Posts Tagged ‘holiday’

How-To: Wrap Odd-Shaped Gifts

April 24th, 2012
4 Comments

In keeping with my “keep it simple” approach to Penelope’s birthday, I decorated the kitchen very sparsely. I hung the banner I made the birthday banner for Penelope’s first birthday, added a white tablecloth to the table and wrapped her gifts in white butcher paper.

The thing about kids’ toys: they never come in a simple box. They’re always in an annoying blister pack or odd-shaped rectangle. That was certainly the case with the gifts we gave her this year. I was just in such a hurry to get her gifts wrapped before she wandered into my bedroom, somehow I channeled my inner short cook and came up with a really simple and fast way to wrap her awkward-shaped gifts.

I’m not sure about you, but I figured I’d share this technique in case it would come in handy for any of you. I think the gifts turned out quite nicely, considering their shape and the simple paper used. Click the link below for the whole tutorial (and video!).

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Thrifty & Chic: I love H&M

April 5th, 2010
26 Comments

Utah does NOT have an H&M. It totally bugs. If Salt Lake were to ever get a Trader Joe’s and an H&M, I think I’d be in big trouble, but super happy. Does anyone want to help me petition to H&M to open a Salt Lake store? I’m serious about this.

While in Arizona, I made it a point to go to H&M at least once. I probably could’ve gone two or three times, but I’m not sure Chris or my bank account would’ve really appreciated that. I was a good girl, though. I managed to get a bunch of awesome clothes for Penelope and a few must-haves for me & Chris without spending over $100.

H&M has the best kid’s clothes. In fact, their kids clothes are so awesome, my 18 year old sis-in-law and I both found some pretty sweet items for us in the tween department. I found so many sweet little things for Penelope, but this dress (above) was a must-have Easter dress. My jaw just dropped when I saw it in the store, it’s so precious! It was only $17, too! Score. I had planned on making matching outfits for Easter (like last year), but I don’t think I would’ve thrown together anything nearly this cute at the last minute. So, I had to have it.

I also found two awesome dress shirts for Chris for $12.50 each! The yellow shirt (above) is one of them. You can’t tell from the pic, but it’s a yellow and white pin stripe pattern. It looks really sharp in person. Chris likes his new shirts, but I think I might like them more. H&M makes fitted dress shirts. I can see Chris’s muscles better. I like.

Don’t they look so cute together!?

So, who’s with me on petitioning for a H&M in the Salt Lake area?  Shall we get started?! Contact H&M and let them know you want one. I did. Hope you had a great Easter weekend!

Petal Box Download + Mother’s Day Thoughts

May 12th, 2009
17 Comments

My current mantra is “Better late than never. Better late than never.” It took me over two weeks to get in touch with my sister to wish her a happy birthday, and my mom won’t be getting her Mother’s day gift for another couple of days because the post office isn’t open on Saturdays.

I really want to share with you what I did for my mom for Mother’s day/Birthday (they’re often the same day). My mom is really special. She has worked really REALLY hard at doing everything. When I say everything, I mean it. I hope that she knows that her efforts don’t go unnoticed. So for Mother’s day, I thought it would be fitting to give her the gift of memory. I hand wrote random memories that I have of my mom and the thoughtful things she has done for me. I think the next time I do it, I should start a year in advance, because I know I’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg.

Mom's Petal Box

I cut out a bunch of 3″x3″ squares and hand wrote (with pen & ink) my memories. Then I packaged it all with a box version of the petal envelope. I made up the template and want to share it with you! The box template is 3″ x 3″ x 1″, super fast to make and perfect for packaging jewelry and other sweet little gifts.

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Click here for the free petal box template!

Will you be my Valentine?

February 12th, 2009
17 Comments

Christopher is banned from my blog from today until Valentines, mostly because I’m too excited about his Valentine to wait. So if you read this, DON’T talk to Chris about it. He already knows too much.

I got this genius idea from a friend [although, she didn’t know it] who signed off an email with “the Tiddly Winkels”. It reminded me how much I love the nearly skill-less, almost pointless game of Tiddlywinks. I’m sure there’s skill involved, I just don’t have any. I got to thinking; revamping my old Tiddlywinks game would be PERFECT. The box was missing, no instructions, just the winks, mats and pot were left. I made the box, added an additional area for winks to land [the handhold, lobsters*, footsies and hugs areas], cut out [and embroidered a little heart] pink mats and made it all lovey-dovey.

valentines tiddlywinks 1

Here’s the genius of the game: you can make it whatever you want! You hit the winks into the pot to get points, add up the points for a kiss, lobsters, whatever. And, the scorecard I made, is fill in the blank, so at the beginning of each game the players can decide what action would occur at what points. Sweet? or Saucy? I have yet to play the game with Chris, so I don’t know how well it’ll work. I’ll report back as soon as I find out. You know what else I did? I made a free downloadable PDF for anyone else who wants to play this imaginative, couple’s game. Download HERE.

valentines tiddlywinks 2

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valentines tiddlywinks 4

I think it all turned out pretty nicely. I just entered it into a Craftzine V-day contest, so wish me luck!! By the way, did you hear Craft will no longer be in print? Bummer. At least they’ll keep the website going [unlike domino :( Blerg ].

*Lobsters are what Chris and I call backrubs. Don’t ask me why, but we like it that way.

*ALSO, I thought I was being all cute with a little tag saying “will you be my tiddlywink?” I just went on urbandictionary and looked up the term tiddlywink. LAME. LAME. LAME. I probably shouldn’t have entered those photos on the contest page. BLAST you awful slang!! Why do you have to ruin ALL of my fun?!? BLERG. I guess I’m going to have to re-shoot the box tomorrow, minus the inuendo.

12 Days of Valentines: 1 Bowl of Snow

February 4th, 2009
2 Comments

1bowlofsnow

Dearest [Valentine],

I want to eat you up like a bowl of snow.

Love,

Chris

My husband is ingenius. And all it took to make me feel special was construction paper and magazine cutouts. Note: these are Valentine’s he gave me when we were first dating and our first year of marriage and for some reason we can’t remember what we did last year. Guess it means we need to make up for it this year. Right?

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