Project Design Holiday Wrap!!

   

Welcome to Project Design

 Holiday Wrap!!

For those of you who happen to be visiting my blog for the very first time, WELCOME!! I am so glad you are here and I hope you are enjoying all the wonderfully talented bloggers and their helpful tips on Holiday wrapping!!

Shall we get started?.........

MAKING THE TASK OF GIFT WRAPPING FUN!

  

Do you feel over whelmed when it comes to gift wrapping?

I am going to share with you my approach and how it helps me stay organized and happily wrapping….

First, I have to admit that I  am like a kid in a candy store when it comes to wrapping paper and ribbons.

When you think about it, choosing your paper and ribbons is like choosing fabrics for a room in your home.

Make it fun and coordinate them and organize them in a way that they look pretty and are easily accessible. 

When I purchase my papers I usually start with a color scheme or sometimes a particular theme. 

Of course you will notice my signature black and white striped wrapping paper is always in the mix in our home.

Choose A Signature Wrap!

The very first time I ever heard of someone using a signature wrapping paper was Colin Cowey, his paper was a dark chocolate brown. 

That made me start thinking about what would I choose, and it was a very simple choice for me since I am a lover of black and white and stripes.

I put my papers together just like I do for pillow fabrics on my sofa. It's all about coordination and if you have trouble doing that you can often find groupings of papers that are already put together for you. I noticed that Target had a few fun patterns put together for your choosing this year...

 These were my paper choices for 2016 Christmas....

Here are the packages lined up waiting for their ribbons and bows.......

I actually place my packages under the tree and get them in an arrangement I like before adding the ribbons, then I can tell which package need a certain color ribbon. I am all about coordinating things, plus I really enjoy this whole process.

Nothing terribly fancy or complicated, just pretty coordinating papers and lovely soft double faced satin ribbon that drapes nicely. You won't see stiff wired ribbon on my packages, I like the ribbons to fall naturally.

In 2015 I chose an all green black and white color scheme and here are the line-up of papers that I used. You will notice that my papers are not always what you might use at Christmas time, but once the ribbons are added and they are under the tree the say CHRISTMAS big time!! 

Don't limit your creativity by only shopping in the Christmas aisles for your papers.

This was our very first Christmas in our new home in 2015.

All wrapped up and tied up with ribbons and bows.

The other thing I like to do with my wrapping and ribbons is to keep them in baskets and organized so that when I need to do my wrapping they are ready at hand. 

I actually keep my wrapping papers in a French Market basket and sometimes I keep it by the tree and it just adds to the Christmas decor. 

Let me show you how I did it one year.....

Tools needed for wrapping……..

You will notice the little basket on the right has my tools, scissors, tape, glue stick, markers all together. There is nothing that will slow down the process more than not being able to find the scissors or the tape so I have found that corralling them in a basket really helps me out.

Baskets to hold everything are so helpful……..

All my ribbons are lined up in a basket ready to make a pretty bow. 

I have fun paper ribbon with stickers that have our family name on them. 

Jingle bells were the theme for this years Christmas so I have a bowl full to add to the packages.

I don’t have a designated room to do my gift wrapping in, but I do have a large kitchen bar that works well. 

By getting pretty papers and ribbons it really helps in making your packages stand out. I just tie simple uncomplicated bows on my packages.

I have found that buying a good quality ribbon is so helpful in making a pretty bow. I have never been a big fan of wired ribbon. I love a beautiful velvet, or my favorite is a double sided satin ribbon. 

Here is a sneak peek of this years wrapping papers all lined up.  This years scheme actually started right after last years Christmas celebration when I found a pillow on sale that I had admired for a few years.

He is goofy, quirky and fun so that dictated the colors I am using this year......

You can't look at this fellow without smiling so my color scheme had to be cheerful and happy. This year it is all about red, pinks and green....

Stay tuned for more blog post on how I am going to use all of this and especially how I will wrap my gifts this year!!

I hope this will help make gift wrapping a little easier and more enjoyable for you. Below you will find the sources I use for my gift wrapping supplies.

Paper sources: The Container Store

                                                Nashville Wraps

Ribbons: Paper Mart
              Container Store

Paper: Minted

Paper: Spoonflower

Gift tags: Southern Hospitality Co.

Paper ribbon and round stickers: Paper Jacks on Etsy

Don't forget to visit the other bloggers that are participating in....

 "Project Design Holiday Wrap!"

Classic Casual Home

Good Life of Design

Most Lovely Things

Rough Luxe Lifestyle

Simple Details

 

 

The Story Of My Thanksgiving Day Table!

   

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS!

I have to admit that I waited until the very last minute to do my table this year. I had no idea what I was doing until I actually picked out my flowers at the grocery store.

The flowers were put in a big blue bucket until yesterday and then I began thinking about how to put this all together.

After looking at the flowers for awhile they told me they needed elegance and I knew I had the perfect piece to put them in. I just wasn't sure how I would make it work.

I have a beautiful antique silver bowl with my initial K engraved on it that my DIL gifted me!! It was perfect. I needed it to be a bit higher so I added one of my Revere bowls as a pedestal. It WORKED!!!

Now how the heck am I going to make the flowers stand up in this without a frog. Luckily my memory did not fail me and I remembered seeing someone do this with scotch tape....

 So I began to polish the silver.....

Not my favorite job, but so rewarding when it is all done!

The I put it together using my grocery store flowers and added some apples as well as some lemon and limes from our espaliers in the backyard to the arrangement........

Ready to be moved to the table, verrrrry carefully!!

I made some place cards using parchment paper and apples along with the Burgundy eucalyptus leaves with each guest name written on them.......

 Now for the fun part, putting it all together on the table.

I played with three different glasses, but the vintage ruby glasses won!!

You can see that I used a linen colored tablecloth with silver sparkles in it, that tied in my use of silver nicely, plus I love anything that sparkles, don't you?

Simple white napkins placed under each plate. By golly I think this is all going to work out just fine!!

I even had some soft red marbled candles in my stash that are the perfect color to go with this table. Who knew?

Next will be the truly best part, having my family sitting around this table!!!

After a little problem, the sink backed up!!! Hubby ran to Home Depot at 8:00 last night and by 10:00 my handy dandy guy had it fixed, not an easy fix but he did it!!

All was well with my world as I sat in the dark with the fireplace and Christmas pictures and music playing on the TV softly. Yes all is well.....

BLESSING TO YOU ALL!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!


SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

Tomorrows post is going to be a joint effort of 4 other very talented ladies. Stay tuned for another episode of Project Design....

 

 

5 Years of Our Thanksgiving Tables

   

 I haven't fallen off the face of the earth even though it might appear that way when it comes to my blogging schedule. Life has been a bit busier these days for me, but I think I have found a good rhythm.

It feels as if I have lost about 6 weeks somewhere so I am playing catch up these days. 

Are you all as shocked as I am that Thanksgiving is only one week away? Holy Smokes!!

Maybe I should start thinking about menu planning and how I want to do our table this year? 

Today I think I am going to look back at what I have done in previous years to see if that spurs me on to actually making plans.

This was a fun one to do. I used Caramel apples covered in nuts and placed them on a 3ft  zinc tray That had bands of nuts and cranberries with mums interspersed.

I used real stems from a tree for the apples and yes they could be eaten as part of the dessert.

This next table  was from 2011 and I used a 5ft long wooden box that my hubby made me to fill with pewter candle holders, candles, pumpkins and other produce. I like to use natural elements whenever possible. 

I stenciled the word BLESSINGS  on the side of the box.....

 

In 2014 we had a quiet year and I kept the table simple and meaningful.

I downloaded the perfect words for our table.....

I also found a down load for my menus that I placed on each plate......

In 2013 it was all about white and gold and falling leaves........

I purchased vases at the dollar store and spray painted the bottoms. Such an easy thing to do for just that extra added touch of fancy!!!

Each place setting had a white mini pumpkin with their names on a simple tag hanging off the stem. The hardest part about doing this was to find that many pumpkins with stems!

The long mirror is close to 6 ft long just to give you an idea of how large the center piece actually was.

 In 2012 I chose a color scheme of natural linen, whites, creams and soft sage green......

Ikea white lanterns were at the center of the tablescape, accented with all white pumpkins natural colors of nuts and gourds with soft green maple leaves. Vintage brown Fostoria glasses finished off the look. I am sure you have noticed these glasses are repeats from years past as well.

You will notice each place setting has a small tag with the person's name written in white chalk pen. I just used brown garbage sacks to make these, a no cost little addition.