Checking In

Hello all, just popping in to see how your holiday was? Did you get everything on your wish list? I hope there was merriment, piles of gift wrap, delicious meals, and too many sweets.

My boyfriend shocked the heck out me and got me a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet for Christmas. Since we're snowed in for two days I've had some time to play with it and it's so fun. I still have a lot to learn but I love it.

Posting will be light in these parts until after the new year so have a wonderful week and I'll see you in 2011!

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Merry Christmas from Milo and Design Evolution

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This Post is NOT Christmas Related

It's been really Christmas heavy here on Design Evolution for the past few weeks. I have Christmas on the brain with all of the shopping, decorating, and preparation that is required so it's been difficult for me to write about anything else.

This is actually a post about nothing. I just wanted to share these two pages from the most recent Urban Outfitters catalog. I love it so much I tore them out so I can hang them on my wall.

That is all. Carry on.

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Last Minute Christmas Craft with Free Download

I have a quick project for you that requires just a little bit of time and few supplies. It can be completed while relaxing and watching a Christmas movie, I recommend my favorite, Miracle on 34th Street.

What you'll need:

*Stiff sheets of felt

*Twine

*Scissors

*1/8" Hole punch

*Christmas silhouette print outs (download available below)

Print out the shapes below, cut out your favorite, and trace them on the felt. Punch a small hole near the top of the felt ornament, thread twine through hole, and voila! You now have and instant ornament. Make a set of them and give as a nice handmade gift.

Download Templates - Ornament shapes #1 and Ornament shapes #2

I used them to jazz up my gift wrap. When the gifts are unwrapped the felt ornaments can be saved and used to decorate the tree next year.

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Gift Guide: Stocking Stuffers

The stocking is actually my favorite thing about Christmas morning. We always open the gifts in our stocking last and I love discovering what little treasures are hidden within. It's the place for something sweet, silly, and precious.

I probably should have included as least one stocking stuffer for a man in this list so that it would not be so obvious that this just a wish list of items for my own stocking. Whoopsies. Here are some sweet, fun, pretty, and inexpensive items that would be great in any ladies stocking. Including my own ;)

1. solid fragrance pencil 2. a tiny circus for your finger 3. semi-precious stone soap 4. mini notepads 5. beaded barrettes 6. glittery nail polish 7. a book of insults & comebacks 8. mast brothers chocolate 9. mini lip gloss sets

Somehow when putting together this gift guide I forgot to include my favorite item, Homemade Cardamom Marshmallows from Whimsy & Spice.

That concludes my gifts guides for 2010. I hope they were helpful when shopping for the ones you love. In case you missed any of them here's the complete list:
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who'd Rather Stay In
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Doesn't Stay in One Place Too Long

Gift Guide: For the Ladies

Gift Guide: For the Design Obsessed

Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Loves to Bake

Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Probably Made Your Christmas Present

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Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Probably Made Your Christmas Gift

For the artistic friend or crafting goddess, gifts that are both beautiful and functional...

1. classics gifting kit 2. vintage stamp 3. vintage thread spools 4. glittery ribbon 5. washi tape set 6. paper pencils 7. handmade embroidery scissors

1. x-acto knife set 2. tabletop artist kit 3. pipe cleaners 4. alphabet rolling stamp 5. trompe l'oiel pencil case 6. walnut tape dispenser 7. fancy vinyl tape

Related Posts:
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who'd Rather Stay In
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Doesn't Stay in One Place Too Long

Gift Guide: For the Ladies

Gift Guide: For the Design Obsessed

Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Loves to Bake

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Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Loves to Bake

For the friend who's a wiz in the kitchen and loves to whip up fresh baked goodies for everyone, a round-up of gifts she is sure to love.

1. for a little help with the math 2. to roll it, pat, & make it with a B 3. for saving grandma's recipes 4. to whip up sweets in style 5. for storing the ingredients 6. to make a cake look festive

1. for making retro cookies 2. to mold pudding of the sticky toffee variety 3. for scraping off dough stuck to the table 4. to serve the perfect pie 5. for decorating the workspace 6. to keep a menu organized 7. for adding a pinch, a dash, or a dollop

Related Posts:
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who'd Rather Stay In
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Doesn't Stay in One Place Too Long

Gift Guide: For the Ladies

Gift Guide: For the Design Obsessed

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Gift Guide: For the Design Obsessed

What better for your design obsessed loved one than a Pantone inspired gift? Who wouldn't love a gift from the world-renowned authority on color?

1. wallet 2. drawing pencils 3. my cuppa 4. mugs 5. nail polish 6. matryoshka 7. pepper mill 8. notebook 9. storage tins 10. cuff links 11. rubik's cube

Unfortunately the nail polish and the Rubik's cube are both concept products and are not actually available for sale but they are both too cool. For more Pantone inspired gifts check out my Pantone Pinboard.

Related Posts:
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who'd Rather Stay In
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Doesn't Stay in One Place Too Long

Gift Guide: For the Ladies

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Gift Guide: For the Ladies

Yup, that's about as specific as I need to get with the title for this gift guide. Face it dudes, we chicks like things that sparkle & shine. One or more of the items below will probably make most of the ladies in your life pretty happy.

1. doloris petunia 2. anthropologie 3. abejas boutique 4. brilliance found 5. macha 6. dolly bird design 7. priyanka sodhi 8. anthropologie 9. little white dresser 10. satomi kawakita 11. anne kiel 12. brilliance found

1. love rocks ny 2. need supply co 3. topshop 4. anthropologie 5. toto kaelo 6. erie basin 7. catbird nyc 8. anthropologie 9. satomi kawakita 10. urban outfitters 11. refinery29

Just a heads up, the jewelry pictured above ranges anywhere from $30 to $3,000.

Related Posts:
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who'd Rather Stay In
Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Doesn't Stay in One Place Too Long

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A Little Snow was Here and There...

Disseminated in her hair
Since she and I had met and played
Decade had gathered to decade

But time had added not obtained
Impregnable the rose
For summer too indelible
Too obdurate for snows

-Emily Dickinson

I whipped up a batch of these chocolate crinkle cookies last night and they reminded me of the streets in town covered with the fainest dusting of snow. Which is exactly what I woke up to this morning. Cookie recipe from Little Brown Pen.

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Gift Guide: For the Friend Who'd Rather Stay In

I picked out these items with a specific friend in mind. A friend who always prefers lighting a fire, brewing a pot of tea, throwing on pjs, and curling up with a good book to getting all done up and spending the night in a loud, crowded night club. Truth - I picked these items out with myself in mind.

1. to display literature 2. to store kindling 3. to light the flame 4. to organize a library 5. to scent the air sweetly 6. to escape to another time 7. to sip & daydream of romance 8. to enjoy the sweeter things in life

1. to lounge in comfort 2. to serve a sophisticated tea time 3. to brew that tea with a smile 4. to make a room smell infused with tea 5. to make a cuppa cozy 6. to make bed linens inviting 7. to wrap yourself in warmth 8. to drink the finer things

Related Posts:

Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Doesn't Stay in One Place Too Long

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Gift Guide: For the Friend Who Doesn't Stay in One Place Too Long

I've been having so much fun making Gift Guides for imaginary friends using Pinterest and I thought you might enjoy them too. If you are also on Pinterest and would like to follow my boards you can find me here.

If you have a friend or family member, like I do, that isn't happy unless they are in a new location every few months I'm sure they would love to receive any or all of these items.

1. for warm & comfy feet 2. to stash toothpaste 3. for a little nip to keep you warm 4. to point & shoot 5. for dry airplane skin 6. to keep your undies organized 7. to make a hotel room feel like home

1. to plot the travel route 2. to light the way 3. for jotting down adventures in the rain 4. to throw everything in and head out on the trail 5. because it's the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have 6. for the necessary identification 7. so they will always know the way home 8. for stashing a lot in a small space 9. in case carrying film would cramp their style 10. to stay hydrated in style

Since there are two more shopping weeks until Christmas it will be gift guide week on Design Evolution. Stay tuned, I have one planned for every day of the week.

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Just a Quick Question

Would you be interested in joining a Design Evolution facebook group? I was thinking it might be nice to have a place to converse and share ideas in a more casual atmosphere and on a more regular basis than here on the blog. We could all pop in for a chat anytime of day to dish about design or share photos of a recent crafty project. It wouldn't effect the regularity of my blogging here but I may share more photos related to a project I blog about and I would love for all of you to be able to upload photos of projects you've completed, especially if you got the idea from something you read on Design Evolution.

Would you be interested in joining a Design Evolution facebook group?

Photo credit: Michelle Verdugo

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A Simple Handmade Garland

To make a garland for my Christmas tree this year I simply strung 1/2" white pom poms on 20' lengths of brown & white bakery twine. A simple, mindless task that can be completed while catching up with the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

I thought I was so clever when I came up with this idea but now I'm see pom pom garlands popping up all over. Here are a few other options to check out: #1, #2, & #3.

What do you think? Don't they look like tiny snowballs?

p.s. please excuse my blurry photos, I took these in the wee hours of the morning.

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Hanerot Halalu

This is by far the coolest menorah I've ever seen. I'm thinking it could pass as an interesting candelabra in my non-Jewish home, do you agree? Enough about me, Happy Hanukkah to all of my readers whole celebrate the holiday.

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