Etsy Valentines Day Gifts

Andy and I are not big gift people. We have everything that we could want, so we don't usually give gifts. For Valentines Day we will probably go out to dinner and exchange cards. This doesn't mean I don't enjoy looking for fun gifts though. As I have mentioned plenty of times before, Etsy is the perfect place to find homemade gifts along with supporting the small business community. These gifts are so much fun, I may actually give a gift this year. :)

For Him:

 Wild cent for your wild man. Cedar and Lime, with subtle hints of Lavender and Rosemary, wow. Find it Here.

 Hot chocolate with earl grey for the man with a more defined pallet. Find it Here.

A leather cuff for him with the latitude and longitude of your favorite place. (Andy would love this!) Find it Here.

 Guys like getting gifts of chocolate too...bacon covered chocolate! Find it Here.

For the coffee lover man. Some morning joe with a sweet note on it. Find it Here.

For Her:

 Dried and laminated bougainvillea petal earrings for the nature/flower lover. (I want these.) Find it Here.

 

 An anitomical heart illustrated tank for the literal woman. Find it Here.

 Fancy gourmet chocolate truffles. Flavors like bourbon, raspberry, and spicy mayan. Yes! Find it Here.

 Care for a mug of sensuali-tea? Calming herbal tea for the hot drink lover. Find it Here.

A simple delicate gold and red bracelet for the jewelery gal. Find it Here.

If you find something good, order it now so you'll have it by Valentines Day- next Thursday! And no, Etsy, nor any of these products endorse me for this. I just love Etsy.

Etsy Gifts for Women

Etsy gifts for the lady in your family under $40

In my opinion women are SO much easier to shop for than men. Last week I did a post about Etsy gifts for men so now I am doing one for women. Yeah, we need cool stuff too! Really the possibilities are endless, but here are 10 of my picks of rad gifts for women that can be found through Etsy. And like I said before, buying from Etsy also helps to support the small business community...so do it! Plus who doesn't like shopping online from the comfort of your couch with a cup of jo in hand?

 For the lady into beauty and scents. Vanilla lavender aroma therapy gift set. $29 Here.

 For the nature/art loving iphone user. Geometric on wood ipone case. $16 Here.

 For the lady into natural beauty. Eco friendly charcoal mask. $24 Here.

 For the modern art-deco lady. Modern copper cuff bracelet. $40 Here.

 For the fun homemaker. Burlap leaf print pillow. $32 Here.

 For the avid tea drinker. (I have several of these friends!) Bamboo tea box. $29 Here.

 For the lady who always wears fun jewelery. Wood and malachite pendant necklace. $20 Here.

 For the entertainer who already has everything. Modern colorful ceramic vase. $18 Here.

 For the hipster lady, or not. ( I love these!!) Vintage bicycle earrings. $20 Here.

For the fashion-forward lady who's always cold. Gray chevron infinity scarf. $25 Here.

Etsy Gifts for Men

Etsy Gifts for Your Dude under $45

Tis the season! It's about that time to hit the pavement and fight the dreaded crowds. I love shopping, yes I do, but I hate holiday shopping. Maybe I'll try something different this year and shop for gifts online. (Good idea eh, who ever though of that!?) I'm a strong supporter of Etsy, so enjoy this list of 8 pretty sweet gifts for men (in my opinion) that also helps to support the small business community.

 For the technology man. A leather ipad case...with a sweet engraved bicycle. $45 Here.

 For the adventure man (ie: my husband). A personalized engraved knife. $26 Here.

 For the hairy man? A genuine shaving kit with handmade soap. $31 Here.

 For the musical man (you lucky lady!). A personalized engraved guitar pick. $18 Here.

 For the clean man, or the coffee lover. Coffee body wash! $7 Here.

 For the cellphone savvy, or the texting man. Thumb-free gloves. $25 Here.

 For the commuter man, or coffee lover. A personalized engraved travel mug. $16 Here.

 For the hip working man. Some brightly colored skinny ties. (yes please!) $19 Here.

Mothers Day Inspiration - DIY or Buy!

Iv'e been trying to find some lovely Mothers Day inspiration both "DIY or buy" and here are my favourite  finds:


Love this this cute cake bunting from Sweet Living Magazine. You'll find a link at the end of this post to print out the bunting. You can  then cut out the flags, fold and glue over a piece of string then affix to your cake with wooden skewers.  

 I'm excited to be giving away a gorgeous book from Penguin called "Cake Star" by Jade Lipton in a few weeks time. Jade was one of last years judges on "New Zealands Hottest Home Baker". Jade's book is full of wonderful  ideas and images for cake and cookie decorating.  You can have a sneek peek inside on my Facebook page. If your not the greatest cake decorator in the world, these little ideas I found below are easy for anyone to re-create. (Please note the images below are not from Jade's book  Cake Star).

Some little cake inspiration for Mothers Day...

Love this idea  above from "Best Cupcake Ideas" - You can buy a ready made flower or even place a real rosebud on top or if your artistic enough, make your own flower.

Source: allisonladolcevita.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Easy Peasy! Individual Berry Sponge Cakes. I love simple ideas and after seeing some little rasperry sponges, I came up with this 5 minute idea which I tried out on my mum today and she loved them as they are so light. 

Image : Lee Caroline - A World of Inspiration

5 Minute Berry Sponge Cakes

Ingredients:

• 1 store bought sponge cake 
• fresh raspberries/blackberries or blueberries
• 2 tablespoons of blackberry or other fruit jam
• Fresh whipping cream or butter cream (I prefer fresh cream as its light and not as sweet)
• 1 deep round Cookie or circular metal cake cutter
• Icing sugar/powdered sugar for dusting

Method:

• Cut your sponge into 2.5" diameter circles with a deep cookie cutter in the shape of a circle
• slice the sponges in half, they should be around 3/4" deep for each slice
• whip your cream and layer on top of half your circles
• Mix your jam with your fruit and scoop a reasonable amount out to cover the top of the lower sponge
• Place your second peice of sponge on top of this 
• Finish with a dusting of icing/powdered sugar

Credit source: Lee Caroline - A World of Inspiration

You could buy these Lavender sea salts from Terrain for $24 or be creative and DIY and tie on a pretty tag (recipe below)

Basic Bath Salt Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Epsom salts
• 2 cups Coarse sea salt or Dead Sea Salts
• 5 drops of high grade lavender oil
• Lavender food colouring or mix (5 drops of blue and 4 drops of red colouring together)

Method:

• Combine Epsom salts and sea salt together in a glass or glazed porcelain bowl.
• mix the food colourings together in a small bowl to desired colour (I prefer pastel shades)
• Mix the colouring into the salts mixture stirring thoroughly
• Spread the salts onto a lined tray or cookie sheet and dry in an oven on warm temperature, this is to prevent clumping.
• When dry place in your mason jar and tie on a pretty tag

Make sure when mixing the salts that you wear gloves as the lavender oil is quite potent and you don't want to get the oils on your skin or in your eyes.

Love these mothers day cards from Rifle Paper Company, only $4.50 each...

Lovely botanical Journal - $15 also from Rifle Paper Paper Company

Earl Grey Apothecary candle from Terrain $20.00 (Terrain are offering free shipping on Mothers Day gifts)

Lavender organic soy candle from Terrain $24.00

Gorgeous Peony Archival Print from Cush and Nooks - $16.00

Linen and moleskin Rose cushion also from Cush & Nooks

Sweet apron from Vintage Roses Love $38.95

Love these Maisy slippers from Wallace Cotton NZ$39.90

Link for Bunting download...

Download the Mothers Day Bunting  from Sweet Living Magazine

Sharing this week with:


Rae Gun Ramblings

Show off your cottage monday at The House in the Roses

Craft-O-Maniac Monday

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Ivy and Elephants 

Transformation Thursday at Shabby Creek Cottage

Open House Party at No Minimalist Here

Time Travel Thursday at the Brambleberry Cottage

Show and tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Hope you've found plenty of  Mothers Day inspiration from my finds

Lee oxo

&

Poppy

 

9 Things I’ve Discovered This Week

1.  Beautiful, Intricately inlaid bone tray $350.00 -  from Cush & Nooks  (a homegrown NZ store)

2. Cute Pug cushion, illustration by Hawkes Bay artist Martin Poppelwell, $79.00 - Cush & Nooks

3. Black bone inlay bedside cabinet (only 2 available so be quick!) $1,000 - Cush & Nooks

4. Pinny Flowers day bag $80.00 - Kath Kidston

5. Love these Shabby chic look cake tins - Royal Rose set of 3 tins $42.00, Kath Kidston

6. Gorgeous Antique Rose Bath sheet $70 - Kath Kidston...I think this is just so pretty!

7. Hummingbird dinner plate $24.00 - Anthropologie

8. Avenida Pillow/cushion $128.00 - Anthropologie (Design inspired by South American  Street Art)

9. Hand made glass tumbler signed by artist Massimo Lunardon $58.00 - Anthropologie...this may be a little expensive for a tumbler but I was thinking that it could also be used as a small vase.  Love the touch of Tangerine Tango around the top of the tumbler.

I encourage you to click on the links to learn more about these products, especially the beautiful inlaid bone furniture that is available at Cush & Nooks as these are just a small sampling of what is available in this lovely shop.

Click "here" to learn more about artist/designer Martin Poppelwell whose pug design features on Cush & Nooks cute cushion.

Hope your enjoying your weekend, I'm off to the dog park with Poppy to give

my eyes a bit of a rest from this Pc.

Lee oxo

&

Poppy

Things I am loving Fridays and house updates!!

Good morning!! Hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful, healthy and happy Thanksgiving holiday! So who else was reaching for their pants with the elastic waist this morning? I was and likely will be for the next few days, I cannot lie.  But it was sooooo worth every bite, every calorie and every minute spent eating my most favorite meal of the year with my beloved family. It was truly a relaxing day, spent doing nothing but reminiscing, playing a few board games, watching a favorite movie and of course we had to oblige my father and watch a little football!! Hoping yours was equally relaxing and wonderful. So lets get started with this weeks house updates and things I  am loving.

HOUSE UPDATES. Things are really moving and shaking at the house. The big news this week is the front door/entrance, it is really coming together and I am loving how its turning out. It makes such a huge difference now in the front facade of the house. When they are done with that, then we have to add the spires to the corners of the rooftop and facade wise we are pretty much done!   I was bummed, naturally that we were not there for Thanksgiving however I have come to grips with it and now concentrating on getting there by Christmas! So we are starting to slowly pack up a bit, and I do realize that even when we do move, hopefully in a few weeks,  we will still have plenty of work going on, but we should have the kitchen/breakfast room and family room completed as well as the kids bedrooms and a guest room. That is good enough for me. They will continue to work while we are living there and something tells that the work pace might just get stepped up a little with us underfoot! So below is this weeks happenings........

Front entrance is finally coming along!!

We are now waiting for the top half....

The right facade window is complete

They are working now on the inside of the tower

So nice to finally see it looking near completed!

Family room, floors sanded getting stained on Monday, then all we have to do is wait for mantle

Dining room floors just got sanded, now we are waiting for stain to be done on Monday

My closet in progress

I think an island is very functional but I keep going back and forth if I really want it, or just put a big oversized tufted ottoman there in its place

The doors waiting to be painted then they will be hung

Hubby's vanity is done!

Upstairs railing from landing

Door knobs

Stair hall, the coloring is a little off here, it looks orangey, it is not trust me

Laundry room

A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE. Nothing like pictures to "take you back". I,  six or seven years ago didn't put many pictures on my computer, at that point I was still getting them developed in my local stores,  wow that sounds so antiquated! But I did find a few, of my old house and wanted to share them with you. It was so much fun remembering it, and all of the great memories, I have there. I thought you might want to see these too.....so walk down memory lane with me!

I love this sideboard! My dining room all decked out for Christmas....

My dining room

A foyer console

The rear part of the foyer

Our living room, regrettably we started to furnish last so this was the least "decorated room" in the house, hence the lack of window treatements, and the owners ended up buying almost all the furniture! This was the living room in progress, right before we sold it.

Rear of the foyer

Looking from upstairs landing into my bedroom sitting room

Kitchen/breakfast room

Christmas was in the air!

ST. HELENA OLIVE OIL COMPANY. Have written about them before but got a few gifts recently from them for the "foodies" in my life. And I must say their products really are fabulous, fairly priced and tell me one person who doesn't want to get something from beautiful Napa Valley!! I also like that this small boutique operation is run by a small family, and has been for 15 years who has stayed true to their core mission of delivering high quality products and supporting the farm to table movement. Its also nice giving something you know they can't find anywhere else around here.This year they introduced an all natural bath/body care line as well. I like the simple organic looking packaging, do you? Click here to visit.

The Classic Vinaigrette, comes with balsamic, sea salt, olive oil  and peppercorns

Ultimate body care gift set

Pasta Pasta set

Oil herb dipping oil

Sea salt

CUSTOM WINE LABELS AS GIFTS. Oh boy.... I had fun with this company which I just found out about a few weeks ago. Have a wine lover in your life? How about giving them a favorite wine with their own custom label attached? Such a neat and creative idea, also great for parties! I also got the matching coasters. You can get creative with what you add on the text lines....This is a great company with endless possibilities for all kinds of labels, but I thought the  wine labels were particularly great. I am really into giving personalized gifts this year, so these were perfect for those that enjoy wine.  Click here to visit. 

For a good friend

Did this one for my sister

BEST FOLLOWERS. Yep, this is one thing I am REALLY loving this week more than ever!  I just want to say with regard to the "drama" of last week, I try to see the silver lining in everything and in that situation, it was the UNBELIEVABLE outpouring of support I received from fellow bloggers, readers and followers. Just this morning many days after I still got a few more emails.....I was overwhelmed by it frankly.  You made me realize how special blogging is and reminded me of what an amazing group of people make up this community. So, I just wanted to thank you once again. I consider myself to be very lucky to have you.

                                                 Nice and positive people only please!!

Wishing everyone a happy day....and would love to know if there is anything you are loving or have discovered that you want to share! Any great resources for gifts for the holidays? Is anyone taking advantage of the black Friday sales that you cannot help but notice and hear about? I mean, shopping at midnight is so out of my realm of possibilities....beyond the craziness of it, I am wiped out and ready for bed these days at 10 or 11 max, did anyone go midnight shopping? Wishing you a wonderful day.