Christmas Cat Nip!

Each Christmas I treat the cats to some fresh Cat Nip toys!



They take great pleasure in attacking the cat nip, throwing it around, and then passing out on it!



They scheme up ways to try to get the other cats cat nip as well!



Until the Cat Nip kicks in and they sit comatose for the rest of the afternoon! Ahhh, I love the smell of Cat Nip during the Christmas season!!

Some Christmas Spirit

Here is a video we shot at Disney Hollywood Studio of the Osborne Lights! This will definitely get you in the holiday spirit!

Osborne Family Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios from Mark Giles on Vimeo.

Dec. 3rd prompt - The Holidays Smell like...

When I think of the smells of Christmas my first thought is Gingerbread! However, as much as I like to smell it, I don't like to eat it. I have never been a fan of gingerbread.

The next smell is pine trees. I love to have a real tree in my house and smell that fresh pine each day!!

Then back to cookies baking. Any cookies, they all smell delicious.

Turkey. The smell of Christmas dinner is such a warm feeling!

Fresh snow. That crisp, cold air. I only like this smell on Christmas Eve, and no other time of the year.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Yesterday was our big travel day to Disney. It started at 6am, which is too early for me. The Limo picked us up at 7am to take us to the Airport. By 8:30am we were through the process and waiting until 10am to board. We were on our way probably by 10:30am. However, due to high winds and bad weather, we arrived 30 minutes late. We went to find the Disney Magical Express and finally made it to Port Orleans French Quarter about 3:15pm.

After checking in we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. It was raining quite a bit. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the bus ride was only 10 minutes. All we did at the Magic Kingdom was look in some shops, then headed to the monorail to go to the Grand Floridian.

The monorail was a very slow process. If it wasn't for the rain, I would have definitely taken the boat. After about 30 minutes we made it to the Grand Floridian. This was my first time at the resort. I was never really interested in it. I thought it had a stuffy feeling. But at Christmas time it is beautiful. They had a massive tree in the lobby. Plus the life size Gingerbread house made out of Gingerbread! A live band playing Christmas music. A photopass photographer was taking family portraits in front of the tree. It gives you a very warm and welcoming feeling.

We had gone there to attend the Cinderella dinner at 1900 Park Fare Restaurant. Because I told her the wrong time of my reservation, she said she didn't have it. They still accepted us. She said it would be a 40 minute wait, but 5 minutes later our pager was buzzing. We were seated near the food and before we could get comfortable Prince Charming was beside us! Shortly followed by Cinderella, the Wicked Step Mom, Anastatia and Drisella. Plus they had a waltz and a dance! It was a very interactive meal. Gemma was still shy but was good a posed for all the pictures. Anastatia was even jealous about my fabulous Tarina Tarintino necklace I was wearing! We were still there when the Prince came out again, but remembered Gemma and asked her how her meal was.

Then back on the monorail. Only 1 stop this time. And another bus back to the hotel. We grabbed our resort mugs and some drinks and came back to our room to find our bags waiting to be unpacked.

Day 2 prompt - Movies that put me in a Holiday Spirit

While it is still raining outside, the next step to feeling festive is Holiday Movies. Some of my favorites are:

1. A Christmas Story - I am so surprised when I find out some people still haven't seen this movie. It is from 1983 and definitely a Christmas Classic. From the Red Ryder BB Gun, to the Mayor Award, and FUDGE, the movie is funny and definitely a favorite.

2. Love Actually - I love this movie. I love Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister. I love the Art Gallery Boy and his crush. I love the Porn Stand Ins. I love the English guy making a splash in America. And I love that even the little boy finds Happiness in Love!!

3. Miracle on 34th Street (the original) - This movie is another favorite. More of a heart warming story.

4. It's a Wonderful Life - I don't watch this every year. I find I already need to be in a festive mood, since there is a large part of the movie that is sad.


Movies I don't like: The Christmas Story - any version with the Ghost of Christmas past, present and future. I've never had any interest in watching any of the comedies with Will Farrell or Tim Allen, or Arnold or Jim Carrey.

Sparkly Red Toes

The great thing about taking a vacation somewhere warm in the Winter, is it gives me a chance to get a pedicure that people will see! And with the holidays approaching I decided to get my toes painted a Sparkly Red!! Now I can show my toes with pride!!

December 1st prompt - Around Me, I See..

I am taking a 12-31 Art Journal class on line - kinda like a Daily December book with more of an Art twist. I haven't got my pages put together yet, since I am hoping to use some pamphlets and things from Disney. So in the meantime I thought I will do some of my journaling here, so I remember what I wanted to add. The first prompt Dawn has given us is: Around Me, I See. My book is titled Welcome to my Non-Traditional Christmas 2009.

Just to prove that this is indeed a Non-Traditional Christmas, I am going to stop, and look around me, here on December the 1st. It isn't so much as what I see, but more so what I do not see.

1. SNOW!! - We have yet to have a single snowflake fall from the sky!! A record that we broke!! No snow also means being a little slower to get into a Festive mood.

2. A Christmas Tree - usually by now my Christmas tree is up and decorated!! Lights are flashing and the fresh smell of pine fills the air. This year, I don't even have last years decorations up to look at. No tree, no decorations, no smell, no flashing lights.

3. Wrapped gifts - I have bought many gifts that sit piled in bags and boxes. Haven't had the time to start wrapping them yet. I am lucky that Gemma is used to see boxes all over our house. She doesn't even think to look or else she could easily know every present she is getting for Christmas. They are all sitting in the living room.


That's a pretty good description of my December 1st! The thing I like about doing a December Art Journal vs. A Daily December book is the pressure to have photos each day isn't there. Last year I tried to think of activities to do, just for a photo. And then I never finished the book. Let's see how this one works out. Since I am going away I'm not even going to fully start it until mid-December.

Window Shopping on Bloor St. and Yorkville

One of my favorite Holiday pass times is checking out the window displays put out by retailers. Historically, The Bay used to be my favorite, but I was disappointed to see that they didn't change their Queen St. windows this year. That would make 3 years with the same windows, and for a local, it doesn't give me a reason to check them out. However, Holt Renfrew on Bloor W. has raised the barre with the most creative and whimsical Holiday windows. I can vividly picture their windows from the past 4 years in my mind, that is how amazing they are. And this year they don't disappoint. If you visit Toronto during the Holiday season, be sure to take a stroll to Bloor and Bay to visit Holt Renfrew.





Their windows, plus the Holiday music playing outside the store, make you want to go in and investigate more. Even if you can't afford the price tag on many of the items, you can always afford a $3.50 vintage style lollipop!! And you will buy one just so you can take a piece of the Holiday Magic home that Holt Renfrew has created.



Harry Rosen also has a corner of festive windows. I especially loved this wallet by Prada. I have no one on my shopping list that made me go into Harry Rosen, but they do put out a full effort with their windows.



This window from Red Letter in Yorkville caught my eye. The store was closed when I was there or else I would have been in trouble. This is my type of store with a lot of cute stationary and gifts. The pinks, sparkle and cupcakes made me want to enter the store.



With the fact we have yet to have a snowfall, stores, malls and shopping areas need to make the extra effort to make things festive, to get us in the shopping mood. I loved the decorations in Old York lane in Yorkville. I wish the city was decorated like this.



Cute products also get me into a store. This is Auggie in Yorkville, the new store part of Augustina Boutique. It was closed as well (I was wandering waiting for stores to open) but I bet that those dolls don't come cheap.



With Teatre Verde's new building, they don't have many windows to do a big display, but as soon as you walk in you are greeted with a Christmas Wonderland! Colourful trees and traditional trees every where you look. I love this store (which was now open) and I could have bought so much!! I reigned myself in and only spent $10. But with stores now open, I was ready to shop!!



I was a little disappointed in Anthropologie's windows. This window display could be for any time of year. I thought a store like Anthropologie, display marketing wizards, would have better windows. This is the first Christmas Anthropologie is in Toronto, it is the biggest store in Yorkville, I thought I would see something stunning. With that being said, it didn't stop me from buying a fabulous necklace!!



William Sonoma is the essence of marketing with smell!! The window displays are festive, but as soon as you walk in and smell that Apple Cider, you ask yourself, "What over priced item can I buy today? $42 for Apple Cider is reasonable, it is Christmas. My Mother deserves it!" Crazy thoughts like that enter your mind while the smells comfort you, not your pocketbook. Luckily, I had enough in my hands and walked out with my money in check. (But if that Hot Chocolate Maker worked on a stove, I would be sipping Hot Chocolate while I type this).



Next door we find Pottery Barn. Comfort and Joy. Yes, I would love my house to have the comforts of Pottery Barn. I just looked from the outside. I don't dare enter through those doors. This year I am not decorating my house for the Holidays, since we are gone for most of the month of December, so I am restraining from any Holiday Home Decor. Plus, my little townhouse can't handle the scale of Pottery Barn. But I can dream.



Louis Vuitton. I wouldn't enter this store normally, but I think this window would look great at night.



Chanel - very creative. I love the bottle of Chanel No 5. Reminds me when I was young my Dad used to buy that perfume for my Mom. Chanel isn't a store I would frequent, but the windows make you stop.



I have a love affair with Coach. Their windows are happy, bright and colourful, all of which attracts me. But it wouldn't matter what is in the windows, I always go in!! I love the Poppy Collection, which is what the windows are fashioned after.



Hermes with their stack of Orange Boxes!! The Orange Box is as well known as the Tiffany Blue Box!! And add in some cute stuffed horses, the store is saying, please come in. You might not be able to afford our fabulous silk scarves, but that cute stuffed horse may be your ticket to owning a piece of Hermes. Don't get me wrong, it is still expensive for a stuffed horse, but maybe you can afford it. (I didn't go in to see).



My last stop is Sephora. Every woman wants to glitter during the Holidays! Their window is compelling because that picture is a Holograph. As you walk down the street, the lady blows glitter into the sky (well, on the picture). Sephora always calls my name, "Please, make me look beautiful!!" I love Sephora because it is filled with affordable luxuries. An item may be expensive, but you are still able to buy it!! Unlike the Hermes scarves.

I hope you enjoyed my walking tour of Bloor St. and Yorkville. I wish more stores took an effort to entice us with fabulous window displays. Shopping is all about a feeling, and at Christmas you want that feeling to be festive. Play some Christmas music, brew some cider and welcome customers into your store!!

A Good Laugh

We all need to have a good laugh in our life. What set this in motion? Gemma looking at a wonky picture of herself. She has changed from the "No Pictures!!!" girl, to the "Take another, Take another" girl. So the more pictures you take, the more chance of getting some crazy pictures. And she just thinks this is Hilarious!! But it is nice to have a child in the house to remind you that we all can use a good laugh!!

The Quest for the Perfect Chicken Wings

Chicken Wings is one of my favorite foods, but lately I haven't been able to find one made the "perfect way". I love crispy chicken wings. Not saucy. I'm not really a fan of any saucy food. SO I was excited that a new restaurant, "The Wing Co." opened near my house. I thought, "Great! They are all about the wings! They must be good!". Yesterday, Gemma and I went to get some wings. They have over 40 flavors, but they didn't have Plum Sauce. They even sell Chicken Fingers, but didn't have Plum sauce. So Gemma had plain wings and we brought them home, got the plum sauce out of the fridge, so she could dip them in the sauce. But I was willing to give her plain wings in search of a good Chicken Wing. I ordered Buffalo Medium. To me, Buffalo wings means sauce cooked in, versus BBQ wings means saucy. SO we get home, I open my wings, to find very saucy, non-crispy wings in front of me. Hmmmm... I ate some but wasn't overly fond of their sauce. Luckily, the onion rings were really good and I mostly ate those.

When I look back over the years, I try to think of some of my favorite wings. My first great wing was from a restaurant in Virgil called Silks. It was okay to be seen with my parents in high school, if it meant getting wings from Silks. They were delicious. Once I moved to Toronto I enjoyed the Chicken wings (and nachos) from Sneeky Dees. However, was it because we were drunk? I don't think I could go back there now at my age. Also, I would get some good wings from Paupers on Bloor St. I think the restaurant actually is still there. Maybe it's a place worth checking out again. And recently I had good wings from the Scotland Yard on the Esplanade.

So what makes a good wing? Is it the deep frying? Or is it the oven baking? I think both. I think my ideal wing would be deep fried to make it crispy,coated in sauce, then put in to the oven for the yummy flavor to be baked in. Yummy!! So, if you find these wings, let me know!!

Swarovski Make-A-Wish Christmas Tree

Today Gemma and I went to the Eaton Centre to watch the unveiling of the Swarovski Make-A-Wish Christmas Tree. This is a 35' tree, that has over 20,000 crystal snowflake ornaments on it! It is absolutely stunning. The Canadian Tenors performed, and as the tree was being revealed, they were singing O Holy Night. Listening to their voices, watching this magical tree, thinking of the Kids out there that truly benefit from this Organization, while holding Gemma's hand brought tears to my eyes! Christmas is for the Kids and this is one organization I am happy to help!!

You can find out more at the Make-a-Wish website!

Hot Chocolate Maker

While I was at the Mall today this Hot Chocolate Maker from William Sonoma caught my interest. Every year we get packets of Hot Chocolate from someone at Christmas and every year they get put into the cupboard and never made. If we want Hot Chocolate we go across the street to Starbucks. Quicker and less of a mess. But this Hot Chocolate Maker got me thinking. You can put it on the stove to warm up your milk, then you add the William Sonoma Chocolate shavings, and that thing on top is an electric whipper to make your milk all frothy!! It's $44, but would it be a good investment? Would I actually make Hot Chocolate for my family? Would we save the $4 a cup for the Starbucks Hot Chocolate, which I find too rich and really don't like? Would this make a good Christmas present for our family? Hmmm...let me ponder a little while longer.

The Art of Knitting

Gemma wants to learn to knit. Mainly because her friend Helen is taking lessons, so she wants to learn as well. Lucky for Gemma, and my pocketbook, I know some basic knitting techniques and can teach her myself. So we went to our Local Yarn Store, The Knit Cafe, and bought some Cotton yarn and wooden needles. We decided to make a scarf. I got the project started and knit a few rows, mainly so I could remind myself how to do it. Then Gemma got involved. I was able to teach her some hints in holding her needles. She caught on fairly quick. She has knit about 3 rows of 24 stitches. I am going to knit some as well, or else it will take her weeks to finish the scarf and probably lose interest. I will post a picture of Gemma modeling her scarf once we are done!

Need Cards?

I decided that today I needed to start making Christmas Cards to sell at the store! I sell them at the Fresh Collective on Queen W. and Scrapbooks by Design in the Beaches. I got 16 done, which is a start. I used Cosmo Cricket, My Minds Eye and Doodlebug papers and supplies. I tried using inspiration from magazines, but it didn't take long before I threw away that idea and just made cards that popped into my head. Today I was using Chipboard embellishments to inspire me. The focus was on all the cute shapes. If you are interested in buying any let me know! I sell them direct for $5 each to friends and they retail for $6 in the stores!!

A Good Thing

Around the Christmas Holidays I love to pick up a bunch of festive magazines I may not regularly read. This past week I bought a Martha Stewart magazine. I was barely through the first 1/4 of the magazine when I was inspired by using decorative masking tapes instead of ribbon to decorate gifts. I have chosen to wrap all my gifts in the brown kraft paper from the post office this year. And although I have miles of ribbon ready to go I wanted to experiment with tapes. So I headed over to the Paper Place, which I conveniently live very close to, and bought 3 rolls of packing tape and 2 rolls of masking tape. I then stopped at Polka Dot Kids and found 3 more rolls of masking tape. So I am set and ready to start experimenting! I have already wrapped some gifts, (mainly to hide the contents from Gemma) and hopefully this evening I can get them decorated!

I still haven't finished the magazine. I will let you know what other articles inspire me!

Stella Mc Cartney for Gap Kids

I was so excited when I received the email announcing that Gap Kids was carrying a line of clothing designed by Stella Mc Cartney. I jumped in my car and headed over to Sherway Gardens. I was able to score a purple silk dress and a cool shirt with an iron on depicting multiple strands of jewels.

The next day Gemma wore the dress to school. I taught her how to say, "It's a Stella Mc Cartney", but no one cared. They just thought it was a pretty dress.

I kept stalking Gap Kids looking for more pieces. Yesterday I went in to find out more had been added! And I got this great light green tulle skirt with matching shirt and tights! (as worn in the picture above). I was so excited and Gemma loved it! She wore it today for her picture with Santa. People may not know who Stella Mc Cartney is, but they do know that Gemma looks fantastic!!

A Meeting with Santa

A yearly tradition we have is that after the Santa Claus Parade, we head on up to the Bay to meet with Santa. We always have our escape plan: Gemma and I make a run for the Bay, while Mark, the hero dad, cleans up the chairs and blankets and brings them back to the car. In past years, trying to get to the 5th floor was always a madhouse. But this year we got on the escalators with ease. And when we made it to Santa, we were about 10th in line and only had 2 minutes to wait for Santa to arrive.

But, this year the Bay has changed Santa's. Gemma didn't notice but we missed our favorite Santa and Mrs. Claus. I have 7 years of pictures on Gemma with THE Santa. Seeing this will be the last year of photos with Santa (at least I hope so) we were wishing for our favorite Santa.

Anyway, to Gemma, this was THE Santa. He told her that he has 2 sisters? Really? Two Sisters? That was news to me. And she told him that she wanted a Science Kit. (I am so happy I was able to convince her to drop the Rescue Dog toy from Santa). They had a pleasant talk and now she is set! And it took less than 30 minutes. Our fastest trip to Santa to date! (Well, except last year when she was first in line, but that was an ordeal in itself).

Santa Claus Parade 2009

Today was the Santa Claus Parade in Toronto! We have gone 5 times in the last 6 years. We missed last year since I now refuse to sit outside when it is very cold. But today was a great day, at around 13C.

Mark, the hero Dad he is, got to Yonge St. at 10am. And you may think he is crazy, but he got us the last curb side seat in front of the Bay. By the time Gemma and I got there at noon, they were already 3 deep.

Now the Toronto crowd is very territorial of their space. We are used to living in small spaces and are proud of the space we do have. So when we set up 3 chairs, that space now belongs to us. That means, you don't push them out of the way. You don't sit in them. And, most importantly, you don't sit in front of them!! We don't go 4 hours early, so when you show up at the last minute you can plunk your kid in front of me!

But even still, there still are blockers. A family decided to sit in front of the post on the ground, which was fine. I could still see over their heads. Until of course, they decided that their kid needs to be in every shot with a float! So every time I tired to take a photo, they would stand up in front of me. I ended up having to zoom in and take pictures of the floats before they stood up.

And we can't forget about the police officers that like to stand in front of you. We were lucky this year, he decided to stand to the right of me and block the other family.

Overall, we were able to see most of the parade and the weather was great! Will we go next year? Depends on how cold it is.