DIY: Advent Calendar

Instagram'd a photo of my finished Advent Calendar that I was working on this year for my 3-year old son and I got a few people asking me how I made it and what I was going to put in these boxes. So I thought I would share. I'm happy with how it turned out, but it was A LOT of work. I plan on using this again next year because I'm not sure if I would have the time to make something like this again…

Just an FYI that all the supplies were purchased at the dollar store.

I bought a pack of card stock paper that came in 5 different shades. I thought it would
be a neat idea to do an ombré effect for the boxes. 

I found several box templates online and tested them out by printing it out on plain
paper. I settled with this template and redrew it on Adobe InDesign to match my
paper size.

I scored all the dotted lines with a bone folder and then cut out the rest of the outline
with my exact-o knife. I started getting a blister after doing 25 of these cutouts :-S
I applied double-sided tape on the backside of where it is labeled on the photo before
putting the box together.

Here's what the complete box looks like. It's pretty small.

I found these cute rhinestone and glitter numbers at the dollar store and I thought
it would be the perfect way to add the numbers on the boxes.

All the boxes complete! Now to stick them onto my foam core…

I laid out all the boxes on the foam core before gluing it on so that they looked
symmetrical.

Because these boxes were too small to store all the activities that I wanted to do with
my son I decided to make tags with the activities printed on it. Again, I went back
to my design software and typed up all the activities. I made sure to space them
according to the size of the tag punch that I had.

Close-up of some of the activities.

I printed it out on one of the card stock paper that I had leftover and punched it
with my tag punch.

I punched a small hole near the top to thread the ribbon through.

All the tags complete!

And here's the finished product.

Another view.

Here are the tags inside the boxes.

You may wonder why I made boxes if I was just going to stuff flat tags inside, but
it's because in some of the boxes I had little toys (like the dinosaurs above)
and even candies inside.

I can't wait to start this on December 1!

I propped up the Advent Calendar on my dining room credenza. Earlier today I went
out and bought the mini tree (called Cupressus 'Goldcrest')

Here's a close-up of one of the tags.

I propped up one of my favourite ornament on the top of the boxes.

It doesn't look like a dollar store project, does it? I don't think so.

And here's a look at some of the activities that my son and I will be enjoying in the
coming days. We will also be doing some baking. I'm so excited!

Shopping haul

ur neighbours to the south are enjoying American Thanksgiving and Black Friday. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving back in October, but some retailers here have started advertising Black Friday sales here too. I guess it's to keep us from driving south to do some shopping. I couldn't go to the mall today to check out the sales because I usually have both kids at home with me (my son is not in daycare on Mondays and Fridays) and it's just too chaotic to take 2 kids under the age of 5. I did, however, go to the mall yesterday with my 4-month old in tow. I had to get my in-laws their Christmas presents and while I was there I checked out the sales at Holt Renfrew Last Call. Last Call is sort of like Nordstrom Rack, but better. You just need time to go through all the racks. I always find great deals there. Last year I picked up a Gryphon trench coat for 80% off the SALE price! I think the original price of it was $550? I ended up getting it for around $50. I got one for myself and one for my MIL.
There wasn't an 80% off rack this time, but I picked up 2 things that I'm really happy with. I got 30% off the sale price.

I picked up a gorgeous cream blazer by Beyond Vintage. The fabric is a very soft
Tencel so it's not structured at all, but drapes nicely. The lapel is sequined so it gives
a bit of sparkle. You can still buy it here.

Here is the back. 

The tag had a little story attached to it.

Detail of the sequins.
Originally the price of this at Holt Renfrew was just over $300 CAD, but it was marked
down to $209 and then I got 30% off.

Here is a picture I took of myself wearing the blazer in the change room.

My next item is one of my favourite brands- Equipment. They make the best blouses.
They are mostly all 100% silk blouses and super expensive. I think they retail for over
$200. I got my first one here and I love it so much!
When I saw this top I was immediately in love with it. I love the colour block detail
and the Peter Pan collar. 

If you haven't heard of this brand before you must check it out. They are the softest
shirts and they come in all different colours. Their printed tops are quite beautiful too.
I also saw one with a snakeskin pattern on the collar and that one was lovely as well.

The collar is a dark navy blue colour.

The hem on the sleeve is a bright coral colour. Such great detail!
Originally it was just over $250CAD, but it was on sale for $179 and I got 30% off of
that. I could never justify spending almost $300 for a blouse so to get it on sale was
a great feeling. I know it's still expensive with even the discount, but I know I will get
a lot of uses out of it. It will look great with a skirt.

Here's what it looks like on.

That is all I got for myself yesterday. I got my MIL a beautiful MICHAEL Michael Kors cardigan and my FIL a POLO Ralph Lauren sweater. I also wanted to share a few other things that I picked up a week ago as well as my new bag.

J Crew was having a 40% sale the day I went to the mall last week. I've been eyeing
this Heart Me sweater for a while now. I got it for around $50?

And here is the back.
I got it in size large because I wanted it loose and baggy. It sort of wears like a
Wildfox baggy jumper now.

This is what I was the most excited to get- J Crew's infamous Pixie pants. It's made out
of a really heavy fabric and super comfortable. I've heard so many people rave about
them.  The back of the pant has an exposed zipper with an elastic waistband and the
whole back of the pant has a piping down the middle.

I got it in a size 0. You will have to size down for this as size 2 was too loose for me.

Lastly, I wanted to share with you a present my husband got for me for our 6-year wedding anniversary. Sadly to say I completely forgot about it!

I was looking at this purse when we were out shopping and he went out and got it for
me. It's the small MICHAEL Michael Kors Small Jet Set Travel Tote. You can get it
here. I like the hot pink colour and the small size is so cute! 

It has a little MK charm hanging off one of the straps.

The back. There are belt details on the straps, but you can't adjust the length. 

The back has a zipper compartment.

The front side has a pocket.
You can also close the back much like the LV Neverfulls with the D-ring and clasp closure.

Although I have the small size you can surprisingly fit a lot in this bag. It's a bottomless
pit…

Basement reveal… finally!

e finished our basement reno back in May (has it been that long already??) and I've been meaning to blog about the process every day, but midway through the process I got busy with life and now it's the end of November…
We are still not done with decorating, but I would like to share with you what our basement is looking like now. As soon as I make additional changes I will update later on. Warning: this post is photo heavy.

This is the doorway into our basement.

I decided to add a gallery wall going down to the basement with family photos
and my travel photos. I got the frames from Ikea. The frames are RIBBA frames and they
were around $20/each. I got the photos printed at Costco at 12" x 12". 

View from down in the basement.

This is the view going down to the basement. I have one 3-year old and a 4-month
old so that is why we wanted to finish our basement. We really wanted a play area
for the kids. However, we wanted to section parts of the basement for our
entertainment area, an office for my husband and a spare bedroom.

You can see we used a sectional to divide the entertainment space from the kids'
play area.

And this is another view of the other side of the basement.

Another angle.

We got our contractor to build us a built-in shelving unit so that I could display
some knick knacks.

I love displaying things around my house. You can say it's a passion of mine.

A close-up of the shelves.

I love my owls. They are from West Elm. The yellow lacquered box is also from
West Elm and I have pretty shells sitting on top of it that I brought back from the beaches
of Cuba.

Here's my washroom. Excuse the step stool and the red toilet seat. It's for my
preschooler ;-)

My bathroom vanity. You can see me in the reflection!

I love my bathroom shower. We chose subway tiles and the contractor put in sliding
glass doors.

My contractor also put in a built-in nook to put our shampoos/conditioner.

We have a huge shower head. It's hard to capture in this photo, but I absolutely love it.

I want to put frames up in the bathroom later on. 

And here is our spare bedroom. My in-laws stayed in here while they were visiting.
We couldn't afford a headboard so that'll come later on (I think).

Here's the spare bedroom closet. It had double doors as you can see and it's a pretty
decent size.

I plan on putting a console table along that wall with a round mirror above it.
I've been eyeing some pieces at Chatelet Home. They refurbish vintage furnitures and
many of their stock are French-inspired.

Another look.

There's a little window in the room so it does get some light during the day.

Looking into our entertainment area. The French doors lead into the office.
You can see how bright our basement is because we have a lot of pot lights.

I try to keep this area free of any toys.

On the other side of the built-in shelves, the contractor put a shelf area for us to, again,
display stuff. Initially he was going to put the dry wall all the way up, but we asked
him to do it only half-way. The pipes that controls the water temperature in the house
is under the shelf area.

I made my own terrariums and I bought the sand-blasted manzanita branch at
Home Sense (a discount home goods store here in Canada) for $39.99.
I have seen these exact ones at flower shops for over $150!

Close-up of my terrariums.
I bought the vase at Home Sense for like $5 and I used fake succulents and my
mini mushrooms that I had lying around. The black sand was purchased at
Michaels. I saw a terrarium that was already made at a home goods store for $200.
I took a picture of it and made something similar for a fraction of that price.

Here's my other one. I used green mushrooms instead.

Close-up of my manzanita branch.

Besides the leather sectional and the white, rectangular pillow everything here was
relatively cheap. The rug, one-seater, pillows were purchased from Home Sense and
the side table, shelf, frames were purchased from Ikea. We wanted to invest in a good
leather sofa so that's where most of the budget went for the furniture.

I love collecting pretty things because you never know when you need to display
pretty things around your house. 

Close-up of the shelves.

I always save pretty boxes because they make great display pieces.

My fake orchid from Ikea.
I love me some real flowers, but I wanted something that would last forever…
I have real flowers in other parts of the house.

My dog, Rosco, wanted to make a cameo :-)

The back of this white chair has tufting, but you can't see it with this pillow over it. I wish
the pillow was more of a rectangular shape so that we can see the detail on the
chair, but oh well…

View of the other side of the basement. That's where the bathroom and spare
bedroom is. We wanted the bathroom close to the bedroom so that it would be
convenient for our guest.

Our new flat screen TV. It's a Samsung Smart TV.

Here is my husband's office. It's still pretty bare. He needs a new laptop and some
desk accessories.

I put a gallery wall up in his office.

My father-in-law painted the stork painting. It's personally not my style (a little too old-
school for me) so I hung a gallery wall incorporating other pictures, illustrations and
even a little mirror to bring the focus off that one painting.

My daughter and son (dressed up as a dragon for Halloween).

I get a lot of illustrator's prints from work so I saved a few and brought them home
to hang.

My husband's office has a ladder to display all his soccer trophies. I wanted to spray
paint them all a glossy, navy blue so that they would look cohesive together,
but he wouldn't let me. I think the gold looks so tacky…

His office has the fuse box and the contractor hid it nicely with cabinet doors.

Here it is closed.

His office also has a doorway leading into our cold room. Initially we weren't planning
on finishing it, but then we changed our mind. We got the contractor to extend the
flooring and put up dry wall so that we could use it as a storage room.

We have our golf clubs and tools in here.

We also got a chest freezer as our refrigerator freezer is tiny!
I also store some of my son's old clothes in here as well as his old toys. I'm saving
the clothes for my sisters just in case they have a boy.

I forgot to show you the stairway leading up to the main floor.
The door to the left leads into our furnace room and the door the right leads into an
extra storage room.

Here is the extra storage room. We also got this finished. The back extends further
onto the left so it's actually a big space. We store our Christmas decorations and some
non-perishable foods in here.

And this is our furnace room. We didn't finish this room as there's no need for it to be
finished. We store our vacuum and sports gears in here as well as cleaning supplies.

Here's our snowboards. I miss snowboarding! Once my daughter is a little older I plan
on hitting the slopes.