LIVING VICARIOUSLY

So, you know that tipi that I said Justin and I were making for my 3 year old nephew? Well, this is it!

Pretty cute! Right?

It's surprisingly simple...and you don't need much to make one. We used some bamboo from our backyard for the poles and a canvas drop cloth for the cover. And you can decorate it with pretty much anything. I used some stuff I had left over from previous projects like vintage velvet ribbon, mint green acrylic paint, and some metallic leather scraps.

There are a LOT of tipi building tutorials online. After looking through a bunch of them I realized that all you really need to know is that the basic shape of the cover when flat is a semicircle...and the poles for a tipi this small should be about a foot longer than the radius of the semicircle. After that you can kinda just wing it.

All in all it was a hit. My nephew loves it, Julian loves it, and I'm seriously considering building myself a big one next summer.

CHRISTMAS CRAFTSTRAVAGANZA

Here are some of the gifts I have been crafting this season...

Terrarium ornaments...

Materials: clear glass ornaments, twine, spruce clippings from my tree, dried flowers, and paper butterflies. I made the butterflies from old engravings that I scanned and printed. Each one is double sided with wire in the middle (to get the wings to stay in the proper position) and then I added glitter...because, well, as far as I'm concerned EVERYTHING should have glitter on it.

Apple cider, mulling sachets, and ginger spice cookies...

Materials: glass jugs with festive trimmings (juniper, spruce, and pine cones) for the apple cider...and cheesecloth, bakers twine, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, allspice, cloves, dried lemon peel, dried orange peel, and candied ginger for the sachets. I found the recipe for the cookies here...and I packaged them in brown paper bags tied with a bakers twine bow. And just for the record, the cookies are extra delicious when dipped in the hot mulled cider. I speak from experience.

Justin and I have also been putting together an epic wedding album for my parents and we are in the finishing stages of building a 6 foot tipi for my youngest nephew. I'll post pictures when it's done!

Okay, back to the Christmas factory. We elves only have a few more hours to finish making our presents.

HAND PRINTED WRAPPING PAPER

Anyone who has ever received a present from me knows that I'm SUPER into gift presentation. I get really martha stewart about it. And wrapping up a bunch of pretty little packages has become one of my most favorite parts of the holidays. For real. So this year I decided to get next level and hand print my own wrapping paper. Ambitious? Yes. It's definitely turned out to be a labor intensive (and expensive!) project...but I'm glad I followed through with it. The finished product is really lovely.

I used hand carved Indian printing blocks to make the initial pattern. Then I turned the block-printed image into a silkscreen. This way the results would be more consistent but still have the charming imperfections you get from hand printing.

Once I had all of my materials ready to go I set up shop in the attic and printed more wrapping paper than I could ever dream of using. But I plan on sharing the wealth. I will have some for sale at the One Mile Gallery holiday craft fair this Saturday in Kingston. And if you don't reside in the area but decide you can't live without some super sweet hand screened wrapping paper...don't worry...I opened an etsy store yesterday. Field Guide Design. Currently, the wrapping paper is the only item in there...but I'll be adding more soon.

PRETTY PAPER

Justin and I decided it would be a nice tradition to buy ourselves a joint present each year that follows Emily Post's old-school list of wedding anniversary gifts. First year--paper, second year--cotton; third year--wood...and so on.

For "paper" we decided to splurge and get this lovely tassel garland from Confetti System.

12 feet of bright, cheery, sparkly goodness. It think it's a perfect celebration of our first year together.