Christmas Wrapping 2010

If you take a little lookie loo, you'll see our tree has, oh, three ornaments on it. I'm hoping to rectify that tonight, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share a sneak peek at this year's Christmas wrapping.

Every year I pick a different color scheme and roll with it. My reasons are two-fold: 1) Everyone knows which gifts are from me and 2) I don't have to buy holiday wrapper, which can't be used during the rest of the year (and which I personally don't enjoy). You can see all my color schemes going back to 2006 here.

This year I chose blue and gold. I didn't really have a reason, except that I wanted it to look rich and festive, and maybe an eensy bit nautical. I bought the gold kraft paper at Target, along with the blue metallic swirly paper. I bought the polka dot and navy rolls of paper at Paper Source. The ribbon came from Michael's and M&J Trimming.

I think they look pretty good so far! I'm still wrapping, though.

This is just another little sneak peek at our holiday decor (which is nowhere near finished). I took down our regular grouping of photographs and paintings and replaced them with the glitter stars from our wedding. They look very lovely, and I'm happy I could use some of the wedding stuff again.

We'll be putting some more ornaments on the tree tonight! I'm excited to finally deck my halls, even if I'll be out of town for most of the holidays.

Sunday Best v.43

I went to my first professional football game yesterday with my own Redskins superfan husband, and a gaggle of friends. Our dear friend Ashleigh gave us tickets as a wedding present. It was really cool to see them in person, and much more interesting, but the weather, which was cold and rainy, was miserable. Srsly. And of course, they lost in the last second. I'm looking forward to going to more games in the future, though; they are much more entertaining in person.

• If only Facebook were so kind as to give us this warning label.
• These are pocket books after an English major's heart.
• Perfect gift for your chocoholic office mate: chocolate pie chart.
• I've been a hopeless collector for all my life. Perhaps if I photographed my collections like Lisa Congdon, I would be able to part with some of them someday. She has a very fabulous-looking book due out, too.
• If I had a kitchen, I would buy these schoolhouse lights by Amy Ruppel in a second.
• Finally! Sandwich spreads named after my favorite catchphrase.
• I'm in love with these special edition classics, most especially the cover of "Emma."

Lonny Magazine

Do you guys read Lonny? I was a Domino Magazine devotee and still sometimes can't get over the loss of the magazine after it was closed by the dunderheads at Conde Nast in 2009. It took me a little while to warm up to the idea of reading Lonny on my computer, which is like an online sister to Domino with the former staffers to give it street cred, but the issue that went up today was gorgeous. So much eye candy.

Take an hour this weekend to flip through the digital pages; you won't be sorry. Enjoy your weekends, friends! I'm off to DC for the millionth time in the past 2 months, this time to help move my sister-in-law into her awesome single girl apartment and to go to my very first Redskins game. Sunday Best probably won't go up until Monday as a result, but I promise it's got plenty of awesome links.

Paper Wreath Completed!

I finished the wreath last night once I'd replenished my hot glue stick supply. All I had to do was add some extra ruffles and fill in some of the holes. I have to say, it does look pretty fabulous.

We're going to do the rest of our decorating tomorrow night, and I'm very excited. I've been feeling so left out in the neighborhood!

Unfortunately, we aren't getting a real tree this year like we did last year. We are going to be out of town almost every weekend of the holidays, plus our neighborhood doesn't provide any recycling services and the city won't pick it up. I'm sad to say we might not have a real tree until we live in a real house...that's motivation to save right there!

Paper Wreath

While I was tearing my guest room apart the other day, I came across a tupperware container full of these garlands from our wedding. I had no idea where they had wandered off to, so finding them was such a pleasant surprise! I knew when we made them that I would like to incorporate them into my holiday decor as a way of remember our wedding. Plus, a bibliophile like me can never get enough to typography- and book-inspired decor.

I wanted to find ways to tie the theme together, so I googled around and found this tutorial to make a wreath of book pages. Considering I still had half of "Breaking Dawn" left to be mutilated (the only book I felt comfortable destroying), I thought this was a perfect project for the home of two journalists.

As with all craft projects, however, I encountered some hiccups along the road (would I be me without them?).

I'm not going to pretend I can be as exhaustive as that tutorial I linked to, and I also didn't take incredibly pretty pictures. I had my eyes on the prize for this one. But I can help you along a bit. You will need:

• A styrofoam circle
• Ribbon if you want to hang it up with ribbon
• Books you don't mind ruining
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• PATIENCE

Tear out a ton of pages.

Fold them in a way that intrigues you. I do not believe there is a right or wrong way, except for maybe accordian folding, which would require much more gluing. You will need to squirt little dabs of glue between the folds to secure them, then place a line along the flattest side and stick it to the wreath, with the pretty foldy part toward the outside.

Like so. Repeat, many many times.

Eventually, you'll finish the first layer and you'll start a second layer right on top of that, and another and another until it starts to look as full as you imagined it. This takes some time, but is a fairly mechanical process.

The only problem would be if you, say, ran out of glue sticks not even halfway through the first layer and your husband ignored your frantic text to pick some more up. But never fear; that's why a good woman always has a jar of Mod Podge lying around. It'll get the job done, but will just take a little longer.

About halfway through the process (holy blurry picture, Batman!), I decided it was bow time, which is always a source of struggle for me. I can never seem to wrangle ribbon into pretty bows, which is why I praise the Internet Gods for the myriad tutorials out there. Martha Stewart's site has a particularly useful bow guide.

I'm still not done, but I went ahead and hung the wreath from the china cabinet until I can replenish my hot glue provisions. I think it looks sort of fluffy and romantic, but I'm wondering what the neighbors will think? Nary a poinsetta in sight!

China Cabinet

What would we all do without friends who have trucks? Miranda and Travis saved us again this weekend, which was jam-packed with rearranging, decluttering and organizing.

At the rate we're moving, we'll be decorating for Christmas in January. While most people were digging out their ornaments and lights this weekend, we were making messes upon messes in an effort to get organized.

We were fortunate after our wedding to receive many of the things we asked for, albeit without anywhere to put them. Our kitchen cabinets were stuffed to the gills; I had two drawers so full of linens you couldn't really open them.

Once we stuffed all the leftover wedding stuff (centerpieces, decorations, napkins, etc.) into the guest room, we piled the gifts in there, too and suddenly it went from neat and tidy to an episode of Hoarders. And if you saw my collection of empty boxes, that's not far from the truth.

We agreed the solution would be a china cabinet, but to make that happen, we had to move our big IKEA Expedit bookcase out of the dining area and into the guest room. And to make that happen, we had to clean out the guest room. You can see where I'm going with this, can't you? That was our entire weekend.

We bought this Federal-style china cabinet with George Hepplewhite-style drawer pulls off Craigslist. Although the wood is quite pretty, I'm not a dark wood kind of girl, at least not in an apartment that gets almost no sunlight.

I can't paint it just yet, since it's winter (I would totally take the risk if Sean hadn't stopped me), but I wanted to do something to make it a little more me. I sloppily (I'll admit it) lined the back of the cabinet with gold metallic kraft paper I bought at Target. It looks sort of Christmas-y and festive. When I can paint it, I'm thinking white or a whitish gray on the outside, with a blueish gray on the inside, possibly with stripes.

I was excited to finally display all my pretty things in one place. The William Rogers silverplated dessert plates came from Plantiques in Newport News; the Wedgwood pieces were my grandmother's and the gravy boat is from Crate and Barrel.

The jadeite cake stand is a new purchase! I spotted it at the Williamsburg Antique Mall (my fave!) and had to have it. The teal pressed glass sundae cups are from there, as well.

For our honeymoon, Sean bought us the creamer and sugar bowl from Heath Ceramics in San Francisco. Their color is more green than you can tell in this picture. The dessert plates also came from Plantiques.

Another new purchase! Zinc placecards from Paper-Source.

I was most excited to have somewhere to stash my linens, especially because I just bought a pretty white linen tablecloth in Alexandria, along with a taupe hemstitch linen runner.

And voila! The only scary part is that the whole thing wobbles a little when we pad by it, so I've been walking very, very quietly. Also, the glass is loose in the right pane there, so that will eventually have to be addressed.

Tomorrow I'll show you some incredibly embarrassing pictures of how messy it got in the guest room. I'm redoing it again, and my goal lately has been to bring more cohesion to my home. I'm trying to prune out my belongings a bit, and repeat colors and patterns. Wish me luck!

Sunday Best v.42

Today, I'm admiring hat storage in fabulous homes. Remember when men regularly donned chic chapeaus? Nope, I don't either, but I love to fantasize about it. These clever fashion-as-decor hats belong to Tom Wolfe, up top, and Herve Pierre, below. Both homes have been documented on The Selby.

• Breathtaking glass sculptures. I'm dying over the ombre birds.
• Okay, I seriously want a jambox.
• Silver leaf, adding simple elegance to the home.
• Holiday hairsdos.
• Closet Visit is like a street-style meets home decor blog. Super fabulous.
• Butter nailpolish is popping up everywhere these days. Fabulous colors!

Dining Room Inspiration

For our wedding, we received a ton of linens, dishes, serving pieces and more that had no home in our cramped kitchen. Ever since, I've been cruising Craigslist and thrift shops like a crazy person, hoping to find a china cabinet to provide some relief. I found a cabinet that we'll pick up tomorrow, but I'm disappointed to say I won't be painting or transforming it any time soon.

My boss and Sean reminded me that, ahem, you shouldn't paint furniture indoors in the wintertime, so for now, I have to put my dreams of a shiny white cabinet with some fun interior on the backburner. For now, I'll show you my dream dining rooms. The top one is by designer Gary McBournie, and appeared in House Beautiful.

I dream of a house full of bentwood chairs, like the ones in Abbey Nova's house, featured on Design Sponge.

I ultimately want to achieve a mix of traditional and modern, like this fabulous room designed by Jessica Helgerson (also featured on Design Sponge).

I love the midcentury modern chairs paired with the antique sconces in this room from House Beautiful.

The bright whites supplemented with wood chairs and patterned seats makes my heart swoon. Designed by Michelle Adams, of Lonny Magazine.

I know this is crazy girly, but I'm in LOVE with the way this room looks. It's so beachy and feminine and Golden Girls-esque. It was designed by Ashley Whittaker and appeared in House Beautiful.

Skeleton Key Art Project

I have a little project in the works that is allowing me to play decorator (my not-so-secret dream job). My sister-in-law Katie is moving into a new place soon, and graciously accepted my offer to live out my decorator fantasies to help her realize her vision. It will be a while before we have anything to show for our endless back-and-forth e-mails, text messages and shopping trips, but for now, I thought I'd give you a little sneak peek.

Katie loved the idea of somehow incorporating skeleton keys, so we agreed to frame a few for her new room. This is probably one of the easiest little DIY art projects you could do in the world, and it looks so pretty. It's also a creative way to showcase those little objects that might otherwise end up in a drawer or lost on top of an overly decorated desk. So here's how you execute the vision:

Scavenge through antique malls, or eBay or Three Potato Four Shop and order a few skeleton keys. Katie ordered nine from Three Potato Four.

Then, scavenge some more for vintage, antique or thrifted frames. Any color will work, but we chose gold. We bought the frames at thrift stores and consignment shops in Old Town Alexandria and the Del Ray neighborhood.

Finally, hop over to your nearest stationary store and buy some scrapbook paper/wrapping paper. This paper came from Paper-Source. Trace the shape of the glass from your frame onto the back of the paper, and cut out that shape. Voila! You have a background.

We struggled for a bit to figure out how on earth we were going to get those keys to stay in place, before we finally realized -- duh! -- hot glue. The beauty of hot glue is that it will keep them in place, but if Katie ever decides to do something different with the keys, she can just peel the glue off with minimal harm done.

Ta-da. We have three frames with three keys each, all in slightly different arrangements. They look so romantic and it's such a sweet way to harken back to olde timey times while still looking modern.

I can't wait to show you more, but you'll just have to wait and see! In other home project news, I'm going to be picking up a china cabinet off Craigslist this weekend. I've been searching all week for china cabinet make-over inspiration, and I might share some of what I've found on the blog tomorrow.

Birthday Pizza Party

So my birthday was um....weeks ago, and I've just been dragging my feet getting the pictures off my camera. I don't know about most newlyweds, but I will say there is one big drawback to getting married in October, which is that by the time life has settled down after the wedding, it's time for the holidays. I feel like we've been going, going, going since the plane from San Francisco landed, so I apologize for not keeping the blog up as much as I might have.

Anyways, apologies aside, my birthday was pretty awesome this year. In the past I've worked myself into a mini-pity party frenzy, fretting that no one would want to celebrate with me or that it's too much to ask for people to join me for fancy dinners or fun weekends. This year, I decided I wanted my birthday to feel like it did at the parties we had in 7th grade: pizza, ice cream cake and board games.

We purchased the pre-made pizza dough balls from Trader Joe's and set up a toppings selection so people could make their own pizzas that we then cooked on our pizza stone. The toppings included: fire-roasted red and yellow peppers, apple slices, tomato slices, sausage crumbles, pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, gorgonzola, four shredded cheeses, fresh basil and pecorino romano.

For a quick centerpiece, I put three candles with my initials (a gift from my friend Miranda) on top of a cake stand from Crate and Barrel, with flowers from Trader Joe's. The pitcher is from Sisters Unique, a fabulous interior store in Newport News.

Our cheese selection, in acacia bowls that were wedding gifts.

Pecorino romano, in the Century gravy boat from Crate and Barrel.

We had fixings for two signature cocktails: Dark and Stormy and a Southern Peach Tea. A dark and stormy is made with ginger beer and Gosling's Black Seal rum. The Southern Peach Tea is a recipe I swiped from a bar we visited at the Landsdowne Resort in northern Virginia; it's made with Firefly sweet tea vodka, peach schnapps and lemonade. It is my new favorite thing.

A picture of my pizza before it went in the oven: four cheeses, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni and fire-roasted vegetables. I brushed the edges with olive oil and sprinkled garlic powder on top.

Mine and Ashleigh's pizzas, ready to eat! Don't they look fabulous?

We spent the night playing Trivial Pursuit, Scattergories and Taboo, with breaks for ice cream cake. My lovely friends know how I love balloons, so I was happy to receive some. It was a lovely birthday.