I owe a lot of people a lot of thank you‘s this month. We’ve been preparing to move, and I feel like all of our friends and family have jumped in to help, from packing up boxes (full of my ridiculous amount of craft supplies and kitchen tools), picking up our mail when we’re in between our apartment and new place, and probably most helpful, have been there to listen to me when I’m complaining about being overbooked and a little frazzled!
imageWith all of those thank you’s in order, I’ve had “little hello gifts” (as my mom calls them) on my mind lately. “Hello gifts” are a little treat to thank a friend for having us over for dinner or helping out with a small errand. This simple DIY combines two of my favorite things into one colorful little hello-gift: washi tape and cocktail fixins’!I grabbed a pack of sparkling IZZEs and used some really fun, bright washi tape to wrap it around the edges of the cardboard container to ‘wrap’ the box. This pattern worked really well because of the variation in the stripes — no need to be exact. Each stripe was slightly layered over the next, until you covered the whole box. For the corners around the handle, I simply folded the edges under the box and tucked them in with the dull side of a table knife to get a clean edge. Then I added in some matching drink stirrers and paper straws, and tied up the whole thing with a bow — and it’s ready to gift!  Processed with VSCOcam with f2 presetProcessed with VSCOcam with f2 presetProcessed with VSCOcam with f2 presetProcessed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

Please Note: This post was sponsored by Izze; all images, ideas and content are my own. 

This weekend I hosted a baby shower with the help of  my friend Lindsay  for one of our blogger besties — Alison of Long Distance Loving. It’s funny, I’ll always refer to Alison as my ‘blogger friend’ because that’s how we met, and we continue to work together on Boston Bloggers. But since meeting through the blogging world we’ve become great friends outside of the blogosphere, and I was so delighted to be able to celebrate her and her little baby-to-be! Alison is keeping the baby’s gender a surprise, so we went with a gender-neutral theme – bright yellows that we used in garlands, sunflowers, and cheery striped straws. We also made little yellow flags out of washi tape that we used for cupcake toppers and in potted succulents for favors. Oh and the food was pretty tasty too! More on that tomorrow…

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I couldn’t bear turning the oven on in our apartment this weekend, (it’s been quite the heat wave) so I had to get creative making a dessert to bring along to a friends BBQ. I picked up a frozen cheesecake at the grocery store and chopped it up into small cubes, and layered the cheesecake bites with fresh blueberries and raspberries in pint-sized mason jars. To make them look a little more special, I used cut up fabric pieces from bandanas to top the lids, and used washi tape to affix mini spoons to the jars. We kept them in the freezer right up until they were ready to be served, and the result was a cool, handheld treat for our day by the pool!
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I haven’t dyed Easter eggs since I was a kid, but something made me stop in the aisle of the grocery store this week and grab a kit. Of course being the DIYer that I am, I couldn’t stop at just dunking the eggs in colored dye. I broke out some of my neon washi tapes and went to town decorating them with stripes. I’m enjoying the pop of color  seeing them in a bowl on my counter top!

I love this bathroom makeover from the blog AB Chao. The monogrammed shower curtain, the bowl of nail polish, and the cute striped accessories all caught my eye. My favorite part though is the mini-gallery of Polaroid pictures tacked up with patterned washi tape. I think the impermanence of this little art installation makes it feel so special and unfussy. It makes me want to find some film for the dusty old Polaroid camera in my closet! What do you think, do you like the idea of unframed artwork in your home?

All images via AB Chao (I feel like I’ve been living under a rock for not knowing about her blog — check it out, it’s so cute!)

Deborah Lloyd’s wardrobe was featured on The Coveteur last week, and sure I was excited about the shoes — but really I was honing in on the interior design behind the shoes.  I of course adored the gallery wall in her home too, especially the paper ephemera tacked on top of the frames with neon pink washi tape. And you know you’re fabulous when you have a giant stuffed white peacock in your living room — I want to move in!

Images via The Coveteur

I’m totally digging this room; I love the striped walls, the oversized framed art, the modern lighting, and the soothing color palette.

But want to know a secret? Those stripes are made out of masking tape! I couldn’t believe it when I read it. I’m sure it looks a little more tape-y up close, but it’s an interesting idea for renters — imagine how it would look with patterned Japanese washi tape?

Read more about this room on Apartment Therapy.

 
 
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