We are signing off for 2009. It’s been a terrific year sharing new ideas, getting to know so many of you, and discovering a whole lot about this blogging world! There’s still so much to learn and we’re excited for all that 2010 has in store for us, and for you.
{images: Du Ziedeliai on Flickr}
Wishing each of you a joyful week with friends and family, and maybe even a little time alone to rest.
Be merry and well…
Juliet, Rachel & Stephanie
Much like Stephanie’s childhood memories, my mom has been baking gingerbread bears for as long as I can remember. There were years when she made so many she would stay up into the wee hours of the night buttoning up their bellies and tying little bows around their necks. My brothers and I always had the job of delivering them throughout the neighborhood. At some point, we were old enough to take part in the baking. And then we reached the age where we took great delight in embellishing these sweet little bears, somewhat innappropriately (use your imagination!). And then we were fired from the kitchen.
Many years later, I have proven that I can handle the job without incident, and I am taking on the tradition for my own family, friends and neighbors. My parents were here for Thanksgiving, and with a full supply of ingredients, equipment and pages of instructions, my mom taught me how to make them — start to finish!
I put my own touch to the bears we made with her cookie cutter, wrapping them up in pretty pink and red scarves. And since the bears are her specialty (and we can’t find another bear cutter as cute as hers!), I’m shaking it up a little with my own designs:
Rockstars (get it, guitars and stars!) for my husband and designer squares for me! I have quite a way to go before my skills are sharp, but I sure had fun getting my fingers sticky this year.
I’m trying really hard save a few for you, Santa…
My mom has been making these Santa cookies since I was a kid, so now I make them every year myself. I love how festive they look and how easy they are to make. Follow the steps below…I just finished a batch that my co-workers will be receiving this week!
{ steps for festive Santa cookies }
You’ll need these ingredients: slice & bake sugar cookie roll (I know, it feels like cheating, but I don’t do a lot of baking from scratch!), red and white frosting in tubes, red gel for nose, chocolate chips.
1. Each cookies takes 2 “slices.” The first slice is the circle of the head.
2. Make your second slice and then cut a triangle out on the diagonal. The center triangle becomes Santa’s hat and the 2 side wedges form the mustache.
3. Place the pieces on top of one another on a cookie sheet.
4. Before putting in the oven, place the 2 chocolate chips close together to form Santa’s eyes. Follow baking temperatures and times found on your slice & bake packaging.
5. Let cookies cool once out of the oven. When no longer warm, put a dot of red frosting on the hat and spread with a knife. Squeeze white frosting in a line to make the mustache and edges of hat. Lastly, add a dot of red gel for Santa’s rosy nose.
6. Enjoy! And Happy Holidays!
My family is arriving today, so this weekend we finished trimming the tree and our house. Now I’m ready to relax and enjoy spending time with my family. I also plan to eat a ridiculous amount of the cookies that my mom is bringing with her (I figure I’m already huge because I only have 6 weeks to go before our little boy arrives, so I’m just going with it)! Here’s a little peak of what I’ve been up to around the house. First, our living room that is an icy blue color got the snowy treatment with twiggy wreaths that I spray painted white and some sparkly trees and garland.
I decided to go with silver and wine colors in the dining rooms. Do you see all of the little rainbows on the wall in the picture that shows the garland on the stairs? My mother-in-law gives me a Swarovski snowflake ornament every year, and I always try to do something fun with them. This year they are hanging above the dining room table. When the sun is shining, the entire room is covered in tiny rainbows – Violet loves it!
Our Christmas tree is nestled into the corner of our family room. We pulled out all the stops this year and got an eight foot tree – it makes quite a statement in the room! We switched our tree lights from white lights to colored lights last year, and I love them. We always had colorful lights when I was growing up, and I think they are just more fun for little kids.
Last but not least is the festive flourish that mother nature provided us this weekend. Here in Richmond we got about a foot of snow! It’s just the right touch, don’t you think!
I won’t be chiming in again until after the holidays, so I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas season. I hope you have safe travels and time to relax with your families. I’m looking forward to sharing more design ideas and projects in the New Year!
In the midst of preparing for the holidays, my husband and I are also trying to prepare for baby. Last weekend while I was out of town he got some much needed painting done in our new guest room and stairway. It was such a treat to come home to a finished project! So, this week we started getting the guest room organized so we can move ahead and concentrate on the nursery.
This is where we’re at…still need to get some things hung on the walls and work on some window treatments, but I feel like we’re finally getting somewhere.
This week I also managed to get some gifts wrapped. I’m going simple this year–using up lots of misc papers from the last couple of years, simple twine, and sweet gift tags. I love the bright colors and cheery aesthetic.
With the winter storm they’re predicting to blow into town tomorrow, I think we’ll be hibernating this weekend and are sure to check a few more projects off the list. Oh, the weather outside is frightful…can you tell I’m wishing for snow?
I was inspired by Anthropologie’s holiday wrapping this year as well as a pile of felt scraps in my workroom. Such a simple process for what, I think, makes a really fun package.
Felt circles strung on ribbon and scrunched together to make a little cluster of flowers. It might actually be easier than tying the perfect bow! Unless you’re Rachel, because she can seriously whip any piece of ribbon into a Martha Stewart bow.
And speaking of Rachel, I’m slightly obsessed with making yarn pom poms. I will be including a few of these on some of my Christmas packages, too!
Here’s what I did:
I cut varying sizes of circles out of my felt scraps. With a large “darning” needle I threaded my narrow ribbon (and yarn, in some cases) and strung three circles for each package. I ended up with two different versions of flowers (and one pleated bow).
Flower Cluster (A) — fold circles in quarters and string smaller, then larger, then smaller.
Flower Cluster (B) — fold circles in half and string smaller, then larger, then smaller.
Pleated Ribbon (C) — I simply cut a strip of felt, folded it accordian style, then pushed my needle through each fold. This also works well with ribbon.
So there you have it…a fun, easy way to add a little punch to your wrapping this year! Thanks Anthropologie, for more great inspiration!
It’s almost time to start wrapping! Can you believe Christmas is just 9 days away? When I can be leisurely about it, I love wrapping presents. So several year ago, my husband and I started designating one night a little before Christmas to wrap our presents together. We light a fire, make some yummy snacks and put on the Christmas tunes. We’ll be doing our annual wrapping night this Friday, and I’m all set with my wrapping paper. Have you picked out your paper yet? Here are some of my favorites this season:
{Elum}
{images from elum}
{images from ink & paper}
Happy wrapping!
I stumbled on these clever “piggy” banks by Imm Living over the weekend. Aren’t they great? I actually really like both of them together, but that’s not practical for anyone. Especially me. I must give one as a gift…
Wouldn’t it be the perfect gift for someone saving up for something special — a new car, a first house, or a fresh start?
I will admit, the only reason I really justified buying either one without a recipient(s) in mind is because they were more than 50% off the retail price ($35) at our new HomeGoods store.
But it gets better…check out the Imm Living product descriptions, here and here:
Have you ever wondered why we save our coins in a piggy bank? Because of a simple mistranslation. In Medieval England, a kind of clay called pygg replaced the use of expensive metals to manufacture household wares. Housewives would drop a saved coin into one of these clay jars. Over many years, people forgot the origin of the Old English term “pygg.” 19th century English potters accepting requests for piggy banks produced containers in the shape of little pigs, which charmed shoppers and established the piggy bank as a cultural object.
Children delight in breaking open ceramic piggy banks to collect coins. This act of smashing is also found in the tradition of christening ships on their maiden voyage with a bottle of champagne. The wine bottle piggy bank combines these 2 practices into one amusing design. Save your leisure money in the bottle and smash it open when the moment arrives to celebrate.
I love a product with an interesting story! And, I’m pretty sure I’ll keep the mayonnaise jar for myself. There might even be a few pennies in it already…
PS: both ceramic banks have an opening in the bottom to empty your coins, so you don’t actually have to break it apart as the descriptions suggest!
I’ve been working hard to check everything off my holiday list, and last week I made another quick and easy recipe, cafe mocha. It’s a hot cocoa recipe with a kick of coffee that my mom found at least 10 years ago (she doesn’t remember where it came from). It’s nice to have around the house to warm holiday visitors, and it makes a great gift. In fact, I made a huge batch and am giving it to lots of people on my list. Here’s the recipe:
3/4 cup instant coffee
3T cocoa
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cup non-dairy creamer
1/4 cut nonfat dry milk
Mix the ingredients. Add 2 tablespoons to 6 ounces of hot water.
I made these tags so everyone would know how much of the mix to use, and I used decaf coffee so it can be enjoyed in the evenings, too. I’m giving my cafe mocha 4 different ways: on it’s own, in a mug, with a favorite holiday CD, and with some cute gloves.
If you’re looking for another tasty and quick holiday recipe – give this one a try!
Holiday decorating is still in full swing here, and this week I added a few fun flourishes to the kitchen. I made 2 rectangular boxwood wreaths at the Deck the Halls event that Stephanie told us about. It was a fantastic event, by the way, and I will definitely be there next year! I decided to hang the wreaths in the kitchen, and I love how they look on our two windows.
I added some glass balls and glittered pine cones for some sparkle and color. I decided to go with the turquoise and kelly green scheme I had been considering for the dining room (I have a new plan for the dining room – more on that later).
The pine cones were fun to do, even though my kitchen and I were covered with glitter when I was done. For such a simple detail, they’ve really added a festive punch – even my husband commented on them.
The kitchen sink got a little love with it’s own wreath, pine-scented candle, and a few more pine cones on my Pinkkiss Pottery spoon rest. The final detail is a glass ornament perched next to my dishes. Now I just need to finish the living room and dining room!
I wish I could remember how this idea came to me, but several weeks ago I bought two full sets of reflective house numbers at my local hardware store to hang from our Christmas tree.
They have a bit of that schoolhouse decor about them that I’m so drawn to right now as well as a graphic quality that has always appealed to me — bold numbers in a classic font.
We put our Christmas tree on our sunporch every year, rather than inside the house. And since our house is on a busy street and the sunporch faces the road, it works really well for our indoor and outdoor decor.
Of course, decorating a tree that is exposed to the elements (it’s a screened in porch) means not risking any of our sentimental or delicate ornaments. So we always try to come up with something interesting that can’t be damaged. This year I’m using house numbers!
It’s such a simple detail that most people walking past will never notice, but it’s fun for me to look for the numbers as I pull up to the house in my car, and of course, the detail is prominent when we’re on the porch reading or having a cup of coffee.
I also brought a few indoors to tie the look together. I strung one number to the handles on each of my flower buckets and stacked them up the stairs. I haven’t quite figured out what do fill them with though. I can’t find a fourth kissing ball and the wrapping paper will be gone shortly. Any ideas?
And because I can’t seem to shake my adoration of canvas drop cloths (also from the hardware store!), I threw one around the base of the tree for a rustic, weather-proof tree skirt. Now I just need to sweep up the pine needle mess I made last night!
Any hardware on your tree this year?
This holiday season the stationery company I design for, Ink & Paper, was asked to take part in a local event called R Home for the Holidays. The event sponsor, Richmond Home Magazine, asked us to create a Nutcracker themed wreath. So, we used our talents to craft one of the 12 wreaths that were show-cased on these doors by Habitat for Humanity. Below you can see our interpretation of the Nutcracker Land of Snow all made out of our very own gift wrap. We had a lot of fun working on and were honored with a second place finish!
Eddie Ross was the guest speaker on hand to judge the wreaths and at the end of the evening our creation went home to the highest bidder in a silent auction.
{ detail of the paper flowers and snowflakes }
My co-worker, Cassandra, came up with the design for the dancers. We made mini ones, added ribbon, and sold them as ornaments along with our goods during the evening. Overall, the wreath was a success and was definitely a great project to kick off the holiday season with.
What unique projects are you working on this holiday season? Send in pictures of your creations- we’d love to see what masterpieces are out there!
Our living room is really quite small and we are very limited in where we can add seasonal flourishes without overwhelming the room. This is especially challenging at Christmastime.
This year, I’m trying two slightly unconventional wreaths in my living room that maximize the space I have to work with. The first was inspired by one I saw in a designer showroom. My version is much less ornate, but the idea is the same — simply placing a wreath at the base of a lamp. I chose not to decorate the wreath at all to create a contemporary feel that adds the perfect amount of holiday texture and color to my otherwise crowded dresser. Designerly restraint is not often my strength, but I think I nailed it here…
The second unexpected placement is hanging from an antique crib side. We typically have a white blanket folded over it in the living room, but with our drafty windows and floorboards, the blanket is more often unfolded on the couch than hanging neatly against the wall! Rather than leave that corner of the room empty, I hung one of my wreaths from some special Mokuba ribbon I’ve been holding on to, along with two bird ornaments hanging from red velvet trim.
Both work nicely with my urban cottage appeal this Christmas. More details as I finalize the other rooms.
In the meantime, do you have any other ideas for decorating small spaces?
When I was home for Thanksgiving, my mom had the prettiest bottle of water I have ever seen in our bathroom along with some toiletries for her out of town visitors to pick from. Have you seen this special edition water bottle from Evian?
{image from Evian}
My mom found her bottles for a steal – $1.50 per bottle instead of $13.95 – at a local discount store. I think they would be perfect on the bedside tables in my guests’ rooms over the holidays or in the empty spaces of our wine rack. They would make cute vases for a single stem after they’ve been sipped. I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for more bottles!
About a year after we moved to Richmond, we convinced some good friends of ours from Pittsburgh to join us here. It has been so nice to have some old friends here in town. Not only have they made watching the Steelers games more fun, but now they have added a new shopping destination to the Richmond scene. They recently opened an art gallery called Bella Arte in Midlothian (to the south of the city). To ring in the holiday season, the gallery will be officially “unwrapped” tonight.
{image from Bella Arte}
If you’re up for a little shopping, stop by tonight to mix and mingle until 9:00 and check out the gallery’s new collection of Christmas goodies (3734 Winterfield Road). Happy shopping!
{Hazelnut-Mocha Sauce from Better Homes and Gardens}
For the past seven years or so I’ve been making this incredible chocolate sauce from Better Homes and Gardens and giving it as Christmas gifts. My neighbors get a jar of it every year, and I make a few extras for hostess gifts. I’ve also given it paired with an ice cream scoop and sundae bowls. If you’re looking for a quick and delectable homemade treat to give as a gift, this hazelnut-mocha sauce is perfect. Just make sure you make a jar for yourself. I don’t even bother with the ice cream – it’s best straight out of the jar!
The decking of our halls has officially begun! Our first holiday visitors arrive 2 weeks from Saturday, and our house will be bustling straight through New Years. I’m really excited to be hosting family and friends this year, and I’ve been using it as an excuse to freshen up my Christmas decorations. I was completely tired of the decorations I’ve used in our family room for the last couple of years, so they got a complete makeover this year. I didn’t have the budget to buy all new things, so I made a few things and got creative with some pieces I already had. Here’s what I came up with.
I was going for a cozy and warm feel – think cable knit throw and a cup of hot chocolate with a touch of peppermint.
I already had the wreath, and it just got a new red ribbon. I made the pom-pom garland and trees from some soft white and cream yarn – really easy. I updated the candle stick holders that I made this summer with a coat of paint and even transformed some plain white candles with red glitter (another easy project courtesy of Martha Stewart).
Do you have any homemade decorations planned for this year or any favorites from years past? We’d love to hear about them!
Last month I was presented with a terrific opportunity to design and implement a “Simply Christmas” decor for my church. It’s a brand new building with huge windows, loads of natural light, beautiful stone details, and lots of modern amenities. There happen to be a lot of really creative people who attend Hope — musicians, artists, photograpers, designers, etc. — so it was a huge honor to be asked and to get to work with a really talented group of people to pull this off before Thanksgiving.
The theme, as I mentioned, is Simply Christmas. The creative direction was this beautiful graphic by Robb Major that will be our seasonal brand for sermons and events throughout December. Can you see that the snowflake is actually made up of lots of little snowflakes and that CHRISTMAS is a fresh, leafy green color?
Well, my co-decorator, Jill, and I enthusiastically tore pages from our favorite magazines and catalogs, pulled fabric swatches from our workrooms, and exchanged countless text messages that can be summed up by a few keywords: mercury glass, fresh greens, linen and burlap, white lights, simple snowflakes.
As you might expect, our budget was somewhat limited. Since we were essentially starting from scratch, we opted to spend our money on timeless pieces that could be used throughout the year (i.e. mercury glass sconces) and from year to year (lighted artificial trees). We spent a little money on some live plants (wreaths, paperwhites and pointsettias) to add depth and texture in the places where people pass by frequently.
Jill found a dozen cableknit scarves on clearance at Old Navy that we cut apart and stitched back together around the base of the pointsettias instead of the flashy foil they usually come in. In fact, when we placed the pointsettia order, we requested they come without wrapping at all, which saved a buck or two on each one! We set each one in a plastic bag from the supply closet to protect the floor from leaks, and then wrapped them in the scarves.
I found four-for-$1 packs of snowflake ornaments for our trees at Target and picked up a bunch of canvas drop cloths for a steal at the hardware store.
With a few additional flourishes — fresh holly from my backyard, pewter nativity scene ornaments from Ben Franklin, and some recycled Anthropologie gift ties (see paperwhites above) – the whole thing came together beautifully.
It really was a fun project and a good exercise in decorating restraint.
I hope to have my own house decorated next week!
I’ll be back this afternoon with the full rundown on this holiday decorating project I’ve been working on. Here’s a sneak peek:
There is a wonderful holiday event that takes place the first weekend of December here in central Virginia…a fundraiser called Deck the Halls. The low down: make your own holiday decorations with fresh cut pine, cedar, and boxwood from the woods surrounding Pine Grove Farm in Ashland.
The best part is adults pay $25 to make as many creations as they choose. The wreath forms and all materials needed are provided…and for those less hands on there are plenty of already made things to purchase. Either way, come enjoy the holiday season with hot drinks and goodies in the big red barn while you listen to great music performed by local favorite Susan Greenbaum.
Deck the Halls
WHEN: Sunday, December 6th, 12:00 pm–4:30 pm
WHERE: Pine Grove Farm, 12438 Elmont Road, Ashland, Virginia
WHO: Adults $25, Children (6-16) $10
All proceeds benefit Hilliard House, a program that assists homeless women and their children to build their capacity to live productively within the community.
Please contact us if you have any questions. Hope to see you there!
