Elf on the Shelf: Week 2

Elfie Pokie Nokie has been back in our house for over two weeks now - which means we're even closer to Christmas. How is it only 9 days away? Totally not stressing out about that! Ha!

While I wrack my brain trying to work out what to get the kids for Christmas (and how to get it in such a short amount of time - eek!) let's take a look at what Elfie has been up to over the past week.

Day 8
On Day 8 we found Elfie poking out from behind a cushion on the hanging chair in our living room. A favorite Christmas book (The Christmas Wish) was sitting out - one that we hadn't left there. It was the perfect invitation to sit down somewhere comfy and read, although Mathilde didn't seem so sure about Elfie reading over her shoulder!

Day 9
On Day 9 we found Elfie simply sitting on the mantel in our family room. Not a particular good hiding spot, however there was something a little peculiar happening here. It looks like Elfie decided to add himself to our family photo! He's not quite to scale though. I don't remember him being so tall! This picture has been the target of Elfie's pranks in the past too with him adding googly eyes onto our faces. You can see that prank here. I guess at least this time he didn't make us look silly!

Day 10
Our advent calendar activity for day 10 was to make honey biscuits (you can find the recipe for these tasty cookies here) so it came as no surprise when we found Elfie perched inside the mixer surrounded by cookie cutters. On a side note, as the mixer is fairly new I completely forgot how much easier it would make mixing the cookie dough, and I did it all by hand. Oops! I guess Elfie tried to tell me, but I didn't pay attention.

Day 11

It's finally looking a little festive around here with our Christmas tree up in the family room. Elfie decided to get into the Christmas spirit and we found him perched on a branch of the tree among the decorations. This year's tree is pretty sparse (Colorado tree farms don't seem to have to lush, thick trees we're used to in California) so Elfie was pretty easy to spot.
P. S. Anyone else have a tree filled with decorations from their travels? I know that nothing matches on our tree so it's not the prettiest to look at, but I love that it's filled with memories.

Day 12
Looks like Elfie decided to take a birds' eye view over everyone, or as close to a birds' eye view you can get inside, and perched himself atop the ceiling fan in the living room. The little guy is lucky that I stopped Lola from trying to turn the fan on to send him for a spin!

Day 13
Elfie sure seems to like hanging out in our family room this year. On day 13 we found him literally hanging out - hung by a tiny peg on the mantle with all of our Christmas cards! You may notice that the kids on all these cards look familiar. That's because they're all the cards that I've made over past years! We only ever receive maybe four or five cards a year (and usually after Christmas) so I hang our old cards up instead. It's a cute way to look back and see how much the girls have grown over the years.

Day 14
Day 14 found Elfie on the mantle again, but there was something different about him. Overnight he seems to have grown horns, a long tongue and a tail. Mathilde was convinced that he had transformed into a demon, but Lola recognized him straight away. Elfie was dressed as Krampus! Now, in the past Elfie has had fun mixing up holidays by stealing Halloween candy, playing with a dreidel, and dressing up as a pilgrim for Thanksgiving. This time around he's mixing things up by playing different Christmas characters. The girls noticed that Elfie seemed to have a parcel for them, and they were excited to find the book Krampus Meets his Match inside. Elfie certainly wasn't quite as scary looking as the Krampus in the book, but he sure was pretty creepy! 

And that's it for another week of Elfie Pokie Nokie in our home.

Time for me to work out how to get hot glue off an elf hat...

Our Christmas Cards 2016

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Minted and contains affiliate links. All photos and opinions are my own.

It's finally starting to feel like Christmas around here. We may not have a tree yet, or any decorations up, but I did send our Christmas cards out yesterday! 

This year, like last year, I printed our Christmas cards with Minted. I was so happy with the quality of our cards last year and the variety of the designs available that I just couldn't go past Minted when it came to making this year's cards. I am so happy with how they turned out!

Our Christmas Cards 2015

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Minted. All opinions are my own.

I'm so excited to share this year's Christmas cards with you. This year I made our cards with Minted and I'm so happy with how they turned out. Aren't they gorgeous?

When it comes to making Christmas cards, there are so many companies out there to choose from that it can be a little overwhelming. I found myself looking at so many different webpages and different styles of cards, but I kept coming back to Minted. Their designs just clicked with me. Modern yet classic. Festive but not fussy. Hand drawn designs, bold colors, letterpress and foil details, original designs by independent artists... All of these details spoke to me and I knew that Minted was the one.

52 Weeks: Week 45

Week 45: Holiday Photos

Last weekend the girls and I visited the flagship Gap store in San Francisco for a fun holiday photo event in collaboration with Tiny Prints.

It was a slightly chilly day so I was actually able to dress the girls in something a little wintry for the photos. Red hooded duffle coats, grey knit dresses, tights, boots and a cute hat for Mathilde. They looked like we actually get a proper Winter here!

Little Bags of Honey Biscuits

Today was Ava's last day of school for the year. Roll on the start of the two week winter break!

Ava's class celebrated their last day of school before Christmas by making Christmas crafts, watching a movie and, the kids' favourite part, wearing their pyjamas all day! Not a bad day of school.

And if all that doesn't sound good enough there was just one more treat...

Ava took bags of honey biscuits to school to give out to her classmates and teacher.

Bags of honey biscuits

Technically sweet treats like biscuits/cookies aren't actually allowed at school but we got around this by bagging the biscuits up for the kids to take home. Ah, loopholes! To make the bags of biscuits a little more festive I made cards from one of Ava's Christmas drawings and tied them on with red and white baker's twine. Ava personalised each bag of biscuits by writing a message on the back of each card. I was quite impressed that she was able to recognise each of her classmates names on the cards when handing them out. It's good to know that she is learning at school!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Now that Thanksgiving is over it's time to start working on Christmas preparations. Can you believe that Christmas is only a month away? No? Neither can I.

First up in the Christmas preparation list... Christmas cards.

It was a lovely day here in Berkeley today so we headed to nearby Live Oak Park to take some photos of the girls for our Christmas cards. Towering redwood trees, a stone wall, little bridges crossing a creek... it was the perfect location for our little photo shoot.

Here's a look at some of our photos from today.

Strike a pose

Christmas Cards 2009

Our Christmas card photo from 2009 is one of my most favourite shots ever.

I think it speaks for itself so there's no need for me to say much about it except that I love it.

Angel Ava

This was taken in our backyard and as you can see from the beautiful sky it was a clear, sunny day, perfect for angelic photos. I love how Ava is looking down like she's flying overhead. The sun shining through the (slightly over exposed) feather wings provides a beautiful glow.

Christmas Cards 2010

Our Christmas photo shoot from 2010 seems like a world away from this year's Christmas. In fact it was half a world away and in a completely different season.

Last year's photos were taken on the beach in Glenelg, Adelaide. It was a beautiful sunny November day and we were at the Bay for the Glenelg Christmas Pageant. After the pageant we headed down to the sand for a little photography. 

Lola was only about 6 or 8 weeks old at the time so trying to get her to pose was a *little* tricky. I think we ended up with a pretty good result though. 

I liked the colouring of the photo but it was just missing a little something. I gave it a vintage look with a vignette which darkened it up reminding me of photos from my early childhood.  

The final result

Christmas Cards Past & Present

I like sending Christmas cards.

I don't particularly care if I receive them in return - although it is nice - I just like creating them and sending them. Come to think of it, I like creating and sending cards in general!

Each year I try and come up with something interesting to feature on our Christmas cards. Of course since the kids have come along it's been a no brainer what to feature on the cards. The trick each year though is to come up with an interesting way to photograph the girls. Scratch that, the tricky part is trying to get the girls to sit still and smile while I take the photos. Extra tricky now there are two of them!

Some years I get one perfect photo that I use on all the cards. Other years I end up with a few that I can't decide between and I make an assortment of cards to go out. I usually print and assemble them all myself but this year without all of my craft materials (which unfortunately have not made it here with our shipment) I had to resort to using a photo card service.

I was reluctant at first as there are so many tacky options out there, but then I came across Paper Culture who make the most perfect flat cards on recycled, matte (no horrible shiny photos here), round cornered card stock. And unlike most card printing services, Paper Culture actually have real designers working for them. If your photo needs a bit of tweaking, they'll do it - included in the cost of the cards. If you don't like the colour of the text, they'll change it. If you've positioned a photo so that text (or a hole) goes over the face of your child, they'll let you know before printing - unlike some other services. I'm looking at you Snapfish!

So here is the final result of our Christmas card for 2011.