I started with some plain glass ball ornaments I bought at Michaels, some plain white paint, and a fine gold sharpie paint pen. The first step is to add some paint to the inside of the ball and swirl it around to make sure the inside is evenly coated. I used a teaspoon to spoon in the paint, but that was rather messy. I might use a turkey baster or something similar if I do this again. Thankfully the dripped paint cleaned off the glass really easily with a damp rag.
I then used an empty egg carton to hold the balls upside down to drain out the extra paint. Once your balls are painted leave them for at least 24 hrs to allow them to dry.
Reattach the balls cap/hanger thingy and you’re ready for the final step. I set up my supplies in front of the TV and did this while watching the Holiday - one of my favourite Christmas movies. All you need to do is draw a pattern on the outside of your glass balls with the paint pen and then wait for the paint to dry. The pen I used was oil based so it took a few minutes to completely dry - be careful when you handle it – you don’t want to smudge your masterpiece.
I decided to use an art-deco inspired scalloped pattern on my balls, but you could draw anything you want. You could also use a couple of different coloured pens to change it up. I debated also using a silver pen, but in the end I liked the gold and white combo, and they worked well with my other white and gold Christmas ornaments from past years.

My Christmas tree for 2013. I replaced some of my painted nutcrackers with the new glass balls.

What do you think? I quite like them, and I'm now imagining all sorts of other pattern and colour combinations to do for next year.

I'm a member of Para Paints blog crew, however this paint was received when I attended Blogpodium. the other supplies were purchased.

Clockwise from top left: Elf, The Holiday, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone, Love Actually, and The Muppet Christmas Carol

If I had to pick my top movie it would have to be ‘The Holiday’ – I love the story, and I can’t decide if I like Amanda’s or Iris’ house better. They’re both gorgeous in their own way.

The After - My newly repaired wall and ceiling

A new dining room deserves a new light fixture

For an unplanned bonus when lit the string light casts a neat shadow on the walls which makes any small imperfection even harder to see.

I owe a HUGE thanks to my parents for my birthday present - I was going to pay someone a lot of money to fix the problem, but they've reminded me (again) that if you put your mind to it, have a willingness to try something new, some patience and a bit of help, there are a lot of things you can do yourself.
PS - My apologies - an all white room is hard to photograph for a relative novice.

The home of Christine D'Ornano

Isn't it stunning? It's from the London home of Christina D'Ornano, who, along with her family owns and runs the luxury cosmetics brand Sisley. I'm in love with the upholstered doors, the tile floor and the chandelier, but I think my favourite part is the painting of her mother over the mantel

On Nov 22 I looked like this. Yes, this is a selfie taken at work. Don't judge

The After. #operationsnipsnip was a success. I chopped off and donated about 14" of hair to help make a wig for a cancer patient. This was my second donation, and sadly my last. The family curse of premature gray means I won't be able to do it again :(

I met some lovely fellow bloggers from Toronto for Brunch on November 23rd. It was nice to chat, share and learn from fellow bloggers. I hope we do it again soon.

I've been working on school work for two courses. This is the light I created fro my design class. (Hopefully I'll blog about it soon). Only one more class to go until I'm done until January!

On December 1st I became a Godmother to the daughter of a really good friend. It's an honour, and I hope I'm a good one.

As you know I've been selected as a member of the Para Paints Blog Crew. On Wednesday I came home to this at my door - the Architecture kit from Para Paints. It contains every Para Paint colour and is huge. I think there may be too many colours to choose from.

Yesterday I went to the One of a Kind Show for the second time, and I bought a bunch of stuff for the people on my Christmas list, however I can't show you what I got - it would ruin the surprise on the big day. The Christmas One of a Kind Show runs through Sunday, December 8th - if you're in Toronto you should go.

I can't believe we're at the end of the first week of December already - where has the year gone?

Bright Season by Chloe and Fanny

Yeti or Not by Genna Cowsert

I’d heard of Minted.com in the past, but usually for invitations for wedding and kids birthday parties. When I realised they had Christmas cards I assumed they were those cute ones that people send with pictures of their kids. I don’t have any kids, and I couldn’t really fathom the idea of sending a Christmas card with my face on it so I kinda figured I wouldn’t find anything I liked. I was wrong.

Vintage Bulbs by Stacey Meacham

Minted has almost 600 holiday cards to choose from, and while they do offer a lot that can incorporate your favourite photo from the past year, they have a magic search filter, and when you click ‘no photo’ you’re left with 373 different cards to choose from.  A much better selection than the local department store where I usually get my boxed cards.

Retro Whimsical Poster by Gakemi Art+Design

I was a bit overwhelmed at first, but once I realized I could favourite the ones I liked as I scrolled through the available cards it made easier. My first pass left me with 43 favourites and I whittled it down from there. Once I saw all the cards I had ‘favourited’ in one place it was easy to see that I gravitated to a certain ‘look’, however there were a few different styles that also caught my eye. Some of the cards were easy to eliminate, but some were hard.

Merry Glitter Holiday by Lehan Veenker

I figured that in order for these card to be personalized I’d be able to modify the ‘from’ field.What I didn’t realize was that not only could I change the colour of the card and who it was from, but I could also modify all the text, and even the fonts on the cards. How cool is that?

Polar Bear Wishes by Carolyn MacLaren

Anyways,  As you can see I’ve whittled my original 43 favourites to just the six in this post, and they’re a rather eclectic bunch. I’ll take a look at them again in a day or so and make my final pick (although feel free to let me know which ones you like). What about you? Do you send Christmas cards? Have you ever bought personalized cards online, or do you buy the boxed ones like I normally do?
*I have been offered a credit on Minted.com, however all opinions shared in this post are mine.

My boots didn't do so well in the back of my closet

At BlogPodium Tonic Living had given all the attendees two yards of fabric and asked us to create something with it and any other fabric we had on hand for an Instagram contest. I decided I’d use my new fabric to make pretty DIY boot inserts. The contest is finished, but I'm rather pleased with my creation so I thought I'd share.

I used a yard of Varenna in coral, and a sample of Cameron in storm - both from Tonic Living

First you’ll need to measure your boots. For tall boots you’ll want the inserts to be tall enough to support the ankle but still reach the top of the boot. Mine were 14” tall. You’ll also want to decide how wide you’ll want them to be. I decided mine should have a 3” diameter, however once finished I found that a little big – 2 ½” would probably be better.

Cut your shapes. I used a ramekin to trace my circle

Cut out your shapes. Cut four circles to form the top and bottom of your inserts - remember to make your circle a bit bigger for the seam allowance. You’ll then cut out two rectangles.  The rectangles will be the height you’ve decided on for your insert plus about an inch for the seam allowances at the top and bottom. The width of the rectangle will be the circumference of your circle plus the allowance. This is where that high school math you were sure would never use in real life is useful (circumference = diameter times 3.14. In my case it was 3” x 3.14= 9.42” which I rounded up to 9 ½”).

Pin your fabric together to make two tubes

Pin your fabric rectangles right side in to make tubes. You’ll want to sew along the short side leaving your seam allowance. Once those are done you’ll pin one circle to each end of the tube – again, fabric right side in. You may have to fiddle with this a bit, but  I found pinning inwards worked best. You’ll then sew your rounds to the top and bottom of the tube. Take your time – this was my first time attempting to sew anything other than a straight line, and it worked for me with a little patience.

Pin the circles to the tubes of fabric to make the top and bottom of your inserts

Leave an opening at one end of each tube so you can turn it inside out, and then stuff it. I wanted to have a little weight at the bottom of my inserts so I used a cup of dried garbanzo beans, but this isn’t required.

Once you've sewn your inserts turn them right side out, and insert the dried beans

Stuff your inserts well - use a wooden spoon to push the stuffing firmly into the bottom.

I then stuffed my inserts using a pillow I sacrificed as I didn’t have any regular fiberfill. To help get the stuffing to the bottom of my tube I used a long wooden spoon. You’ll want the insert to be stuffed firmly – remember the purpose of the insert is to support your boots. Once they were filled I hand stitched the holes closed.

Stitch the openings closed and then add your finishing touches

To finish the inserts I attached a length of ribbon to the tops using a simple whip stitch, and then added a small bow to the tops. The ribbon in optional, however I wanted to be able to hang my inserts up out of the way when they weren’t in use.

I attached a length of ribbon to the top of each insert

A length of ribbon attached at the top makes your boot inserts easy to hang out of the way when not in use

These were easy to make, requiring limited sewing skills and a bit of patience, and they’d make a great Christmas gift. What do you think? Would you make yourself or someone else some of these?

Chick-A-Dee Smoke Alarm (image via)