I started sharing my Friday Specials with you late February. I wanted to highlight some of the amazing things I stumble upon online – sharing other bloggers creativity with you. I’ve never thought of myself as a very talented list sharer, sometimes they came about last minute or even half hazard, but always sharing things I thought were great, admirable or just pretty.

I’m not sure if I will continue my link posts in the new year – I might create them on a less regular schedule, or maybe not at all. I might share other things on a Friday – more recipes, or a weekend outing, or maybe work I did for other audiences. I’m not sure and for once I’m not going to plan it – I’ll try to go with the flow, to share what’s important to me at the moment, a more spontaneous approach to my Friday posts – a trait I want to work on in 2014.

So today I’m sharing a list of what I consider very talented list makers – ones I look forward to every week. I’m sure you are familiar with a few of them. Enjoy!

My favourite Friday Link bloggers:

• Cup of Jo – Joanna is the master of Friday Links
• Design mom – I look forward to Gabrielle’s finds
• SwissMiss – a little design, a bit of nerdiness, lots of great finds
• FoodieCrush – Heidi shares so much deliciousness each week it’s hard to resist
• Raincoast Creative Salon – Sandra’s arty and creative links are different and often make you think
• Camille Styles – Camille gives you a weekend list – which is some great reading to sneak in on Saturday
• Making it Lovely – Nicole’s honor role has a good mix of design, funny stories and cute things
• Clementine Daily – The list of eight noteworthy things is nicely curated by Koseli Cummings
• Oh Happy Day – Jordan shares a nice round-up of fun party ideas each Friday

What are your plans for the weekend? Did December sneak up on you?

 Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• Holiday Issue of Rue
• Mini Cheese Ball Bites
• Sandra and Melanie created an amazing collaborative creative space
• Peppermint Crinkle Cookies
• Jennifer posted  holiday gift guides and I supplied a few ideas.

It’s amazing to see things that I’ve been working on for months come to fruition (well, except for the snow storm – I had nothing to do with that). There’s a lot of back and forth, a lot of emails, questions, fact checking, set-up, etc. for all these pieces to be published. And then you wait, and wait… and suddenly it’s real. It’s fun and we are a little proud around here.
I hope my American friends are having a lovely holiday and aren’t spending too much money on black Friday. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday!

 Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• Did you know that I spent 2 months in Florence when I was 16? Nicole brings back wonderful memories.
• Gingerbread Bundt Cake
• Cute Bonbon Advent Wreath
• Ricotta and Sweet Potato Gnocchi
• I love Heather’s blog and this photo she took in San Francisco is amazing.

This weekend will be busy with my in-laws visiting and two birthday parties. Have a great weekend and don’t forget to enter the Minted giveaway – comments are welcome until Monday!

Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• Wow. I want to go now
• Check out the new issue of SisterMag
• Yummy holiday cookies
• I’m not bad at arranging flowers, but I’m considering this, just for fun
• Simple and fun advent calendar
• Inspired by the images of simple holiday greenery

This was the first week I was really cold – brrr, those temperatures really dropped for a bit. Looks like this weekend will be lovely though, so I hope we get to spend some time outdoors.

On the blog we finally added an email subscription field. If you want to be notified of new posts, feel free to sign up for the email subscription in the sidebar.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you here on Monday with a nice little give-away you can use for your holiday shopping.

Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• Hawaiian bread pudding
• Check out Erin’s amazing store that launched this week. And check out the DIY that got it all started. Wow!
• Oreo biscotti
• Starbucks in a Swiss train
• Advent in a jar – this is super cute!
• Jennifer uses her Chalk Ink in such creative ways.

Last week I did this little branding exercise. Inspired by House of Brinson’s Styling class I wanted to figure out the colour palette I was subconsciously using in my photographs. I had consciously decided on my actual blog colours (logo, titles, text, sidebar, social media), but I had not paid specific attention to my photo colour palette.

So, this little exercise was taking it a bit further – stepping back and looking at my work for the past 11 months. And this is what I saw – a colour palette of neutrals, blues, some dark purples and occasional pops of green, pink and yellow. There is a theme going on!  Also note that I had no purple until I did an upcoming holiday shoot, which will go live in December and then I used purple for a recipe that’s going live on Monday, so this is a little sneak peek for you.

Sometimes it’s worth the time to go back and look at your work as a whole – making sure that things are cohesive, well branded and tell a story.  Have you looked at your work recently?

Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• Talking about colours.
• Aran and Sarah make Cranberry and Quinoa Scones
• Purchase Make Your Day – the craft ebook. Some lovely ideas there.
• Spinach and Egg on small pizzas? yes please!
• Personalized wrapping paper? Awesome!
• Herb and Fruit Pairings

Today I’m particularly excited that it’s Friday. We have tickets* to the A Taste of Kingston & The County experience at the Ottawa Wine & Food Festival – a 4 course tasting menu with Chef Clark Day. It’s going to be a unique culinary tour, perfectly paired with premium wines from Prince Edward County. Not only is this date night, but it’s a date night where we get to do something outside of our regular movie. I believe there are still a couple of sittings available to purchase. For the $75 ticket you don’t only get the tasting menu, you also have access to the tasting floor and VIP access (no line-up – yipyyyyy), great value in my opinion.

Oh – and that picture above? That’s my first in print photo that I was hired to take for the Ottawa Magazine, Winter 2013 edition! Eeep!

Have a great weekend.

Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• This looks like the perfect bowl of comfort food.
• Stricter contest rules for Pinterest
• Susan creates beautiful crumble bars
• Kate has a great summary on how to start a food blog
• Sugar and Spice
• All these pretty places

* I was gifted two tickets to the A Taste of Kingston & The County experience at the Ottawa Wine & Food Festival by the Great Waterway. I was not required or paid to write about this event. All opinions are my own.

Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• I want to eat this.
• I would like this to grow in my back yard.
• Easy and cute Halloween Decor.
• Bats make any cake spooky.
• I love this idea of ornament holiday cards.
• What a relaxing space.

But today I am super pleased to show you my new portfolio site – Giulia Doyle Photography. Ever since launching Audrey’s earlier this year, my goal has been to work on my portfolio. Let me tell you – it’s hard to pick what photos you want to showcase. While this is an evolving site – I am super pleased with the look and feel, the simplicity and the first batch of my work that’s represented. I’ll be adding to the ‘published’ pages later this year, which is super exciting!

How have you been?

Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• Tombstone Cupcakes I made for Classic Play
• Nice Shot
• How close can you get?
• Chalkboard Word Find Pumpkin
• We usually rent a place on vacation, so I want to try this kid friendly way
• I want to make this yummy looking pasta

Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• Quinoa cauliflower patties – I think I could get my son to eat his veggies like this
• I wish we had a studio like this in Ottawa – look at the wall of props
• Adding blueberries to your grilled cheese sandwich
• Pretty passion-fruit tart