HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Bottle It Up | ALMOND & BAILEYS CAKE IN A JAR

If you're planning on doing some holiday baking this year, I've got just the thing for you!

We all know by now that cake in a jar makes the perfect gift. You can make cupoards full and you're all set for weeks and months of birthdays, holidays and nonsensical celebrations such as America's National Cake Day (November 26th, be sure to mark your calendars!).

But I like to think of these darling sweets as little "emergency cakes", à la "In case of emergency, break glass". Though I don't recommend any actual breakage here.

Tis The Season | DIY BEADED STAR ORNAMENTS

If you ask me Christmas decorations should long be up by now. And yet, there are some people who leave this joyous and - in most cases - aesthetically pleasing task to the very last minute. Why this is, is beyond me. I will simply assume that these individuals have neither heart nor soul and might want to consider moving to the moon once that becomes a realistic alternative to life on planet earth.

I on the other hand will keep breathing in the oxygen this planet provides and spend every waking moment in the spirit of Christmas until someone tells me that I should knock. Out. Of. It.

Crafter's Know-How | The Best Way To Paint Wooden Beads

This past weekend I spent amidst a large pile of plain wooden beads pondering how one - with a lack of dye - could most effectively paint a good handful or two of said craft material without much frustration or too much of a mess that would keep me looking like a party clown after a double shift.

Deeply philosophical I know.

Festive Fun | DIY CHRISTMAS BOARD GAME

Christmas is swiftly approaching which means soon enough precisely half of my family will be gathered round the kitchen table for some disastrous card and board games. There will be tears and tantrums, and probably more than one sore loser.

The other family members will sit in the next room rolling their eyes while sipping Glühwein and listening to us come very close to bashing each other's heads in. At least one of them will mutter something along the lines of "Told you so", or "Same procedure as every year, James".

THOUGHTS ON A MONDAY MORNING XI

Paying Tribute to Santa's Reindeer | DIY WASHI TAPE WALL DECAL

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen,
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?

Yes. Yes, I do.

I mean, his nose is red. Freakin' red! And he doesn't even have a cold! And as far as I'm informed, he doesn't have a part-time job as a circus clown throwing pies in people's faces and giving little children nightmares.

Though it would make sense.