How can it be July already?

The year is half over. 

My intern just graduated ...

My sweet granddaughter is growing in leaps and bounds (she will be three in September) ...

And summer is here. Happy July 1st!

Christmas wrapped up

We had simple Christmas decorations this year. I took down all the Christmas boxes, looked at a few of them and put them right back up. I decided it was a good year to simplify things. 

I put a few lights on the tree, sprinkled some green balls around ... and added some antlers.

I also framed a couple of Christmas quotes. I framed this quote from Jolie's Etsy Shop in an inexpensive white frame that I spray painted gold.

I purchased "The Weary World Rejoices" print from Lindsay Letters. The frame is from Aaron Brothers.

I made a NOEL banner and brought in a new bar cart for a little fun. The bar cart is from Crate and Barrel.

Our thankful chain from Thanksgiving didn't make it on the tree, but I like it where it ended up.

My Christmas paper this year was primarily brown packing paper. I also purchased a few rolls of Kate Spade paper in black and white stripes. It was reversible with with gold dots on one side and I ended up using the dots instead of the stripes.

Kate Spade wrapping paper from Lifeguard Press

I had also purchased some French velvet ribbon in emerald green and blue I and mixed it all together. Everyone got a little of the pretty gold dotted paper or some velvet. But mostly there was a lot of brown paper. I loved mixing the simple with the more special.

I don't think I did it intentionally, but the dots seemed to inspire my tags ...

And once I came up with the tag design, I used it to make a simple banner.

To make the tags, I started with a Kate Spade iPhone case image:

Kate Spade iPhone case

I put the image in Picmonkey (the program I use to "photoshop") and blurred it a little and tweaked the color:

I also changed the color to green for a second tag choice:

And after I got the image the way I wanted, I added the initials:

I also used plain black card stock and a gold pen for some of my tags and even painted directly on the brown paper for a little fun...

My daughter who lives on a farm came into town today with her gifts all wrapped:

She used feed bags ... I LOVE IT!

So that's it ... we are all wrapped up here and ready to enjoy some quality time with family and friends these next few days while we reflect on the greatest gift - a baby who came down from heaven. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas filled with love and joy. Joyeux Noel! 

Making tags

I made a few quick tags for a couple of gifts and a package to mail ...

I have a few cute fonts on my computer (I found them here) but the ones I used on these I found on Picmonkey. I took a photo and adjusted the color | brightness until it was all white and then added text.

Picmonkey is the program that I use to collage my photos ... 

And I can also edit photos and add some fun techniques to them.

 It's something I play around with in my spare time!

A new color scheme

I'm starting a new project. And in a completely different color scheme then my normal blues ...

This client wants a lot of black and white with accents of red. I have to be honest, the red didn't thrill me. I was thinking more of a bright yellow. So I went off looking for a little inspiration ... a place to start. Which for me is usually fabric.

I find it interesting how well the fabric I chose for my jumping off point happens to go with the new Marimekko wrapping paper that I found at Crate and Barrel. I wonder if I was subconsciously influenced! 

Tangerine gifts & Brooke Shields

I had lunch with a dear friend the other day to celebrate my belated birthday. This is a friend who loves to get into the color of the year - not so much in decorating, (she is not in the design world), but in gift giving. She always has fun with it and is a great gift giver - which I believe is an art in itself.

This time I think she really outdid herself. Don't you love the houndstooth paper? I think it is amazing how she mixed the two perfect colors together. And the little tangerines on top.

What was inside the wrapping was even better. I thought she just picked the book because it fit with the theme but she said she had actually read it and that it was a great read. How fun is that? But that was not all ...

I didn't even know they made tangerine flavored Balsamic Vinegar.

I love a good Balsamic vinegar and this one is a good one! I know because I didn't waste anytime trying it ...

The bottle is such a pretty cobalt blue - it makes me wish I had more room to display my cooking oils and other pretty bottles in my kitchen ... like this idea in Brooke Shield's kitchen from this month's Architectural Digest:

Architectural Digest via

It looks like Brooke is loving the color of the year as well!

Gift tags

I just got back from a fast and intense trip up to Berkeley to pick up my youngest daughter for Christmas and help her move out of her apartment. On the way I stopped by to visit my oldest daughter and her husband and play with this little girl ...

{Adi - 13 weeks}

I spent the day with with them and in the evening we drove around looking at Christmas lights and stopped by a Christmas tree lot. The lot was really disappointing and way overpriced for what they had left so we gathered up some branches and made our own little tree.

Did you see these ornaments at Target this year? I love the bright colors and cute little animals & they were only $1.00 each! Next year when Adi is older she will be able to touch them without breaking them and they would even make a cute little crib mobile after Christmas.

I left their house early the next morning, drove four hours to Berkeley, helped my youngest pack up her stuff, made four trips to storage, one trip to her new apartment, one trip to the Goodwill, had dinner at the best Mexican restaurant in town (best Sangria ever), loaded up the car with what was coming home, did a quick room clean-up and drove four hours back to spend the night with my other daughter again. It was the fastest trip I have ever taken! But oh, so productive!!!

Speaking of productive, before I left I had played around with some gift tags for for a little project I am working on. I like to make my own tags for my "neighbor gifts" (candy, cookies, spiced nuts or cheese balls usually) but by the time I am at that point to make tags, I am usually behind schedule and quickly put something together.

{Last year's  New Year's gifts - I gave out pink champagne in honor of the new color of the new year ... Honeysuckle.} 

But this year, I am ahead of schedule and wanted to play around with some nicer tags. It all started when I found these beautiful white soft fleece blankets at Ikea for $3.49 each ...

I couldn't resist them.

I thought I would use them as neighbor gifts this year ... and so I started thinking about ways to present them.

First I found an image of a chevron fabric on the computer, dragged the image into Microsoft Word and tweaked the color. Next I added a text box and came up with this:

I printed up a few to test them out and then realized I was out of ink and had to stop. But I am liking the direction they are going. 

Off to get more ink ...