It is no secret that I love a friendship bracelet – in fact, A LOT of them at once. I’m not the only one either, just look at SLC’s wrist next to mine above, she wears even more than me! Keep in mind I was missing a few that day. While some of mine I have bought for myself, the majority were indeed real friendship bracelets gifted from real friends. Over the holidays I got some pretty special new ones that I wanna show you so check ‘em outs!

Isn’t getting real mail, like, the best thing ever? Ugh, I am SO over e-mail. Wait, I take that back a little because I really hate that I still get bank statements in the real mail (not that I ever open them anyway) but what I really DO love is when I get presents in the mail! One of my London-via-Toronto besties, Dana, sent me a little care package the other day, filled with amazing pieces from her hand made jewellery line, Selwyn. I’ve been dying for one her Braided Hex Nut Bracelets since she started making them in the summer, and now I have TWO! Yayayayaya, thank you Dana!

Check out her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/shopselwyn

So my friend Jodi opened up the cutest little vintage store in all of Kensington Market (and possibly Toronto) while I was away living in London. He is the best because whenever I got into Pretty Freedom (that’s the shop’s name!) he gets so excited, and jumps up and down so many times that I always become concerned that he might hurt himself. Aside from our big love for each other, his shop is like an extremely well-decorated cove of great vintage finds and jewellery. This Christmas I was given the cutest friendship bracelet in all of friendship bracelet land, and it came from PF!

Go check him out: http://prettyfreedom.com/

On the night before New Year’s Eve, I threw a huge dinner party to celebrate all of my lovely friends who live far far away, and were in town but flying away again within a couple of days. Most dinner guests know to always bring something with them, say, a bottle of wine, but hardly anyone ever thinks to bring their dinner host a gift. When my friend Steph arrived, not only did she come with booze in hand, but also a Danni Jo friendship bracelet from my favourite store, The Narwhal! Ah, my friends know me so well.

Check out: http://narwhalboutique.com/ and Steph’s amaze website: http://thecoveteur.com/

New Years Eve day was spent having hangover brunch at Shanghai Cowgirl, and then shopping around Queen West and Kensington Market with SLC (who was in town visiting from NYC). When finally on our way home, we were in need of TTC fare so I suggested we pop into Dragon City Mall to get some change since we were right at Spadina and Dundas. One hour and $50 later, we left with a bedazzled iphone case for Squirrel (aka SLC), a Happy New Year paper dragon gift (for that night’s host) and two (almost) matching bedazzled initial friendship charm bracelets. When we left, I realized that not only had we spent all of our money, but we still didn’t have streetcar change. At least we were happy, right? We LOVE our bracelets and Squirrel really, really loves her new iphone case.