Congrats on dropping anchor!: Housewarming Gift Ideas

When I heard my sister and boyfriend were moving in together, I wanted to get them a little something. My sister, like me, appreciates a good theme so I thought it would be fun to go nautical  (surprise, surprise). Their home isn't in a beach town though, so I don't want to get nautical gifts that may not fit with their home. Here are some of the things I thought of:

one Scouts Honor Co. card

two Chelsey Emery custom address stamp

three Steveston Wine Co. merlot

four Crane & Co. anchor stationery

five homemade cookie inspiration via Martha Stewart Weddings 

six Anchor & Arrow anchor wine stopper

We decided to go more nautical with the wrapping and note in the card than the actual gift, but I sttill think it was fun to tie it into a theme. We went with the Scout's Honor Co. card, a Chelsey Emery address stamp and found a pretty navy and white pillow from a local shop that will go well with their new living room design. We received a lot of wine when we moved in, which was greatly appreciated, but I figured it would be fun to do a little something different for my sister and her bf. I do think the Stevenston Wine Co. merlot would pair perfectly withe the Anchor & Arrow wine stopper as a gift, so I'm keeping this in mind for the future. I also love home made cookies and stationery. All being held in the back of my mind for future gift giving.

What are your favorite housewarming gifts to give or receive?

New Art: Custom State Art Print

One of our friends, Meghan, recently gifted us with a really nice gift- a piece of art for our home!

We've been in our home for over three years now and haven't really put up a lot of art, even though I think homes look so much better with it. I just have a hard time choosing art for our home, so we have lots of bare walls or art that has yet to be hung.  I was so excited when we received the custom print that works perfect in our guestroom, which currently has bare walls. It's a print of Rhode Island, with a heart over Newport, where we were married. It has our names and wedding date on the bottom. If you've followed along since our wedding, you've probably noticed I love sentimental touches, so this was the perfect gift. I love how it looks in our guest room. It even inspired me to add a few pops of pink to go with the little heart on the print. Thanks Meg!

Have you received any personal items you were really excited to display in your home?

B is for Babies

It seems like a lot of people I know are starting to make announcements that cute little babies are on the way. I'm looking forward to meeting the little guys. Over the summer I went to a baby shower for one of my college friends and last weekend I went to the shower of one of my many cousins.

 

It's been a great excuse to use up some of my old scrapbooking supplies. Growing up I decided that I needed to document absolutely everything through scrapbooks, so I've built up a pretty healthy collection of craft papers and supplies that are just gathering dust with the exception of making cards every once in awhile. Once photo books came out through sites like my publisher, I kind of gave it up.

 

I used some of my old papers recently to make some bunting to use as ribbon for my college friend's baby shower gift and made a matching card. 





I also used my Silhouette machine (it's a machine that cuts paper into shapes and letters) for probably the first time ever for my cousin's baby shower gift wrapping. Jim bought it for me our first Christmas after we got married. He thought I'd like it because leading up to our wedding I spent a lot of time crafting - we had a heavy DIY wedding. It was super thoughtful, but after the wedding I didn't have any reason to use it. Until apparently now. Going forward I think all of our friends will get monogrammed baby gift wrapping. I don't think that's what Jim expected I'd use it for, but at least I'm using it now, right?

 

So thank you babies for giving me an excuse to craft again and giving me a reason to use the thoughtful gift from my husband (3 years later).

Baby showers are also a great chance to see the awesome crafting skills of my talented friends and family. At my cousin's (technically cousin-in-law) baby shower, her sister-in-laws, sisters and mom and mom in-law put threw the most adorable event. There were so many sweet details. There was a lot of thought and love put into it. How sweet is this little poem at each guest's seat?

 

I also loved the centerpieces. One of the hosts, my cousin M, wanted to have baby block centerpieces. When she couldn't find them pre-made, she decided to go the DIY route and created these beautiful centerpieces getting the supplies at A.C. Moore and ordering bulk hydrangeas through BJs. They came out awesome. There were so many other thoughtful details like homemade chocolate covered Oreo favors made by the mom-to-be's sister in law. 

It was a lot of fun to spend time celebrating the soon to be baby and spending time with friends and family in such a pretty setting.

I'm apparently on the watch list for the next in line to have a baby. I guess that happens when you're about to hit three years of marriage and inching closer to 30. For now, I'm just enjoying celebrating other people's babies.

Are you and your friends in the baby stage? Any tips on using up old scrapbook paper or cool ideas on things to make with a silhouette machine?

Mother's Day Tea

Last mother's day, my sister and I took my mom to tea at a really nice hotel in Boston. She loved it, so we thought we'd do the same this year. Then we got a great surprise when we learned our brother and his family were making a quick trip home. We decided it would make more sense to have tea at home.

We got a little crazy and went all Martha Stewart, which is kind of typical when the three of us are working together.

The menu included homemade apple cinamon scones, chocolate chip hazelnut scones, chicken salad sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, blt puff pastries, fresh berries, desserts from Sugar bakery in Boston, including lots of mini pastries and tarts, cucumber lemonade and an extra special glass of iced pink lemonade for my niece.

 

It was a pretty nice spread, but....



It was really the people that made it so nice. having all of the fam together was great.

 

We took a bunch of photos, so I thought I'd share, especially since I haven't had anything fun to share in months.

How were your mother's days?

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

To kick of the 12 days of cookies, here's one of Jim's favorites......

A couple years ago my mom was gifted an oatmeal butterscotch cookie jar mix as a Christmas gift from my cousin. As soon as we made the cookies, we knew this would be an awesome addition to our normal mix of holiday cookies. Even though we already had an oatmeal cookie in the mix (oatmeal raisin) these were too good not to include. Plus it's a perfect substitute instead of the oatmeal raisin for the non-raisin lovers on our cookie gift list, me being one of them.

These are a great gift already baked, or given as a jar mix.

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients for jar mix

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup old fashioned oats
2 cups biscuit and baking mix
1/2 cup light brown sugar

　

To prepare:

jar contents

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

　

Cream butter, egg and vanilla. Add the jar mix in entirety. Mix. Shape into one inch balls. It helps to use a table spoon to get the perfect size. Place onto un-greased cookie sheet. Bake for ten minutes or until cookies are light golden brown.

Bake 10 minutes.
Do you have any favorite jar mix recipes? If you have a link to the recipe, please share!



Moving Announcement Inspiration

I'm working on a biurthday gift for someone who is moving into her new home on her birthday. I thought a new address stamp and a set of moving announcmeents would  be a great gift. I bought a custom address stamp off Etsy from Chelsey Emery (I love it so much I bought one for myself, too!) We're both getting style 5, shown above.

Now I'm looking into moving announcments. Last time she moved I made her announcements, but this time I'm considering just purchasing something. She loves simple and classic looks, but also appreciates nice calligraphy. Here are a few I'm thinking of, or may just get inspired by.

Tiny Prints

Jack & Ella Paper Press



Duet Letter Press

Paper & Ink

Minted

Minted

Which do you like best?



DIY: Chalkboard Gift Tags

I've been on a crafting hiatus for awhile, but now that my mom's birthday is around the corner, I figured it was time to make something special. I got my crafty genes from her, so I love giving her diy gifts.
This year's gift is chalkboard tags. My mom had seen them somewhere awhile back and thought they were neat. They were a super easy diy project.
All you need to make them is:

• thick card stock/cardboard
• chalkboard paint
• scissors
• hole punch
• ribbon

It's pretty much a three step process. Step one- cut out tag shapes on the card board/card stock (I used a super thick cardboard recycled from a shipping box). I free styled it and cut out random shapes. They aren't perfect, but they'll do. A better idea would have been too find a template. Second step- use the hole puncher to make a slot for the ribbons. Third- paint the cardboard with chalkboard paint. I did two coats on each side to make it more durable.

I thought I was done with the project, but then I came across these gorgeous chalkboard tags from Kate's Paper Goods with pretty flowers painted on. I have a ton of paint from past projects, so thought I'd give it a try and I don't think they turned out half bad. What do you think?

I have a bunch of plain tags and I'm thinking I should paint a few more. Any fun suggestions for designs? I'm thinking a few more Christmas ones and some birthday designs- maybe confetti? The fun thing is, I don't need to do too many, since these can be re-used!

Christmas in July

J and I try to collect a Christmas ornament that represents something big that happened each year. It started the first year we lived together. The first place we lived together was J's parent's house. We lived there during our summer breaks in college. There was this really cute Christmas shop with ornaments nearby and we got one that said "Our First". I'm sure it meant Our First Christmas, but it had two flamingos and a beach ball and looked like summer, so it kind of fit as a fun ornament to represent our first summer/living together. The next summer, I turned 21 and a friend of ours got me a 21 themed ornament for my birthday (he worked at the same shop). After that we started thinking it would be fun to start an ornament collection with all the big milestones.

So far, we have those two and an ornament of our school from the year we graduated, a proposal ornament, and a wedding ornament. The one we had the hardest time finding was an ornament to represent the purchase of our first home.

Recently I started thinking of the holidays and remembered we still don't have one, which means we are a little behind since we usually buy it the year of the big event. Regardless, I didn't want to skip over this milestone. So, I turned to Etsy. I did a search for "custom home ornament" and came across the shop of LittleMissDressUp. She will make a custom ornament based on the photo you give her. Her ornaments were way better than what I was originally looking for.

So, after finding her shop, I decided we really need not just one, but two. My childhood home was a huge part of my life, I met my four best friends in that neighborhood and I was just pretty sentimental when it sold. The sale of that house felt like a big chapter of my life closing. So I decided I really wanted something to represent that milestone, too.

I couldn't really justify the price of the ornaments for just an every day purchase because we are on a  budget, so I asked J to get them as a birthday gift. My birthday is next month, so I told J even though I picked them out they'd still be a surprise because I wouldn't know how they'd actually turn out. He laughed at me and said you know your going to open them right away. I told him I'd try not to, but he knows me so well. They just came in the mail and I couldn't resist (I'm awful with surprises).

I love them.

Even though I ruined the "surprise", they are still probably one of my favorite birthday gifts ever. I think they are also a fun idea for future housewarming parties or for a Christmas gift for new homeowners.
Did you do anything special to commemorate the purchase of your first place?