Happy New Year, Travellers! Hope your holidays were filled with fun, food and family (and maybe a little bit of baked brie -- yum! Good thing the holidays are a once in a year kind of thing, no?)

We stayed in our pjs more days than not and took a two week break from deadlines, schedules and apparently, Canada's Food Guide.

No matter, things are back on track now and everyone's ready for 2012.

Before our holidays, though, our house was as crazy as the next, with long gift lists, craft shows, pagents and parties to attend. Here's one way we combined gift giving with some family time -- and as an added bonus, ended up with a few stand-by hostess gifts on hand.

We made holiday cookies-in-a-jar.

First, we found our recipe. (I got my copy from a magazine, but their website didn't have the recipe.) Then, we bought a dozen pint jars (mason jars). Then ... we bought our ingredients. I actually had the kids help with the math so we'd have enough for twelve batches.

I set up an assembly line with oldest kids handling flour mixture, me funneling cocoa in over top and the younger two carefully pouring in the larger, less messy ingredients. (We washed hands and used utensils and funnels throughout. There may have been some eating of stray M&Ms afterward. I cannot confirm this, though.)

We designed tags with the recipe and required "wet" ingredients (eggs, butter, vanilla) and assembled our jars, wraps and tags.

On the Tuesday before school ended, out they went in backpacks and the kids came home thrilled with their teachers' reactions. Everyone thought the colourful and layered jars looked beautiful.

The leftover jars? They didn't last long, either.

Twice we had kind neighbours and friends drop by with little gifts and cards, and the kids immediately knew their go-to cookies in a jar were on hand to reciprocate.

(Oh, and for the record, they were really yummy. We had to test them out before gifting them, of course!)

If you'd like to download a copy of the tags I created, you can do that here. (Just print out on 8.5 x 11" heavier card stock and trim.) Happy baking!

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The latest addition to the family is this set of 6 Holiday-themed super magnets. Teachers, grandparents, coaches and Aunties named Marge love these! I keep making them and watching them disappear so they may not make it to the Shop this month. But they'll be at the Fox Theatre Movies & Makers Xmas 2011 Show Saturday December 17th, so come early and get yours! See you there ... :)

P.S. If you drop me an email, my elves and I can make sure you get yours before the Show!

Don't miss Movies & Makers Xmas 2011 Show at the Fox Theatre on Saturday December 17th from 11 am to 5:30 pm -- what a great way to spend an afternoon! I'll be there with new letterpress cards, awesome super magnet sets (great teacher gifts!) and lots of other new treats. Do stop by and say hi!

No worries if the Christmas lists are heavyweight this year, ONE of these super strong 2" magnets could hold ALL the Duggars' lists to the fridge. Go ahead and grab them while you can. They make perfect teacher gifts and stocking stuffers ...

(If you're in the Toronto area, contact me and I'll arrange delivery -- my treat.)

Check out the latest from my antique letterpress: four new holiday cards designed and printed one at a time using my very own handwriting and illustrations. Each one is printed on warm white 110 lb (heavy!) Crane Lettra paper -- the very best for capturing a deep letterpress impression -- and comes with a matching brown bag envelope. Cards measure 4 3/8" x 5 1/2", or A2 size.

To get a better look, and to grab some before they're gone, visit my Etsy shop at right or here.

Live in Toronto? Email me your order and I'll arrange delivery, no problem!

Cards are $4 each or mix and match six of your favourites for only $20 -- happy shopping!

The weather people are predicting a chance of flurries this coming Thursday.

We're skipping school anyway, so we hope it holds off. When the first real snow flies, the big and small kids around here want it to be on a school day for sure!

So it's the Day After Hallowe'en and already there are Christmas displays up at the grocery and local Canadian Tire stores. (I think some of them have been there for a while, too.)

No rest for the wicked between one sugar rush and the next, huh? Cheesh.

How soon is too soon for decking the halls at your house? Around here, we don't do a thing before December 1st and our tree never, ever sets foot in the house until the week before Christmas Day. (I like to think I save myself a vacuum cannister or two of pine needles that way. Another one of my secret delusions.)

I've been a fan of Spoonflower, a great design-your-own-fabric site, for a long time. And I've wanted to give it a try. This past week, the stars aligned and homework/job/hockey opened just enough of a window for me to put together my first ever entry into their weekly contest.

This week's contest theme is for a fabric based on cameos. The learning curve on fabric design turns out to be quite steep -- it's hard to get things big enough to see but small enough that the design wouldn't look out of place on a pillow or quilt. Here's a closeup of one of the illustrations I used.

You can vote for your favourite entry right here. Jelly beans to whoever helps puts me over the top :)

I've got two hockey-playing girls under my roof and all the smells to go with. So you'd think these designs would have been the first out of the gate. Well they are ... right behind ice cream cones, cupcakes, strawberries (and all of my other favourite things!)

Check these out for your hockey-playing-serve-aceing-homerun-hitting charmer. Once they're dry, they'll be in the store!

P.S. He's a hedgehog. Who doesn't love hedgehogs? (they don't smell nearly as much as hockey bags either)