'Tis the Season

As I'm not a professional blogger (though wouldn't that be a lovely job?), I don't feel tremendous pressure to do things like write every day, be super savvy with writing gorgeous code for this space, or be intimately involved with all of the trendy up-and-coming parts of Teh Interwebz. If I had enough to say to justify writing every day, I would, because I enjoy it. If I could muster the enthusiasm required to commit to finding the best platform to host my blog and make it even more mine and customised, I'd be all over that joint. And if I hadn't spent most of my life insisting that I'm not a trendy person, I could give you every white-balanced overly-styled photo of hipster chic, white rooms with pops of colour, and all the handmade vintage-inspired knicknacks you could handle. But then, I am the person who feels too stodgy to shop at Topshop. For reals: that place intimidates me...I only go for the coloured tights.

Of course, with all of these caveats in place, I do enjoy reading design blogs, style blogs, interior decorating blogs, and anything else with beautiful and vaguely pretentious pictures of All The Pretty Things. So, while I have to admit that a few months of going through all of this content has made me feel that everything that's stylish right now is not only very cohesive, but a bit same-ish, there's plenty out there for even a traditionalist like me to thoroughly enjoy. And, since it's the Christmas season and I love Christmas enough to put the Whos down in Whoville to shame, I thought I'd catalogue some of my favourite Christmas finds floating around on the internet.

Sometimes it's the little details that make Christmas for me: my wooden Nativity in the bookcase, the Chamonix cowbell that hangs on our tree, or the tiny Julebukk that sits on our dresser in the bedroom. I wouldn't mind having some of these details around next year, either.

1. Tree shopping shadowbox (You Are My Fave)
2. Vintage paper stars (Homes By Linn)
3. Christmas tree advent calendar (Oh Happy Day)
4. Frosted pinecone tea lights (Nelly Vintage Home)

I confess: I'm not a brilliant gift-wrapper. All the things I do right are tips and tricks I stole from other people over the years. I wish I cared enough to put in all the effort I see in a lot of these ideas. My presents would look crazy amazing.

1. Holiday gift tag (Design*Sponge)
2. Don't Open 'Til Christmas Day packing tape (swissmiss)
3. How to tie the perfect bow (Design Mom)
4. Printable monogram gift tags (Making It Lovely)
5. Hand-stamped wrapping paper (You Are My Fave)

I may do another few Christmas-related lists over the coming days. One definitely needs to be a new iteration of my usual Christmas music playlist. The Husband has insisted that I keep up the momentum and keep finding new Christmas music each year so we aren't listening to all of the same songs for a month. He's not good with lots of repetition. Unless that repetition involves eating lots of the same tasty cookies over and over...

While you can find all of these photos on my Pinterest pages, here are the obligatory kudos to the original sources:

1. You Are My Fave
2. Homes By Linn
3. Oh Happy Day
4. Nelly Vintage Home
5. Swiss Miss
6. Design Mom
7. Design*Sponge
8. Making It Lovely