Holiday Card Connudrum

The tree is chucked, thank you notes written and Fa la la Lifetime's "12 Days of Christmas" has ended. It's full steam ahead into 2013 with new goals, a bit more zeal and life in NYC is fairly  "deholidayed"except for one thing. The (wonderful) Christmas cards remain.  What's a gal to do?    Are you a tosser -someone who reads and immediately tosses?  Or you a saver-someone who boxes up and stores? Well, you can't be one of those in our tiny spaces.   I love getting pictures from friends and family to see fun (and sometimes funny) pictures and updates and don't like throwing them out so quickly.   My solution this year was to put in a good old Paul Revere bowl on the "coffee table meets dining room table meets office desk" lack table.  Here are a few other ideas if you found yourself in the same boat.  And no, none of them involve your refrigerator which is the good old standby. 

Create wall art!  

C Magazine

Check out Sophia Coppola's apartment in C Magazine.  More is More so LOAD them up.   Hit an office supply store like Staples and get the largest bulletin board they have then have fun layering all your favorite pictures from 2012 including those holiday cards. 

                                        Frame the favorites!

ofhouseandhabitat

Ikea sells super cheap frames that you can pick up for a song then add to your gallery wall a few of the season's best cards.  Don't have a gallery wall? Start one... 

                                               Hang'em!

Tilly Cottage

Get a modern light fixture like this and hang special letters, notes and cards from Christmas and the whole year!

Tuck'em into a pretty mirror or painting!

Domino Magazine

Live large, 
Frances 

What I wish for you this Christmas....

One of my all time favorites from Martha... 

May your holiday, no, your LIFE be full of Joy. 

Live large, 

Frances

Happy Christmas Eve!

Where ever you are this Dec.24...On the road....

hunkered down fireside....

Nesting in your brownstone or apartment....

 Live Large, 

Frances 

Entertaining in Small Spaces

Cassandra LaValle of Coco  + Kelly just did a nice piece on entertaining in small places on Glitter Guide. Here's her top 5 tips:

1. Don’t be afraid to move furniture to create space! Store it in your bedroom or ask a neighbor to house it for the night (and invite the neighbor!).

2. Separate the bar and the food so people can easily access both without crowding.

3. Keep decorations off of valuable surface area—instead, hang festive garlands or wreaths

4. Assess the surfaces you have to work with and get creative. For example: using bookshelves to house glassware for people to pour drinks rather than setting them out on a table.

5. Keep food bite-sized—chances are, you won’t have space for people to sit and eat a whole meal

Sounds good to me.  Got a tip of your own?  Lemma know. 

Live large, 

Frances Bailey

Five Holiday Albums Everyone Should Own

Lights up.... Check

Stylist Robin Glaser

Santa costume bought... Check

Tree bought... Check

Now it's time for the tunes.  Here's my top five picks for holiday music.  

Want more?  Check out Garden & Gun Holiday Music Play List.

Live large, 

Frances

Doing Good-Cookies for Kids Cancer

I've blogged about this organization before but it's worth mentioning again as what is Christmas without cookies??  Started by the unstoppable Gretchen & Larry Witt who are staring pediatric cancer in the eyes and making a real difference.   

Listen here for their story. 

Gretchen and Larry both worked at the top notch tool company, OXO, so by supporting OXO products which really are my favorite across the board, you are supporting the fight against kid cancers. Look for OXO products at The Container Store, Bed, Bath & Beyond and OXO.com.

Check out their site for information on how to host a cookie sale in your own neighborhood or shop from their mouth watering collection to send as gifts.  My favorite cookie combo is called a box of hope.   Hard to beat that.  

Santa would love these & so would the reindeer.

Live large, 

Frances 

No Stuff Gifts

As an editor, I have a love//hate with gift guides.  I love seeing the new products, get excited with each find and how my favorite stories/vendors up the anty each year.  But sometimes over the course of the month, it gets to be too much.  The pile of presents, the wrapping supplies, the need to shop for people who really don't need anything.... sorta adds up to one big "why?"  

So this gift guide isn't going to be about the perfect (insert noun) for friends or family. This year it's about something else.   

Buy a Goat and 2 Chickens for a family. 

Send a girl to school for a year. 

Buy 5 holiday cards and that will buy 5 meals for house bound folks. 

Buy books for schools in need. 

Buy water for a village.  

Emergency shelter:  3 meals, 2 blankets + 1 cot for 20 people. 

If you want your gift to mean more and do more this year....if any of this strikes a cord, check out the inspirational guys from The Minimalists  great article on gifting in a meaningful way.    

Live large, 

Frances 

Gift Guide Part 1

The tree is up. The parties are in full gear and the panic has set in.

  The Game Is On!!

Jackie O on Christmas Morning 1962

We do Christmas in July in the editorial world, having hung wreaths and put up trees in Sept so  it's always a "wait-didn't we just do this" moment come Dec 1 when the rest of the world starts singing Fa La La.  That said, this year there are some really good gift guides from some favorite sources.  So enjoy my round up of favorite gift guides. And if you've done your shopping (lucky dawg) then book mark these sites for gifting in the new year. 

Gift Guide Favorites 

For the foodie, check out Food52

If you want to give an experience or outing, check out Gilt

For southerners, check out Garden & Gun. Score big with a membership to the Secret Society.  

Love design?  Check out Fab

Love travel? Check out Latitude

If you're a sucker for really great packaging, check out Design Sponge

If you love custom gifts, check out Cool Hunting

Good guy gifts, check out Mr. Porter

Happy Shopping!

Live large, 

Frances 

That's a wrap

It's that time of year again when I pull up this picture of Martha Stewart's craft rooms in one of her (many) homes and drool and slobber on myself.  It sure isn't pretty... I mean, the order!!! The room!!! the color coded-ness of it all.  Plopping down on the ground to start the annual traditional of holiday gift wrapping on the floor with satin ribbon stashed under the bed & wrapping paper co-mingling with extra wallpaper in the coat closet beside my golf clubs and tool box,  I know Martha would be mortified. 

Martha Stewart's Craft Room

You guys get it, right?? I mean in 400 square feet. A wrapping "station" as they call it in decorating speak, much less a whole room to crafts + wrapping isn't high on the list.   There's only that one day in the December when the prosecco is poured and the Fa La La Lifetime movies come on and I spend all day hunkered on the ground trying to gift wrap that I covet this space.  

If I could do create one, it'd have a standing table like this...

Indulgy

And a comfy sofa like this...with more of this feel than the "everything matches" way.  

Ok ok but the other 364 days of the year when I am not gift wrapping all day, I need of this sort of set up.

Decor 8

Or this in a nook somewhere... (ps hilar cat) 

Still not sure you have the space? Something like this would work nicely too.

Home Decorators

or wall mount ... 

Or this...And I'd have brown banner paper on it or stark white.  None of that twee stuff.  Brown or white and call it a day. 

Live large!

Frances

Bring on the lights

I lusted this weekend for a seven foot Christmas tree for sale by the charming (and always attractive) plaid clad tree guy who pops up a seasonal tree stand at 15th and 6th every year.  Of course the small table topper was what I should be checking out but I glazed past that to look at the honking, big one just begging to come home with me.   It didn't happen but I was so inspired, I'm posting fun ways to hang twinkling lights to add some holiday charm in those small space.  That seven foot spruce pine will be jealous... 

Add a few strands around one kickin' piece of art.

Double G

Keep it simple with a single strand + hang a few holiday cards.   

Likainen Parketti

Make a wall tree from string lights. 

Martha Stewart

Or a star made with twigs. 

Add caption

Yes'em, a sparkly wreath will do nicely too. 

French by Design

 or jazz up one gorgeous, large mirror. 

Restoration Hardware




Live large,
Frances

Holiday & Year End Wrap Up

Happy Holidays, All!

Full of eggnog and Christmas cheer,  I hope no matter how small your home is that it's full of love and laughter this holiday.   I'm headed out on Safari (yipee!) but I'm leaving you with 3 final thoughts for this 2011.   (See you in 2012!)

#1: Download these FREE adorable labels from Eat Drink Chic for holiday presents. (How cute would they be as placecards too??)

#2:  How fun are these Merry Christmas dish covers for all you folks making handmade things...Adler & Co.  They'd spruce up any dish. 

#3:  For the good or bad, this was one heck of a year.  Buzz Feed did a great job of summing it up visually.  Insanely deadly weather, fierce anger and uncertainty seemed to mark 2011 but also some seriously cool things like the Middle East revolutions and the pull out from Iraq.  Mostly, it's a good reminder that the best gift is that of a home and for those of us who weren't hit by a hurricane, tornado, tsumni or financial devastation then help support those who were.  After all, we're all in this life together. 

(Man being comforted by his mother after his home in Concord, Al was destroyed)

Live large and with a generous spirit-

Frances