object studies no 2 : the last of the cone

object studies no 1. : yellow buttons

the paper source wall art calendar

I saw this calender over on paper-source.com and just loved it.
My sister gifted it to me for Christmas (yay!).
Now, I just need to find the perfect spot to hang it...



I love that it can be recycled into projects via the templates printed on the back.

the desk

Today I decided to tackle re-painting this desk.








All done :)
It's rather funny that I would "distress" a piece of furniture on purpose.
I can be very hard on furniture, as I treat most pieces as work surfaces for printing etc.

the rose box

a Christmas gift.

brown paper parcels

My favorite wrapping papers are plain brown or unprinted newspaper.
They are the perfect canvas for all sorts of fancy or perhaps very simple trims.
This one is wrapped around and around with vintage bakers twine + seam binding + a shipping tag.



vintage forget me nots + label + cream colored vintage bakers twine + persimmon satin ribbon



I made a ribbon rose for this one, then added some vintage and velvet trims, sequins, a stripey label and chocolate organza ribbon.

buche de noel

I didn't plan to make this dessert for Christmas.
It was a very spontaneous decision.
I have wanted to make the very traditional Buche for a long time.
{ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BBche_de_No%C3%ABl }
I decided to do a mascarpone based filling instead of the mousse.
The issue with that was that the filling was heavier than the cake, and caused some splitting in areas.
Thankfully this such a forgiving cake and set well after some chilling, and the icing concealed all of the imperfections and cracking.



I added spiced dried cherries and black raspberry conserve in layers on top and underneath the mascarpone filling.

a vintage tray + powdered sugar "snow" + some branches trimmed from one of our evergreen (juniper?) trees outside.

The buche was very rich and very good.

I wrap

I have been wrapping a lot of parcels.
little ones.
big ones.
lumpy ones.
my favorite topper?
fabulous ribbon.

Suitcase Wrappery Kit

This is a Christmas gift I made,
I enjoy making these sorts of kits...



Step 1: Roam the internet...
look to find the most perfect little suitcase...



then add something to tie,
and patterned tape...


medallions in bright colors...
origami papers + instructions...
popcorn bags...


Labels in candy colors...
sugary lace...
pillow boxes...



linen and paper, some vintage millinery flowers...



tinsel + glassine envelopes...



silver and gold and tins and pins and buttons and brass...



dainty glass vials with a bit of cork, beads and glitter...



into the case layered with my favorite waxed paper...
add some black and white houndstooth shred...



tie with the most perfect wide striped ribbon...
with a very large bow...
and some shipping tags with Christmas greetings scribbled onto them.

the ornate and the smooth

I love these beads. They are from my hoard of vintage things and treasures.
I'm still trying to decide what to make with them.

sapphire glass

Lately I have had a fascination with this color of blue.
I found these whilst hunting around the craft store.
They are glass, and are heavy for their size.

Brownish Hue

I have some painting projects to do during my holiday time.
I found this paint at the hardware store.
For some reason this color is called "brownish hue".
It looks like a creamy warm off white to me...
I'll find out exactly what color it is when I start to paint my projects, I wanted to be surprised anyway ;)

vintage-y ribbon + love

While digging around locating Christmas decorations in storage, I stumbled over these lovely and very vintage floral/fruity ribbons.



The other two are some of my current favorites, I have them in my gift wrapping area.

Be Merry postcards

One of my b.day gifts was a postcard stamp from my cousin.
I decided to use it to make Christmas postcards.



I used heavy kraft cardstock.
I stamped the front with a sparkly warm pink faux bois pattern,
then I stamped the words "be merry" with my sign language alphabet stamps.

Wrap love: graphics fairy wallpaper clip art

I *love* vintage wallpaper, I'm working on wrapping Christmas parcels, and will probably plaster clip art bits all over everything.
These and several other clips of vintage wallpaper can be found here:
http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/search/label/Vintage%20Wallpaper

(p.s. there are lots of other tasty bits of art for experimentation available on graphics fairy)

the givers log

Another feature!
I stumbled into this site via Oh hello friend,
http://www.giverslog.com/wrapthegift/
It's full of great ideas for wrapping goods,
and includes some of my pretties and a number of items from many of my favorite shoppes

an oh hello friend wrappery post

yippee! I've been featured in a lovely post:
http://www.ohhellofriendblog.com/2010/12/wrapping-your-gifts.html
be sure to wonder over and be inspired by the fantastic pics and links within her post ;)

Petit Rose Cabochons

yay! new cabochons!
I just listed lots of these cuties in the shoppe, 18 or so colors and a number of assortments...

GIVEAWAY!! @ The Pepper and her pups

Time for another holiday giveaway!!! :D
To enter to win a lovely twine sampler go here:
http://thepepperandherpups.blogspot.com/2010/12/gilded-bee-day-13.html

22

{this is one of my favorite pics}

today i am 22.

Snow-day

I have been running around like a crazy person.
There are so many things to do at Christmas time.
Today was to be full of activities (caroling and a dinner), however, we are in the middle of a blizzard.
I am happy to have had an afternoon off.
I made chocolate candy.
My sister and I put up the Christmas tree.
This year we decided to do a white tree and cover it with rainbow lights, plum and candy stripe ribbons, tiny bells and butterflies.

Twine Samplers

I added a bunch of new samplers to the shoppe...
I love these colors...