My resolution this year

It’s the new year and though I don’t usually set myself resolutions, this year I’m definitely setting myself one, and I don’t think it’s too unobtainable either.

When Cora was a newborn and we were home together – sometimes days at a time – I became very reliant on my phone as it was my only connection to other people. Other people that didn’t need their diaper changed, I should say. It was my only contact with what was going on in the world and I became very addicted to my phone. Not to mention social media has its way of destroying our attention span and other lovely things.

I was very aware that my problem was getting out of control and wasn’t healthy [the worse I felt could be directly related to how long I was spending on my phone], and I always had the intention of cutting down on my phone use, but what really made me decide to do something about it was Cora. She was getting older and good god she was catching on to things so quickly. At less than a year old she knew how to unlock my phone [it’s a swipe movement to unlock it so it was complete fluke at first] and knew to hold a phone up to her ear and say “hi!”.

I started my resolution a few weeks ago and it’s tough. Being able to access whatever you want with a few swipes of your finger is such a trap, but I’m working on it. I’ve managed to become more aware of when I mindlessly pick it up and I say to myself, do I need to be on my phone right now? And chances are, no. Social media is an incredible thing and I don’t hate it entirely, but I’ll be logging out a lot more these days.

What about you? Do you set yourself new years resolutions? Or do you find the idea of them more of a burden? Or is this the year you’re going to, like me, try to set a realistic one that can only have positive benefits?

Merry Christmas!

From me and mine to you and yours …

I hope you have a lovely and real Christmas holiday, from all of us here in Ottawa.

Roundup of Christmas projects and DIYs

I’ve been putting a phenomenal amount of pressure on myself to do and make new projects for our first Christmas in Canada as a little family. Reality, however, always has different plans. The reality is that we moved into our apartment less than 2 months ago and there is SO MUCH I didn’t realise would be involved with starting from scratch with everything. I’m working on cutting myself some slack [and will be trying my best to actually relax over the holidays], but I still wanted to spread some Christmas cheer, so today I’m sharing a roundup of my favourite Christmas projects. And luckily, 50% of them are edible [my kind of project].

VEGAN BAILEYS – I made this recipe two years ago for Sadhbh of Where Wishes Come From’s Christmas Craft Advent. I promise this recipe legit tastes like Baileys. It was sooo good. But if the whole vegan thing isn’t your thing, two years previous to that I published my Nannie’s Knock-Off Baileys recipe.

STORMTROOPER STAMP TUTORIAL / STORMTROOPER WRAPPING PAPER – a really fun project I made for Wayfair a few years ago combining Star Wars and my affinity for wrapping paper. You could very easily use this stamp tutorial to make a stamp to create a wallpaper effect!

EDIBLE ORNAMENTS – another one of my favourite Christmas projects that I was hoping to recreate this year but never got around to it. I’ve made these zesty lemon Christmas ornaments a few times and they do not disappoint. They’re very easy to make and even more fun to eat straight off the tree.


SEASONAL SWITCH PLATES – this is an oooooold project [as noted by my photography ‘skills’], but making these seasonal light switch surrounds were one of my favourite projects years and years ago. I can’t wait for them to arrive in our container. Actually, I might have to make more to suit Canadian light switches as they’re a different shape … ANY EXCUSE RLY.

Those are my strictly Christmassy projects, but if you’d like to see all my DIYs, just check out my DIY tab. Merry Christmas / bottoms up!