the gift guide for a cozy holiday

Hey beautiful! I'm still here, I promise ♥

It has been a crazy, yet so wonderful couple weeks and I am just watching a breath! Currently curled up by the Christmas tree with my boo, watching Christmas SNL and enjoying a quiet night since those tend to be few and far between around this season.

I planned a huge friends and family event at work last week and then Pete + I hosted our annual Christmas party on Saturday (so fun!) Yesterday was perfect. We went out for a coffee, and got our gifts for each other for this year (we bought moccasins! perf) and then spent the day snuggled up watching Christmas movies, writing out cards and having a picnic charcuterie. *Magic*

As I was curating a Secret Santa gift for my work's SS exchange, it got me thinking of a few ideas of a gift guide! Simple little things for a cozy holiday/winter season!

1 // murphy + jo candle - I keep seeing these amazing candles all over the city. Not only do they look pretty, but they smell incredible too. Oh, and they're from Toronto AND they make a donation from every candle to Save Our Scruff.

2 // field notes - When in doubt, a nice notebook is always a good idea. People love gearing up and getting inspired for a new year, and what better than a blank slate? Picked up some up for a gift from Phillistine here in our hood.

3 // palo santo - Literally my favourite scent in the entire world. Palo Santo reminds me of all things good (especially Cali, which we're heading back to in a few weeks!) You can get some nice PS from a local shop in Toronto called Crown Flora

4 // a cozy blanket - Can't go wrong with a nice throw or blanket. We have so many but I love them all for different reasons. I love the palette on these simple ones from West Elm.

5 // the little book of lykke - You know how much I love The Little Book Of Hygge, well Lykke is just as magical and I loved it so much! I got to meet with author Meik this year and it made me adore him even more.

6 // kitten + the bear jam - Oooh baby, K+B had a really cute booth yesterday at the blush+bloom holiday market. I picked up a delicious (and beautiful) jam and a pack of scone mix. Such a cute idea as a little gift! Love!

Oh, and I am doing pretty good on my Christmas To-Do List! I'll post an update soon! xo

making gifts cute - adding that extra sparkle*!

Well hello there! I am not too sure if you guys knew this about me already, but...I really love CUTE stuff! (that was a joke, because obviousssssly I do)

One of my favourite things ever is spoiling people I love. I just can't help it - I love to shower my friends, family, husband and co-workers with special things to make them smile. I especially love making my own little gifts, and taking a simple and ordinary gift and making it extra cute with all the adorable fixin's

My go-to gift add ons that can make any kind of gift really sparkle are

• gift tags
• confetti
• stickers
• bows
• ribbons
• clothes pins
• glitter
• washii tape
• paper bags

And of course, you have to stock up on the cutest, prettiest gift bags, tissue paper, wrapping paper and boxes when you see them! I've always got stuff on hand for when I need to prepare a gift for a special occasion. My favourite place to get gift wrap used to be Target (rest in peace Canadian Target) but now I find a lot of my goodies at Homesense, Winners or Marshalls

For me, I always love to add that extra magic touch to a gift to make it special. I always do this for wedding day cards we give as well! I put it in a paper bag, add a little confetti bag with a clothes pin and a custom message, usually with a heart shaped tag too of course! 

You can make a bottle of champagne look cute-as-can-be with some ribbon, a tag and some extra pizazz. I love giving the mini rosé champagne bottles out with a paper straw & tag attached (like in the top photo) 

I am also a huge fan of gift boxes. What is more special than a box filled with someone's favourite things? This just never fails and I find it's also pretty cost effective. Homesense has the cuuuuuutest boxes you can use for gifts that can be part of the gift. At the end of this post you can see a gift I gave to one of my besties Jordan. He loves all the same things as me - cute, sparkly, rainbow, happy, awesome things! So, naturally I filled a gift box with all kinds of confetti and glitter and put his favourite candy, as well as some little gifts inside! Loved how this turned out!

I am excited to get some Christmas shopping done, and of course I love wrapping Christmas gifts! I will do a post all about Christmas gift wrap too! ♥