2012 Desktop Calendar

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might already be aware of my love for desktop calendars. If not, you can see what I had to say about the ones I picked for 2010 and 2011.

Since I bought photography calendars the last two years I had it in my head that maybe I’d make my own this year. However, as the year sped by, I realized the idea wasn’t necessarily bringing me any joy. Maybe another time. But sometimes it is sort of nice to just let someone else do the work and buy the finished product. (See, Lauren, it is possible!)

After a bit of browsing on Etsy, I decided on this calendar (yesterday they had the option to buy just the calendar, not sure if that will be back, but the thank you cards are also really cute!) from Whimsical Prints.

{Images from Whimsical Prints}

In addition to the trees, they also have traditional, flower, or mixed designs. They’re all pretty. But I picked the trees because I thought they were a good symbol for some of the things I want to focus on and accomplish this year.

I decided on this one pretty quickly so I don’t have too many others to specifically recommend. But, if you are looking for your own, this quick search on Etsy brings up lots of pretty eye candy for whatever mood you may be in for 2012!

I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions, plus I think I already have plenty to do what with finishing this list and being sparkly and all. But what about you guys? Any big hopes for 2012?

 

A few of my favorite things – Part IV

I got home early the day before Thanksgiving, poured a glass of champagne (getting out of work early is something I believe should always be celebrated), and started my Etsy holiday shopping. I’d say I got about 75% of my gifts from Etsy this year by making sure to plan and shop early. (Another 10% of our gifts were activities of some kind – tickets to a concerts, wine tasting classes – we love stuff like that!)

Here are my favorites from what I purchased this holiday season –

I love the links in the chain!

{Image courtesy of Piano Bench Designs}

 

It came in a pretty red box so to wrap it I just added the strip of paper, label, and string. Easy!

 

 

You’re able to customize the color of the bracelet so the one I ordered was blue instead. So simple and pretty.

I’m not sure why I didn’t take a picture but this one also came beautifully packaged!

{Image courtesy of Linda Trent Jewelry}

 

The large snowflake is custom engraved and you have lots of design choices for which snowflakes you’d like.

{Image courtesy of Timber Green Woods}

This was another one that was already wrapped for me – I just had to add the tag. Nice!

 

 

One for you (in silver), one for me (in gold). The store was having a buy one get one half off sale. How could I resist?

{Image courtesy of Dear You Shop}

This was my favorite wrapping. It was so pretty I didn’t even open it. I just added the stickers on the bottom right as a tag.

 

 

These two guys were for my brother who played A LOT of Super Mario Brothers growing up. They make me laugh every time I see them. I think my brother likes them just as much though because he took them out with him that night and posted of a photo of them with his friends. Ha!

{Images courtesy of Nerd Jerk}

 

 

I love these cufflinks and have had my eye on them for quite a while. They were given to a scuba diver who loves sharks and cufflinks. Could it be any more fitting?

{Image courtesy of Dedalo}

 

 

Not to disappoint the people who were receiving tickets or gift cards (as mentioned at the beginning of this post), I found cute little buckets in the $1 section at Target and made gift tags for them –

 

 

And last, but not least, I found these dessert plates at Goodwill and needed a reason to buy them. I decided they’d go great with the gold my mom likes to use in her table settings and bought all 6 for just $4.

The next stop was to Paper Source for a round box and paper to wrap them in. Pretty sure that cost more than the plates, but who’s counting, really?

I thought I was just going to cover the top of the box because  the scalloped edges seemed difficult to work with. But, in a moment of bravery, I decided to apply a strip to the edge as well. I then used an X-acto knife to cute away the excess on each rounded part and it really wasn’t too hard.

A few of my favorite things – Part II

Given the number of weddings we’ve been to in the past few years, it is no surprise that we welcomed a lot of new babies in 2010. I wanted to do something for them without the holiday spending getting way out of control so Pete and I decided to start a tradition of giving them each an ornament every year. I searched on Etsy but, knowing I needed a minimum of 5 (and ideally more!), I couldn’t find anything that I liked and fit the budget. I did, however, see quite a few things that inspired me to create my own. They’re not nearly as perfect as the other ones but they were made with lots of love!

I really thought I had taken an in-progress picture but, if I did, I can’t seem to find it (side note – as I’m taking more pictures I REALLY need to work on my organizational system – yikes!). I googled dove templates and decided on this one because I didn’t want any wings. I was going to try and use felt but fabric stores actually really overwhelm me since I don’t know how to sew. When I walked in to the store I found 2 yards of white fleece that was already wrapped up and bundled to go for somewhere around $5 or $8 so I figured it was a sign to just take it and go. I traced my template onto the fleece and was able to cut both sides at once. The cutting was actually probably the hardest part though so definitely make sure you have good scissors if you try it!

I wrote the babies names and the year on pieces of ribbon and hot glued them to either side of each ornament. I used the same ribbon to make the loop for hanging and hot glued that onto the inside of one of the pieces of fleece. Then I just hand-stitched the pieces together and add a little stuffing. Since I had the materials, I ended up making close to 20 of these so I could share not just with the babies but with other friends and family members as well. Now let’s just hope they hold up!

 

‘Tis the Season

It’s hard to believe that November is here and the holiday season is fast approaching. This sort of goes against my own rules for celebrating one holiday before moving on to the next (which may actually be becoming my thing) but I already started buying Christmas presents this year. And, in one case, I even made and shipped the present!

Lauren lives in the UK so we online shop together over e-mail (actually, I think we did this even when she lived here in Chicago but we’ll blame the hobby on the distance since it makes it seem more reasonable…). When I found this stationary I told her she needed the shoe clips to transform the peep-toe leopard-print shoes we had shopped for a few years ago.

She, of course, agreed.

I decided I’d make them. I went to Michael’s and found their Christmas decorations were already out (I should have known better than to worry that they wouldn’t be), ordered some blank shoe clips, and got out the scissors and hot glue gun. After 10 minutes of having no idea how I was going to make anything pretty, things finally came together. And, not too much longer after that, I had two of these.

Pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Buying Handmade #2

Here’s another roundup of recent Etsy purchases!

{Meowza}

{Paint All Night Studios}

{Kreative Karryalls}

{Snow Owl Wood Studio}

{Little Ellie}

2010 Desktop Calendars

A couple years ago I started buying the Paper Source desktop calendars to put on my desk at work. They make me happy. I always save them and repurpose into cards when I can since the letterpress is just too pretty to not re-use!

This year, given my promise to try and support all of the great artists out there, I decided to check out Etsy first. I found about a million lovely desktop calenders and of course I couldn’t decide on any filter categories to help me out. Luckily, along the way I realized there was already a great roundup on Decor8. (She also had other types of calenders in others posts in case the desktop version isn’t your thing.)

I finally decided today to purchase the one from Jennifer Squires Productions. I love the feeling in each of the photographs. Such a nice little escape from the otherwise hectic days. I also found a few others that caught my eye at Gabriella Designs, Valentina Design, and Violet Bella.

Buying Handmade

I’ve been on a mission recently to plan in advance and buy things handmade whenever possible. In fact, one of my goals for this holiday season is to only give gifts that are handmade or are for some kind of activity (i.e. tickets to a sporting event). Here are a few of my recent finds…with more to come once the gifts are actually given.

Happy birthday to Tanya…

Image and item: monaleisa

Happy birthday to me…

Image and item: Always Inspire

And thank you, Elaine…

http://www.madebygirl.com/product.php?sku=MM-11