I'm a little annoyed with how this picture turned out, I haven't put up curtains in our new place (for diffusing natural light) and I'm taking this on top of our plastic folding table. Next year's resolution is to resolve our furniture. Get a new table, fix up the chairs (or get new ones) and stay organized.
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makes about 9+ cups of nog• P A R T I E S •
I had a fantastic time at a food tasting with fellow bloggers at Station 22. Oh. My. GOSH. Their food is amazing. Their meat was cooked to perfection & they served us the most delicious acorn squash I’ve had in my life. The consistency & flavor was akin to crème brûlée.
Next, I participated in a little gift exchange with the lovely Creative Collaborative folks. I was thrilled with what I came home with! I got an original painting by Brittany Scott (a fellow painter from college). It’s gorgeous. I want to frame it before I share it with you. My Christmas was complete from the moment that painting filled my hands.
Creative Collaborative is one of the reasons why I’m excited to have moved. We’re now a hop skip & a jump away from CC meetings, I look forward to going every month!
Photo courtesy of Alice Lane
The 2nd Annual Alice Lane party was too much fun. I spent the night eating delicious treats & drooling over their gorgeous furniture. They sent us home with fresh-baked buscuits & strawberry-basil jam. The biscuits were inhaled, as was the jam. I’m going to need that jam recipe.
It, too, was a gift exchange & I scored the most delicious batch of peanut butter cookies to ever tickle my tastebuds. It’s nothing short of a Christmas miracle that I can zip up my pants today.
photo by Bri Webb
I baked 6 (YES, SIX!) dozen Lemon Crinkle cookies for a cookie exchange party, hosted by Bri of Collected. The above cookie was my absolute favorite. We all went home practically comatose from sugar overdose & bursting at the sides from all the delicious cookies.
The party was gorgeously decorated & designed, too. Next time, I’m dipping my lemon crinkle cookies in chocolate. I’m also adding a lot more lemon.
After all of the friend parties were the family gatherings. They were fun, but SO stressful. Felix has been teething (his wish is to get his two front teeth by the new year) & Penelope was really naughty. At the first Christmas party, Penelope & her cousin found their way into my parents’ bathroom & proceeded to make a fantastic mess with their shaving cream, soap, mouthwash and baby powder. I don’t think I got any pictures of the chaos, but I’m sure my sister did. The next night (at another family party) Penelope & her cousin went into the play room & proceeded to take out every single board game & mix up every single piece to every single game. Penelope was sure to leave her signature string spiderweb all over the room, too. Her nickname “Penelope the Destroyer” is back in full force.
I’m thinking something about driving 100+ miles every day for family gatherings for 4 days straight might have gotten to her. Perhaps.
• G I F T S •
My sister-in-law dropped the not-so-subtle hint that they wanted personalized mugs for Christmas. Before the hint, I had no idea what to do for them. I bought some 14 oz. mugs from Shopko, personalized them with ceramic paint pens & cured the mugs in the oven. DONE. I’d love to do this for our family.
My sister wanted to surprise my parents with family photos, but her plan was completely foiled when my parents suggested we get together for family photos. In keeping with the same theme, we pooled our photos together & created a family photobook & calendar for them. Since they live on the other side of the country, we thought it would be a sweet to document our year for them. My mom is an avid scrapbooker, so I knew she’d love it.
Paper Coterie provided me with a gift card, so I was thrilled to use that. I was incredibly impressed with their photobook system, ordering, paper & print quality, customer service & packaging. A+ all around. Just FYI: I was not asked to do a review, but I was just so impressed with the process & end product I thought I’d mention it here.
I kept things pretty simple with packaging & wrapping. When I ran out of my favorite Ikea wrapping paper, I used this lovely chevron paper designed by my friends Bri & Melanie (almost too nice to use). The bows are from American Crafts. I love how they look together. So simple.
These are two of the goodies I got from the various gift exchanges I participated in. Felix LOVES his little monkey & Penelope loves her little purse. Penelope kept asking Chris & I (and Santa) for a marshmallow dinosaur for Christmas. I thought it was funny, but Chris was picking up what she was putting down! He made her a marshmallow dino! It’s the sweetest labor of love, ever. Penelope loved her little Christmas surprise.
Santa put down arrows around the house leading Penelope & Felix to various little toys. It ended with the marshmallow dino & a few wrapped gifts. I love her reaction in the video. Total cuteness overload.
Popout
Last year Chris & I exchanged love letters. It was the best Christmas we’d done for each other, ever. I knew it’d would be hard to even come close this year. I totally failed. What did Chris get from me for Christmas? Squat. EPIC fail. Maybe now that the bar is at the very bottom, I’ll be able to do something great next year. I feel like an awful wife.
Speaking of gifts from spouses, I wrote this out for Bri, as commissioned by her husband. I believe he put it in a cookbook. Brilliant! If only I could think of clever/thoughtful/sweet things like this for Chris.
How was your Christmas? Win? Fail?
Like I've mentioned before, It's so hard to invest in Christmas decorations when you don't know where you'll be in the next year or you have little room for storage. Despite that, I found this adorable Martha Stewart table cloth at the thrift store a couple years ago for something like $2. I like that it's not your typical red & green decor and it seems to go with the other two Christmas decorations we own, too.
Also, I just had to mention that I planted the above succulent arrangement a few months ago & never got around to posting about it. I had the base on hand for some time & got all of the succulents from Ikea. I LOVE IKEA. My mom would be so proud that this thing has survived not only four months, but four months & a move. Chris boxed up all of our plants a week before our actual move and a few of our plants haven't quite recovered.
How are the holidays done around your house? Have you scored any vintage/thrifted Christmas details for your home? Share links in the comments! I'd love to see!
I didn't get around to laser cutting the bracelets before my first gift exchange, so I cut 5 of them by hand. I did 5 in under 2 hours (while watching TV). So you can tell that these things are easy to make! There are only 4 days left until Christmas, but that's more than enough time to head to your local leather shop & make matching leather bracelets for all of your girlfriends (and their pets).
• S U P P L I E S •
• I N S T R U C T I O N S •
Thread the flat end through the buckle. Insert the oblong hole through the filange of the buckle. Sew the end onto the buckle with your needle & thread, tying a square knot to secure ends.
Wrap around your wrist twice & buckle!
Click here to see today's outfit (and accompanying leather bracelet).
I'm still trying to figure out the lighting in this studio. It's sometimes warm, sometimes cool & sometimes ridiculously contrasting!
I'm not sure what it is entirely, but it definitely has a very scandinavian feel. This box is a BREEZE to cut out & fold (I say this about a million times in the video, it's embarrassing) you'll be able to make one for every one of your neighbors. This box measures about 2"x4"x2". If you'd like it bigger, take it to your local printer & have them blow it up on 11x17 paper. If you can, print them on an inkjet printer, you'll get better folds this way. Also, you'll want to print on a mid-weight paper. Thick card stock is a bit much, unless you're going for a bigger box.
I've yet to make caramels this year, but I'm sure I'll get around to it. If not, I might just do a stack of chocolate-dipped cookies in here. It's really the perfect size for macarons. I also plan on using Pugly Pixel's glitter tape tutorial for sealing the box.
Enjoy! Click the button below to download & be sure to watch the video tutorial explaining how to fold it up! For previous year's boxes click on the links below:
Talk about high & low. You never thought Anthro could be in the same outfit as Walmart, but think again.
When does he not have his tongue sticking out?
The above pictures are straight out of the camera: 1250ISO, f/4, 1/80
I pulled out my camera yesteraday for some sweet pictures of Felix while Penelope was enjoying her "quiet time". He's becoming more & more mobile these days which is both exciting and devastating. I like my chubby bump on a log, but it's so fun to see him grow & change. He's still nowhere near sitting up by himself though. That behemoth head of his & his lack of motivation has really held him back. He's still an excellent cuddler & I'm loving every minute of it. I'll be so sad to see that phase go.
This picture is straight out of the camera: 2500ISO, f/3.5, 1/100
Felix is such a charmer. He loves any attention that's thrown his way! See him "crawl" in the video below.
I love you baby Felix. You're my favorite son ever.
I finally set up my backdrop in my studio. It took a grand total of 2 minutes, but I've been putting it off for 2 weeks. I really like the lighting in my new digs. This is actually right next to a door that I can open to let in more light. I like.
Looks like I need to give these boots a good cleaning & shine. Yikes.
Not the best photos in the world, but I really liked this outfit. It's what I wore Thanksgiving day on my way to the airport to reunite with my fam.
Head over there & check it out!
Every once in a while I have bloggers emailing me to redesign their graphics/branding & most of the time I'm completely swamped with other stuff. Seriously, could I add a few more hours to the day? It was really fun to be able to work with Taylor on her site. Go check out Sterling Style for some sweet fashion.
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. . . And one last thing! I'm looking for an assistant/intern to help me with marketing/advertising stuff so I can spend more time crafting & playing with kiddos. See the below & email me if you're interested. Thanks! The requirements: