It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

A couple of days ago, a lovely elf delivered a beautiful package to my house…

I couldn’t wait till Christmas to see what was inside…

A beautiful plate designed and created by Oded & Pam Ravek, the amazingly talented couple behind OR DESIGN glassworks.

A huge thank you to Oded, Pam, and Ariela the delivery elf for this fabulous Christmas gift :-) I’ll treasure it always!

Oded & Pam recently traveled to Arad, Israel where their work is now on display at the Glass Art Museum Arad. One of the pieces is this charming platter called Winter Wonder. It was inspired by their daughter’s love of elephants and the magical moment of a child’s first snowfall.

  Wheeeeeee!

To learn about the creative process behind Oded & Pam’s glasswork and see more of their amazing pieces, click here to read the interview I did with them last spring. And be sure to check out their website and blog for even more pictures and information about their work.

Just a few more sleeps till Christmas… I can’t show you too many pictures of my decorations because I’m in the midst of a makeover that I’m going to share with you in the new year. But here are a few, starting with the snowflake tree in the family room (it has a few non-snowflake ornaments too)…

A few close-ups from last year…

The treasure tree in the loft…

And the white tree in the dining room…

Each tree has a ceramic Santa that my mom and I made years ago…

And I decorated the white tree with lots of the glitter balls I made, as well as some handmade ornaments I bought in Budapest last Christmas.

   

You can read about my trip here, here, here, here, here, and here. If you’ve never been to Budapest, I highly recommend adding it to your list of places to see. The architecture is beautiful, the food is delicious (be prepared to gain about 10 pounds!), and even though Hungarian is impossible to understand, it’s relatively easy to find your way around because lots of Hungarians in Budapest speak English.

The dining room dressed up for Christmas…

One of my mini trees has a coastal flair this Christmas…

Balls from the dollar store hung from a curtain rod…

I love these snowmen – the colours change from red to green to blue to purple.

My take on a peacock wreath…

Outdoor tree decorated with dollar store ornaments…

And a little more Christmas baking – we went to a friend’s Christmas party last weekend. She’s gluten free, so rather than making the trifle I usually bring to her parties, I found this recipe for a flourless chocolate cake. One thing I’ve discovered about flourless food – gluten free doesn’t mean calorie free! There’s a whack of butter and sugar and chocolate in this baby, but it’s totally worth it because it’s soooooooooo good! It’s uber-rich & decadent, so you just need a small piece to get big chocolate flavour.

And that, my blog friends, is all for now – I’m taking a blog break over the holidays. I’ll be back in January with more makeovers, more DIY projects, and maybe a surprise or two :-)

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, and everything else festive…

See you in 2012!