Since the holidays always have me wanting to give all the gifts, I thought this would be the sweetest (and easiest) way to step up my homemade gift game a little bit.
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I’ve always loved buying new calendars. There’s just something about it—I love that it’s like rotating artwork, and that it’s also a little surprise to celebrate the start of each month. So, I’ve usually held on to my favorites, assuming I’d eventually put them to good use again at the very low price of: nothing.
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If there’s anything I’m anal about (lol, how much time do you have?), it’s ugly labels and branding being on display in an otherwise aesthetically pleasing setting. You know, like over my dead body are our Oral B electric toothbrushes and Crest toothpaste staying out on the bathroom counter :)
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Tomorrow, I'll be making personalized gift baskets with shoppers at Hart's Local Grocers, a neighborhood fresh and local grocery store in Rochester. It is the perfect time of year for this sort of event because I know I don't stand alone when I say that it feels like there are still so many people left to shop for! Whether it's for the holiday itself, or a host or hostess gift for holiday travel, this is when we start getting down to the wire for gifting...
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love the idea of giving this to a friend who loves cooking, or a family with little kids to help make the pizza, or as a hostess gift, or as a sweet little house warming gift to kick off the first home cooked meal in a new kitchen. How sweet?!...
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Jon helped me put together some charcuterie boards for my recent Capsule Wardrobe Workshop at West Elm. The results were divine, if I do say so myself. Good enough to eat? Yep.
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I’m such a sucker for gift wrap. I always have been. Even really young, staring at the gifts under the Christmas tree, it’s fair to say I was almost equally smitten with Santa’s gift wrap and ribbon choices as I was the clothes, stickers, and crafts he had hidden within...
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For as tiny as this little DIY was, it has packed a huge punch on my nightstand and is such a sweet sentiment to fall asleep and wake up to...
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I am crazy about this most recent home DIY endeavor. I was inspired by some images I saw on Pinterest, and thought I'd try my hand at a suspended rope shelf with some fun and trendy copper elements...
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I have a little infatuation with strange animal memorabilia. I don't exactly know where it came from or how it developed, but every time I see a version of an animal that is particularly tiny or has particularly skinny legs or is made of a strange material, I'm weirdly drawn to it (whether in Christmas ornament form or as decor or whatever else, and I'm particularly drawn to insects and reptiles)...
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In my tiny corner of the world, there’s not much better than a great Bloody Mary. And don’t get me wrong, I love the taste of one, but even more so, I love the Bloody Mary environment and culture, if you will (does that statement make me sound uncultured?).
The hours-long brunch with nothing else to do and nowhere else to be. The long pause and “hmmmmm” and “sure, why not” to the waitress when she sees that your glass is getting low. There’s just nothing else like it—a boozy brunch with friends or lovers or, hell, strangers even.
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...or a couples party.
Combining wine, cheese, and game night for the win on February 14th.
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How cute are bottle brush trees? After seeing so many evergreen colored varieties, I was thrilled to find these retro inspired ones a few months ago. I had to temporarily transport myself into Christmas mode to purchase them out of season for fear I’d never see them again. I also had to remind myself daily that I owned them for fear they’d end up in a random craft drawer or box, never to be seen again.
Alas, it’s Christmas time and my little DIY bottle brush snow globes are constructed and all is right with the world.
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Jon’s sweetest nephew just had his 2nd birthday party. And let’s be real—wrapping paper, cards, and even to some extent the gifts, tend to feel more like they’re for the adults involved than the tiny human celebrating his birthday, a little unsure of all the hustle and bustle going on around him. I wanted him to really love our gift, even while still wrapped. After having taken note of a similar kind of pom pom gift wrap I'd seen, I knew it’d be a cinch to make and that it’d be perfect for Smith because of the sensory aspect of the fuzzy little pom poms. And I was right! He loved touching them and trying to pull them off. And I loved how cute the gifts turned out. I certainly plan on employing this technique again, maybe for Christmas with holiday colors, or using brown paper and plain white pom poms for a more subdued look.
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If you've been reading along on here, you know how I feel about all things stationery and all things greeting cards, especially. This DIY project is relaxing and cathartic—watercolor painting is best learned by practice and experimentation—and there is not really such thing as right or wrong. I don't think there's a perfect set of steps to follow, but there are some tips/guidelines/hints that I have found to be very helpful in working with watercolors that I will discuss in a bit.
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One of my very favorite things about the holidays is the little displays of thoughtfulness that seem to be so much more prevalent: people hosting get-togethers, writing and sending holiday cards in the mail, giving away cookies, etc. I think it’s so fun being on both the giving and receiving end of these little gestures. Since so many people travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I thought it’d be a sweet and easy idea to feature a few DIY host/hostess gifts in the upcoming weeks.
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When I first saw this DIY on Pinterest, I loved it, but I also sighed in disappointment at how involved and difficult it looked. Isn't that always how DIY projects go? One night at midnight you pin 13 projects that you're all jazzed up about, only to wake up the next day and wonder what came over you that you thought you'd actually pursue these crafts. That's a little how I felt with this one, inspired by A Beautiful Mess, but as it turns out, for no reason! This is not nearly as involved as it looks, and the materials were also inexpensive. Plus, the final product is stinkin' cute! Worth it.
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I was on the lookout for a new mousepad, and I had a specific idea in mind of what I wanted. I ordered this plain white leather one from Amazon for under $10 and set out to add the gold touch I was looking for.
This DIY is so simple. I didn't even have all of the materials I should have used, and it still turned out great.
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My mom used to have this big old apothecary cabinet with shoe box sized drawers filled with rubber stamps and different color inks. She’d wrap gifts with brown craft paper and stamp silver and gold stars all over them, and tie it all up with great ribbon and a letter-stamped gift tag. She was also a perfectionist about it, so I loved watching how perfectly everything would turn out. One trick she used that I thought was so ingenious was using markers or brushes to get different colored ink onto one stamp.
I used these tactics to make what I think are the most adorable little stationery cards.