The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This post is long overdue!

Although I'm not a huge fan of the winter season, December has always been my favourite month and Christmas has always been my favourite holiday of all time! There's something about the spirit of the holiday that cheers me up even when I'm in the worst mood. It also helps that it's also my birthday month :)

In light of that, I was very excited to be able to decorate my apartment this year. We haven't had a Christmas tree at home for the last several years because we were travelling during the holidays. So, I made sure to get one this year. And because I'm a true believer in spreading Christmas cheer, here are some pictures that will hopefully do just that:

Of course I had a festive candle burning in the background - Frosty Pines!

I actually didn't get this one from Bath & Body Works (I felt so guilty).  I got this one on sale at the Superstore and it smells just like a live Christmas tree!

Since my tree wasn't real, the candle really did its job. Got this 6.5 footer from London Drugs and it was super easy to assemble.

Although the whole tree decorating process took awhile, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. We used to decorate the tree as a family every year when I was younger and it was always a really good bonding experience. It was something that I looked forward to every year as December approached. Even as I was decorating my own tree this year, it brought back a lot of fond memories I had from my childhood. It actually made me realize how lucky I was to be able to associate this holiday with so much love, warmth, and happiness.

After we assembled the tree, we obviously had to stop and enjoy the sunset...

As always, Dollarama saved the day.  I got all of my tree decorations there for around $30.

... Oh Christmas tree! :)

Yes, I took this picture a day before I wrote this post.

A quick look at the rest of my apartment:

Welcome!

Snowflakes galore!

And now that decorations are done ... onto Christmas cards! Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!!! xoxo

Getting Ready for Halloween

If you know me, then you would know that I'm the kind of person who likes to celebrate ... pretty much anything. Getting into the spirit of any holiday gets me excited and gives me something to look forward to. And you know what? Life is short, so you might as well celebrate when you can.

This week, I made a lot of lunch-time trips to the Dollarama down the street from my office. By Friday, I had accumulated a pile of Halloween decorations that I couldn't wait to put up in my apartment.

Side note: I love Dollarama. I'm always amazed at how much stuff I can find and how much stuff I can buy for under $20.

I dedicated most of yesterday to Halloween prep. In the morning, I spent some time working on my costume (see my post from yesterday). Then, I put up most of my decorations. Some of the items required some team effort, so I waited until I had some back-up support. After that, it was time to go pumpkin shopping!

I looked like a crazy pumpkin lady at the Superstore.

Once I got the pumpkins safely back to my place, it was time to put up the rest of the decorations (and take pictures, of course).

For those of you who are Bath & Body Works fans - I also have a Sweater Weather candle burning (just to set the mood a bit more for the pictures to follow).

The best Halloween candy, IMO.

My back-up support! 

To finish off the day, I had lovely people come over to create pumpkin masterpieces.

My pre-carving sketch of my OG pumpkin

After 2.5 hours of hard work ... VOILA!

Left to Right: Mickey Mouse, Kevin the Minion, STROSHOW 6, Casper the Friendly Ghost
Centre: Jack the OG Pumpkin