Downloadable: Holiday Gift Tags

 As part of a holiday gift package to our customers, I designed free, printable gift tags for Staples Promotional Products. Download and print your own here.

Read the entire message from our Senior VP, Barb Wells, on SPP's blog: YourBrandPartner.com.

Cookie Party Time!

Each year I host a cookie party exchange with my friends, I always have high intentions of posting more about these, but it comes at the busy time of year and it always gets pushed to the side, leaving it undocumented. Anyway... my friends give me a hard time because I typically start thinking of color palettes for this in August and this year was no exception, I was planning gold and emerald... but I got the bug to do a stop motion video instead.

So with the help of Lindsay Stanley and Katie Larson, we created this fun stop motion for the invitation (view it here for better resolution). I was nervous at how long it would take, but it really only took 3-4 hours from start to finish and then my boyfriend found the perfect, whimsical music to add to it! There are things I'd change (like getting the day right), but I'm extremely happy with it overall.

I can't wait to work on next year's invitation... oh, and of course this year's cookie party!

Halloween Hoot

After I moved apartments this summer, I realized how much crap I have. I'm really not a sentimental person and I clean out my closet every month or so, donating extra clothes and such. But still, I seemed to have collected more than I actually need. Particularly in the craft department. I have multiple chests dedicated to fabric and paper and other craft supplies. I would say I only have a 50% success rate of actually finishing projects that I start. So it has been my goal to start whittling down my collections prior to buying new materials for new projects.

Image from Alphamom found via Pinterest

This Halloween turned out to be no exception. I saw this little girl in costume on Pinterest months back and hoped that I could only be half as cute as her. I really wanted to be a grey owl, like my inspiration pic. But with four days to the big party and being too lazy to go to the craft store for supplies, I decided to go through my closet. Low and behold I found oodles of fabric that could be used for said costume. Instead of being a gray barn owl, I decided to be a lovely, lovely snowy owl. And I used up fabric that has been sitting in my closet for years, waiting patiently to be made into place mats. (Honestly, if I dug a little deeper, I think I could've been a grey owl, but I'm rather happy with this combination, no?)

 

I even added wings to the costume after my friend Katie shared some lovely inspiration via Natty's Birds of a Feather Costumes on BurdaStyle.

As a side note, this is what I made for Halloween Dinner... Rosemary Lemon Chicken with Roasted Purple Potatoes and Roasted Okra and Garlic. The okra was awesome... the others were ok, but I thought the colors were fun for Halloween.

Inexpensive Gift Idea: Paperwhite Bulbs

So this is a little late, but I wanted to share what I gave to my co-workers for Christmas this year. Christmas 2009 I received a paperwhite bulb from a co-worker, it was such a unique, fun and memorable gift that I thought I would spread the joy to my new peers this year.

I decided to go with the same Christmas color palette as my cookie exchange (more to come on that later... hopefully), so I used olive, teal, and cognac. I wanted to use teal velvet ribbon (how chic would that have been?) but apparently my local JoAnn's does not carry such sass... so I settled for the beautiful olive satin instead. Classic.

These baby couldn't get any more simple...

1. Buy containers, rocks, and bulbs.

2. Place rocks in container.

3. Place bulb in container, perching on rocks.

4. Wrap with ribbon and instructions. (optional)

Above are the name tags and instructions I used.

Cost breakdown:

- Paperwhite bulbs: $6.98 for 6 = $1.16 each (I bought them at a local Home Depot, also available on-line or at nurseries. I guess I missed the big mark-downs, which happened near the beginning of December by my estimations, so many stores were sold out.)

- Glass containers: Glass cups from World Market = $1.49 each

- Decorative Rocks: $2.49 for 3 containers = $.83 each (I bought rocks at an estate sale during the summer)

- Ribbon: $3.49/spool = $.29 for approximately 12 packages

So there you have it, a unique, fun, and memorable Christmas gift for less than $4.00!

Of course you can always get funky with your container, a stemless martini glass for some sass? Or colored ramekins for the cooks in your life?

And at this rate, I'll be posting my New Year's resolutions in mid-February... that is if I had any.

Halls Christmas Windows

My favorite dress, stunning in person.

A couple of months ago, a (previous) co-worker got us a sneak peek into Hall's Christmas windows (not to be confused with the actual Hallmark). To celebrate Hallmark's 100th anniversary, the visual merchandising team created a flashback of all the great Christmas cards of years past. The vintage cards we're amazing, great retro modern illustrations in funky color palettes, it definitely inspired the theme for my annual cookie exchange. But they didn't just stop at bringing back the vintage, they created phenomenal dresses, trees, and entire displays out of these cards... absolutely beautiful!

Love the fringe tree against the saturated green background.

Love the tree in the background... looks easy enough to replicate!
All images from What the chic blog.

Something I would've loved to do for the Hallmark network stores, but if you knew how many hours they spent crafting these masterpieces, you'd understand the dilemma.

Christmas List 2010

So last year, I was an over-achiever and illustrated my Christmas list... that's just not going to happen this year. I thought I would still put my list out there to the powers that be, just incase anyone is interested in spreading the spirit of the season... and by that I mean buying me a laptop.

So here's my list, not necessarily in order: West Elm Winter Ice Canapé Plates that could be used all year round, not just in the winter time sillies; an everyday perfume, such as Clinique Happy or Gap Close; the time has come to upgrade the ol' laptop to this new beaut, and of course I would need something to carry that new toy in and what better than this gorgeous handmade Stash herringbone wool messenger bag? I also believe I would benefit from Creative Inc.: Complete Guide to Freelance or some bling from Early Jewelry. Or a screen printing kit, a dSLR camera, a Kitchen Aid Mixer (I'm not going to let that one go, here's hoping I win Amy Atlas' giveaway), a mandoline so I can make this, and a large format printer so I can print big things.

p.s. Happy Birthday Daddy!

Tremendous Turkey Day

I had a splendid Thanksgiving, on Thursday my mom and I cooked all morning while my dad did the dishes (it doesn't get any better than having your own personal dish-washer). Earlier in the week my dad sent out an invitation to international students at ISU to join us for the holiday, we had one taker and his wife, a young couple from China. The husband is working on his PhD in Astro Physics and the wife is applying to ISU masters programs to get her second masters. It was great to share this uniquely American holiday with the couple, bringing a new appreciation to the tradition.

Then on Friday, my friend John and I made the Salted Caramel and Chocolate Cake from Sweet Paul Fall edition e-magazine for our families. It turned out delectable... although not really like the picture (but their picture is much prettier than our version). The cake itself is super moist, the salted caramel sauce is delicious (but not thick and substantial like it's shown) and the frosting is more of a ganache (even better!)... we only made half of the frosting recipe and we could have gotten away with 1/3 recipe (that way you'd only need 1 cup total of heavy cream), but all-in-all it was a win! I'll definitely have to make it again sometime to impress the boys.

And the holiday weekend ended on a lovely note by flashing three (3!) pictures of me (and fellow ex-coworkers) in a Hallmark public service announcement after the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, November Christmas. Did you see my big debut?

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a delectable and delightful Thanksgiving.

Squirrels

My sorority mascot is a squirrel. When I first learned this (and I’m ashamed to admit this now) I was a little disappointed. I mean others had arrows, owls, dolphins... and we had a squirrel. But I lacked vision and I soon discovered squirrels can be awesome, even more awesome than dolphins and whatnot. Every time I see a modern squirrel, I get a giddy and my heart does a little flip for all of the good memories of being a squirrel. So I leave you with some holiday squirrelly inspiration:

West Elm Porcelain Origami Squirrel Ornament (my favorite)

West Elm Sequin Squirrel and I don't even like sparkly things!

Jonathon Adler Squirrel Ornament

Beautiful white squirrel vase from Pretty Random Objects

(I’d like to think the designers of these products are my fellow squirrel sisters....)

And this last one has nothing to do with squirrels, but my namesake. It's Jonathon Adler's turtle box, I love it!

Gifted Mag & a start to the Christmas Season

Now that Halloween has passed it's time for Christmas, right? Ok, ok, I'll hold off until after Thanksgiving, but I was checking out Gifted Mag today and it put me in the holiday mood. I can tell this Christmas is going to be a good one! I haven't worked on a major Christmas-related project since June (minus the little projects here and there) and it's been glorious, unlike the past two years where it's been Christmas 9-10 months out of the year, which sucks all of the fun out of the holiday...

So, like I said, I was reading Gifted Mag and they started with these seven holiday-related questions, which I thought I'd answer as well:

BEST GIFT TO GIVE FOR $20 OR BELOW:

Last year a co-worker came up with a great gift on the cheap. I think I'm going to steal the idea. He gave everyone a paper-white bulb in a small vase, with a layer of river rocks, and a square dowel to use as a stake once the flower grew. It was a great gift that I enjoyed watching for days and days. He tied up the vase in a beautiful red grosgrain ribbon for the perfect package.

Or you can never go wrong with an iTunes gift card and cookies!

DREAM ITEM YOU'D LOVE TO SPLURGE ON IF MONEY WERE NO OBJECT:

Eames Management Chair in powder blue leather... or maybe a pair of Barcelona Chairs...

FAV HOLIDAY SONG:

According to iTunes:

1. Baby It's Cold Outside, Elf Soundtrack

2. All You Need is Love, Love Actually Soundtrack

3. Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant

4. Any song from The Oak Ridge Boys Christmas album recorded in 1982

5. Winter Song by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson

FAV HOLIDAY FILM:

Elf or Love Actually. Both destined to be classics.

YOUR FAV SANITY-SAVING HOLIDAY TIP:

Keep a list of gift ideas for friends, family, and yourself throughout the year, adding and editing as needed. Purchase those "perfect" gifts throughout the year, saving you from the last minute hustle and dispersing the cost.

THE BEST GIFT YOU'VE EVER RECEIVED:

Books inscribed by my dad.

FAV HOLIDAY SWEET INDULGENCE:

Peanut Butter Blossoms and Sugar Cookies