One of my favourite holiday memories as a child was that of the annual paper chocolate calendars, where you opened one "door" each day in December. The chocolate was uniformly pretty bad and waxy, but I just loved opening up those little squares each day - what a treat.

Imagine my thrill when I got an email from my friend Ardyth, showing me the Advent calendar she had made using a stretched white canvas, Designer papers and little metal tins (seen here with her adorable daughter).

She was quick to tell me that is wasn't her original idea - she'd first seen one on Beate's blog.

My response to that was, "Who cares where the idea comes from? I love it! Make ME one!!"

I think this was the first time I'd ever commissioned a piece of art, but I definitely did not have the time nor materials at hand to pull one of these babies together by December 1.

Besides, Ardyth's work is so beautiful...why not pay her to make me one, and have it be destined to become a family favourite?

Needless to say, I was tickled pink (or should that be, green & red) when she delivered our new Advent calendar last week. Hey, she even stuffed each of the tins with 2 pieces of Lindt chocolates, knowing my monsters would be looking for the goodies within.

Ardyth, I absolutely love it -- you did a phenomenal job and I'm seriously impressed. It was worth every penny and my family thanks you for the years of holiday magic we'll have with it! :) You rock, girl!


HAPPY STAMPING, EVERYONE!
- Caroline

p.s. Despite Kathy thinking me a wussy weather wimp, we DID end up going out in the slushy sleet/rain yesterday afternoon to play with the white stuff & pick our Christmas tree out.