Travel Advice

The next 6 months are going to include a lot of travel for us and we’re (or at least I’m) feeling overwhelmed.  Here’s the line-up and advice about any of the destinations would be most appreciated.

Tanzania – I head to Dar es Salaam in a few days and will be there awhile.  I need to be in the city during the weekdays but I believe I have at least one weekend, maybe two to explore.  The things to keep in mind are that I will be alone for all of the trip, it will be humid and super hot (in the 90s) and I’m on a budget.  I’m thinking about heading to Zanzibar for the weekend but then am not sure until I see the picture below.

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Tucson, AZ – I’m spending a few days in Tucson with my sister for her birthday.  She’s living near there with her husband for a few months.  I’ve only been to Phoenix and Sedona.  I’m sure she’ll have some good ideas of what to do, but I’m sure she’ll be open to suggestions, particularly on the food front.

Santa Barbara, CA – Micah’s parents have just moved there from South Carolina.  This trip isn’t about sightseeing as much as it is about seeing family.  Micah’s brother, sister-in-law and nephews will be in town during Spring Break and we haven’t seen them since Christmas 2009.  Also, Micah’s Uncle, Aunt and cousins live there too and we haven’t seen them since the wedding.  Any wineries people suggest? We’ll only be there 3 days.

Guatemala – Remember when we were trying to pick out a place to vacation this summer?  Well, we decided that we’re going to spend the summer in Seattle (and pray for good weather) and hopefully do more camping than we have in years past.  Instead, we decided to go somewhere during Micah’s Spring Break.  We looked at our options and all our miles and decided on Guatemala.  Neither of us has been there and it seems pretty doable in a week.  We wanted to go to Thailand but we couldn’t use miles and it would be too hot in the summer.  Our tickets to Guatemala are completely covered by miles, so all we have to do is pay for everything else.  Right now, we’re thinking about a few days in Antigua, a few days checking out the Mayan Ruins of Tikal, a few days at Lake Atitlan and a visit to the market at Chichicastenango.

Lake Atitlan 

Any suggestions for Guatemala?  We have an idea of what we want to do but are open to anything and everything. 

Iceland – Is it worth checking out for 2 days or so?  I’m 95% sure I’m headed to a wedding in May in London and for $15 more I can stop in Iceland.  I can’t decide if I should stop because I know Micah would like to go but can’t because of work.  I’ve always wanted to go but never had the chance.

I can’t believe how much traveling will be done this year.  I’m already feeling bad for Izzy and missing her.  Luckily my parents love having her around and we just found a great doggie daycare near our house that does boarding.  I also found out that I can watch Izzy on doggie cam while I’m out of town.  It’s totally ridiculous but you know I’m going to check it out while I’m in Dar.

Our After Christmas List

Now that Christmas is over, we have an after Christmas shopping list.

Besides the tree we decided to buy, we need a few other things.

1.  Stocking hooks – we have two but we’re thinking we need at least three more.  Izzy will need one judging by the amount of stocking stuffers she received from various people, and we think we should get an extra set for Micah’s parents when they visit.

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2.  Festive Plates – I only had one small Christmas plate that I used for cookies.  I’d like 4 or 6 dessert plates.  They don’t have to match, just be cute.

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3.  A Christmas Tree Skirt – I’ve been wrapping fabric around the base of the tree but I think it’s time we had something nice.  I want to buy one but I’m also tempted to make one in the next few weeks when I have all that time in my hotel room in the evenings with nothing to do.

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4. Shatter Proof Ornaments in Shades of Red – We had to limit the number of pretty glass ball ornaments on the bottom of the tree because of Izzy.  I’d like to get a dozen or so in the shatterproof variety that I can put at the bottom of the tree next year.  I hope I can still find some.

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5.  A Few Odds and Ends – A few more strands of icicle lights, a few festive kitchen and bath towels, maybe some pine scented candles to make the place smell like we have a real tree and a few pairs of holiday socks.  You can never have too many holiday socks.  I also already bought our cards for next year.

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What’s on your after Christmas list?

Final Giveaway – Orange Beautiful Letterpress Perpetual Calendar

It’s almost the end of 2010 and the end of our 7 week giveaway.  Our final item is the very useful, very pretty Perpetual calendar by Orange Beautiful.  We have the yellow one in our bedroom.

We really love this thing and I think it will be a regular in our gift arsenal.  As usual, there are a few ways to win:

1. Visit Orange Beautiful’s Etsy Shop and tell us which color Perpetual Calendar you’d select.

2 &3. Mention (and link) the giveaway on Facebook or Twitter and let us know that you did in the comments.  Each mention is worth one entry, so don’t forget to tell us where you mentioned the giveaway in separate comments.

The contest closes on New Years Eve.  Good Luck!!

Fake or Real Tree?

We hope everyone that had a wonderful Christmas.  We had a great one except for the fact we discovered something is wrong with the car and tomorrow we'll probably have to spend lots of money to fix it.  


So we've got a decision to make.  Fake or real tree from here on out.  We've always been real tree people.  I mean this is Evergreen State and trees are plentiful.


We like the real because of the smell really gets us in the Christmas mood.  We are seriously considering fake because of the clean up and because 4 of the 5 trees we've had died long before Christmas came.  No matter how much we spend, whether we buy them cut or cut them ourselves, they died a fast death.  Plus now Izzy likes to nibble on the tree.


So what do you do?  Real or Fake?  And if you have a fake tree, do you have one with lights?


p.s.


Tomorrow we're giving away an amazing letterpress calendar!

Micah's 1st Christmas Present of 2010 and Giveaway #6 Winner!

The lucky winner of the Elle Decor subscription is comment #3 by TwentyFiveFifty!  Please email us with your mailing address and we'll get that ordered for you before the new year!

Micah also got this album with a pretty bow on it...

...it wasn't from me.  Did you know the song is about Michael's pet rat?  That must have been one amazing rat.

Getting Our Christmas Groove Back & Giveaway #6

We didn’t think we could do it – make it feel like Christmas.  Micah’s first week of Christmas vacation was ruined because of repairs, cleaning and installation crews.  My relaxed, shopping-less week now filled with lists of things to replace.  We’re constantly discovering new things missing.  You know, the things you don’t use everyday that suddenly want to use today but it’s gone like the ipod Micah wanted to listen to while he ran last night and the silver/wood hoop earring I had planned to wear this morning.  So, we didn’t think we could make it feel like Christmas this year, but then we didn’t have to because everyone else did that for us.

We want to thank EVERYONE who commented on the last post, and sent us notes via Weddingbee, Facebook and Twitter.  Your support has been wonderful and appreciated.  We also want to give extra thanks to the following people.:

Dadtractor: Thanks for rearranging your work schedule even though you were understaffed to fix the door and make other improvements.  You can put it on our tab. :)

Cliff, Sean, Cece of Dill Pickle Picnic, Beth and our families: Thanks for calling and sending us emails checking on us.  We’re very lucky to have all of you.

Cecilia (my sister) and Aaron: Thanks for sending replacement gifts.  We don’t even care they you think that they are not nearly as good as the original ones.  You are AWESOME!

Felicitas, Jason and the girls: Thanks for sending the doggie treats.  Some of the gifts that were taken were for Izzy.  Actually, they were things we knew we’d need for her in the next 4-6 months, so we bought them and wrapped them up.  I put her homemade treats under the tree when we got them and found her licking the container a few hours later.

Cathleya and Mark: The tea towel made our afternoon and then you went and almost brought us to tears with the gift.  Your room upstairs is waiting whenever you need it, which we hope is soon.  We won’t even glare at you when you are cheering on UCLA in our UW house.

On top of all the support, we got an extra kick of holiday goodness in the mail.  Micah grabbed the mail on Monday afternoon and said all we got were cards, about 8 of them.  It’s hard not to feel like being festive after all the love and piles of holiday cards.

I started a “card wreath” that I’m hoping will get filled in over the next week or so.  I started making Christmas cookies and Micah made sure all our Christmas lights were on and blazing.  We are planning to have a few friends over this week for drinks and festivities.  We hope to get all our replacement gifts purchased and wrapped tonight too.  We’re getting our Christmas on!

We had a lovely clutch I picked up in Zambia from Chikumbuso to giveaway this week but unfortunately that too was taken over the weekend.  In it’s place, we’re giving away a subscription to Elle Decor.

I gave Kate a subscription for her birthday and she loved it so much that it’s been one of my standby presents ever since. 

This is going to be a quickie giveaway which means we’ll announce the winner tomorrow afternoon.  We can only send the subscription to those living the U.S., but if you live in another country, you are eligible to win it and gift to someone else.

As usual, there are a few ways to win:

1. In the comments, tell us what gets you in the holiday mood when you are down.

2 &3. Mention (and link) the giveaway on Facebook or Twitter and let us know that you did in the comments.  Each mention is worth one entry, so don’t forget to tell us where you mentioned the giveaway in separate comments.

Good Luck and remember the giveaway ends tomorrow!

VIOLATED

Some of you already know but sometime over the weekend from 10:30am on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday, we were robbed.  We were gone for less than 36 hours and someone got in.


My first thought when Micah yelled that the house had been broken into was that they broke the window on the door and unlocked it.  Turns out they just kicked the door in.  It was double locked but we needed more.


We feel really lucky that they didn't trash the house and that they didn't take more.  Micah's work laptop is gone.  We also lost our digital camera, small JBL bookshelf system, all the good and unopened liquor, a majority of the Christmas presents we bought for the kids, all the presents my sister sent for us, some cash and some jewelry (nothing expensive).  They also took two Timbuk2 bags and few small items.  They tried to steal the small flat screen TV in our room but got frustrated.  Our friends lent us a bamboo tablet to try out (for InDesign) but that wasn't taken.  The thieves did take it out of the box and inspect it before deciding they didn't want it.


The big thing that was taken were my keys.  They stole my keys and we think that they were planning to come back.  The back door was unlocked and a guitar was leaning against the wall next to the door.  


Actually, we're 95% sure they intended to come because we think someone did around 10:30pm last night.  Micah spotted someone pacing in front of our house as he was walking up the stairs to the kitchen.  The man was talking on the phone and staring up at the house.  Dark clothing, hood up and looking out of place.  I called the cops who happen to be patrolling a few blocks away.  He jumped into his car and rushed off when he saw us spying on him from behind the curtains and the cops headed up the street.  The officer told us they would patrol our block more so than usual and spend some time parked outside the house since we had a door that couldn't lock and someone out there with keys to all the other doors.  We barricaded the doors with wood, tables and heavy weights and headed to bed though neither of us could sleep.  We tried watching the Hangover to distract ourselves but eventually fell into a light sleep around 3am.


Dadtractor has been by today to remove all the locks in the house so we can have all the keys changed.  We've got someone coming by from ADT to talk alarm systems.  We're seriously thinking about bars on the band room windows and the ones in the garage.  We're also thinking of replacing our mailbox as they have keys to that too.


They also stole the kids presents.  We had to buy for a lot of kids so each present wasn't expensive but they were still presents.  And my sister isn't going to be home this Christmas so having the gifts from her taken is a little sad.


It's all very unnerving.  We're not hurt and we didn't lose much but SOMEONE WAS IN OUR HOUSE!  They went into our bedroom, our closet.  They looked in our drawers, walked where we walk, touch what we touch.  AND THEY CAME BACK!  You what else is bad -- thinking about it constantly.  Being alert by every noise, wondering why they didn't take the Wii or the expensive jewelry or something else.  Wondering what would have happened if Micah hadn't spotted that guy outside and he actually got into the house with us inside.  


But, it is what it is, right?  It could have been worse.  We've learned our lesson and are going to do a better job of securing this place.  The police officers were all really great and supportive.  Our friends started calling and emailing as soon as they heard what happened.  My boss and project supervisor said they'd reschedule any of my meetings or cover anything that needed my attention over then next few days.  And Dadtractor rearranged his schedule so he could spend the morning helping us re-secure the doors and change the locks.


We're determined to still have a festive holiday though I'm sure that this event will be on our minds for a while.  We won't pretend that this will be the last time someone tried to break in to our house but hopefully it will be the last time they make it through a door.  


**UPDATE**


I forgot to mention that thief abandoned a Vodka bottle by the front door.  The police took it with them because they felt like they could probably lift some prints off it.  We're not holding our breath on that one but even the idea of it is reassuring.

His Birdie’s Holiday Dinner Party

This past weekend Hubs and I threw a Christmas dinner party.

Being our second Christmas together as a married couple we really haven't had a chance to host any Holiday parties yet, and I was really excited to use all the holiday stuff we were gifted after our engagement. Our engagement party was just a few weeks before Christmas and couple of our guests gave us Christmas decorations as gifts. One of our gifts was a really cute Christmas table runner. I was so excited to use it this year and decorate the table red and green. However, with everything else coming up this season, when it came down to it, I couldn't justify purchasing a red or green tablecloth, to match the runner. Knowing that, I had to re-think our table using the tablecloth and runner we use all the time. I was bummed at first, but once I realized all the items I could re-use that I already own, I kinda excited about all the money I was saving.

The number one thing I used to jazz up the table was our china. Easy peasy, right? Have a fancy dinner party, equals an excuse to use all that china you got for getting hitched. NICE! I set the table with two forks: one for the salad and one for the meal. More fancy points made easy.

For each places setting, I ironed and tied-up our only set of cloth napkins up with a piece of nice white and silver ribbon. I also made printed place cards using the same clipart I found for the invitation, and a fun retro font I recently discovered. Each couple was grouped with a similar graphic because I’m cheesy like that.

Lastly, to tie everything together I sprinkled the table with mini Christmas ornaments I purchased 3 years ago for our office Christmas party. The light blue ornaments matched our table cloth perfectly and since, the rest of the ornaments matched those ornaments everything kind of came together.

I also liked to refer to our birdie salt and pepper shakers as “Two Turtle ;-) Well, there you have it. Our “On the cheep, Modern Christmas Table”. I just goes to show you (or me) that you don’t need to go out and buy new things to host a fancy, themed, dinner party. *You may have noticed the invitation was for a cocktail party. We had to switch to a dinner party when most our guests couldn’t come due to previous holiday engagements.

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String…

and few of our favorite Christmasy things (and the week 5 giveaway winner!)…

I didn’t buy wrapping paper this year.  I decided to use the leftover paper we had from years past, brown paper leftover from other projects and Baker’s twine, random ribbon and tape including the Japanese fabric tape I picked up at the Japanese ribbon tape.

We also put up our tree which was a big change from last year. 

Last year’s tree:

This year’s tree:

 

We also busted out our famous nativity scene and the knitted stockings from last year

The She and Him poster that’s always on the mantel sort of fits the scene, don’t you think?  I didn’t notice the connection until after I had put the figures up.

We’re hoping to add to our Christmas ornaments after Christmas (yay after Christmas sales!) but we do have a few new ornaments up this year.  We plan to talk about ornaments more later but here are some new favorites:

The one on the left is St. Basil’s in Red Square in Moscow, Russia.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it.  The one on the right was actually the ring pillow/bowl we used at our wedding.  We wanted to hang it up last year but it was packed away in the moving boxes.

Izzy also has her own ornament on the tree.  Speaking of Izzy, we were worried that she’d go after the ornaments and gifts but really has no interest in them.  She does, however, LOVE the tree and will munch on it if we’re not paying attention to her.

Besides working on making the house more festive, I’ve been working on getting someone else more festive…

We went to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party last week where Micah sported this number I scored at Goodwill.  Pretty awesome right?

We’ve got more Christmas decor to share and some crafted Christmas ornaments we gifted.  Can you believe there are only 10 more days until Christmas?

UPDATE**

p.s. the winner of the ElevenTwelveHandmade necklace is AmSim!  AmSim, please contact us so we can get the necklace out to you!

Door Progress and Suggestions Needed

Can you believe there are only 10 days left until Christmas.  This blows my mind.  I feel like I’m totally behind.  I was sick all last weekend and got nothing done.  We have a few more presents to wrap, an entire house to clean, cookies to bake, shopping to do and this door to paint.

Dadtractor came by and installed the window last night.  We were going to do it ourselves until we realized our door is metal and required a little more skill.  We’ve got plans this weekend but I think Monday might be painting day.

I think we’re going with a dark grey for the door.

So, I mentioned we need suggestions and we do.

First, we need holiday cookie suggestions.  We’re doing chocolate chip, eggnog, chocolate peppermint and I think I need a 4th.  Maybe a something having to do with fruit?

Second, we need something special to serve for Christmas breakfast.  A frittata of some kind or maybe a quiche?  Any other suggestions?

Lastly, I have a long trip coming up and need paperback book suggestions.  I know what you are all wonder, don’t we have a Kindle.  Nope, not yet.  I’ll explain why in another post.

HELP?!  Suggestions needed and welcomed! 

Giveaway #5 : Decorating Your Neck for the Holidays

What does that mean? We’re teaming up with ElevenTwelveHandmade and giving away a necklace just in time for New Year’s Eve.  I bought a necklace from ElevenTwelveHandmade a few months back and got a ton of compliments on it. 

I was looking through her collection and thinking this necklace would be perfect for a night out.

So,  as usual, there are a few ways to win.

1. Visit ElevenTwelveHandmade’s Etsy Shop and tell us which necklace you’d select.

2 &3. Mention (and link) the giveaway on Facebook or Twitter and let us know that you did in the comments.  Each mention is worth one entry, so don’t forget to tell us where you mentioned the giveaway in separate comments.

We’ll draw a winner on Thursday!  Good luck!

Inspirational House Song #3—5 Christmas songs you can live with

I (Micah) am a notorious Scrooge when it comes to Christmas music.  The fact that they day after Thanksgiving retail stores, friends and entire radio stations begin playing exclusively Christmas music makes me absolutely nauseous just thinking about it. 

I’m told; by retail stores, friends and radio stations (and my wife) that this makes me a Scrooge.  C’mon, what the heck is  a jingle horse anyways?

There are a handful of holiday or Christmas songs that I do actually like.  In no particular order:

1.  Handel “Messiah” (HWV 56)-Some would say this is a cheat, considering it’s an entire work, and not a song per se but those people probably are singing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” right now.  Every year when I was growing up, we would listen to “Messiah” as we decorated the Christmas tree with my family.  Usually it would consist of my brother and I trying to sing “The sheep have gone a stray-ay-ay-a-ay-ay-ay-a-aaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy” until our lungs collapsed.  Seriously though, this is some amazing stuff.  I’m surprised to find out that people actually have sing-alongs with this piece around Christmas.

2.  The Beach Boys “Little Saint Nick”-Who says there hasn’t been a good Christmas song written in the last 50 years?  Not me.  I love the Beach Boys Christmas album and “Little Saint Nick” is the best cut off of the album.  Mike Love’s fantastic lead vocals on a song written specifically for this album by Brian Wilson?  Epic.  I love the “Run, run reindeer” part.  Plus, you get to look at amazing cover art like this:

3.  Vince Guaraldi Trio “Christmas Time Is Here”-The saddest Christmas song of all time?  Perhaps.  I love Charlie Brown, and I love the music for the Charlie Brown shows too.  The Vince Guaraldi Trios instrumental version of this song kills me.  Right amount of sadness, but a great trio arrangement with lightly brushed snare drum by Jerry Granelli and tasteful bass playing by Fred Marshall.

4. Duke Ellington Orchestra “Sacred Concerts”- Not strictly Christmas music, but a real good substitute to be sure.  Duke Ellington said that these concerts were the most important things he had ever done.  I love this mix of jazz and traditional religious music.  Every year, the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra performs these pieces and it’s not to be missed for you Seattle area peeps.  Here’s a great video of Duke himself performing with Jon Hendricks and Bunny Briggs.  Wait until 5 minutes in when Briggs goes absolutely nuts:

5.  The Superions “Santa’s Disco”-I couldn’t in my right mind make a list of my top 5 Christmas songs without something amazingly tacky and horrifyingly wonderful.  That voice right?  Umm…Mr. Fred Schneider of the B52s has a side project called the Superions.  They’ve released their Christmas album and I think “Santa’s Disco” is a hit.  Where else could you hear references to Mrs. Claus as a cage dancer?  Enjoy:

Happy Holidays!

Modern Victorian Office Prints from Palindrome Home

 

Thanks Catherine for inviting me over! Guest blogging feels so official. Maybe I should have dressed up. Although, I suppose that’s why I blog (insert any old “my face was made for a radio career” joke here).

Jason, my husband, and I bought a fixer upper in Durham, NC last year (home of Duke Basketball, reigning Champions, What? What?, raise the roof). We tend to have bursts of renovating energy, followed by hiatuses filled with hemming, hawing and general indecisiveness about the next project. Our office is currently a catchall for everything that we’re too lazy to take all the way into the attached room over the garage which is our official dumping ground storage room. The desk is a hand me down from my grandparents and my brother wrote song lyrics and other “inspirational” quotations on it during his teenage angst phase. My crafts are strewn about the floor. Our to-be-filed piles tilt dangerously towards our shredder. And this is after Jason’s grandma helped me put things away. At least we can walk into the room now. Keeping this picture of our office in your mind’s eye, dare to daydream with me about the possibilities.

source

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While the antiques and designer fabrics are a pipe dream for me, great artwork is not. Since I majored in studio art (not my only major, but I like to see the looks in people’s eyes when I tell them that), I really enjoy hunting down aesthetically pleasing pieces for our home. I think that’s the key to art, to find and appreciate what pleases your aesthetic – there are no rights and wrongs in your own home. Art is meant to be enjoyed.

The inspirational pictures sum up my intended color palette (and are a nod to Catherine’s lovely wedding!): Yellow, black, grey and white. I like groupings of pieces so that the impact is multiplied. While I hunted for pieces I liked, I also kept in mind that I wanted the pieces to relate to one another. These three options feature four pieces each and revolve around a theme.

Botanicals

The botanical theme is fairly neutral and could be used throughout the rooms of our future homes. I particularly like the mixture of shapes and textures in this collection.

 Sources Clockwise from Top L: Weed, Dandelion, Craspedia, Sugar Plum Vines

British

My time spent in England whilst studying abroad has left an immeasurable mark on me. And more than just enjoying tea time and using whilst randomly while blogging. As many young Americans do, I found pieces of myself there and my world started to make sense in a more global context. So you see, I’m quite sentimental about that little isle across the pond. I love these photographic prints and the taste of Britain.

 Sources Clockwise from Top L: London Dragon, Mind the Gap, Chips, King’s Parade

Graphic

While I think that photography lends itself to versatility across several decorating styles, I also like the juxtaposition of graphic art against period furniture pieces. I think that modern can meet Victorian and fall in love. Funnily enough, there are elements of the other collections here as well – we’ve got the crown as a nod toward the British monarchy and the branch botanicals. I suppose I really like those themes.

 Sources Clockwise from Top L: Bird, Crown, Birch Trees, Love

I decided to include only prints in these collections for the affordability factor. You can get a wall full of art, plop them in Ikea or thrift store finds, and admire your impromptu gallery for around $100. Make your own art and the cost is practically nothing.

How are you incorporating art into your decorating?

Doily Christmas Crafting and the Giveaway Winner

I did a little Christmas crafting over the weekend to get to place looking more festive.  Remember the table runner I saw on ish and chi I loved?  Well, I sort of replicated it for our dining table. 

Not quite as refined as the one I saw but pretty darn good if you ask me.

I had some of the doilies already and the rest I found on ebay.  I think I paid $10 total for about 25 of them.  Actually, speaking of our table, have we ever showed it to you?  We had it custom made last year.  It’s from reclaimed wood and is pretty stunning.  We used what we collect from our Money Dance at our wedding to pay for it.

Instead of looking for one perfect piece, Aaron our table maker, cut out serious flaws in the wood and patched it up with other pieces.  We love the patchwork areas.

We also had a matching bench made. It’s probably the most expensive piece of furniture we own but we intend on having it for many, many years.

I had quite a few doilies left over after making the table runner so using some modge podge I got in my stocking one year, I tried to make a doily bowl for the spare ornaments we have.

First I wrapped outside of the bowl I wanted to use as a mold in plastic wrap.

I couldn’t find any newspaper, so I laid out a plastic bag to use on my work surface.  I laid the doily on the bowl and then painted it with the modge podge.  I decided a few months ago to use rubber basting brushes for crafts like this.  They are easy to wash and last forever.  You can get them super cheap at Ross.

I let it sit overnight to dry, peeled it off the doily from the bowl and have this on our living room table.

The whole project took me 5 minutes.  I didn’t want to invest too much time because I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out.  Now that I’ve done it once and am satisfied with the results, I’ll probably spend more time molding the doily while it’s wet.

 

So, what do you think?  Would you try making either of these?  I think the table runner would look good at a garden party or rustic wedding.

Oh, right.  The winner of Giveaway #4 is comment 23 which was made by Kim.  Congrats Kim!  We’ll have our next giveaway up on Monday!

What Kind of Gift Getter Are You?

I love Christmas. I’m sure I’ve said that. I actually love Christmas shopping and more for adults than kids. The kids in our family get so many presents that it’s hard to give them one they will really like and remember. We are making an effort with the dim sum play food and the book set (we’ll post about it later) for our nephews.

Asking for gifts is another story altogether. I have a hard time picking out presents. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I have a hard time picking out presents that are actually for me or aren’t just things I need (versus things I want). This year momager asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told her we (notice the WE) needed bakeware. She suggested some pieces from Le Crueset and I was excited. I did a little research and decided that all I really wanted and needed was Pyrex. So I picked up a few pieces for Momager because they were on sale. I let her know, she thanked me and told me to buy something else since I didn’t spend much. I thought about it for a while and then realized we (notice the WE again) needed table linens. I began hunting for table linens I liked. I finally realized these Christmas presents weren’t even for WE, they were for the house.

I eventually ended up with this necklace in silver. A friend told me there was a Today Show special and they had been marked down from $125 to $25. I bought them for Momager who bought them for me.

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Every year Micah asks me what I want for Christmas and it’s always the same. I ask for sensible things like tights, slippers, posters, cookbooks, things I need when I travel, things we need for the house, etc. One year I asked Micah to plan a vacation for us. That didn’t turn out well. He’s just not a planner in the same way I am.

I looked at my list for this year and it was more of the same. Here are a few things I asked for

These plates from West Elm

and these

This travel organizer from Flight 001 This print from Nick Schmitz for one of our guest rooms maybe

Or this First Aid box from Velocity for our bathroom

I don’t know what my problem is. Part of me doesn’t want to ask for something expensive. Part of me doesn’t want to ask for something I won’t use a lot. I’d say most of me it WAY to practical for my own good.

I was thinking about some of the best gifts I’ve received (and used) over the years, and few really stick out.

When my sister was in college (7 years ago), she worked at Banana Republic. She bought all my gifts there that Christmas. She gave me two things I love(d). A simple black wool felt bag and a VERY simple pearl earring/necklace set. She knew I wouldn’t buy either for myself (I was poor at the time) but also knew they were my style. Simple, classic and would match anything. The necklace and earrings broke about a year ago and I have since replaced the earrings. I’m on the hunt for a similar necklace though. I recently found the bag with our Christmas decorations and am super excited to use it this winter.

Our first Christmas living together, Micah semi-homemade me this awesome neighborhoodie. We moved to the north end of the Beacon Hill neighborhood which we referred to as North Beac. On one of our very first days living there, we were driving home and saw a rooster strolling down the street. He was just chillin’, like he had somewhere to be and had every right to walk on the sidewalk. That very minute, we knew we picked the right place to live. Micah had rooster printed on the front of the hoodie and “North Beac” printed on the back.  Ignore Izzy’s fur in the photo.

I’m currently loving the tea for 2 (or in my case 1) my brother and sister-in-law got me for my birthday. I don’t really drink coffee but love tea. There is nothing more satisfying than sitting down with my tea for 1 set, the paper or my laptop and starting the day. On days I telecommute, I fill my mini teapot to the top, put Izzy’s bed next to the table and leisurely read and answer email. I think I really like the teapot because I get a lot of use out of it but also because it’s something I wouldn’t have purchased for myself. If I didn’t have it, I’d just use a mug we already had. The teapot brightens up my telecommuting routine.

So what kind of gift getter are you? Is it easy for you to find things to ask for? Do you like sensible gifts or prefer things you want but wouldn’t buy for yourself?  What’s on your Christmas list?