it was the middle of August or not....

7. It Happened on Fifth Avenue - 1947

Until this past weekend, I'd heard of, but never seen this flick. The storyline is ridiculous....but still, oddly appealing and super sweet. Two homeless men - a hobo and a WWII vet who's having trouble finding decent housing movie into the NYC mansion of the world's second richest man who's wintering in Vermont. All without him knowing. Before you know it the vet has fallen in love with the home owner's daughter who's moved in with them and is posing as a poor farm girl from Wisconson. The storyline would never fly today (or if it did it would have something other than a 'G' rating...) but it was oddly appealing and chances are that I'll watch it again before the New Year.

6. Christmas in Conneticut - 1945

Barbara Stanwyck plays a magazine columinst who seems to have it all. She's the perfect hostness, an amazing cook, has a loving husband and lives with him and her perfect baby on their perfect Conneticut farm (what is it about holiday movies taking place in the Eastern United Sates? How 'bout a flick taking place in Minnesota or South Dakota...hmmm). Anways, the magazine for which Stanwyck works for offers up as a hostess to a WWII GI and his family. The thing is, in reality Stanwyck lives in a simple NYC apartment, is unmarried, can't cook to save her life and simply writes the columns for the money with her friend providing the recipes. I love this flick! It's one of those rare movies where tears are streaming down your face from the first couple of minutes...even before the real hilarity ensues.

5. The Bishop's Wife - 1947

Dreamy Cary Grant as an angel? Bang. Sold. Grant arrives from heaven following prayers from a newly appointed bishop who's trying to build a new cathedral. So entrenched in trying to build the new structure, the bishop doesn't realize that his marriage to be amazing Loretta Young is crumbling around him. While Grant comes along to save the marriage and teach the bishop a couple lessons, you almost wish that the suave Grant ran off with Young.

4. White Christmas - 1954

Do I really need to tell you about how much I love the film White Christmas? Along with my top three choices, it ranks up there as one of the top watched holiday films each holiday season. Perhaps by coincidence, this flick has a VERY similar story-line to Holiday Inn. Song. Dance. Christmas in the country. An inn. The classic song. Throw in Rosemary Clooney and you've got the biggest movie of 1954.

3. Miracle on 34th Street - 1947

Skip the remake with that creepy little girl. No seriously. That little girl terrifies me. The original is where it's at. I've never been big on Santa Claus (gasp, shudder) but I do love this flick. This movie has it all....the little girl that doubts the existence of Santa, her gorgeous workaholic single mother, the dreamy guy that sweeps in and makes them believe in love, magic and Santa again. Anytime outside of the holiday season I cringe at this movie, but come December 1st this flick melts me....

2. Gone With The Wind - 1939

Scarlett! Scarlett! Ms. Scarlett! At 3 hours, 44 minutes you almost need to pencil in a Friday night to watch Gone With The Wind. Like Singin' in the Rain, this isn't a Christmas or holiday film per say, but for as long as I've remembered it's shown up on TV during the holiday season. That and last year I forced myself to read all four gazillion pages of the book. Tara. Clark Gable. Vivien Leigh. The South. Yankees. Dresses made out of drapes....you name it, this flick has it. That and it gave us scenes like this - 

If you haven't seen this flick it's time. 10 Academy Awards. Still the highest grossing film of all time (after adjustments for inflation). What are you waiting for? Watch it!

1. It's A Wonderful Life - 1946

What can I say? I obviously saved the best for last! According to my sources (Wikipedia) this flick was originally a box-office bomb. However, after falling into the public domain this movie quickly ended up being shown on every channel, at least once a week during the holiday season for the past gazillion years. Clarence the angel comes along to show the always amazing Jimmy Stewart what his life would have been like if he'd never been born. And as they say, the rest is history.

Dig out the tissue -

So there you have it, a rundown of my favourite films to watch during the holiday season. while there are always new and different holiday flicks to uncover and watch, these are the ones that I'll always turn back to...

I've shared my favourites; now it's your turn!

Cheers,

D-

When a good idea goes bad.

As I've been decorating my place for the holidays, I've been compelled to check out various blogs, websites and sites like Pinterest to uncover new and different ideas that I can bring into my own home. Some of the ideas I've uncovered, like planting my paperwhites in my milkglass vases have been hits...which led me to thinking that I could do this to my dining room chandelier -

Source Unknown

Source Unknown

I found these pics in my online archieves and was like "I need to do this" and then proceeded to drag Mister to Michaels where I made him dig through the $1.00 ribbon bin with me. Should I mention that for some bizarre reason the $1.00 ribbon bin was outside by the front doors and that it was -14c and already dark outside as we scoured for our ribbon?

Ten rolls of ribbon and twenty minutes standing in line later, I pretty much had my mind made up that my god awful looking dining room chandelier (I'm still looking for a replacement) would go from drab to fab. (How gay did that last sentence read? Hmm...)

Skip ahead to last night when I started to play around with the ribbon and balls and I ended up with this...

It looks stupid enough that I can't bring myself to spend anymore time cutting ribbon and balancing myself on a dining room chair trying to tie everything to the chandelier arms...It looks like, well, you know.


So now I'm left back where I started with my ugly beast chandelier.

I don't know if it's the ribbon, the balls, the chandelier or the combination of all three that I don't like. How could something that looked so amazing in my head look so goofy when actually put together?

Boo.


Maybe it's time to finally cave and order some new dining room lighting....

But in the meantime it looks like it's back to the drawing board for with this project. Anyone got any ideas for what I can do with ten rolls of assorted blue and white ribbon besides using them as stocking stuffers?

Bah humbug

D-

Narcissus papyraceus

This holiday season, I've decided to force some narcissus papyraceus bulbs.

Narci what?

You know. Narcissus papyraceus bulbs. No? Doesn't ring a bell?

How about their other name? Paperwhites? There we go!

http://pinterest.com

When we were in the States a couple of weeks ago, I scored a carton of bulbs for $5.00! Not bad considering they're generally double that at home (don't even get me started on the $6.00 orchid plants I saw while down there....I spent $19.00 on mine....)! Anyways, I've always loved the way these guys look, but for some goofy reason have never gotten around to trying them out for myself.

http://pinterest.com

Apparently it's a matter of me planting them in a pot....watering them and then waiting 3 to 4 weeks for blossoms. So in some ways, I guess that makes them like the adult version of Sea-Monkeys...minus the creepiness of Sea-Monkeys (there's just something about Sea-Monkeys that freaks me out). If all goes as planned, my bulbs should be looking snazzy by the week before Christmas. That is, if I get my ass in gear and actually plant them.

http://pinterest.com

I've stalled on planting my bulbs because I was on the hunt for a great looking piece to plant them in - but really haven't found anything that stood out and excited me. I'm thinking however, that they'd look great if planted in my whiteware fruit bowl....then again, where will my bananas live for the next couple of months?

http://pinterest.com

As much as I love the look of paper whites, I still haven't figured out why they and amaryllis bulbs are so popular during the holiday season...I get the whole poinsettia thing, but flower bulbs in winter? Regardless, I think they'll add some fun dining room table over Christmas.

http://pinterest.com

And what happens if they don't come up?! I'll fake it with the silks ones I saw at Superstore....it will be our little secret.

Decorating begins tonight!
D-

Dan does Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends! I hope that wherever you were you had your fill of turkey, pilgrims, buckles and pie! Well, okay, maybe no pilgrims or buckles, but plenty of stuffing, mashed potatoes and everything else!

This past Friday evening, Mister and I planned and executed our own little shin-dig and while it didn't turn out exactly as planned, but we still had a blast putting everything together!

Here's a sneak peek of what we did!

No too bad huh?! I decided to have a bit of fun with setting the table. I stopped at off at a dollar store & supermarket on Friday morning and found a couple of leafy garlands that I pulled apart. I then tossed in a couple of place mats that I picked up for a dollar each, threw in a bag of fall gourds and  it was feeling pretty festive!

Add in my fave yellow napkins, some swanky stemware, some candles and my silver napkin rings and we're starting to look even more festive!

Okay, so the table turned out looking pretty good, but what did we eat?!

In addition to the usual chicken, potatoes, etc, etc, I figured that I'd turn it up a couple of notches by finally making the pumpkin soup recipe that I stumbled across ages ago! There were a couple of glitches along the way that resulted in soup on the ceiling and a few burnt fingers but, other than that it turned out great! And guess, what?!? It was (with the exception of the burnt fingers and soup on the ceiling) relatively easy to make! 

 Relatively easy, but oh soooooo tasty!

Here's a quick rundown of the recipe that I used!

Dan's Uber Easy Pumpkin Soup -

1 tablespoon of butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

2 cups of chicken stock (low sodium)

1 cup of applesauce (plain)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 16 ounce can of pureed pumpkin, or 16 ounces of fresh cooked & mashed pumpkin

8 to 12 ounces of evaporated milk

First off, melt butter in a medium sized pot, chop onion and add to melted butter. Saute onion in butter for 5 to 7 minutes or until cooked, stirring occasionally. Next up, you'll want to add the brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and applesauce; stir and cook for four minutes. At this time, throw in (not literally) the pumpkin and chicken stock.

Stir. COVER. For the love of God COVER!!! Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer (definitely make sure that your heat is turned right down before taking lid off of pot to stir....this stuff bubbles!). Set your kitchen timer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After this time, you'll want to uncover and pour in evaporated milk (I used a whole can)...if you want a thinner soup, use less milk, if you want a thicker soup - toss in the whole can.

Plate (or rather bowl...) and dig in! I served with wholewheat croutons, just to add a bit of crunch!

Doesn't sound too bad huh?!

And for dessert?

Well. That's another story.

One that includes me dropping A) my pumpkin spiced cupcakes on the floor and B) knocking the pumpkin spiced cream-cheese frosting off the counter while cleaning the pumpkin soup off of the ceiling...

It's a good thing Mister brought cookies! :)

Regardless of where you are or what you did, I hope that you had an awesome weekend!

D-