Work-Back List

Use A Work-Back Sheet To Get Stuff Done

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Take the stress out of planning any event with this tool used by event planning pros. (WORKSHEET)

Work-Back List

FREE WORKSHEET | The holiday season will never be as carefree for adults as it is for kids—we have too much work to do behind the scenes—but this year why not make things easier on yourself by using a simplified version of a “work-back schedule,” a tool employed by event-planning pros, to get everything done in a less hurried, more orderly and enjoyable manner. Read more

drops Collage Frame - IKEA

You Will Love The Drops Frame From IKEA

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How to get family snapshots out of Cyberland and into your living room.

drops Collage Frame - IKEA

 

CHEAP & AWESOME | Although they did not confirm this number themselves, Buzzfeed reported last year that humans take 380 billion photos a year. To that figure I would like to add my own unsubstantiated statistic: 99.99 percent of these photographs will forever reside out of view, most of them in Cyberland.

And maybe that’s a good thing, but displaying some printed photos in your home does keep good times and good people visually at hand without logging into a computer or staring at a digital flip screen. My new favourite way to display snapshots on paper is in an inexpensive Drops collage frame from IKEA. Read more

ikea-regolit

4 Ways To Dress Up Plain Paper Lanterns

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Decorating-with-Chinese-lanterns-3
Tissue Paper Stars
Kate Daudy - NYTimes
ikea-regolit

Peel and Stick Letters - The Swell Life


DIY | While inexpensive paper lanterns used en masse contribute enormously to the festive mood in a room (try imagining the space pictured above without them), a plain pendant lantern used on its own can easily look like an uninspired afterthought.

Of course a single Noguchi Araki light sculpture would be beautiful, but shades like these, which are fashioned from handmade washi paper and authentic bamboo ribbing, are anything but cheap.

If you are going to use a cheap Chinese paper lantern alone in a room, why not personalize it in a way that makes it distinctive? Here are four of our favourite eye-catching ways to embellish paper lanterns, plus a how-to video from Martha Stewart that covers some of the basics. Read more

Ice Cream Sliders

An Appetite for Easy: Sweet Ice Cream Sliders

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Could there be anything easier than making tiny ice cream sandwiches for dessert?

Ice Cream Sliders

 

 

EASY & DELISH | Most of us have snacked on hamburger sliders before, those meat filled mini burgers on tiny buns that are gone in two bites flat, but have you ever had an ice cream slider? I have. At a dinner party recently, our hostess brought out bowls filled with different flavours of ice cream and a sampler of cookies and invited us to build our own ice cream sliders for dessert. What a great idea! Read more

Dan Pearson's Posy - Howard Sooley

Why Gardeners Should Make A Bouquet Every Day

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Superstar designer and planstman Dan Pearson explains why you should make a garden posy every day.

Dan Pearson's Posy - Howard Sooley

 

WHAT THE PROS KNOW | There’s plenty of great how-to in Home Ground: Sanctuary In The City, British designer and writer Dan Pearson’s 2011 gardening book that will surely become a classic, but the author’s suggestion that keeners make a daily bouquet from whatever’s in bloom in their garden seems like a particularly good idea. Could there be an easier way to become more observant outdoors or to study the blooming habits and idiosyncrasies of the plants that grow right under your nose? Read more

Sea Salt caramels- mymansbelly

How To Make Perfect Caramels In The Microwave

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Yes, it really is possible to make super yummy sea salt caramels in the microwave.

Sea Salt caramels- mymansbelly

 

EASY & DELISH | When my daughter got married last May, she asked her aunt and me to make chocolate bark and fleur de sel caramels for the wedding reception. The bark was no problem; I’d made it before, and nothing could be easier (CLICK HERE for our recipes). The caramels made me nervous. There’s kitchen science involved in producing caramels that are both soft and chewy.

So we put off making these paper-wrapped sweets until a few days before the wedding—then muddled through using a recipe we found on Epicurious.com (CLICK HERE to get it). Only after the big day did I learn that we could have saved ourselves both time and concern by making our candy in the microwave. Read more

Gift Tag - Fifth & Hazel

Our Top 3 Printable Holiday Gift Tags

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If you ever buy another gift tag, you will be wasting money. Here are a few of our favourites among the hundreds of printable ones you can find on the internet.

Gift Tag - Fifth & Hazel

FREE & EASY | While most of us put thought, time and money into the paper and ribbon we use to wrap Christmas presents, gift tags are apt to receive only brief and unsympathetic treatment. My brother, for example, doesn’t bother with tags at all, preferring instead to use a Sharpie to scrawl the recipient’s name across the top of his offerings. I’ll cut him the tiniest amount of slack given he’s an overworked business exec with a partner who’s not into Christmas, but the rest of us have no excuse for going such a lacklustre route with so many gorgeous, printable gift tags available for free on the internet. Here are three of our favourites, plus tips on using printable tags effectively. Read more