it's my girls' world

Who doesn't love a good hack? Especially around the holidays where time is as precious as a Fingerling Unicorn (the it toy of the season- so hard to find)... Here are a very few of mine.

1- Command hooks are awesome to stick on the wall, doors and windows. I use them for stockings, wreaths and garlands. 

2- When decorating our tree, we use a combination of cheaper items and more expensive ones. Like dollar store cheap and a few  nicer ones that are more neutral and can be used year round. I like a tree that's full but don't want to pay $1000 on ornaments. Also, if you have older decorations that you still want to use but it's not in the colour you want, feel free to spray paint it. 

3- How do you guys display your Christmas cards? I saw this at a friend's house and totally copied it. Two command hooks and either string or a simple garland  and some decorative clothes clips is how we display ours.

4- I love beautifully decorated gifts but don't want to spend hours creating beautiful bows. Our glue gun to the rescue. We make a fancy bow once and then use them year after year. 

5-  Need some height or some extra decorative accents? Cover some books or some empty boxes. 

And for some holiday entertaining tips, click here.

What are some of your favourite holiday hacks? Decorating or otherwise?

Linking up with 

Andrea, Erika and Narci for Favourites on Friday

and Caroline and April for Five on Friday!

In the midst of all the festive Christmas posting, we take a break for some life lately.... and LOTS of pics.

We went to the most beautiful unicorn birthday party for one of our favourite 5 years old a couple weeks ago. The details were exquisite. 

This cake tasted even better than it looked. 

We stayed to hang out with the birthday girl and her family and the little ones decided to help each other brush their teeth. Is that the equivalent to grown up girl friends helping each other put on makeup?!

Our second swim meet... We were up at 530 to get ready for this one-- all hands on deck for 645. Uggg. We all prefer the three o'clock ones.

I also went to a beautiful baby shower in a butterfly conservatory. It was simply lovely.

And then a very special little boy had his first birthday blessing.  Isn't the set up lovely!

After dance recital, the girls and I decided to do some making-- yeah, leotards and aprons is how we roll.

Our elf has been up to many shenanigans lately. This one was more compromising than I realised when I 'saw' it the night before. (I seriously debated even posting this pic). Thankfully, the girls thought they were snuggling. 

And the day after they seemed to be back to some more PG shenanigans.

A has been into these iron-ons like it's her job. Her fine motor skills are beginning to rival a surgeon. 

My in-laws were here for a few weeks and we celebrated (a little belated) an 80th birthday.

And finally, time to get tracking again. I got a Fitbit Alta this time after my Charge HR gave up on me. 

Cheers to a Happy Wednesday!

Good morning, Lovelies. I had my 4th Christmas Ladies Night in this last Friday.  14 of us got together for  appies, drinks, games and some Christmas fun! Lots of times, we women run around making Christmas awesome for everyone else. I love having a night in for just us ladies. Everyone brings an appetizer and I do my own app, drinks, entertainment and dessert... though let's face it, I have enough wine for the entire season. 

Don't you just love when your house is clean and sparkly before a party?

I did Christmas ornaments with some candy as my party favours this year.

I served  sorrel ( a West Indian drink) and champagne that night as the signature cocktail to begin the night. 

Preparing their apps. 

 We all voted on our favourite appetizer and here's the winner... Kathryn with her 

My mother in law did this on point veggie tray!

So much awesome food! 

I put people hard to work with some games. The first was guess the Christmas Carol.

And then it was guess who. I had everyone write something about themselves or their families Christmas related. Then I collected all the answers and everyone had to guess who was who. Add someone who did two answers and my father in law who before he went out, left an answer as well, things got very complicated but all was well in the end!

So many fun memories created with some of my favourite girls! Definitely one of the highlights of my holiday season.

What are your favourite holiday parties?

Linking up with Biana.