Why should Santa enjoy the comfort of his reindeer drawn sleigh while we circle parking lots, brave crowds and bah humbug over gas prices? This winter we want to erase those ghosts of holidays’ past and replace them with a memorable gift shopping experience.

Every Sunday until December 18, Shop Socials will be offering Santa’s Limo Helper, a chauffeured shopping excursion designed to tackle even the most challenging gift list with the help of luxury limousine transportation, an on-board gifting tutorial, festive cocktails, gourmet sweets and a two and half hour guided tour of Queen West, Leslieville or Yonge and Eglinton boutiques, hand-selected for their gifting charm.

Passengers enjoy free time to explore neighbouhoods on their own and can literally proclaim, “It’s a wrap!”, at the end of the day with complimentary gift wrapping. The Santa’s Limo Helper experience starts from just $65 per person and offers centrally located pick-ups east and west of the Greater Toronto Area every Sunday at 11 a.m. Private group bookings are also available until December 23.

Learn more and reserve your spot before they’re all gone at: www.shopsocials.com/ss/santa.html

Great design…great prices…sounds like my kind of offering! It’s the usual UBER-SEXY Versace style, which will come in sooo handy for all the holiday parties!

Here’s my top 5 picks:

1. The Red Dress – Oh my…so sexy & classy & red! All of my favourite things in one!

2. The Gold Dress – Soooo sexy & fun! This dress makes me want to party!

3. The Yellow Dress – Stunning colour, and looks amazing with this blue scarf & fun purse.

4. The Versace LBD – Classic!

5. Light & Dark Blue Asian Inspired Dress – This is just fun! It’s cute, girly and could be worn a million different ways!

Recently I stumbled upon this gorgeous pic of Jennifer Aniston’s dress that I was crushing huge for!

It turns out the dress was originally a long and flowy metallic dress by KaufmanFranco, but the designers re-released a shorter and sexier version exclusively for Saks Fifth Avenue.

LOVING IT!

P.S. Doesn’t this dress look so much better with tanned skin and lighter hair? The long version looks a tad severe, and the shorter version is SO much better!

This store has some gorgeous, unique and really fashion forward goodies. Check out some of our favourite finds below:

1. I’m really LOVING these Catherine Weitzman earrings. So fun and sexy and you can wear them day or night!

2. I NEED these Miguel Simek earrings. Enough Said!

3. At the store – they have such a cool and inviting setting, and so many incredible finds!

Want to take a peak at more of their fantastic goodies?

Go to their website: http://ellehardware.com/
Visit their store: 695 Queen St. West, Toronto, Ontario

HOW TO ENTER:
1. Go to the Cashmere Clutch facebook page
2. Tell us why you want to WIN the $100 Gift Card by leaving a comment on the wall

CONTEST DURATION:
Contest period is from Thursday, October 20, 2011 – Friday, October 28, 2011 at midnight, EST
Winner will be announced on the facebook wall on Saturday October 29th.

LEGAL STUFF THAT NO-ONE READS
Must be a minimum 18 years old to enter
Not open to residents of Quebec

Mostly we’ve been trying to learn how to cut our lawn properly. You laugh, but it’s about 3 acres and takes me 5 hours to mow on the riding lawnmower. Apparently grass is very sensitive and there’s a right and wrong way to do it – who knew! On the plus side, it’s been so dry and hot…and we don’t have a sprinkler in place, so I only have to mow once every 2 weeks!

We’ve also been trimming up a lot of trees. They had been left unkempt for about 8 years from the previous owners, and were starting to looking really messy. It’s amazing how a nice trim job tidies up a yard quickly! (Don’t mind the dead grass!)

Before:

After:

We’ve also been pulling out all the old non-functioning fencing that’s around the orchard. The farm used to be a sheep farm, but without any animals for years, and without anyone really taking care of the property, it’s really become a mess! So as part of reclaiming the land, we needed to pull out all the metal wires and fences that were tangled in weeds, and made lawnmowing this area impossible.

Pulling it out:

Success:

The work at the farm is quite hard, but I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to be physically tired from a days work outdoors. It feels so good to breathe in fresh air, work hard, and see the fruits of your labour almost immediately. Unlike my day job running a marketing company, where it can be months before we see results of our work, doing a few hours of yard work shows immediate results.

It’s got to be good for the soul!

We had a bit of a debaucle at first. We bought furniture from Pottery Barn last March, and they delivered the wrong furniture to us! Through a long and confusing (surprising for the Pottery Barn, I know!) process we had to re-order new furniture and they finally brought it to us. (Yes, that means they took many, many, months to correct the mistake.)

We were so happy to see the big truck pull up, the old furniture get carted away, and the new furniture put in it’s place.

Old sofa:

New sofa:

We think the new pieces work much better; the old sofa was huge, but only had 2 big pillows, so it looked like a loveseat, and even thought it was big, with only 2 cushions we noticed that only 2 people would sit on it at the same time.

With the new furniture it not only looks much better (tighter fabric, a slightly more refined style) but it makes our living room look so much better with the 3 pillow sofa.

So interesting how furniture changes a room!

(ohhhh, the things we’re learning from owning a house).

As we’ve mentioned in the past, we’ve been building a great little marketing company over the past two years.

Business has been going great, and we’ve gotten some great clients, cool projects, and an unbelievable lifestyle.

It wasn’t until this summer that I made a fantastic realization – the business works in cycles similar to that of a school teacher; busy in the fall, busy in the Spring, and pretty quiet in the summer and over Christmas! What a fantastic lifestyle!

So instead of trying to fight it, I just went with it…this summer I worked an average of 6-8 hours a day, but rarely ever on weekends, and on days where there wasn’t much to do…well, I focused on other things, like going for long walks before lunch, meeting friends, reading, and doing lots and lots of yardwork.

If you’re considering going into business for yourself NOTHING beats the freedom. Yes, it can be stressful at times, and yes, you’ll probably have some pretty tight budgets over the first few years, but in the end if you learn how to work it WILL pay off big! The freedom you’ll have from not reporting to a boss, and having ultimate decision making power, the free time you’ll have if you learn to go with the phases of your business, and the joy of running your own business…and knowing you made it.

NOTHING BEATS IT!

This summer we’ve been making a big effort to support the local farmers. We stop by the farm stand a few times a week, and peruse their offerings before picking up a few of our favourites.

This summer the peaches have been insanely good! So incredibly juicy and rich and perfect! The onions are also a hit, and we’re getting pumped for the pears which should be available any day now.

If you get a chance, buy farm fresh produce. In Ontatrio, if each household spent $10 of their grocery bill on Ontario farm fresh produce each week, it would add up to a 2.4 billion dollar annual influx into our provincial economy. Good for you, good for farmers…..good for everyone!

Recently we’ve been on a bit of a landscaping spree at the farm. We wake up at 530am or so, have a quick coffee and breakfast and then head out to do yard work before the smoking hot sun gets too hot to handle.

One of the best parts about waking up so early is to welcome the day properly. Seeing the sky transform from a dark hue, to a misty white, to bright pinks, oranges, and reds.

It’s one of the hidden joys of waking up so early – and definitely worth it!

Ok, we’ve been pretty absent from the blog recently…and not that it’s much of an excuse, but we’ve been busting our chops on our business, and getting the farm in order, while also trying to manage keeping up with life in the city. As you can imagine, that leaves little time for blogging…but that’s beginning to sound kind of like an excuse isn’t it.

So, to make it up, I’ll be updating over the next little while on what we’ve been up to – everything from a trip to Vegas, to major farm work, to running a business!

It’s been loads of fun, but of course, as with all things in life, trying to keep some balance in it all can be tricky. So, to try and get back to a more balanced life, we’re making Cashmere Clutch more of a priority.

Stay tuned for cool updates on what we’ve been up to!

xo
Ingrid