Free People Christmas!

While I was in Utah I picked up the most gorgeous Free People stockings for myself and my two daughters. They are so pretty it is a pity that they will only be used at Christmas.



 I think I need to find a way to incorporate these into everyday decor... Right?

Christmas Ornament

I'm not gonna lie: this is my favorite Christmas ornament I have purchased all season. Have I ever talked about the absurd number of Christmas ornaments I have? No? OK, that's for the better. I have entirely too many and I love each and every one passionately. I think I have like 800. There. I said it.

I found this happy fellow at World Market. It took everything I had not to buy six more :).

DIY: Mason Jar Snowglobes

You GUYS!!!!! I am pretty excited about this DIY. Can you tell??



Trust me when I tell you that this is a super duper simple DIY.

I saw the original mason jar snow globes on the Anthropologie website and fell in love. And then I thought, "Wait! I could make those for less than the cost of buying one!". I decided to make a small stash of globes to sell at one of the local stores I work with and began planning right away. You will need a few supplies but getting most of the stuff at Michaels and using both the mailer coupon AND the coupon code on my phone saved me quite a bit of the green stuff. Shall we delve in?

Supplies Needed:

Mason jars. I prefer the smaller to medium sizes - it sets the perfect little tableau. I discovered these blue ombre jars at Michaels and decided those were my new favorites.

Pack of small to medium Christmas trees. Again, this was a Michaels purchase. I bought a multi pack of like 15 trees in the Christmas train section.

Really small Christmas elves/characters. Once again, Michaels and in the Christmas train section.

Epsom salts. I picked up a bag at the grocery store for like $2.00. Easy

Hot glue gun and hot glue gun sticks.



The key with this project is having a surface to lay things out so that you can fit each tableau onto the inside lids of the jars well BEFORE you do any gluing. You will need a bit more clearance for the lip of the mason jar fitting into the lid than you think. I laid everything out and then one by one, hot glued the tree first, then the figures to the inside of the metal disk that fits inside the ring. Just deal with the disk right now.
 
Once the figures were set, I carefully ran a thin bead of hot glue along the metal ring of the mason jar and fit the disk into that. I pressed firmly until it was flush with the inside of the metal ring. I botched the first one and used a little less glue and took a bit more time with the next ones. Success!

After the disks and rings were happily married, I turned my ombre jars right side up and poured about half a cup of epsom salts in. If you are using larger jars, use more salt. You want it to look like a little snow drift but not so much that it covers too much of the figurines.

Then I screwed the lids onto the jars nice and tight and turned them upside down.

Voila!

Easy right?!

I have seen these look great with just clear glass and groupings of several different sizes. Just use what speaks to you! Are you going to try making this?

From where I sit...

The view from where I sit tonight. Nine feet of Christmas sparkles in our living room, raining outside and "The Hobbit" on TV. Well played, Saturday. Well played.

Favorites

My favorite shoes. My favorite weather. My favorite running compression tights. 

 Today was a good day :)

Wishing Tree

There is a unique little town close to where we live called Port Costa. It is like going back in time to a movie set...except it is real.



And that car below??? Major vehicle lust coming from me over this one:



We spent a day with friends driving around and exploring this funky little town. My favorite part was this large olive tree in front of someones house that had hundreds of old tags hanging from it.



Upon closer inspection, we realized that there were wishes written on each tag and a jar nearby with pencils and more tags. Some wishes were written in crayon by children, some written in other languages. The whole of the tree is then wrapped in multi colored Christmas lights. Isn't this world just fascinating? What a hidden treasure.

If you are ever in the Bay Area, Port Costa is worth an afternoon of exploring. 

Being Grateful...

If you are feeling overwhelmed/overburdened/OVER it all try a trick today: just start thinking of all that you have to be thankful for.  Seriously.  Start with the fact that you are able to breathe on your own without a machine...or that you have hands that work.  Or that you slept in a bed last night.  Start with the basics and build from there.  You will be surprised in less than a minute how much you have to be thankful for.

There are many times in my life where I start to feel like I am drowning under ALL of it.  And then I need a perspective shift.  For me it starts with remembering all that I have been blessed with, all that I have to be grateful for.

Give it a shot.  That's my challenge for you today :)

Glittering Risers

I saw this on Pinterest today and fell pretty hard.  Absolutely LOVE this...

 

Would you do this look?

Besties...

These are my besties.  My girls.  My peeps.  Some of the people on this great big earth who know me best...and love me anyway.





I'm a lucky lady to have these girls in my life.  We all met many many years ago in NYC before we had babies.  Now we have 16 kids and a lifetime of friendship between us.  I am so grateful that we carved out the time to travel from our far flung corners of the country for 4 days together in Rhode Island for our annual girls weekend.  It was epic.  We laughed, we cried.  We did some unmentionable things.  I'll just leave it at that.

Love you girls :)

Love Where You Live

I'm not sure if I have talked about this before...but I absolutely love where I live.  We have been in the Bay Area now for 10 years and each year that goes by I realize I love it more and more.  These are vineyard filled hills that surround my kids school.  The view doesn't get any better than this.

 



It took a good 3 years for me to fall in love with this place.  I was (well...am) an East Coast girl and living in NYC for nearly 7 years had me wound pretty tight.  But now I am fully invested with being a California girl.  There are a lot of uncertainties in life and certainly no day is completely free from problems but if you love where you live it sure helps.

DIY: Backyard Fabric Garland

See those big kids on bikes?  Those are my older two.  They are getting too big.  And see that garland hanging on my back fence?  I made that this weekend.  It is way longer than you can appreciate based on this photo.  I gathered up a bunch of my favorite vintage and colorful fabrics and chopped out some triangles and sewed them to burlap twine.  It was literally that simple and I love the way it looks.

Have you ever made a fabric garland? Are you looking for a use for those fabric scraps in your craft room? You should try this!

Board Books

Check out this incredible headboard made of books.  Perfect for the book lover...or possibly for someone who suffers from insomnia?  For tips on how to make this incredible headboard please visit this website - she will show you how to do it from start to finish.