A Celebration of Friendship at Carmen Restaurant

I met Nyla at my sister's place on Christmas Day five years ago, and we clicked right away. She's smart and fun and we always have long interesting conversations.

We celebrated the anniversary of our friendship last month by going out for dinner at a Spanish restaurant called Carmen, located at 922 Queen Street West (on the north side, west of Trinity Bellwoods park and east of Shaw Street.)

I've been wanting to try this place since happening upon their Yelp page, with their excellent rating of 4 stars and scrumptious sounding descriptions of the food. Anticipating that such a highly regarded place would be busy on the Thursday evening we planned to go, I booked a table in advance. It was good that I did because the place was hopping when we arrived. We were glad to see that we'd been given a very nice spot in the corner, with two small tables pushed together, so we had room to spread out a bit.

As you can see by the dark photos, the dining room had an intimate atmosphere lit with candles and a few crystal chandeliers.

Table for Ten : A Christmastime Birthday Dinner

Nick was born at Christmastime (during a massive storm, under lights that were powered by the hospital's emergency generator), so he's never really had much of a dedicated celebration since the big holiday tends to get all the attention. He reports that, as a kid, his birthday cake was usually Christmas pudding, but that he didn't mind because he loves it.Growing up there were never any birthday parties with friends, because everyone was busy. Then, during the years that he worked in an office, while he regularly found himself in the boardroom with a slice of cake and a glass of wine to toast the birthday-person, he never once received a card that had been passed around the office to be signed by all his colleagues because everyone was always off on holiday.Of course, this is all he's ever known and he doesn't complain about it (very loudly).(I should point out that his parents and mine send him a birthday card every year, separate from their Christmas cards, and I always hang the Happy Birthday Banner and make sure to wrap his gifts in birthday wrapping rather than Christmas paper! And I always offer to take him out for dinner but he usually declines because there's usually so much going on and the good restaurants are either all booked up or closed for the holidays. He does get an IOU though, and we go out sometime in the new year.)Back when we first got together and I'd heard about this no-birthday birthday situation, I suggested that we have a house party in his honour.The first year we did, the party got a little wild and a couple of things got broken, but it was relatively manageable and a good time.However, word got out -- apparently we held good parties -- and the second year there were some problems, such as a very drunk guy I barely knew suddenly picking me up. That alone was really weird and uncomfortable but the fact that this happened right at the top of the stairs made it scary. (He was quickly shown the door). Then, the next morning, we were greeted by an elderly neighbour, declaring that our high-fi (her word) had been MUCH.TOO.LOUD.At the third of these annual parties we were faced with a bunch of uninvited friends-of-friends we'd never met before nor particularly cared for and a visit from the police responding to a noise complaint.After that we realized that the annual wing-ding had gotten out of hand and that we weren't enjoying ourselves at our own parties.So, we stopped having them all together and stuck to small get-togethers of two to four guests. This went on for some time, and over the years we began to miss having larger groups over. We both enjoy entertaining and missed the buzz that comes with introducing long-time friends to new ones and participating in the great conversations that result. So, last year we decided to begin hosting larger dinner parties -- our dining table has room for ten when we insert all the leaves -- and so began our plans to regularly host dinner parties for eight guests plus ourselves. Our first one was at Easter (written about here), and our second was the Sunday before Christmas. (We took the summer off, reverting to small groups because our outdoor dining table only seats four, and who wants to eat inside when it's beautiful outside?)Since Nick is the better cook and truly enjoys doing it, he had to be in on the plans thus making a surprise birthday party out of the question, but he chose the guest list, which included his best buddies and old friends, and a couple we've recently met but who he would like to get to know better. I sent out the invitations and everyone accepted.I secretly told them all that the dinner was in Nick's honour, so there were many well wishes for a happy birthday, gifts of treats and bottles, and a beautiful birthday cake containing his favourite flavour, caramel, made by Andrea.It was a great time and the man was happy.

How to Make a Ribbon and Buttons Gift Topper

Being 3 days before Christmas, I imagine there will be quite a bit of gift wrapping going on over the next couple of days. Perhaps you're looking for a way to decorate those packages and these gift toppers might do nicely.But, if your holiday gifts are already all wrapped up, consider making one of these for the other gifts you give throughout the year.Requiring only a length of ribbon, one or two buttons and a piece of embroidery floss, they are quick -- about 6 minutes each -- and easy to make.Since I mail Christmas presents, I try to come up with cute wrapping that can be crammed into a box for sending and then will still look nice under the tree once they arrive at their destination. I also aim to make gift toppers that can be saved and reused.According to my cousin, the packages I sent to her two children arrived in great shape. I got a kick when she quoted her nine year old son Owen -- "Louise is such a fancy wrapper, I love her stylish wrapping!"

How to Make a Greeting Card Wall Hanging Display

c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/handmade-greeting-card-holder-display-wall-hanging-christmas-diy.jpg" alt="handmade-greeting-card-holder-display-wall-hanging-christmas-diy" width="640" height="640" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31105 blk-brdr">Do you need a good way to display the greeting cards and photographs you receive at this time of the year?I used to slip ours through the slats in the wooden window blinds, but that made it hard to open the blinds, and during these darkest of dark days we want those blinds open to let in as much sunlight as possible. So the scattering of Christmas cards on the floor beneath the window in the living room was a normal occurrence, after the blind they'd been hanging on had been flipped the wrong way.So I set out to make an alternative way to hang the lovely cards we received from friends and family. Since the wooden blinds worked well, (except for the inability to open the blinds mentioned above), my thinking was along those lines. I also wanted something that wasn't too Christmas-y so I could use it at other times of the year for birthday cards, Thanks You cards, etc, and that would be easy to store and didn't take up much space when not in use.Here is what I came up with ...Supplies:

Origami Wrapping for Gift-Cards and Love Notes

c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/origami-bow-3d.jpg" alt="origami-bow-3d" width="640" height="480" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31075 blk-brdr">We mail things to the children in our lives at this time of the year, and with postage rates for sending packages here in Canada being very high, we like to mail gift-cards or money where it suits the situation. This way we can give more gift because we spend way less mailing it. For the cost of a regular letter stamp we can send a greeting card, with a little something tucked inside, anywhere in the country.[Note: I mail gift cards in low amounts or just a little bit of cash -- enough for a child to pick themselves a small gift they like -- because there is an element of risk in sending that kind of thing in the mail.]Of course, how a gift is wrapped adds a lot to the fun of giving and receiving, so I try to think of good ways to mail these presents. Here is an origami envelope and bow that I used this year. These are meant to be mailed within a greeting card.I made a couple - the green one was mailed to our niece on Friday and the other one is for Nick's birthday coming up. That one will be hand delivered!Supplies :