Snapshots from the Holiday

Hello everyone! I hope you had a lovely Christmas! I had such a great time with family and friends this holiday season. Here are a few snapshots from my Christmas:

I'm so excited for New Years! Do you guys have any plans? I'm resolving to get a more regular blogging schedule, so expect to see more of me around here! Enjoy the rest of your holiday season, everyone :).

Merry Mail Ornament Exchange Link-Up!

When I saw that Kenzie of Chasing Happy and Amber of And Yes to Joy were hosting a DIY ornament exchange, I was so excited! What a fun way to meet new bloggers and get some holiday crafting done! It was a great experience, and I'm so happy I got to spread (and receive!) some holiday cheer.

Not to mention, I got to come for winter break to this fun little guy! The very sweet Amy of Club Narwhal noted that I liked animals with little santa hats on them, and totally ran with it :). How cute is he?! He looks great on my tree.

I was so happy to have been paired with Amy: she loves to bake, travel, write, and design. Soul sisters! I embraced the travel idea, and made her this Mod Podge globe ornament:

I also got the chance to meet Jenny of Growing Up Jacobson, and her super cute kids! She told us a great story about a nutcracker she loved as a child, so I decided to make her this nutcracker-based scrapbook paper ornament.

If you'd like to know how I made these little guys, tutorials are coming tomorrow! In the meantime, thanks again to Kenzie and Amber for hosting this fun exchange, and thanks to Amy and Jenny - it has been awesome participating in this with you!

Home for the Holidays

Hi, friends - sorry for the absence! I just came home from school for winter break and I've been decompressing after the semester and the final projects and papers. I absolutely love being home this time of year — as you may have gathered, I'm a big Christmas fan. I adore walking down Comm Ave, seeing the lights in Boston Common, watching the tree lighting at Faneuil Hall, and decorating my apartment, but there's nothing like being with your family this time of year!

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for gingerbread baking, present wrapping, hot cocoa by the fire, mulled wine, and claymation Christmas movies! I missed out on some of the season last year because I was in Europe through half of December, so consider this my love letter to Christmas. I picked out the tree yesterday (though it has to compete with my sweet Saul tree, which just had to come home with me), there's a good old New England snow storm coming this weekend, and I'm ready to rock!

How are you all getting into the spirit? Hanging your stockings? Going sledding? Do tell!

A Christmas Playlist

Happy Black Friday, everybody! I hope you have fun getting started on your Christmas shopping, whether you're a mall shopper or an online deal-hunter. And I hope your Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful. Because it's officially the day when you're allowed to start listening to Christmas tunes, allow me to share the "Best of" my embarrassingly long Christmas playlist:

Guaranteed to make road trips 300% more awesome. Please share some of your favorite Christmas songs with me! And have a very happy holiday weekend.

Gift Guide 2013: A Very Geeky Christmas

Hey guys! You remember how I said I was super good at giving gifts? I figured I'd try to back that up this year with a fun holiday gift guide! It's not that the holidays sneak up on me (like...at all...hence the Christmas tree on my wall), but sometimes I wait just a bit too long to order people's presents online, and it cuts way too close to Christmas. I think the lateness of Thanksgiving is going to throw off my schedule even more. So even though it might seem like the Halloween decorations just went up, it's time to start thinking about those gifts!

Let's start with one of the most fun categories: the geek gifts. There are a ton of super awesome, quirky things to get the geek in your life - if you've never looked around the internet for a unique Star Trek gift, well, you would be amazed. I'm trying to keep these at a reasonable price point, so none of them exceed $40. Check it out!

1 // Game of Thrones House Pillows via ThinkGeek - These are so neat! And they look pretty cozy, which is important because...you know...winter is coming. ha. hahaha.

2 // Chop Sabers via ThinkGeek - Lightsaber chopsticks?! These are the coolest! Craig and I get sushi take-out all the time, so I snagged him a pair. Good thing he doesn't read this blog ;).

3 // The Hobbit Moleskin Notebooks via ThinkGeek - This is a super classy geeky gift, maybe for a traveler or a writer? It also includes Toilken illustrations inside, which is super cool.

4 // Whooz? iPhone Identification Stickers via the Grommet - This is for a techy family. Each person gets a cute little sticker to identify their iPhone earbuds and charger! Genius! And so adorable.

5 // Star Trek Pint Glasses via Amazon - These are for the beer-loving geek. I love the comic-strip art style on them!

6 // William Shakespeare's Star Wars via Amazon - This is a fun little stocking stuffer - it's a hilarious adaptation of Star Wars in the style of Shakespeare. Perfect for the literary geek in your life.

7 // Mulder and Scully Friendship Rings via Etsy - These are just the cutest things! The other side of the ring has a UFO embossed into it. They're wonderfully subtle. I think these would be adorable for couples or best friends.

8 // Doctor Who Print via Etsy - This is one of my favorite quotes from Doctor Who! I love dictionary prints, as well, and this one is nice and clean. A lovely gift for your favorite space/time explorer/typography enthusiast.

9 // Marvel Bowtie via Etsy - This is a fun and dapper way to spice up a button-down shirt! A good way to help someone feel a little super.

These are a good starting point, but I encourage you to go out and look around to find the perfect gift for your beloved geek! ThinkGeek and Etsy are great places to start - just type in what they like best into the search bar, and be amazed at how much stuff there is out there! If you prefer to go DIY, check out this adorable Lego Star Wars Death Star Ornament tutorial...now that's a mouthful!

Do you have any geeks you're finding great gifts for this year? Let me in on your secrets! I won't tell.

HoliDIYs: Quickie Twinkle Light Christmas Tree

Hey guys! It may only be the beginning of November, but I am already ready for Christmas. I let the season go as long as reasonably possible. I may or may not be typing this while I'm wearing a reindeer sweater, is what I'm saying.

I love doing fun DIYs for the holidays, so I thought I'd share them with you this year! This one is very quick and simple, but it adds such a fun pop to a blank wall. Here in my apartment, we most definitely can't have Christmas trees (hello, small 3rd floor walk-up). But when I saw a commercial for Command Hooks, I got inspired to craft one out of a single string of lights! It was much easier than I thought it would be, and it looks so fabulous.

SUPPLIES:

2 packs of clear Command Hooks

1 string of green lights

"Star" (light-up yellow object of your choice)

Forgive me, the picture doesn't do it justice. I think this would be a great trick for a Christmas party, or to add some pizzaz to a space that can't necessarily accommodate a big tree. It couldn't be simpler. All you have to do is align the command hooks sparsely, in 7 rows that are about 5-6 inches apart. I only used 2 command hooks per row, and one per corner bend. Just push them closer together as you get up towards the top. Then string your lights around like a snake, hooking them into place as you go. If you're a perfectionist, you could do more measuring than I did. I promise it'll look fine when you light it up no matter how you do it!

Et voila! Our "star" is a chintzy $2 wreath I found at Ocean State Job Lot. Get creative with it! Anything that lights up is going to look fun. Everyone who has seen it so far was amazed at how such a simple idea can light up a room!

In other news, I didn't have a small enough star for our little Charlie Brown tree, so my roommate cut out a tiny Saul Goodman (of Breaking Bad) to sit on top of it. Our Christmas decorating is a bit nontraditional, to say the least...

But I laugh every time I see it!

How about you? Are you in the spirit yet, or does the Christmas music at the mall infuriate you to no end? Inquiring minds want to know!