Monthly Archives: November 2011

christmas is definitely in the air

Okay so now that Thanksgiving is officially over and we’ve put our stretchy pants away, it’s time to embrace the greatest holiday EVER. Christmas, duh! Was that not clear? My tree is already up and my stockings are hung by the ~~chimney~~ kitchen bar with care. So I am ready! Bring on the 24/7 Christmas station and hot cocoa! Mmmm it gives me flashbacks to all-nighters in the CAD studio watching Elf and eating treats while we rendered the night away. So if you’re not in the holiday spirit yet, you will be after this post!

See? I told you. PS: who would die for whatever is in that Tiffany bag? Speaking of gifts, be sure to enter our giveaway this week. It ends Sunday, so hurry!

GIVEAWAY: a cozy cup indeed

13 Comments

**THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED AND NO LONGER ACCEPTING ENTRIES**

Guess what time it is? It’s giveaway time! Oh.. the title gave it away? That’s cool. Our dear friend Adrienne aka the knitting extraordinaire has offered to giveaway one of her snazzy hand-knitted drink sleeves.

Adorable right? And just in time for the holiday season and tasty warm beverages! This is a hand knit, cabled eco-friendly coffee or tea sleeve. It keeps your drink stylishly warm and protects the environment and your hands. The sleeve will fit a tall, grande, or venti sized drink… perfect for sipping a peppermint mocha whilst oogling at the holiday lights and pretending not to know all the words to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You”.

Here are the giveaway deets:

PRIZE: a super cozy coffee/tea sleeve
HOW TO ENTER: Comment on this post [yep it's that easy!]

EXTRA ENTRY OPPORTUNITIES:

A. If you tweet about this giveaway with a link back to our blog, you get one extra entry. Once you tweet, come back and comment again with your @twitter name.

B. If you facebook about this giveaway with a link back to our blog, you get one extra entry. Once you facebook, come back and comment again.

C. If you blog about this giveaway with a link back to our blog, you get two extra entries. Once you blog, come back and comment twice with the link to your post.

Any combination of these can gain you up to 5 entries per giveaway, so spread the word!! However, if you comment saying that you tweeted/facebooked/blogged but didn’t, we have the right to remove your entries. Booya!

GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Sunday, December 3rd at 8pm CST
NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
WHO CAN ENTER: Anyone in the continental US
THE FINE PRINT: One entry per working e-mail address, otherwise we can’t contact you. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced first thing Monday morning. Good Luck! :)

PS: Adrienne has loads of other hand-knit wares. She makes things to order, so you can just email her and tell her what you want and she’ll whip it up in no time. Seriously she’s like magic. Here are some of our faves:

Are you interested in sponsoring a giveaway? Go here to learn more! We would love to have you!

thrifting for the holidays

11 Comments

As you all know, whenever my parents come into town we always go thrifting. Well the holidays don’t make this any different! Rather than fighting all of the crazies at the mall we like to head out to all of our favorite thrift/junk shops to find some real deals. In case you’re unaware, Texas Thrift has a 50% off sale every holiday, as in the ENTIRE store is half off! The lines are mega long, but when you find two $25 bags of pillow batting for $6 total.. you wait! Here are some of my fab finds from the past six days of thrifting.

This little guy was $1 at Texas Thrift. It was the first thing I picked up and I told myself that I had to find at least two more items to make it worth standing in line. So I also grabbed two bags of pillow batting for $6 total, and these two pillows..

Don’t be scared. I know that they are ugly, but they are filled with 100% down feather inserts. So I plan to remove the striped covers and use the inserts for my next pillow making project. They were only $2 each. I mean $2 for down inserts? Sold!

I actually found this lamp about a month ago at HomeGoods and it had a matching mate, both of which were $30 each. The shades were super damaged and coming unglued so I passed on them. I’ve been kicking myself ever since because I knew I could easily repair the shades and that price was crazy cheap. So when I saw that one was still left when I popped into HomeGoods this weekend I had to have it! When I saw that it was marked down to only $15 AND it came with a lightbulb I grabbed it and held it like a baby as I walked around the rest of the store. Am I the only one who does this? I felt like if I didn’t hold on tight enough someone would steal it from me.

These little guys were only $1 a pop at Crate & Barrel outlet and they look smashing on my Christmas tree!

So I saw this pattern on some china from Villeroy & Boch outlet which retails for about $45/plate and $75/cup. I loved the colors and whimsy of the birds, but I knew that I could never pay that much for dishes. The next day we went to Texas Thrift on the 50% off day and I snagged the whole set [4 plates + 4 cups] for $7. I just about screamed.

So these Calvin Klein frames weren’t actually scored this weekend, but they were such a deal and I can’t believe I hadn’t shared them with you yet! I found them at the HomeGoods in Rockwall when I went to see my parents [the same weekend Derek asked for their permission to marry me apparently!] And you can’t tell from these photos but the larger one was originally $90 and I got it for $10, and the smaller one was originally $70 and I got it for $5. They’re super heavy and look like concrete or something, and I love that texture!

I scored these pillows with down inserts from HomeGoods for $16 a pop and they’re going to look really cool with the other pillows I’m in the process of making.

I found this lamp at Goodwill for $10. The cord was still wrapped and protected so I assumed it was brand new, and I knew that it was currently $50 at Target. So I figured $10 without a shade was a deal! Plus I have several extra shades at home [surprise surprise] which I plan on covering with fabric soon.

I found these pillow covers buried in the clearance pile at West Elm outlet for $7 each. It’s hard to tell but they’re a great metallic textured cover with a buttoned canvas fabric on the reverse side. I think I’m going to use them on my bed. They’re the same size as my flower pillows I found so I can also switch them around when I get tired of one or the other. You can honestly never have enough pillows.. right?

These are also an old find, but I kept forgetting to share it with you guys. And I honestly think they’re the best deal I’ve ever found. I was in San Marcos on Columbus Day weekend so of course I had to pop into West Elm outlet just in case, and I’m SO glad I did! They had a .97 cent table, and anything on the table was.. you guessed it .97 cents. It was covered in these little shelves that were originally $50 each. I found this way too good to be true, but I grabbed three just in case and headed to the register to confirm. They rang them up and said that they were actually a set of three so all three of them were .97 cents TOTAL. What? I saved $149. Craziness. They’re hanging out in my bathroom for the time being. I’m not sure if I should let them just be little shelves, or put something on each of them.. but what?

We also headed to Half Price Books, because that’s also a Stevens tradition. I wanted to find some Wedding planning books because I’m a tad bit overwhelmed at the moment and I found exactly what I was looking for, which hardly ever happens at that place. I usually just buy a bunch of things I wasn’t looking for at all. Anyway, I really wanted a book on etiquette and I found the mecca. Emily Post’s Complete Book of Wedding Etiquette for $7. Bam! Guess who knows how to formally address an invitation for a guest who has been remarried, and his spouse kept her last name? THIS GIRL!

I mean seriously! Aren’t these deals awesome? Okay okay, there are a few large retail stores mixed in there but they were such a deal I couldn’t pass them up. I honestly can’t remember the last time I paid full price for anything. What’s the point? Have you guys found any steals lately?

giving thanks

0 comments

a thrifted thanksgiving tablescape

2 Comments

Better late than never right? If you haven’t heard, we’re having joint Thanksgiving this year with both of our families for the first time which is kind of a big deal. But don’t worry, we’ll have lots to talk about! So I put myself in charge of decorating the table this year and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money so I used lots of things that I already had lying around. Ready set go!

I started with my usual table runner from Ikea and I wanted to for a layered look so I used my gray placemats and flipped over my summer placemats which are cork underneath to add some texture. Then I added a strand of mossy garland to add a pop of color and a bit of nature.

Then for even more color I added some orange cherry blossom stems I had that usually hang out in my living room.

I knew that I wanted some height that wasn’t too overbearing and wouldn’t block conversation too much, so I added these candlestick holders I bought from ZGallerie a few months ago. They’re metal so no animals were harmed to make them, and I love their metallic finish against the natural fibers of the moss, cork, and jute table runner.

To cover the awkward stems in the middle of the table I used a metal dish I found during my BFF thrifting adventure. It’s really heavy so it did a lovely job keeping the stems in place.

Then I added some simple white candles to the tray to add a little visual interest to the center of the table without blocking anyone.

The candles alone weren’t cutting it for me so I added a couple smudge pots I thrifted a while back and stuck some white candlesticks in them to add a little height. This let me create a simple centerpiece without taking over the table, which I love.

Now you can’t have a thanksgiving dinner without some ceramic birds amiright? So I added this thrifted quail and a set of bird salt and pepper shakers I picked up at Pier1 last year.

Then to add another layer and a nice finishing touch, I sprinkled some metallic dots I had leftover from this project.

I apologize for all of the grody iPhone photos, but like I said this was last minute. Also, I’d like to mention that my mom helped me settle on the perfect arrangement, so thanks mom! Overall I only spent $8 for the moss garland because I already had everything else. Pretty good! If you need some more Thanksgiving tablescape ideas check out last year’s post. Well I’m off to the Outlets!