Old Pretty Stuff

After carting around a bunch of bookbinding supplies from college—I have finally gotten around to using some of the old, pretty stuff. And although I must admit, I've ruined several "experimental" books, it's been fun to get my hands (and the floor and the desk) messy again.
Above: The perfect guest book for weddings—or because it has blank pages, use it for sketching or whatever else you can imagine. Find it on Minelolly.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My hubby and I had family over last night for a small Valentine celebration. Here is a look at some simple ideas for low stress party.

Take a photo of your decorations and use it to design a quick announcement which you can email to family.
As an activity, write a couple of Valentine cards (or letter of appreciation etc.) to friends,family, or someone who has made a positive impact. Purchase a pack of 40 plain cards and envelopes for $5.00 at Michael's. If you want, the photo below shows a very simple way to snaz up a plain card with colored lining and outline. (Works out great for the guys, they don't usually like "girly" stationary.)
While looking at blogs all over the internet, garlands seem to be the "it". So of course I tried one for this party. You can make a garland out of just about anything. The one below is fabric.
Bake and decorate sugar cookies the evening before. If they are kept air tight, they will be nice soft for your party. Yum, yum. Double the recipe and you have an instant party favor to send home with guests.

Flowers! Can't forget the flowers. One $10 bouquet works wonders. Find all your skinny vases and split up your flowers by type. I lined my vases up in a row on the bar . . . pretty, inexpensive, and makes a bigger impact than one bouquet which might not have enough "presence."
. . . plus, you get to enjoy them for another week!
Play games, like this one, called:
It is exacty like the hidden thimble game, only we used a little heart instead. It's a great game for ALL ages. Rules: While everyone closes their eyes and plugs their ears, someone hides the heart—in plain sight. Yes, plain site. They can't move anything to do the hiding.

When the heart is hidden all players begin to search for the heart. If the heart has been hidden correctly, the players won't need to touch or move anything to find the heart. When a player sees it, they quietly sit back down and get to watch the other players with a grin, as they now "know the secret." The last person to see the heart gets to hide it for the next round. (Kids have a great time playing right along with the adults.) Try it, you'll like it.

And lastly, what to do with the fabric from the garland? You probably guessed, make a quilt! Before I began cutting out my flags I made a rough layout of what I wanted the quilt to look like so I knew exactly what shapes to cut:

So now you know what the next project will be! (Don't you just love double dipping?) I hope you all have a wonderful Valentines and a lovely day!

Adding

I'm adding a new blog to my food section, Eat Make Read. If you like pictures of food, making food, eating food . . . you'll probably like it.

Do it With Style

I couldn't resist showing just one more fabulous find (originally posted on Maquette.) These images are from Luke Stephenson on Flickr. Go have a look, there's lots more.

Art Deco

For those of you who love the Jazz age (20's-30's) go visit Art Deco Blog. It's a fantastic resource with photography and illustration/advertising from that time period.
(Link originally found at Maquette )

Want of the Week . . .

a functional office! I can't stand it anymore. I've got all my stuff shoved into not-so-functional spaces and it's so cluttered I can't work. Everything is on the floor. So to begin, I would like some wall storage like this Akurum cabinet from Ikea.


Next on the list is a unit to hold all my larger cuts of paper—something like this Alex cabinet from Ikea—only a little more sturdy.

What have you done to make your office more functional? Tips?