Advent Calendar 2016

Happy December 1st!

Last year we decided – because we really can’t have a tree in our small space – that we would make Advent calendars and fill them with little treats for each other. It took us a couple of months to cobble together all the materials, but last night we blasted Christmas music, sipped hot chocolate, and put the finishing touches on these:

Mine – sneakily filled by Michael – is hung over the gable beside the fridge with a doubled red velvet ribbon (because we didn’t want to nail it up.) I bought the antique frame years ago on Main Street in Vancouver. It usually hangs in my office.

And Michael’s – sneakily filled by me – displayed on our fridge. [Some of the magnets are slightly weak, so we’ll replace them next year].

We are pretty pleased with our efforts and I believe I shall annoy everyone for the next 23 days by posting the contents of mine every single day on Instagram and Twitter.

Our process (in pictures):

fullsizeoutput_335 — And so it begins. Two inch tin containers (Michael spray painted his tops), number stickers, and vintage pictures. [Magnets not shown.]

fullsizeoutput_334 — Close up of the tins and vintage pictures. We bought the PDFs from a seller on Etsy and printed them on thick photo quality paper.

fullsizeoutput_337 — Close up of the number stickers, tins, and inserts. We cut out the pictures, and glued them over the magnets we placed in the bottom of each tin.

Close up of Michael’s tins. He double spray painted the tops, first one colour, then another over the stickers. He then peeled the stickers off (carefully) but left the bottoms the original silver.

fullsizeoutput_338 — My numbering was a much easier process than Michael’s. I just stuck the stickers on the tins.

Close up of my numbers, the magnet board, and the antique frame.

And, finally, all that work for a tasty reward every day until Christmas:

fullsizeoutput_33b — December 1st – dark (53% Belgian) chocolate caramel with almond.

ETA (2017): we bought the metal tins from Uline. They have a bunch of different sizes. Ours are the 2 x 1.5 inch.

Christmas paperback giveaway – 4 of 4

CLOSED: WINNER TBA

Fourth of Four: After The Virus

I’ve held on to these two paperbacks because the spines aren’t perfect – the printing is slightly offset. But that doesn’t make the front cover, by Irene Langholm, any less pretty 🙂

The paperback for this fourth and final giveaway (just to help me distinguish) was printed August 13, 2013. I’d be happy to sign it, with or without a specific inscription.

Want to win it? Just comment below. I’ll assign a number in order of the comments … 1, 2, 3 … and then run a random number generator on December 27, 2014 to pick a winner. Make sure you include your email address in the form the blog makes you fill out to comment, so I can get in touch with you for your mailing address.

One comment per giveaway. Open internationally.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Giveaways

Christmas paperback giveaway – 3 of 4

CLOSED: WINNER TBA

Third of Four: Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 2)

Printed on February 10, 2014, this paperback will soon to be replaced with a new edition (with the new cover). Same story inside though 🙂 And again, that doesn’t make the front cover, by Irene Langholm, any less pretty.

I’d be happy to sign it, with or without a specific inscription.

One comment per giveaway. Open internationally.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Giveaways

Christmas paperback giveaway – 2 of 4

CLOSED: WINNER TBA

Second of Four: Spirit Binder

This paperback of Spirit Binder is one of the first ten ever printed (July 31, 2012), but it was a misprint!! The spines all read SPRIRT BINDER, which was totally my mistake. Also, I’m about to bring out a second edition of this novel, so unfortunately there are a dreadful number of typos in this version. Again, that doesn’t make the front cover, by Irene Langholm, any less pretty 🙂

ETA: I’ll also email an ebook of the second edition to the winner of this giveaway. Without all the typos 😀

I’d be happy to sign it, with or without a specific inscription.

One comment per giveaway. Open internationally.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Giveaways

First of Four

Second of Four

Third of Four

Fourth of Four

Christmas paperback giveaway – 1 of 4

CLOSED – WINNER: TBA

As I already mentioned on my Facebook page, Michael was digging through some boxes for wrapping paper and Christmas cards this afternoon and he uncovered four of my paperbacks that I hadn’t bothered unpacking when we moved. I think I’d forgotten they existed at all, actually.

Lost paperbacks seem like a perfect reason to have a giveaway!

First of Four: After The Virus

I’ve held on to these two paperbacks because the spines aren’t perfect – the printing is slightly offset. But that doesn’t make the front cover, by Irene Langholm, any less pretty 🙂

The paperback for this first giveaway (just to help me distinguish) was printed July 16, 2013. I’d be happy to sign it, with or without a specific inscription.

One comment per giveaway. Open internationally.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Giveaways

First of Four

Second of Four

Third of Four

Fourth of Four

Christmas Baking #FAIL

I just spent three weeks baking for Christmas – no, I am not exaggerating – I made the following goodies:

Fruit Cake

Sugar Cookies – iced and sugared

Santa Whiskers

Gingerbread – decorated, but tradition not as zombies, regular & mini

Shortbread – chocolate-dipped and un-dipped

Icing Sugar Chocolates

Caramel – plain, chocolate-dipped, dipped & salted, and cashew turtles

Butter Tarts

Nanaimo Bars

Fake Fudge

Eggnog Cheesecake Bars

Almond Bark

…I feel like I am forgetting something – not the point – the point is that this is all I have to show for all that baking:

One photo. Taken on my iPhone and posted to Facebook to tease my sister (who LOVES homemade turtles), and, yes, I do believe that blob on the right side is the shadow of my finger in the shot – sigh!