It's a Wonderful Life

You bet your sweet ass it is.

Merry Christmas!!

2012

Favorite Things of 2011

If you are looking for holiday inspiration, look no further than Pinterest.  If you don't know what it is, go right this very minute and sign up.  I swear it is one of my most fun discoveries this year. If you are anything like me you have old, tattered, exploding file folders full of images and nonsense.  Forget it- now there's Pinterest.  Go to the website, sign up (if you need an invite email me) and start pinning.  It's that easy, but don't say I didn't warn you- it is so extremely, super crazy addictive!  

You can literally pin anything on the web to create your inspiration boards- I have boards for interiors (organized by room!), travel, tablescapes, quotes, you name it, you can create it.  Grab the button for your dashboard so that as you are browsing the web you can pin the image, assign it to any board and have all of your inspiration categorized and organized right before your eyes.  Amazing.  And don't forget to follow your friends and grab what inspires them- it just might inspire you too!

Holiday Inspiration

Just for you, here is the first installment of (what I think) are fabulous holiday gifts, recipes, sentiments, and inspiration.

1.  The Perfect Hostess Gift 

Whether it is a beautiful candle, a bottle of red, white, bubbles, Bourbon or Balsamic make your gift stand out with beautiful wrapping.  A scarf, pretty piece of fabric or a tea towel makes your thank you gesture to your hostess personal and unique.  I will never forget getting a beautiful candle from a dear friend that was wrapped in one of her very stylish Grandmother's vintage scarves.  It was sentimental, touching, and completely gorgeous.  

Check out One Sydney Road for beautiful tea towels in muted colors and clever patterns, along with totes (my pick is below), letter press prints, fun gift baskets and clever baubles.  A recent discovery, One Sydney Road has quickly become my go to site for gift inspiration.
And for the hostess at your holiday book club...  

So true, right?

Dear Santa...

All I want for Christmas is a mudroom.  

It's that simple.  I don't mean to sound ungrateful, like this is more important than world peace, a stable economy or marriage equality, but this is kind of a big deal.  It's only snowed once so far this season and I am already tired of the winter crap and clutter that collects on my kitchen floor from every neighborhood child dressed head to toe in Gortex and Kamik boots.  They are wet.  They are dirty, and now Santa, these "children" are getting old enough that they are sweating underneath all that Gortex and starting to stink.  It's a disaster.  I need a room specifically for the boots, the snowpants, the piles of mittens and the endless hats.  And then there's the gigantic foul smelling hockey bag...

Santa, I need help.

Here is my kitchen floor on any given day from December through April...

Below is the organization system I currently have that I thought would suffice.  Somehow my kitchen looks nothing like this.

Santa, I think I need something a little more heavy duty, such as this.  I like how it's all enclosed.

I would even settle for a slightly upgraded version of what I have.  More hooks are essential for these kids and their coats.

Now we're talking- a full on locker room would be ideal.

Oh yeah...

 Santa, don't you have any elves that work at HGTV in the off season that might be willing to help a Mom out?  

Truthfully, I think this is all it might take.  

Mr. C, don't be surprised if you get a Santa hat for Christmas.  And a nail gun.  And a can of paint.  And about 20 hooks.