Charming Charlie in Canada

Last year, one of my best friends moved to Vancouver after landing a job as a flight attendant with Air Canada. It took almost 12 months, but I finally made it there to visit her! I had never been to Vancouver before, so I had a great weekend seeing the city and of course getting some shopping done. Included in my shopping  travels was an amazing trip to one of Canada's very first Charming Charlie stores in Surrey!

The location I visited is at Guildford Centre in Surrey, BC. There are three other locations in Canada right now, one in Victoria at Uptown Centre, as well as two locations in Ontario, in Brampton and in Vaughn.
I first discovered Charming Charlie back in 2010 during one of my first visits to Arizona. I remember walking in and being totally floored by the place...jewelry everywhere! And best of all, everything was organized by colour.  Since then, CC has been a "must visit" store every time I'm in the US, which is only a couple times a year (if that)...so imagine how excited I was when they announced they were coming to Canada! After visiting the store in Surrey on March 21, I can happily report that Charming Charlie in Canada is all I would dreamed it would be! It's the same beautiful, bright, colour-coordinated store and has great jewels for great prices, just like in the US! 

I spent a good long while in there, mostly just ogling the prettiness but also making sure I looked at every display so that I didn't miss anything. 

I also wasted a lot of time trying to decide what I wanted. Shopping is hard when you want...well...everything. Charming Charlie doesn't make it any easier either because a lot of the time if they have something in one colour it might be there in another colour...so how do you choose?! If you're like me, you don't choose, you just get both. In the end, I left with lots of beautiful things. A few items for spring, a few adorable nautical themed pieces, lots of simple, dainty things (I am really into simplistic right now!) and even an adorable travel case to take everything home in.

Earrings: here and here. 

Rings: here.

Silver floral bracelet: here. 

Silver pave bracelet here. 

Anchor cuff here.

 Sunglasses here.
Anchor bracelet here.

Bracelet here.

Watch here. Travel Case: here.

I can't wait to style all of these fun things! Calgary's spring is off to a chilly start, but some of these pretty pieces are totally going to make it more bearable!

If you're not already, make sure you follow me on Instagram to see how I wear everything!

Big thanks to Charming Charlie for sending me on the funnest shopping spree I've ever been on, and to all of the staff at the Guildford Centre store for being so friendly and so helpful.

Welcome to Canada, Charming Charlie! This post was sponsored by Charming Charlie. However, all opinions are my own.

Easy DIY Wall Art

I finished decorating my tree weeks ago, but in my shopping adventures since then I found a couple extra ornaments that were too cute to leave behind. So instead of finding a spot for them on the tree,  I decided to do something else fun with them! I found the ornaments at Canadian Tire, but I also saw the exact same deer one at Hudson's Bay later so it might be available at stores in the US too if they were manufactured overseas!
All you need to make one of these is a frame, an ornament, some wrapping paper (or maybe scrapbook paper) and some hot glue.

First thing I did was pop the glass out of the frame.

Then I wrapped the frame in the wrapping paper, making sure the front side was perfectly flat to avoid any wrinkles.

I used a set of pliers to remove the hook on the top of the ornament.

Then I glued him on.

Don't worry about messing up on this part, because it's easy to just re-wrap the frame! 

You can also really easily pull the ornament off and stick it onto a different pattern later.

Here's how it looks on the wall.

I decided to go with something a little different for the moose.

That's it! 

Double Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

A few times in December, I make it a priority to spend the whole day baking.
 I'm not much of a baker the rest of the year, but I just love holiday themed baking!  Peppermint everything and all kinds of cookies are my favourite things to make. I tried this recipe from A Pumpkin and a Princess last year and it turned out SO well!  However, this time around I made a couple of small tweaks and I enjoyed them a lot more.  Here's her recipe with a couple small additions!

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (I used salted butter and then just left out the addition of salt later)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp peppermint extract

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt (I left this out)

1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks (I used sweet baking chocolate)

1/2 cup candy cane pieces

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.
Beat butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and peppermint until light and fluffy.
In a large bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture until well combined.
Stir in chocolate chunks.
Use cookie scoop to drop cookies onto ungreased baking sheet. (Mine was thick enough that I just used my hands and rolled it into balls.)
Press candy cane pieces on top.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes.
(At this point I sprinkled smaller candy cane pieces on top...that way they stuck to the warm cookie but didn't melt completely. Makes them a little prettier!)
Cool slightly then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.