Love Letters and Lace

  2020... the year of the nurse... and the year all hell broke loose. If you are a nurse, or have a nurse in your life that you love, 2020 would be the year to be spoiled. I compiled this list of fantastic gifts you can gift the nurse or nursing student in your life (or yourself, if you're a nurse!) for the holidays this year. A lot of these options can be bought from small shops local to you (check Etsy!) which is a huge bonus!  Watch  A must have for all nurses! I have had a FitBit in the past and now have an Apple Watch. I loved both because they're extremely easy to clean after every shift. However there are also great nurse watches you can pin to your scrubs!  Here are my recommendations: 1   2   3   ID badge clip Etsy shop: PaperCharmsStudio I personally love changing up my badge clip every few months, and there are so many options online for cute, handmade ones or personalized ones!  I buy mine here and you can find more (personalized, unit specific, etc.) here . Travel

Hey everyone! My final exams are finally over, which means it's now officially the holidays for me! I'm so behind in my Christmas gift shopping, but I'm so excited to get started! I also can't wait to fill my home with tons of baked goods! I'm also excited because this means I can blog more! I can't wait to connect with you all and share more things I've been loving! If you wan't to see what I'm up to/things I'm loving, I have an Instagram account now that I'm super active on, so definitely follow that here ! How are your holidays so far? Have you finished your shopping? Bake anything yummy recently? Lets chat! xo

Hey everyone! Just a quick post to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope you're all having a great day with loved ones and are feeling all of the love and happiness! I had so much fun with Blogmas this year and I'll definitely be doing it again next year! I hope you all enjoyed reading these posts as much as I did writing them! Have a lovely day, whether you celebrate Christmas or not <3 xo Dina

Hey everyone! The past 24+ hours have gone by in such a flurry of excitement and productivity for me, I honestly cannot believe it's already the 24th! All my gifts have been bought, wrapped and placed under the tree. My pumpkin pie is baked and ready to eat and my cake is baked, leveled, stacked and crumb coated! All I have left to do today is to decorate my cake which sounds like a pretty fun Christmas eve activity to me! Along with Christmas eve supper and then Christmas movies and hot chocolate!! I have to say I'm a bit sad that after all this fun buildup, Christmas will be over once again. But the next few days will be tons of fun and I'm super excited! What are you guys doing today? Do you have any Christmas eve traditions? Happy Christmas eve everyone! PS. would anyone be interesting in seeing the final product of my cake once it's decorated? It's a pumpkin and spice cake with a cinnamon cream cheese icing!! xo

Hey everyone! So this will be a very quick little post since I desperately need to get back to studying but I'm starting to feel more in that warm fuzzy Holiday mood and I thought I'd share a few of the things that make me happy this time of year when I'm feeling down. I'm honestly so grateful for how amazing my friends are to me. Even though it's pretty much the busiest time of year for us all, they still manage to be there for me when I need them most and I appreciate it beyond belief. It makes everything so much better when I'm feeling down. On a less serious note, here are the other things making my down days a bit better; Sweet hot chocolate with a mountain of marshmallows Candy canes! Wrapping gifts with music on in the background How pretty the twinkling lights of the tree are when its dark The gorgeous Christmas displays in the windows of stores Warm blankets fresh out of the dryer Someone holding you when you don't fe

Hello everyone! So, for those of you in a relationship, I completely understand that sometimes its hard to come up with creative date ideas that also keep the season in mind. It can get a bit dull always going out for dinner and a movie all year around. So here are some suggestions for festive date ideas for the winter season! Hopefully you enjoy them and try some of these out! Skating The most typical (and super fun!) date during the wintertime for me is to go skating together. Usually at a festively decorated outdoor skating rink, but it could be indoors if you live somewhere that doesn't necessarily get too cold! It's a fun, active date that you'll both enjoy. Hopefully at least one of you can skate well though, cause it might not be so fun for the both of you ending up falling on your butts! This is definitely a date you should try at least once with your significant other. Stay in and watch holiday movies Ok, hear me out on this one, since I know it doesn

Hi everyone! So as you all know, I'm very into Pinterest and trying out tons of recipes, and I have just been drowning in tons of amazing holiday recipes that I just had to share with you all. Super festive and delicious! These would all look so nice on a holiday dinner table! Let me know in the comments if you'd like me to share more! (Cause believe me, there is many many more) Enjoy!! xo 1) Pear, Pomegranate and Spinach Salad Recipe here 2) Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups Recipe here 3) Chicken Parmesan Meatballs Recipe here 4) Honey Roasted Butternut Squash with Cranberries and Feta Recipe here 5) Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Shallots, Poached Pears, and Blue Cheese  Recipe here 

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE wrapping gifts. I'm the sort of person who goes all out with this; pretty paper, ribbons, bows, name tags and all. Does anyone else love wrapping gifts all pretty? Especially with some Christmas music (or Vlogmas videos) in the background! And I must say, I'm pretty good at wrapping them too, so I'm usually the designated gift wrapper in my house (minus my own, of course). Although, can we all just take a minute to acknowledge the most frustrating things about gift wrapping? Awkwardly shaped gifts Cutting wrapping paper too short Running out of tape halfway through a gift Running out of wrapping paper or ribbon and not being able to finish a gift Cheap/Thin wrapping paper that doesn't glide with the scissor when you cut it I just want to say that I think that actually taking the time to wrap a gift and make it look nice is so important. The effort of doing that really shows that you care and lets be honest, it looks SO

Hello and welcome to Blogmas Day 8! I did a post like this back in the fall and I really felt like doing another one! With the help of my lovely best friend Tracy, we came up with a list of the absolute best things about the Holiday season! Hopefully you all agree! Let me know what your favourite things about the holiday season are in the comments!  Festive decorations everywhere! Christmas movies on TV The food The first snowfall Time off from school Wrapping gifts with pretty wrapping paper and bows (even if you're not great at it) Advent calendars The smell of freshly baked cookies (and Christmas dinner!) Baking gingerbread cookies Christmas music Decorating the tree Putting cookies out for Santa on Christmas eve Warm sweaters and fuzzy socks Hot chocolate Christmas scented candles! Ugly christmas sweaters Stockings filled with little gifts Christmas shopping! Waking up on Christmas day Decorating gingerbread houses Spending tim

I used to be the kind of person who refused to have a job during school semesters. I explained it by saying I wanted to be completely focused on school and not have any other distractions keeping me from getting the highest grades possible. I would work during my summers, but as soon as the fall semester rolled around, I'd remain unemployed so I could put all my time into my studies. However, as you get older, life happens and your parents can't support you 100% forever. So having a job became necessary for me. Maybe I've just been spoiled and everyone reading this right now is like well duhhhh. But for all you lazy girls like me who don't want to work during the semester, have a quick read. I now realize that not only is having a job while you're in school totally possible, it's actually beneficial. And here's why. I'm not suggesting you work 30+ hours while also going to College full time. While I do know some people who can somehow manage this, I

Hey everyone! Welcome to Blogmas day 6! As I mentioned in a previous post, today I'm going to be sharing some inspiration for Christmas tree decoration! There are honestly some incredibly gorgeous trees online and it makes me so envious! I wish my house was bigger so I could have a huge tree like some of these! But regardless, if you're looking for some decoration inspiration, or you just love looking at Christmassy things like me, enjoy! :) p.s how cute was that ombre/rainbow one? I'm in love! xo

Hello everyone! Guess what I did today! I guess the title of this post was kind of a give-away, but yes, I finally decorated my Christmas tree! I decorate my Christmas tree as early in December as I can because it just gets me in the most festive mood and I want to keep it around as much as I can! I love seeing other people's Christmas trees so I encourage everyone to make a blog post showing off your tree and leave me the links in the comments below! I'll also be posting a collection of beautiful trees I find on Pinterest cause I'm a Christmas addict like that! Our Christmas tree is a mix of silver, gold and pearls. I love how it looks so classy but also really fun and sparkly! Let me know what you think and how you'd decorate your ideal Christmas tree! xo (Apologies for my sub-par photo quality! My good camera has broken so I'm stuck taking photos with my phone! Anyone have any recommendations for a good quality camera that won't break the bank?)

I'm pretty good at shopping for gifts, especially when it comes to Christmas gifts. I'm very attentive to the things people like and I really love choosing gifts that are both thoughtful and useful. However this skill, or talent if you will, clearly does not apply when it comes to shopping for my boyfriend. Because I am truly clueless. If you're looking for some kind of guide for the ideal gifts to buy your boyfriend, I am very sorry because what you have stumbled across here is far from that; this is a rant. Because I am truly confused, why is it so hard to shop for your boyfriend?? Maybe I'm alone here and I'm sounding crazy. And it's not that my boyfriend is overly picky or has high expectations. However I'm used to being able to find the perfect gift for everyone on my list and for some reason I just can't put my finger on what it would be. I can think of things he would like, sure. But I'm after that kind of gift that has that 'wow'

Hello everyone! Since, as many of you know, I'm extremely excited about the holiday season and I want to share my excitement I've decided to partake in Blogmas this year: one blog post every day of December up until Christmas eve. Now I'm not sure if I'll regret this decision, since December is finals season as well and I'll be busier than ever, but I'm super determined to do it, and I think it'll be a fun 24 days of great posts! Hopefully you'll all follow along with me as we draw nearer to the holidays and get excited with me! Let me know in the comments if there's anything you'd like me to write about during Blogmas! I'd love to hear your suggestions!! xo

Oh yes! It's getting close to that time of year again! The holidays are truly one of my favourite times of the year. Yes, I may be one of those people who start listening to Christmas music in November and plan out my holiday shopping/decorating/baking weeks in advance. And yes, my family is the kind who put up their Christmas tree on December 1st. For all of you who aren't quite in the holiday spirit yet (and those of you like me who are TOTALLY in the holiday spirit) I thought I'd share a collection of photos that just might get you a bit more in the mood to get excited about the holidays!! Are you excited for the holidays? Tell me about it in the comments! xo