My Favourite Articles This Week
An excellent idea- take a fake nap.
A truly great read on coping with seasonal affective disorder.
Wait, you can make quick pickles out of leftover pickle brine?!?!
7 ways to enjoy winter when you are not a winter person.
The fascinating production of panettone cake in Italy.
My Favourite Links This Week
Spanish style rice and beans is a hearty, veggie-filled dinner that feels perfect for the cold weather. Dishes like this feel like comfort food to me ( I LOVE rice dishes!), and are so warming in this wintery season. The best part? Lots of the ingredients are pantry staples, and you can easily make substitutions! Check out the recipe here.
These cookies are perfect for the holidays! a classic cookie with white chocolate chip, chocoalte chips, and crushed pepermint candy canes are sure to be a hit whether for your own household or to gift. Find the recipe for these festive, tasty cookies right here.
Last year for New Year’s Eve, a friend hosted a small gathering and had a hot chocolate bar as the feature! It was perfect. There were different types of hot chocolate (there were vegan options, too!) boozy mix ins for the adults, and lot sof fun mix ins for the kids who were there, as well. It was so great, and everyone brough something to contribute to the hot chocolate bar, so it wasn’t so overhelming! Highly recommend. Here’s a great read to get you started.
How sweet is this little cabled ornament? And it would be so good for stashbusting some special leftover bits of yarn in any colour that suits your decor~ Maybe I’ve got time to whip up one of these…. Find the free downloadable pdf here.
If you have some old ornaments kicking around that you aren’t loving these days, how about a nail polish upgrade? This is a really cool idea for changing the colours and creating a marbled effect on a variety of ornments. Worth a shot! The spherical ornaments are my favourites from the results, but you could try all types! Find the DIY here.
I was in my car earlier today and the radio was announcing that this weekend is the last weekend to do your shopping before Chirstmas, which feels nuts to me! I know what date CHristmas is, and yet every single year it feels like it sneaks up on me. I still have a lot of shopping and prep to do! I hope you are enjoying December, and hopefully more prepared for your holiday festivities than I am.
xo Julie
Thank you for sharing and linking my post, Julie! I’m so glad it resonated with you. Happy winter! xo
On one hand, I love the fake nap concept. On the other hand, I kind of hate that even today, with so much more understanding of the fact that some people just need quiet alone time to recharge enough to function through all the boisterous family time, it’s still not socially acceptable enough to just say “I need to go chill by myself for a bit” without at least some people taking offence. I guess I’m fortunate that my extreme introversion is well-known and accepted in my family, so I actually can just wander off into my room and close the door sometimes without even an explanation, and no one questions it. But for those who aren’t so lucky, yes to the fake nap!
Also, super love those marbled ornaments. I feel like this could be a good use for some of those super cheap gift sets you see in drugstores around this time of year. Does anyone ever actually *wear* those polishes? Doubt it. But I bet they’d be good for this.