Secret Santa! Something to Wear, Read, Want & Need

Don't you just love secret santas (aka, pollyannas, yankee swaps, etc.)?  I do!  I have a great online group of friends (we've been together since 2001).  There are about 35 of us, and every year we try to do a secret santa in December.  This year there was a $25 limit and I drew my friend Jen.  I was so excited!  I like to make my gifts as thoughtful as possible ... so I thought and thought and the answer was right in front of me: I'd do exactly what Jen was planning to do for her daughter for Christmas and give her four gifts: something to wear, something to read, something that she wants and something that she needs.  Yeah!  Here are all the gifts packaged up ... brown paper packages tied up with string.


I printed up the tags on my Mac using some favorite fonts (Lane Narrow and Affair).  I had the brown paper bag from a grocery trip and the ribbon were remnants in my stash.  I decided to print out little tags to include inside each gift, too.  And now for what's inside (along with a running tab of the cost)!

* Something to Wear * 

I went with some super soft, super cozy, cream socks from Old Navy.  That way I didn't have to worry about sizes and who doesn't love fluffy soft socks, especially as Winter is upon us?  These cost just $2 at an Old Navy Black Friday sale.


 * Something to Read *

I wanted to get Jen something useful.  I went with the the little book, Salt, Lemons, Vinegar and Baking Soda.  I recognized it immediately, as Jamie blogged about this book awhile ago.  It is so cute and helpful, especially to Jen who loves to keep things eco-friendly around her home.  I need to pick up one of these books for myself!  This book was on sale for about $5 at Barnes & Noble. 


 * Something She Wants *

This was easy!  Jen loves to knit so I emailed one of my other knitter-friends and asked for a suggestion on a place to get a gift card.  She suggested Purl Soho ... so I ordered a giftcard for $20 that Jen can use in the store or online.  I gotta admit: I don't knit but I really want to poke around that site.  Such cute stuff!


* Something She Needs *

Well, this one was probably the hardest of all.  I cheated a little and did a fun little poll on the boards and asked, among many other questions, "what is something you really need this holiday?"  Jen responded that she could use a holiday music CD, since they don't have one.  She thought it would be fun to play it while decorating their tree.  Yes!  I have a ton of Christmas CDs, so I just loaded them on my Mac, created a playlist in iTunes and burned her a custom CD with 90 minutes of Christmas music.  Cost? Free.  I had the CDs (even the blank one) on hand.  The cover is something I downloaded from Better Homes and Gardens - a cute Christmas pillow download (you can see more info on it in my post last week).  I just reduced the size of it to fit in a CD case.



And there you have it!  For $27 (I went $2 over budget - no biggie), I got my friend Jen four cute things. I hope she finds them as fun as I had putting it all together.  

What about you? Participating in any gift exchanges this year?  Christmas is coming! 

See you swoon,
4 comments:
Categories: ,

Swoon-worthy Pinterest Pix

I thought it would be fun to show you some of the the things I pinned this week.  I am a full blown addict when it comes to Pinterest, I am not afraid to admit this. For those of you not familiar with this site it is a world full of pictures of fashion, homes, art, you can even find DIY instructions for projects!  One of the best things about the pictures you "repin" is that most pictures have the website where you can purchase the specific item that you searched for.  Nothing is more frustrating than finding something you love and then not knowing where you can buy it.  This site takes all the guess work out of it.
 I will admit, I started writing this blog and hopped over there to find some of my favorite pictures and got sucked in again.  I warn you, do not go on this site at work, hours will pass and you won't even know it!

So this week's Pinterest round up looks a little something like this:

I came across this DIY craft idea when I was looking for radiator cover ideas for the dining room.  Yup, this is how you get sucked in.


No idea what I was looking for when I found this but sparkly shoes, um yes please!  I could totally do this myself...now which heels do I sacrifice for this project?


Shanna must have pinned this one, love it though.  Modge Podge and lace on glass.  I may try this over the weekend.


Let's jump over to fashion, our "All Things Style" board is growing rapidly.  This is one of my favorite boards to look at and like I said before, the best part is being able to find each item online so if I wanted to purchase it I could!

Not sure where I am going in this but I need it:


I wish all my shirts had sleeves like this:


I have also decided after much debate that I need a pair of leg warmers.  I know I had these in the 80's and this is why I contemplated for so long whether I should jump back on this band wagon.  Yup, going to do it.


This time the leg warmers will look a little something like this:


What an adorable outfit:


Moving along, here are some fun inspirational rooms and pieces that I have saved:

This would be my ideal guest room, colors, rustic distressed wood and love that headboard!


I am swooning over this white brick fireplace.  Makes me a little less nervous to paint mine!


Look how fun this radiator cover is!  Even without the cushion, I am loving the wood x front, I have never seen one like this before:


I hope you have enjoyed some of my favorite pins from Pinterest.  If you haven't signed up yet, get over there right now, you will not regret it.
Before I go for the weekend, I will leave you with these three things, they made me laugh out loud and what better way to start a Friday :)




And with that my friends, have a great weekend and be safe!

See you swoon,
 
1 comment:
Categories:

It just fell into place

This year I bought my Christmas tree super DUPER early.  Last year we had just moved in so decorations were scarce and the only reason we had a tree was because Shanna surprised us with one that was delivered and waiting for my husband and me when we got home from work (there were tears, how sweet right?). 

This year after picking up my tree I had to shift some furniture around to make room for the pine scented beauty so the chair and rustic table had to go...just for now (sorry dear husband, the table stays).  Funny how the table's temporary home has turned into its permanent abode.  It all just fell into place and the second I saw the table next to the couch, the far side of the room felt full and complete.  Who knew?  All I had to do was buy a Christmas tree to help with my decor decisions!  I will have the task of filling in the empty space on the other side of the room but I am OK with that.

Here are a couple shots of the room before the tree made its appearance:



Now on the other side of the room.  You will notice a new glass top or the table as well :)  A good friend of mine cut that for free! It works a lot better as a table with a top :)



So with a quick shift across the room, this small table has made the couch feel cozier, the room feel more complete, and saved my pocket some dough because now I don't want a new couch anymore!

What do you think?  Would you have gone for a bigger couch or do you like the tables on either side?  Funny how that table was in the front room for so long and I never though to try it on the other side.  Anyone out there stumble upon the perfect solution to your room layout by accident?

See you swoon,

5 comments:
Categories:

Chomping at the bit to make this dream room transformation a reality

I know I still have some unfinished projects in the front sitting room, kitchen and dining room and I won't even get into the laundry list of things I need to do on the second floor, however, I have now set my sights on transforming the den.  Funny how we spend most of our time in this room and I have yet to do anything to it. 

Our back room is an addition and part of the reason we fell head over heels for our house.  We were able to get some much needed extra space that the other homes on or street do not have along with getting our wood burning fireplace which was a must have on the house hunting list.

Let's get right to it.  Here is the den now:




I also came across these from the day we went to look at the house for the first time, seems like an eternity ago! 





And now for the fun part :) Welcome to the inside of my mind:
Den Transformation




First off, the paint color. I love the dark grayish blue that gives some warmth to the room and makes it feel cozy like a den should be. I don't have a picture of the plan for the fireplace but I am currently testing some bricks with a liming technique so I will keep you posted on that.

A new sectional is not in the budget just yet but I will replace it one day with a cream slipcovered twill sofa (lucky for me the cats don't seem to bother that material). Oak colored blinds will take the place of the white venetian blinds that we have up now and a distressed wood O will go next to the window. I love the idea of the distressed ivory wood on top of the deep gray paint and hanging next to the oak blinds, such a pretty combo.  Next up and most certainly not in the budget right now, my true love, the Pottery Barn Manhattan leather chair. Drool fest people, have you ever sat in this chair? AMAZING, and it should be for the price tag!

My inspiration picture is in the bottom left corner (sorry for the wacky coloring, not sure what happened there). I plan to knock off the picture arrangement above the couch, the mix of wood tones with light colored mats helps to break up some of the darker coloring in the room.

The mantle and mirror you see in the before/reality pictures above need some jazzing up but first to tackle that fireplace! Enough of me yammering on and on, let me know what you think and if anyone out there has used this liming technique please let me know how it worked for you.

Happy Monday everyone!  Here's to a great week :)

See you swoon,

5 comments:
Categories: , ,

Souped Up Desk Chair On the Cheap Vol. III

And today is the third installment in my three-part series on transforming inexpensive chairs around my home!  So far, I've shown you the kitchen desk chair and Little's desk chair, which cost about $75 total (for both!).  Last but not least is Big's desk chair.  I ended up finding his chair for $20 at IKEA (the Stefan chair).  Here it is before in a brown-black finish:


I had a ton (and by "ton" I mean 3/4 of a gallon) of navy blue paint left over from Big's dresser and desk project, so I was happy to use a little of it on the chair.  It was really simple: I just primed the chair and then painted it with three coats of the navy blue.  



I decided to upholster the seat to break up all the blue, since his chair and desk were that same navy blue.  I found this navy and white striped fabric at Fabric.com for about $7/yard.  I wanted to customize the chair (and Little's too), so I just used some foam and batting leftover from my ottoman project from over the summer and covered the seat with the foam-batting-fabric.


First, I placed my seats on the foam and traced them with a Sharpie.  I labeled them just to be extra careful.


I cut the foam and then used some spray adhesive to attach the foam to the seats.  Once the glue dried, I placed the seats foam side down on some batting and cut that so there was enough to wrap around the seat bottom.  Finally, I put the seat on the fabric and cut that to size.  I stapled it all under the seat bottom and ... voila!


Here is the chair now:



What do you think of the look?  So that's three chairs transformed for hardly any coin.  The total cost was about $100 for the three ($75 for two at Pottery Barn, $20 for the one at IKEA, $7 for fabric and the remaining supplies and paint and fabric I had on hand)!  Not bad at all.

Have a great weekend! Good luck baking, shopping, and merry-making :)

See you swoon,
36 comments:
Categories: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)