It’s here! It’s here! My favorite holiday of the year! I know people get all grumpy about New Year’s Eve because it usually involves an overly expensive dinner or a crowded bar, but that’s why I decided a long time ago to throw my own New Years bash and give all my friends the perfect plan for sending out the year in style and kicking off the new one just right. Call me a sap, but I love the idea of starting the new year with my best friends, doing what I love most: entertaining. It’s also one of my favorite holidays because it involves all things glitter and sparkle and confetti-filled. So if you’re hosting your own soiree this year, or need to add a little pop of celebration to a night in watching the ball drop, I’ve got a few last minute DIY ideas you can craft up. I worked on these with Julie of Posh and Prep who lent her expert calligraphy skills to make them a little extra special! 
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After all of the fun we had putting together some DIY details for Thanksgiving, Julie from Posh & Prep and I got crafty and created a few fun handmade elements to add your Christmas parties and celebrations. Julie lent her fabulous hand-lettering to create the easiest place card favor: a classic christmas ornament personalized with gold ink calligraphy in each guests name.
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This is our very first year with a full-sized Christmas tree! I loved my little apartment-sized bookshelf trees we had in years past, but gosh is it fun to decorate a big tree in our new home — it feels just a little more like the holidays seeing it in our breakfast nook. One challenge with upgrading from a mini-tree to a 7ft tall tree is we never really owned full-sized ornaments. I have been on the hunt for the perfect colored glass balls to fill in the gaps between our smaller, more sentimental ornaments. Of course, I gravitated right to bright-colors and expensive price tags (like these and these), but couldn’t justify breaking the bank when I knew I needed lots of them. So I DIY’ed my own in the simplest way possible!
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We’ve been in our house for exactly one month now, and are starting to finally feel settled (yay!), but aren’t in a place yet to be hosting a massive Thanksgiving dinner. I dream of this though! Maybe in the next few years we’ll be ready to host on our own, I mean, it’s basically the Super Bowl of entertaining and eating and I think I’d be a pretty strong contender at that game (ladies and gentlemen, the first time a sportsanalogy has ever been used on this site!). Even though I’m not hosting, I still have lots of ideas for a spectacular Thanksgiving tables to share, so I worked with Julie from Posh & Prep Calligraphy to come up with a few special details that are easy to translate to your own turkey day celebrations!
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!
With 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! 
Please Note: This post was sponsored by Izze; all images, ideas and content are my own.
If I was queen of anything, I think I’d probably be the queen of the last-minute DIY. I wish I was one of those bloggers that plans her awesome ideas months in advance so I could just hit publish a week before an event, but my best inspiration always seems to pop up the day before a holiday! Case and point: my derby day DIY epiphany popped into my head earlier this weekend. The good news is that this DIY concept can be used in dozens of different ways for many holidays to come, using gold clay and wooden skewers to make some horseshoe drink stirrers.
The instructions are simple: roll out modeling clay to about 1/4″ thickness and use an exacto-knife to cut out your shape — in this case, a simple horseshoe. Next, use a small wooden toothpick or dowel to add details before popping the pieces in a 275 degree oven for 15 minutes. Once the pieces have cooked, hardened, and cooled, use a tiny drop of hot glue to affix to a wooden skewer. Let the glue set and you’re ready to pop them into a mint julep or cocktail of your choice!
Why is it that of all of the party wares you can buy, that drinkware is always the most plain and boring? I mean, what’s more fun than DRINKS people? I have found it quite tough to find fun, festive options for disposable glasses, so I decided to come up with a way to make them more festive on my own — this is such a simple idea that I’m kind of kicking myself for not coming up with it earlier. I purchased simple clear plastic cups from the party store and then used printable colored labels from Paper Source to write out a fun phrase (since these were for a morning event, I wrote “good mornin’ sunshine” on the stickers). After printing them out at home, I simply adhered the stickers to the cups before serving a tasty rosemary lemonade in them. I’m positive I’ll be replicating this idea for many parties in my future!
I think we all deserve a little extra perk of Spring-y goodness in our Easter celebrations this weekend after the winter that we’ve had, right? So I thought up a fun party detail: bunny straws! The assembly is simple: cut out a small white outline of a bunny head; using a glue stick add on small nose and pinks of the ears. Finish them off with a hand drawn set of eyes and whiskers. Then glue the bunnies right to the striped straw (I chose pink and green ones!), leaving enough room so that they’ll pop out of the glass, but don’t touch the top of the straw. I can’t wait to pop these cute little guys into a mimosa this weekend!
Alright friends, who has trouble thinking of cute Valentine’s Day gifts for the men in your life? Man-presents are tough! When a friend of mine introduced to me the makers of JL The Brand and their stylish(and American-made!) dress socks a little light-bulb went off in my head for a cute Valentine’s Day gift idea for my husband. (And PS: I already gave it to him, so I’m not ruining any surprises here… the life of a blogger-husband, you get your DIY presents a week early because it was part of a blog post!). I found a small square box and rolled up the patterned socks — love those little crowns! — and topped the box with a hand-lettered quip that says “I love you from your head to your TOES!“. Aren’t Valentine’s Day puns the best?
And hey! If you’re looking to treat the guy in your life to some stylish toes too, JL The Brand is offering Domestikatedlife readers 20% your order + free shipping, just use the code SoxAppeal.
Please note: JL The Brand has provided me with product featured in this post. All opinions, ideas, and DIYs are my own.
Valentine’s Day is just a few days away! I always seem to come up with homemade present ideas a day or two before the actual holiday comes around, leaving me a short window to actually grab supplies and make it come to life. That’s why I’m excited to share this Valentine’s Day DIY concept today — it’s inexpensive, simple to make and a great idea to have in your back-pocket for last-minute gifts because all of the materials can be found at your local grocery store!
I repurposed a cardboard egg carton and gave it a quick layer of craft paint in a pink tone. Then I popped a dozen mini-cupcakes from the grocery store bakery section into the egg carton once it dried, and glued a hand-lettered message to the inside of the container that says “Happy Valentine’s Day, Cupcake!” It’s a great way to gift sweet treats without having to bake them yourself — repackaging the items makes them feel special.
To help celebrate Valentine’s Day, Rich Products is helping me give away a $50 gift card so you can treat your Valentine (or yourself!) to something special. To enter, follow the instructions below: 
Giveaway Details:
- To enter to win leave a comment below to share how you’d use your $50 gift card to treat your Valentine (or yourself!).
- For an extra entry, LIKE the Domestikatedlife Facebook page and leave another comment below.
- For an extra entry follow @domestikateblog on Instagram and leave another comment below.
- For an extra entry, share a post with your own gifting ideas using the hashtag #givebakery and include a comment below with your post.
- This giveaway will end at 5:00 PM EST on Friday, February 13th and is open to US residents only.
Please note: This post was sponsored by Rich Products Corporation, all opinions, ideas, and DIYs are my own.
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