3 little things

One week.Three tiny joys.

1. Winter skin-savers

This Siberian winter we are experiencing in Korea right now is causing havoc with my skin. 

Constantly hopping in and out between freezing cold outside and central heated inside has left my skin dry, cracked and sore.

 I've been relying heavily on my iHerb all natural skin goodies to inject some much needed moisture back into my dear poor skin. Not only do their products smell heavenly, they really do the job well.

2. Late Christmas parcels

Dallas and I ordered our gifts for each other online this year and both of us left it a bit too late in the game to have them delivered on time for Christmas day. 

It really took the sting out of my first day back at work after winter vacation to find a lovely Free People package waiting for me harboring inside the purse and wallet I've been coveting for the longest time ^^

3. New books

This one was a little Christmas treat for myself. 'The Blue Tattoo' by Margot Mifflin tells the true story of Olive Oatman who in 1852 was only 13 when she was captured by Indians and  indoctrined over ten years into their way of life, eventually living as a white Indian with a skin tattoo on her face.

As soon as I read the synopsis of this story I went straight online to order myself a copy.

I can't wait to get stuck into this one!

a merry little christmas

A merry, merry Christmas everyone!

Today was filled with second helpings of duck and stuffing and roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and silly after-dinner party games.

Dallas and I waited till after dark to open the gifts under the tree while Charlie Brown christmas cartoons played in the background.

I opened sweet sweet gifts sent thousands of of miles from my cherished family and a beautiful surprise snail mail hand-made card from a dear old friend.

To all who are reading, whoever you are, wherever you are, I wish you the happiest of christmases, with peace, joy and lots of warm milk and christmas cookies.

that's the jingle bell rock

On Friday my beautiful Korean co-workers and I went out for a staff Christmas dinner and drinks. We ate delicious Korean BBQ pork with a side of merriment and cheer which ended up in an impromptu house party of sorts back in my apartment. 

We are usually too busy during our work days to stop and really get to know each other and it was so special being able to connect and get on so well with these people who I have worked side by side with these past 8 months.

Christmas just has this way of bringing people together, organised parties, last minute decision parties or parties for no good reason at all.

I cherish this time!

monday morning ear candy//vintage christmas mix

It's Christmas eve!

All is peaceful and bright and dusted with white powder just as it should be.

Enjoy your milk and Christmas cookies, and don't even think about wiping that milk mustache off!

Work today is all about Christmas fun for the kids~ there'll be a (Korean) Santa visiting the classrooms, lots of Disney Christmas cartoon watching, carol singing and my own class will be performing their rendition of 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' on stage in the gym while I probably weep a little bit.

On Saturday we hosted Christmas dinner for our friends and I had to step out to the store to pick up a few things while everyone was arriving. On my way back home, laden with bags, breathe turning to fog out of my frozen lips, navigating the frozen pavements as the charity workers clanged their jingle bells I stopped a breathe to watch the twinkly lights on the big Department store Christmas trees across the street.

I got that belly-warm Christmas feeling, the kind I haven't felt since I was a little kid and I believed.
I guess now all I believe in is the magic and spirit of Christmas.
But it still lit my face up like a Christmas tree.

Today's play list is full of cool vintage Christmas twang, press play and let's deck those halls.

Merry Christmas!

                                        

                                   

                              

                                      

merry and bright

{{1//2//3//4}}

Gift wrapping is one of my favorite things to do. I love to gild the lily so to speak.

I think this goes way back in my memory to when my Mother would bring out her big box of endless papers and ribbons and bows and we would sit cross-legged on the living room floor each Christmas wrapping gifts surrounded by paper and scissors and odds and ends.

This year I don't have my Mom's big box of Christmas goodies so I've had to be more resourceful in my wrapping. I've been using brown paper, newspaper and old maps as wrapping paper and then tying the gifts up in twine. I love the clean and timeless look this gives them.

When it came to the gift tags I hopped online to see if there were any nice, free and printable Christmas tags available that I could download and use.

Turns out there is enough to fill Santa's sack.

Here is a round up of my favorite, beautifully illustrated, printable stickers and gifts tags by some very talented and artistic bloggers:

1. Oana Befort

2. Kelli Murray Art

3. Laura Birney

4. Swoon!

I hope you're all having a great week leading up to Christmas. Dallas and I are hosting another fancy pot luck dinner again this Saturday, this time for a Christmas dinner. We'll be giving Secret Santa gifts to each other so I've already been putting these lovely freebies to good use ^^

Happy gifting!

opening windows

This week I decided to start following along with Messy Canvas's Advent Window journaling project.

I am arriving a little late to the party as we're less than a week from Christmas but  now I've begun I realize it really is just an inspirational and fun activity that can be done at any time of the year.

You're given 31 written verbs which you should select randomly every day so each day you will have a solitaire word to reflect on, live by, sketch or journal about. 

The first word I pulled was "decorate".

I've decided to use a pretty notebook Dallas bought for me a while ago that I had intentionally set aside and was keeping for a special purpose or project such as this one.

With most of my words I will mostly want to use them as writing or art journaling prompts but this word I decided to take literally.

I pasted it to the center of my page, took out my pen and doodled and decorated every spare surface on the paper.

This is my first art journal project and I'm excited about the next 30 words I will pull and meditate on and what they will evoke from me on to paper.

the season of giving

{{Quote by Theodore Roosevelt//Source}}

I remember it was Christmas 2008, before the tornado of backpacks and passport stamps and adventure came and carried me away from London for what seems like will be good.
 I was living in a flatshare in Spitalfields, East London, an area gloriously frozen in time.
My local pub the "Ten Bells" is infamous for being the bar that Jack the Ripper's victims drank in, street lamps light cobble stoned alleyways and dignified Georgian architectures crumble decadently. 
Petticoat Lane and Brick Lane markets, born in the 17th century, were my cold and foggy Sunday morning haunts. It's the place where the Indian sailors who jumped ship in the 19th Century introduced some of the first curry houses to London.
Spitalfields irresistibly attracts eccentrics, artists, hipsters, musicians, Rastafarians,  Bangladeshis, C-list celebrities and vintage-ware sellers like summer attracts fireflies.
Also, homeless people.
The homeless are another fixture of London as permanent as the Houses of Parliament.
Rough sleepers, drifters and beggars were ubiquitous in my area and that Christmas in 2008 I decided I wanted to help.
On Christmas day myself and a friend went to my local shelter and helped cook and serve Christmas dinner to over  a hundred local homeless.
It was a great opportunity to interact with these people who I would usually just walk straight past on my way to the Underground in the morning or even cross the street to avoid when walking home in the dark.
We met some colorful characters, old, young, some who wanted to talk and share, some who silently took their food and ate alone, some who seemed affected by our presence and expressed gratitude and others who didn't. I think it's the ones who didn't that I was there for in the end. I feel like they were the ones who needed it the most.
I didn't change the world, I served hot meals and maybe cheered a handful of people up before I went  home to my family and gifts and a table full of Christmas food and they went back out on to the streets.
That's the thing with charity, you always walk away with a feeling of un-finished business, like there's still so much more you could have done. But the act of helping, of leaving a smile and a belly full of food on someone less fortunate than yourself... the act is surely worth it, no matter how small.
I have read so many wonderfully selfless and inspiring posts lately about sharing joy and random acts of kindness  and they have inspired me to forfeit my Christmas vacation which I probably would have spent entirely indulging myself and my own projects/crafting/shopping/movie watching and see what there is out here in Korea that I can get involved with and help.
They say you should do charity silently or the charity is you but the only reason I am posting about this is to give myself the push to get off my butt and do it.
I feel like by publishing this on my blog I am further duty bound to keep this promise to myself and I will keep you posted on my endeavors when my one week vacation starts on December 25th.
Whether it's a small act of kindness, volunteer work or campaigning I will find a small way to give something back every day of my vacation.
It is after all the season of giving ^^

monday morning ear candy

This weekend I took my cue from all the winter woodland hedgehogs, badgers and doormice and retreated snug and warm into my burrow apartment for almost the entire two days.

This morning I was forced out blinking and shivering for work again. How rude!

Although we do have a glorious work-free day on Wednesday to look forward to as it will be election day here in Korea.

I put the final touches to my parents Christmas presents ready to be shipped to Ireland today (don't worry  neither of them read my blog so I'm not ruining any surprises!)

I wrapped my Mom's present in brown paper and twine and used diy rubber stamps to print a Christmas tree design onto the paper~ a lovely and simple idea from Patchwork Cactus.

Aren't Dad's the peskiest people in the world to buy decent gifts for?

Last year I returned home for Christmas after four months of travelling and thrilled him with a traditional Native American headdress I bought for him in Thailand as he loves anything related to that subject.

This year I thought it would be nice to frame a photo we took of him wearing his gift last year and pegged them onto string along with other pictures of us and the family.

Here is a beautiful little collection of tunes Dallas put together last night just for you!

Please press play, relax and enjoy your day!

Thanks for visiting ^^

                                                        

3 little things

One week. Three little joys.

1. Christmas crafting

These fingers of mine have been working double and triple shifts to get the tree, apartment decorations and what felt like a million handmade Christmas card, gifts and envelopes ready for posting.

The floor to our apartment has been a mess of thread spools and pine cones and little pieces of paper for weeks!

But finally, almost, kind of, I'm done! ^^

Some of those cards will have to cross thousands of miles to wish their merry Christmases to my loved ones.

One card in particular was addressed to a lady who I have never even met but I hope to share a little bit of Christmas peace and hope to.

Her address is:

Betty Vogel
425 E. Coleman Rd.
Clare, MI 48617

If you have a spare Christmas card left in your box I urge you to write a Christmas greeting and your signature and post it to this deserving lady and here's why.

2. Duvets & books

I have fallen shamefully behind in my reading due to a combination of Christmas prepping and and a very distracting new iPhone full of wondrous Apps for me to play with ^^

I have been making an extra special effort this week to snuggle under the duvet for 30 minutes every day after work and get back into my reading groove.

3. Lots and lots of hot chocolate

Because on these icy, frosty, cold-finger-and-toe mornings nothing else will do!

Especially when they come packaged so cutely ^^

What tiny joy kept you going this week?

xo

the crafty little christmas tree

I've been the busiest of bees the past week. 

I've been putting all sorts of grand Christmas schemes into action, making big messes in the apartment and starting new yule tide traditions with the beau.

This will be our third Christmas as a couple but our first living together and I'm not sure poor ol' Dallas knew what Christmas prepping does to this gal!

Happy for days.

I picked up this plastic tree for less than ten dollars and I knew I wanted to decorate my first ever Christmas tree using only found objects, nature and crafty odds and ends.

This is the result. Think Santa will approve?

 Mamma Gillanders would certainly approve of my decorating efforts~ she has filled my Christmases with colors and warmth and delicious smells since my memories began. 
Now here I am, arms wavering as I try to follow behind in her well-trodden footsteps.  I wonder what 10 year old Louise would think of grown-up Louise's first efforts at dinner and decorating? 

Sure there were bugs crawling out of the pine cones when I washed them before painting and the tree itself has a tendency to topple over if you so much as breath on it. But it's ours, and if a christmas tree's only job is to cheer up a room and give the 10 year old inside you a warm christmas-y, santa is coming kinda feeling when you look at it, well it's doing it's job just swell.

Happy Christmas!

in a pinch christmas card DIY

Last night was dedicated to all things christmas card making and I have the white scissor marks on my fingers and tiny scraps of colored paper over the floor to prove it!

It finally clicked in my brain that November is somehow inexplicably halfway over and the season to be jolly is almost upon us.

This quick and easy card and envelope DIY is perfect for those in a penny pinch (like me) who also want to create a more personalized card for their loved ones.

The supplies are minimial:

~ card stock

~ scissors

~ gold star stickers

~ decorative masking tape (you can also use ribbon or cut up bits of wrapping/magazine paper)

First step is to fold your card stock in half to make the card template.

Cut a trunk shape out of light brown paper and glue to the front of your card.

Start cutting and sticking your decorative tape in a diagonal shape and taper them upward to the top of  your tree trunk.

Sip on hot cocoa and marshmallows all the while to really set the tone ~.^

Finally, top your christmas tree with a festive gold star.

I also made little hand-sewn envelopes to place my cards in ^^

These are so simple to make~ Cut two equal sized squares of brown paper and stitch around three corners of them using brown thread, leaving the fourth corner open to create a pocket to slip your card inside.

Easy!

There you have it! Charming little homemade Christmas cards on the fly for a gal in a pinch.

Now, to the shopping!

3 little things

These dark mornings are making it harder and harder to escape my warm bed and hit the cold bathroom.

Dark evenings after work make it even harder to pull on my yoga gear when I get home and set out into the cold again to go to class.

There's a cold SNAP in the air fitting to bite my glove-less fingers off if I don't buy a pair of mitts soon and the fog of my breathe in the chill air is telling me Old Man Winter is out to play.

 Thank goodness for some festive and seasonal goodness this week to add a little cheer to the Winter chill.

                                                            1. Birthday Fiesta

Margaritas on a week night? Don't mind if I do.

As a birthday treat I took Dallas out to the expensive Mexican restaurant we always drool at on our way past to the movie theater but have always been driven clear of because of the prices.

We feasted on steak tacos and enchiladas, discussed new plans and schemes ahead and toasted our future.

2. Fancy Cocoa 

As a birthday gift one of Dallas's sweet students gave him these two lovely tins of Cocoa.

He's not the biggest fan of chocolate drinks but someone we all know loves nothing more than sugaring herself  up and warming her hands around a mug of floaty marshmallow hot chocolate ^^

3. Early Christmas presents 

These sweet Christmas parcels arrived this week for Dallas and myself from my parents.

I hadn't given Christmas present shopping a lick of thought until these arrived, and now I'm itching to write cards and wrap small gifts in brown paper and twine.
Christmas schemings are giving me a warm feeling through this icy weather. This one will be Dallas and I's first living together and thoughts of a mini Christmas tree and roasting potatoes and a Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack in our tiny little apartment are giving me a fuzzy feeling all over ^^

I hope there were 3 little joys to warm up your week.
Happiest of Friday's friends x