Advent Calendar

December is right around the corner, and I don't know how that happened. When I was little my mother hung a cloth advent calendar in my room with small gifts in each pocket for every day leading up to Christmas. That advent calendar made the entire holiday month feel special, and every dark morning exciting. As an adult, I want to have the same holiday feel every day in December, but with a more age appropriate advent calendar; the presents are no longer an important part of the season. Here are some advent calendars, some for every sunday and some for every day of December that I liked.

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140 hour advent candle

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This is the exact same one, that I grew up with, that
we lit every sunday as a family.

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Office to Guest Room Transformation

The guest room is officially usable, and a space that people would actually want to stay in. For two years I made little adjustments to make the office a space I wanted spend time in, but it never was. It was the room that we closed the door to, so that I didn't have to look at it. Now, this second bedroom is a room I could actually see myself spending time in. I found plenty of inspiration out there to try to work a very small room into a room that functions as both a guest room and office. Once the wall sconce comes in and is installed, this room will be done. Here are some pictures
from one weekend of updates.

We used all White bedding, including the knitted pillow cover I made to make the room feel bigger. We also decided on white shelves so that they would blend in to the walls and not be a statement piece themselves. The shelves were a DIY home depot project, nothing fancy. We took a round rug we had had in a closet and put it mostly under the bed to add a little dimension to the room.  Can't wait to see this room in the daylight.

Before

Before

 After: New Shelving above the bed. The lamp we
ordered will go in the right hand corner when facing
the bed, for our guests to have a little extra light.

New linen curtains

We took the bookcase out and put the desk
in its place and added a few more shelves for the
remainder of our books.

Trying to balance the books with other items like plants,
photos ,and a couple other odds and ends to make it feel more open

Ailsa thinks this is her new room

Round Jute rug details

We added shelves to our bedroom as well,
which I love.

My favorite time of year

Fall in NYC is the best time of year. The air is crisp; the leaves in the park have changed color and are starting to fall, and you can walk around the city without breaking a sweat.

I love everything fall, from knit sweaters, to the smells of freshly baked pumpkin bread. Here are a few pictures of some cozy fall activities that have kept me busy. What are your favorite fall activities?

Cinnamon and Nutmeg yumminess
Recipe

Kanelbuller (Cardamom heaven)
made by me and my Mor, recipe

Hiking in  Cold spring, NY

Vineyards in the Hamptons on a sunny afternoon

Walking Ailsa in Central park, this past weekend.

A Sweater Jacket I started on a flight to India two weeks ago,
 2/3 of the way done

A cozy guest room

When we first moved into our apartment we decided that the second bedroom would be best used as an office, because Tim was in grad school.  He no longer needs it to study, so now we have an extra room in Manhattan that is unused.

Over the past few months we have had several guests who have had to sleep either on the sofa or the aero bed in the office.  We realized that this room would be better served as a guest room for those handful of times a year when our friends and family want to visit us.

For the past few months I have been pinning inspirational images for this space. Here are some pictures of what I am hoping this room will turn out to look like.

The bed arrives on Friday, which is step one of the transition.I am using a chunky ivory yarn to knit a cozy pillow cover to throw on the bed. Ive already ordered my white sheets and a simple california frame for the mattress to rest on. The reindeer hide has been in our bedroom for a little while, but will move back into this space. Photos to come when it's ready.

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A simple Garter stitch in a chunky yarn

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