Gift Wrapping

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Photo by: Joanna Kosinska @joannakosinska

For this year’s gift wrapping, consider using alternative materials, especially for those oddly shaped items. Gifts wrapped with fabrics create visual interest and tons of texture that will make the recipient feel extra special. Wrapping with fabrics takes a little practice to fit them just right and see where the fabric needs to be secured by fabric or ribbon strips in lieu of tape. To avoid hemming frayed fabric edges, use Stitch Witchery, an adhesive strip that gets ironed between the folded fabric creating a hemmed edge. This is probably a presentation for an adult or an earth-loving teenager as kids just wanna rip through paper. For oddly shaped items, fabric and serve as a sac with a cord threaded through a few holes at the top and tied into a bow or knot.

If you decided to adorn your gifts with classic wrapping paper, try adding something unexpected like fresh greenery or mini pine cones as a present garnish. Have fun with gift tags too, I recently created tags for those in between gifts that will bring joy to those around the recipient. My gift tags say, “For You, For Them,” “For You, For Us” and “For You, You Me.” These gifts are items that can be shared such as a board game, a bottle of wine, a gift card to a restaurant…

Weekend Design & Wellness Project

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Holiday Planning & Preparation

Photo by: Denise Johnson @auntneecey

The weekends of other months are for sleeping in, running errands or completing projects around the house. Weekends in December are for all of those things in addition to decorating, holiday grocery shopping, playing refrigerator tetras, mailing, shipping, meltdowns and purchasing or making gifts. All of that while trying to fit in some seasonal outdoor fun like going to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.

Here are some questions to help choose the best gifts for everyone on your list:

  1. What do they talk about frequently? Racing cars, golf, books, cooking, pottery…there are online classes, adventure experiences and online magazine subscriptions for almost anything.

  2. What is their favorite snack? Gift basket with a mixture of their favorite items

  3. Where are they from? Hometown or nostalgic memorabilia or specialty items for the transplants in your life. They will definitely appreciate receiving a piece of home as a gift.

    This is a good start to get the gift ideas flowing. Before you know it, the list will be completed and you will be anxious to see your loved ones reactions upon opening such uniquely personal gifts. We shall call this, confident gift giving.

    Remember, making gifts personal will mean much more to someone over being expensive and temporary.

December Decor

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Tis The Season To Warm The Heart & Home

Photo by: Sixteen Miles Out @sixteenmilesout

The holiday season is an opportunity to change the feeling in a home through decor, textures, scents, food and elements found in nature. This time of year also allows for time and attention to be spent on preparation, planning, arranging, rearranging with plenty of forgetting and last minute-ing. There are some benefits to the pressures of the holiday season which are self-reflection, sharing and slowing down. Even the scrooggiest of scrooges can find something enjoyable about the holiday season.

Here are some ways to simplify the endless holiday season to-do list. Choose…

  1. Three Main Food Items

  2. Three Decorative Elements

  3. Three Seasonal Activities or Experiences

The goal of this list is to minimize the amount of chaos that clutters up already full schedules and to prioritize what is most important to you and your family. Spread these tasks throughout the month of December to relieve some of the time and financial pressures. As far as gifts go, that will be a topic covered later this week.

On a not-so-bright side, the holiday season comes with challenges for those who wear many hats in their lives. Scheduling conflicts, financial issues along with mental and emotional health, put enormous additional weight on a lot of people during this time of year. With all of the pretty distractions of the holidays, it can be quite lonely for some who are celebrating the first holiday after losing loved ones, a job loss or choosing to separate from emotionally abusive loved ones. Please go into this holiday season with patience and kindness for yourself and others and remember, everyone is going through something.

Back to the brighter side of the season…those twinkly, blinkly lights ain’t gonna put themselves up so hop to it!

Weekend Design & Wellness Project

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Photo by: Markus Winkler @markuswinkler

Time to gather used items, clothing, home decor, technology, art and furniture to donate to charities or swap with friends and family.

Decluttering, purging and donating creates room for new items or space to enjoy a simpler lifestyle for the new year. Sometimes having less on purpose can bring a sense of abundance simply by having room in your life available. It makes cleaning a whole lot quicker too. Think about what you can live without and remove it from your life. You may find some inner peace in the process.

Pre-Holiday Purge

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Photo by: Minh Pham @minhphamdesign

Let it go! It’s the time of year to check some tasks off the perpetual to-do list, one of them being to declutter your home. Remove anything that is not serving a function or making you smile every time you enter your space. Simplify your home by only keeping what you use each day and of course sentimental heirloom pieces.

Things that stick around clogging up drawers and lying haphazardly on surfaces subconsciously triggers stress. Where there is stress there are communication issues, emotional shutdowns and even worse, dis-ease. Decluttering your home can save your life and relationships. If you want to enjoy your evenings and weekends, stop stepping on lego pieces or repurchasing misplaced items, then challenge yourself to a quick declutter fest to see if works for you.

Hey, you could even look at it like you’re making room for all the useful gifts you’ll be receive for the holidays.

Bonus points if you listen to the “Frozen” soundtrack. Just kidding, but twirling around like an ice princess can help make it more fun!