5. mary rebecca's golden snitch necklaces

4. cat versus human

oh my goodness, so funny! pop by the cat versus human blog for tons more amazing cat comics.

3. wedding brooch bouquets by lionsgate designs

soooo pretty!

2. this pretty dress from modcloth

1. this amazing peppermill!!

i hope everyone has a fun new year's eve. we're just decided last night to have a few friends over to relax and play some games. sounds fun to me!!

♥elycia

ps. i forgot to mention yesterday that i think i found my dream job. team mascot! yes please! think about it...you get to dance around and act as silly as possible...and you're in disguise so no one knows who you really are! where do i sign up?

extra mustard please

so, i am diving into the world of 'what i wore' posts. some of the first blogs i started reading were very much style blogs. it has always been my secret goal to share some of my outfits. so here we go!

i think i am going to like this outfit post business...

♥elycia

i ♥ etsy - Sandy's Handmade Soaps and Things

hi!

Sandy of Sandy's Handmade Soaps and Things is a self taught crafter who is always trying new things. She is the type of person who often finds herself saying "i think i can make that". That sounds very familiar to me! Her shop is full of all different types of items...here are a few.

 you can also visit Sandy's blog here.

♥elycia

blog facelift time

there have been a lot of things going on behind the scenes here over the last couple of days. i have started my blog facelift and i can't wait to share it!

before i went into engineering i did a year of humanities where i focused on multimedia. when we were doing projects we were encouraged to put together a colour swatch of all the different colours we wanted to incorporate into what we were working on. i did this the other day for my blog makeover! so fun! i thought i would share a little peek :)

the pink and yellow are 'minor' colours. the main focus will be on the blues, greens and greys. i can't wait to finish all of my changes and new sections! i'm hoping to have everything ready sometime in january.

do you do your own blog design or hire someone else to do it? do you make colour swatches? what is your creative process?

♥elycia

our christmas day

(ivan's brother's cat smokey)

i ♥ that last photo. we had a really fun christmas. and, extra bonus, everything my mom made for dinner (except turkey) was vegan. we even had a tofurkey. yumm. i hope everyone had a great day.

i think i might work on my blog redesign a bit today :)

♥elycia

ps. i got the BEST gift from ivan. a remote for my camer!. now i can start taking outfit shots, so expect to see some wacky things that i wear on the blog in the new year.

i ♥ etsy - Retro Posh

Retro Posh is inspired by her daughter and niece to 'Make the World a Glittery Place' everyday! here are a few cute items.

1. 2. 3.

You can also check out the Retro Post blog.

i hope you are having a great christmas morning!!!
♥elycia

5. this super cute colouring page from the poppy tree

i coloured the one on the right (digitally of course...my favourite way)

4. candy canes

 i'm not usually a major candy eater...but this year i can't get enough candy canes! i love them. in case you didn't see, i have a post up on with love from michigan that shows you how to make vegan candy cane ice cream.

want to learn about the history of candy canes? click here.

3. lalaloopsy dolls

we got these for ivan's little cousins. i am in the photo for scale. when i saw these dolls online i thought they were little. they are pretty big! and soooo adorable. can i tell you a secret? i want one for myself. :)

 

2. glee

when i heard uncle jesse john stamos was going to be on glee i HAD to start watching. i recently watched all of the episodes of glee so far and it is so fun! i wish that real life was like that. i want to break into song all the time. dream come true.

1. spending christmas with family

this is my ultimate favourite thing about this time of year. i love getting together with family and friends over the holidays. both my parents and ivan's parents are divorced so our christmas day is very busy. it is great to see everyone though. i hope you have an amazing holiday!

here is a silly photo we took last year. hehe.

♥elycia

vegan candy cane ice cream

hi friends! i will be back shortly with some things i love but for now check out my guest post over on Brittni's blog with love from michigan for a super yummy 'recipe' for vegan candy cane ice cream. it is soooo good!

and before i go...here is a story:
Ivan and i were at the bookstore on Wednesday night buying a few books for presents and ourselves. i was looking for the book graceling after i saw roxy mention it on her blog. they said there were 4 in stock but they were having a terrible time finding one. Ivan and i were waiting just off to the side of the line while they looked for about 10 minutes. i felt bad that i was making them search so hard! finally they found one in the back room (i think it was in the wrong spot or something). anyways...we got to cut back into line once we had the book. Here's the good part...they have these cards that they scan to see if you might win some money off your purchase. and...we won our whole purchase! $80 worth of books for free! we were so excited and the employees were happy too! they said it was the 3rd winner that day! it made our night :)

wow, that turned out to be a really long story, haha. i probably could have just told you the exciting "we won some books" part.

♥elycia

cat ♥

farva and anakin like hanging out with me upstairs in my studio/craft room. can you see their little tongues in the first photo? i want to hug them right now!

♥elycia

ps. is everyone finished their christmas shopping? ivan and i need to do most of ours tonight. eeks! however, i did order a bunch of Funk Off! products for gifts quite a while ago. if you still haven't tried Funk Off! you definitely should! Michelle and Chad make awesome stuff!

here comes january!

thanks to everyone for your sweet comments on the last post :) you are all great.

on to other things...can you believe it is almost 2011! wow!

just a quick note to mention that i will be accepting sponsors again in January if anyone is interested. The XL spot is taken but there are some large and small spots still available.

you can check out more info about sponsoring here.

thanks so much, i really appreciate my sponsors! have you guys checked out december's yet? better hurry, they won't be around much longer!!

♥elycia

big yikes!

so, last night as we were on our way to put a deposit on our wedding venue, ivan and i were in a car accident! we are both ok but we are not sure yet if our car is.

we were just talking with my cousins on the weekend about how crazy life can be and how every little thing you chose affects the path you take. ivan picked me up from the book store and i happened to walk out of the door just as he was pulling up. we were amazed by the perfect timing! then we drove a few minutes down the street and a car turned left into us as we were going through an intersection. if something in the bookstore had have caught my eye and i hesitated for a minute it might not have happened. but...on the other hand, we may have ended up in a worse situation. isn't it crazy?! life is full of possibilities and 'what if...'' moments...good and bad.

when an accident happens (even a smallish one) it makes you apreciate everyone and everything you have in your life. i think the holidays are an especially good time to remember that. give someone a hug today :)

♥elycia

sneak peeks

a few pretty things.

*i'll tell you more about this later!* ^

some pretty headband packaging.

adorable decoration i received from zoe, thanks!

i wore this when i was little. there was a matching one for my cabbage patch kid...actually you can see her orange hair on the left.

i might need to clean those kitties a little...but they are so cute!

are you having a good day? i hope so!

♥elycia

ps. don't forget to get in your questions if you would like to ask me something :)

Tic Tac Snowman by WithLoveFromMichigan

This is Brittni from WithLoveFromMichigan and I am very excited to be guest posting on Elycia's blog and sharing a really fun (and tasty!) holiday craft with you. This craft doubles as a Christmas ornament as well.

Materials:

You will also need hot glue and rubber cement
Note: Elmer's Glue/Sticky Tape can be substituted for rubber cement

Poem for the Avery Label (5160 Address Label or similar):
To help keep your breath smelling sweet,
Here's tic tacs wrapped nice and neat,
Hidden in a snowman disguise,
A little treat, a tasty surprise!
<--- OPEN

First you need to take some plain white paper and measure the size of your tic tac container. It doesn't have to be perfect. You can make this craft with the small tic tac containers, but it looks a little nicer if you use the "king size" tic tacs.

Cut the paper and make sure that it fits around the tic tac container

Then glue down the front, but only use a little bit on the back (you will need to lift it up later). Make sure you DO NOT glue the paper over the tic tac opening!

Now use your sharpie markers to give your snowman some eyes, a coal mouth and a carrot nose!

After doing this, now you need to cut the scarf for your snowman out of scrap fabric. The fabric should be about 1/2 inch wide and several inches long so you can tie it around the snowman in a knot/bow. Now is the "tricky" part. You need to get the scarf under the back of the snowman paper (so it won't cover up your cute poem!) and around the side and front of the snowman.

I used the avery label and a little extra glue to re-stick the paper down over the scarf. You can always use a little hot glue when we get to that step as well. Now your snowman should look a little bit like this:

Next you will give the little guy (or gal) some buttons and a heart.

Now we will put the earmuffs on the snowman. This is what allows him/her to be a Christmas ornament or a decoration for a wrapped present. Fire up the hot glue gun so it's nice and ready. Measure out the craft wire where you think would be appropriate.

Then hot glue the wire to the snowman's "side" and the pompom (or puffers as I like to call them..) to the wire.

Once on each side will complete the earmuffs. I also used the hot glue to keep the scarf in place and tack down any loose sides of the white paper covering the snowman.

And you're done! Now you have a cute, sassy little ornament or gift embellishment for a friend or to keep. I hope you enjoyed my snowman craft and feel free to stop by my blog or send any pictures of the snowman craft to: withlovefrommichigan[at]gmail[dot]com!

Thanks Elycia for having me as a guest poster!

<3 Brittni

thanks so much brittni! this is an awesome diy!
♥elycia