A punch of Sparkle.

 

 

What are YOU doing New Year's Eve?!  My family has been in town this week (YAY!) and with a toddler and a baby staying at our house, our house is a little bit messy to say the least!  So, by the looks of it, I'll be spending most of the day-side of New Year's Eve cleaning my house (bleh.) preparing for some of our friends to join us for the BIG UK Wildcats basketball game against their rivals, the Louisville Cardinals and for an eventful evening at our new house!  We are so excited to see some of our friends who moved away from the area which is always a recipe for good stories and good times.

Whether you're spending the evening at home, at a fancy restaurant or a night on the town New Year's Eve always calls for one thing... a little touch glitz. 

I'm not much for glitz and glam on an everyday basis, but New Years is one event that definitely inspires me to wear a little bit of sparkle.  Every girl is in a better mood when there is glitter or sparkles involved, so liven up the party a bit with an outfit like this or pair a sparkly top with your favorite pair of dark washed jeans for a casual evening.

Well, I'm not sure about you, but I'm planning on the more casual evening despite the little piece of me that wants to do it big in the city and get all dressed up and I am more than happy with that.  Regardless of your plans for Saturday night,

   

Holiday Listenings

Eight wonderful Christmas albums to make your days merry & bright;  a little extra pick-me-up right before the Holidays.

1. Sufjan Stevens' Songs for Christmas

2.A Very She & Him Christmas

3. Sojourn's A Child is Born

4. Michael Buble's Christmas

5.  Dave Barnes' Very Merry Christmas

6. Over the Rhine's Snow Angels

7.  James Taylor At Christmas

8.Maybe This Christmas with a variety of artists

The Christmas Story

A friend of mine posted this video and it was just too precious to pass up sharing it with you all!  I love the way it was shot and the narrators are adorable (kids + english accents = cuteness overload!).  Enjoy!

** you may have to stop the music from automatically playing by scrolling to the bottom of this page first!.  

$1 Christmas Craft

I was moseying around the house last week in an attempt to get a little bit more organized in the new house when I found a bag of felt that I had purchased at Hobby Lobby to make a few felt flowers.  Seeing how I was over the whole felt flower kick I was on one day, I decided I could use them for some other project... maybe even a Christmas project (our house is lacking a little in the Christmas decor department).  I began messing around with the felt and figured I would attempt to make a set of little Christmas trees to adorn our (sad excuse for a) mantle.

This is what I came up with.

And, this is how to do it.

1) Gather materials: 3 pieces of felt (found at the craft store for 4 for $1), scissors, tacky glue, and binder clips (optional).

 

2) Use one piece of felt and make a cone shape starting from one of the corners. 

3) Glue the edge down and then cut the bottom (sort of like a semi-circle) so the 'cone' will stand up evenly.

4) Place binder clips over the area you just glued together to help it adhere. (This step might be unecessary, but I found that the felt didn't really stick together with the tacky glue unless forced.)  Let your trees sit about 10 minutes before taking the clips off.  

        

5) Repeat steps 2-4 with three different sized cones.  (I was able to make all of my cone shapes out of one piece of felt.)

6) Decorate your trees however you'd like!  The good thing about this project is that you don't have to glue down any of the decorations on your trees because the felt pieces stick to one another!  So you can redecorate your trees as often as you'd like!

As a side note, I created the spiral design by drawing a circle on the felt (about the size of a cd) and cutting it into a spiral.  This makes it very easy to drape the spirals over the cones. 

 

I created the 'bunting tree' by making anther spiral out of a circle and cutting little triangles out of the green felt.  I found it helpful to use a little dab of glue on the triangles to keep them in place.  And, the smallest tree was created simply by cutting small circles out of the felt (pretty obvious, but I didn't want to leave the little guy unmentioned!)  

And here's our (sad excuse for a) mantle with felt trees and a little bunting piece I made with the extra felt and an empty frame I had laying around.

 

Merry Christmas!

Stephanie P.

Vintage Onesies

A friend of mine came to me a few weeks ago with a project.  She wanted to send her friend a couple onesies, but not just any ordinary onesies, vintage onesies.  Seeing how I hadn't done any vintage ones before, I was definitely up to the task.  As soon as I heard the word 'vintage' my mind immediately took me to the land of lace, pearls, washed out colors, and antique brooches sort of like this or this.  This is what I came up with.

{images via instagram-- for an extra vintage affect}

I have to say, I am definitely a fan of the frilly lace.  I love the way they turned out. 

As always, let me know if you are interested in ordering a onesie.  I can always personalize a special one just for you (or a friend!).

Much love,

Stephanie P.