online shopping – emerald city diaries

the day we traded three lights for one.

i haven’t really kept it a secret that the light pendants in our dining room are not my favorite thing in the house {see here}. but, for what they were {a light source for one entire side of our large living space} we kept them without too much complaint.

however, when you are a house owner {or a grown-up or both} & santa asks you what you want for christmas, you immediately start listing domestic things: vacuum cleaner, towels, dish towels, etc. this year i asked santa {very nicely} for a new dining room light!

so i got it & its AMAZING! {there are pictures below, i promise – thanks santa!} we would have hung it right away, but since our current light fixtures were in a really funky place {in the center of the room, yep, the center!} we had to call our handy dandy electrician to come in & move some electrical for us.

after he was done you can see that there were three really nice holes left in our ceiling. it has been suggested that we install a few disco balls {via our dog walker} but i think we will attempt our first plaster patching. yep, that’s right, our ceilings are plaster – bless old homes & their lath & plaster. {thankfully all of our walls have been updated to dry wall, yes!} the good news though, we were told that plaster is easier to patch than dry wall – huzzah!

okay, enough with the rambling, here is our new dining room light. prepare yourself because she is a beaut!

gorgeous, no? it didn’t take me long to find this lovely light as i frequently peruse west elm {mostly online, but the store is lovely!} to see what home goodies i can’t live without. i have had this guy on my wishlist for months, waiting for the day when it would finally grace our dining room!

so there it is, the newest addition to our house. now, is anyone interested in three lovely pendants? i can get you a very good price!

have you updated any lights in your house recently?

instagram @mishacslower // twitter @mishacslower // pinterest @mishacslower

this is not a sponsored post. all opinions expressed are my own.

a pinterest christmas: reindeer wreath & felted garland.

last year i did a series during the holiday season that was called a pinterest christmas {you can see the first post here and the rest of the posts are under the diy tutorials page here}. i am doing this blog series again this year, but this time i recruited a few blogging friends to join in on the fun {see their blogs & posts below}.

i wanted to make a wreath for our front door this year {you can see there is a wreath theme this week for the blog series} because i didn’t have a wreath last year. i had pinned the felted wreath from west elm {see below} as a {p}inspiration.

{felted wreath from west elm – in white}

this ended up being one of those projects that just wasn’t meant to be. diy-ing can be an awesome way to create something either for cheaper or to be super personalized, but sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. this wreath fell in the latter category. first, this west elm wreath was exactly what i wanted – dare i say perfect! second & probably most important, the supplies to make this wreath would have cost two or three times as much as just buying the wreath. so, alas, i did not make this wreath – i bought it, added a gold ribbon, & it is currently hanging on my front door. i am in love!

so, after that lesson in diy, i was determined to make a christmas wreath this year. i am happy that i found a fun tutorial that satisfied not only my need for a wreath, but also my desire to have a cardboard deer mount in the house.

{original pinterest link – recycling meets rudolph}

supplies:

cardboard – i used an old moving box
red felt, marker, or paper
red cording
2 – 3 jingle bells
wreath – i made one {see below}
black marker
scissors
hot glue/glue
exacto knife
reindeer template – i printed it out on two pages, increasing the size by 196%

{note: this project took a little while, mostly the cutting out of the cardboard, but it was so worth it!}

the instructions are pretty straightforward:

1. cut out the template & trace onto cardboard

2. cut out cardboard

3. glue inside of noses together

4. add rectangular piece across back of headpieces

5. glue on cording to inside of headpieces & sew on jingle bells to cording

6. make noses red – i used felt pieces

7. add black eyes

8. assemble antlers – i glued the pieces in with glue – & attach to headpieces

9. make wreath – i glued holly leaves onto a foam wreath core

10. hang & enjoy – i used a 3M hook

since i was originally going to do a felted wool wreath, i also wanted to do a felted garland.

{original pinterest link – felted garland}

supplies:

wool roving – i bought two packages which made 24 1.5 inch balls
embroidery thread
old tights
big needle

i have never felted before so i opted for the tights-in-the-dryer method as opposed to buying felting tools. yes, my felt balls did have little dents from the knots in the tights (the tutorial posts calls the balls fannies) but i didn’t think anyone would care too much. the process is really easy, i was a little surprised! this would be a really fun project for a kid’s room or nursery too.

{thinking about taking on this project? feel free to leave questions in the comments, and i’d love for you to comment with a link to projects you make inspired by mine.}

ready for some more {p}inspiration? check out these ladies this week and throughout the month of december:

{mondays} amanda @ without a doubt – diy sweater wreath

{tuesdays} sally@ chacha and mogo – diy pom pom wreath & kendra @ The Gilbertson Family – diy pom pom wreath

{wednesdays} – michelle @ this grey house – quick & easy wreath/garland

{thursdays} –maggi @ Greg, Maggi, & Rodney – letter wreath & abbi @ The Pena Family

have you been {p}inspired by any christmas projects?

is it summer yet?

the days that i find a nordy’s catalog in the mailbox are always fun, but today was especially exciting. while it is the january catalog, everything in it is for weather approximately 30 degrees warmer than seattle’s current forecast. boo.

however, i am really excited to see some amazing spring/early summer fashion. i just wish i could wear it now. i seriously want the ENTIRE catalog!

let’s peruse my favorites, shall we?

{the colors, the drape, those stripes!}

{hello gorgeous, chic carry-all!}

{i adore stripes, can you tell?}

{my closet needs more color.}

{i NEED to wear this outfit.}

{a drapey jersey dress gets me every time. bonus: stripes!}

are you lusting after summer clothes yet?

mad about plaid.

i have to say that i am a huge fan of the comeback of plaid & i can’t wait to start introducing it into my winter wardrobe!

here are a few of my favorites that are making me mad about plaid!

{j.crew boy shirt in carrick tartan}

{j.crew perfect shirt in tartan}

{j.crew cafe capri in plaid wool}

{madewell hollyberry plaid ex-boyfriend shirt}

{madewell deep woods shirtdress}

{burberry brit plaid anorak}

{burberry check cashmere & cotton sweater}

{accessory collective plaid trapper hat}

{burberry check silk scarf}

what do you think about plaid?

his & hers: SLR accessories.

as i noted here, we just bought our first digital SLR as an early christmas present to ourselves. while we are still anxiously waiting for santa’s early delivery, i find myself thinking about accessorizing. yes, cameras have accessories!

we are a bit late to adopt the trend of uber-cool SLR camera which means that there are lots of non-standard (FUN) accessories that are popping up all over the web. the problem remains that this camera will be shared, so i will have to give a little and go for the more masculine accessories. for husband’s sake. i think i can handle it. i am thinking of it like j.crew-chic.

but, i thought it would be fun to look (and dream about) at the different accessories for him & her:

camera bag:

{kelly boy bag}

{the bossi bag}

camera strap:

{etsy}

have you accessorized your camera? what other essentials am i missing?

the day after thanksgiving.

or black friday. or the day that you can officially put up christmas decorations and listen to the christmas pandora station, and not get crazy looks.

but back to thanksgiving. yesterday was such a wonderful day filled with family, friends & food! aaron and i started out the day with a little breakfast, knowing that we would be eating a big turkey dinner. though probably not the healthiest – hey, it was a holiday!

then i got to the baking & cooking stage of my day. i promised our thanksgiving host (my grandmother) that i would bring two pies and cranberries. the first of my pies was the pumpkin pie. (sidenote: i actually baked the pumpkin pie on wednesday night.) i was a little nervous since i normally don’t make the pumpkin pie in my family (mom usually does, and an amazing job at that), and i was using the TJ’s (that’s Trader Joe’s for you that are not in the know) recipe on the back of their canned pumpkin and not the recipe on the back of the usual canned pumpkin that you buy at the regular grocery store. everything went well and the only difference between the usual pumpkin pie and the TJ’s pumpkin pie was evaporated milk versus whole milk & half-and-half. i served the pie with creme fraiche as opposed to cool whip mostly because my grandmother thinks that all whipped cream is “shaving cream.” (this is totally true even though it sounds like i am making it up. when we are out to dinner and she orders an irish coffee, she will tell the waiter “now i don’t want any of that shaving cream on the top,” and we have to explain to the waiter that she actually means whipped cream in a can. but i digress.)

the other pie that i made this year was an apple pie, which is the kind that i normally make for holiday meals, so nothing too tricky about it.

i also decided to make cranberry sauce this year. cranberries are one of my favorite parts of the thanksgiving meal (do people really use cranberries outside of thanksgiving and christmas? i think not.) and when i saw a simple recipe for fresh cranberry sauce in the november cooking light, i knew i had to give it a try. plus, the recipe specifically said that cranberries are one of the easiest sauces to make. boy were they right, it was so easy – you basically just add things together and boil them. the color was gorgeous and the sauce was so tasty! (plus, there were no ribbed “can lines”!)

as i had mentioned earlier, my grandmother was hosting thanksgiving this year. she has always loved hosting dinner, especially thanksgiving. she makes the most beautiful centerpieces you have ever seen, and always with food (her fave!) – plantains, grapes, clementines, pineapple. we (aaron, my grandmother and i) were joined by old family friends for the evening which we spent a lot of playing cards (spite & malice, a family favorite). it was such a great evening, though aaron and i were both missing family celebrations in other states (idaho and indiana).

the turkey continued as a theme even into the day after thanksgiving thru leftovers (yum) and a very successful attempt at making turkey stock out of the turkey carcass. i have to admit that we were a bit peer pressured into taking the rest of the turkey home, but after a little chopping and straining, we have some amazing homemade turkey stock. we are planning to make a delicious turkey soup for tomorrow night’s dinner. (and the turkey theme continues!)

despite the turkey-themed weekend, we also spent today doing a teeny bit of shopping. it is black friday after all, right? after aaron and i were in paris this spring and borrowing my parent’s SLR camera, we decided that we were going to get one for ourselves for christmas. we spent some time looking at the different cameras available a few weeks ago – nikon, canon, sony – and decided that the sony a55 was the one for us. while it isn’t a nikon or canon (which is what most SLR choices seem to be), the sony just felt perfect for us – not too bulky, good grips, nice swivel screen. we bought the “black friday edition” of the seattle times to scour what the deals would be, but aaron ended up finding the best price online. though there won’t be any surprises as to what christmas has in store for us this year, i am still so stoked to get this camera!

what a great thursday & friday. can you believe we have the entire weekend still? bliss.

how was your thanksgiving? did you do any damage during black friday, or avoid the crowds?
M

from nordys to my front door.

the. same. day. WAHOO!

(via nordstrom)

i just got an email from nordys that i (luckily) live in one of the neighborhoods that will have same day delivery service! even though i live a single bus ride away (yes, i can get on the bus a half-block away from my townhouse and arrive 15 minutes later right in front of the flagship nordys store) i am still ecstatic that i about the prospect of ordering something in the morning & finding it at my front door hours later.

this was too wonderful not to share!
M

ebates.

{this is not an ad, just my own LOVE of getting paid to shop and wanting to share the great news!}

have you ever heard of ebates? i had read about it a lot on different blogs and things before i finally signed up, and now i don’t know why i ever hesitated…

ebates.com is a company that basically pays you to shop online. amazing, right? you just go to ebates.com and search for whatever online shop you want (you will be so surprised at how many stores are on ebates!). then, you click on that store and it sends you right to that store’s own website. the transaction is exactly the same as if you weren’t using ebates, but then every so often, ebates will send you a check in the mail. i just got a check for $6 and change (for kate spade and piperlime spending). it doesn’t seem like much, but it is $6 (and change) more than i would have if i hadn’t used ebates!

i have been pretty good at using ebates every time i shop online. i just keep an ebates.com bookmark at the top of my internet browser (i use google chrome), so i see it all the time and it reminds me to use it before i shop.

if you need another reason to use ebates, there is double cash back for many places for holiday shopping. it is a win-win!

please don’t feel compelled to use my referral but i would really appreciate if you do, so click HERE if you want to sign up for an ebates account with my referral link.

hope you have a lovely day and happy (online) shopping!
M

note: i was not compensated or even asked by ebates.com to write this post, however, if you sign up for an ebates account thru my referral link, i will get a $5 bonus.