Cozy Gift Guide // Swankaroo

It's the last day of our Cozy Gift Guide favorites and we've got a good one for you!

Swankaroo.

These little packs are one of a kind. As we all know, it's quite difficult to find children's products, especially things like bags and backpacks that aren't covered in cartoons or obnoxious colors/patterns. We love that these backpacks are the perfect blend of child + sophistication. The combination of leather & designer fabric is just darling. I actually really wish they came in my size. You can definitely tell how cute they are from visiting Swankaroo [not to mention so many adorable designs frequently added] but I must mention that once you have one in your hands, you recognize the attention to craftsmanship and detail. We not only love the quality of the bag but the attention to the overall design including the unique clasp and drawstring. This little bag will be perfect for saturday outings, dance class, and neighborhood craft time. Thank you Swankaroo!

Cozy Gift Guide // Whistle & Flute

Now that the Thanksgiving sales have passed, we can get back to our Cozy Gift Guide.

Our second to last sharing of our favorite cozy product is Whistle & Flute.

The thing that drew us to Whistle and Flute is that the designs are cool enough for dad, mom, toddler, and baby. Their couldn't be anything better than having a piece of clothing that is that go to item that not only screams comfort, but that is stylish, and best of all, unisex. Plus, it's pretty fun playing matchy matchy right? Our little girl loves to dress up and sharing a similar outfit with her is really cute.

We love the simple yet bold pieces, the classic black, white, grey, and of course the quality and softness of each piece. With our first snowfall here, we'll be nice and cozy in our new pullovers ---maybe more often than we should... Thanks to you Whistle and Flute!

Black Friday // Rockin' Holiday

B L A C K +++++ F R I D A Y !

Today is big. We're ecstatic to not only share our black friday deal with you but to release our newest product, designed in collaboration with one of our style icons, Jennifer from A Merry Mishap.

We may be bias but these new rockers turned out absolutely gorgeous. Not to mention the brass lining on our new matte black or gray cameras.

So, happy black friday, take 20% off any camera in our shop using the code "rockinholiday" and visit our [@twig_creative] + AMM's [@amerrymishap] instagram feed for an amazing #rockinholiday giveaway.

[All images by Jennifer of AMM]

Cozy Gift Guide // Medium Control

Next up in our sharing of favorite product from our Cozy Gift Guide is Medium Control.

Several years ago I thought and thought and thought and finally came up with the perfect anniversary gift for the hubs...but only two days before the actual day I needed it. It was a messenger bag from Medium Control and you know what, they got it to me within those two days, right in time for our anniversary. The other gift I had ordered at least a month earlier didn't even arrive until a month after our anniversary...ironic and a bit humorous. So, to say the least, we've been big fans of Medium Control for years now and we're so excited to see that they have grown from their Etsy shop to their own brick and mortar store.

It made our day to open up a little package with these three rad shirts that fit right in with our camera fixation. They're the type of shirts you want to wear everyday, original designs + so so comfortable + the perfect fit. It's going to be difficult for us to not walk out in the morning all wearing our shirts because I already want to wear mine everyday. Thank you Medium Control!

Cozy Gift Guide // House of Mia

We feel so lucky that several of the companies included in our Cozy Gift Guide gifted us with their product for trying out first hand.

First up is House of Mia.

I've wondered for some time about the hype of organic baby leggings and I can now say I GET IT! House of Mia sent us her beautiful baby leggings and a toddler infinity scarf [that I plan on stealing from time to time]. The patterns are hip and the fabric is SO soft. The branding of House of Mia is spot on, the products are quality, and they are exactly what you would want for your child, comfortable + stylish + versatile. Thank you House of Mia, we'll be sporting these lovelies as often as possible.

Stump Print // Light & Ink

Several weeks ago, I came across Lisa's shop and profile on instagram and I immediately had to have one of her stump prints. Not only did I think it was the perfect piece of decor for our home [since we're into wood and nature and all] but the idea of such a print is just beautiful. She was kind enough to send us one of her new prints, that was at the time awaiting release until her new shop name and design were finished. You may have known her shop as Glass by Lisa but last week she shared the very fitting new studio name of Light and Ink.

I hung our print the day it was received and admire it daily. I love the texture, the earthiness, the beauty of something that has aged, and the mystery to the story in its lines. These prints are gorgeous. Lisa's instagram feed has become a quick favorite. Filled with simplicity and beauty. In her shop you will also find her popular chevron glass.

We couldn't be happier with the new art edition in our home and Lisa wants to share our joy with you. Today until Friday, take 25% off any order in her shop with the discount code "twig."

And don't forget to connect with her on Instagram @light_and_ink

My Mom Snaps // A Story

We were so excited to find this little gem in our mailbox. A story created by Kari McGrath and Darcy Jerome, the perfect writer + photographer pair. The little gal and I have read this darling little story over and over the last couple of nights and it seems to get cuter and more relatable with time. Relatable in that my girl pointed out that I am the mom in the story, constantly snapping! The illustrations by Melissa Egan are spot on, vibrant and hip, not to mention the mom's got style to envy.

If you didn't know already, cameras and children are kind of our thing...so this book stole our hearts immediately. It's fun for young and old and one we're so happy to now have in our library. We're sure it needs to be a part of your library too.

Find it in the Pretty Girl Shop via Etsy or on Amazon.

Baby Announcements // Marta Dansie Design

If you're at all familiar with the blogging world, you probably know the charming Marta of Marta Writes. She was one of the first bloggers I began following nearly 9 years ago when I began my own blog in college. I reveled over her posts admiring her smooth writing, clever thoughts, contagious handwriting, and fun ideas. After all of this time, we were finally able to meet just this year! We both agreed we felt like old friends. Doesn't the blogging world often do that to us? You can hardly tell the details of your life to someone new because they've already read it on your blog! Anyhow, Marta is as real as they come, so friendly, hilarious, kind, and generous.

She recently took on the big job of revamping her website, which launches on Monday [!] and we're so grateful to have been the recipients of one of her designs. She offered up custom baby announcements and I jumped at the idea. I wanted to do announcements with our first little girl but the newness of parenthood clearly ruled out that option! So, this time around, we're doing it right. The awesome thing about her new website is that she now offers fillable templates in an array of designs. You now have a quick and easy yet still personable design for those birthday parties, backyard get togethers, or like us, baby announcements.

Marta asked for the overall look I desired and then worked her magic. She was efficient, ever open to ideas and changes, and overall made the process so incredibly simple. Plus do you see how fun and beautiful her packaging is! Such a great mail day. We couldn't be happier with our announcements and mostly I'm just thrilled to share some beautiful "old fashioned" snail mail with friends and family.

Thank you Marta! Visit here shiny new website here and follow her daily happenings here and via #martadansiedesign.

Mallory Robin // Oil Painter

We've been big fans of the talented work of oil painter Mallory Robin for some time now, but we recently became the proud recipients of one of her beautiful art pieces and our adoration doubled. The art piece was hung the day it was received and is now admired daily. I particularly love her use of vibrant color and texture as well as the variety of her paintings' subject matter.

Receiving a piece of her work reminded me to visit her website once again. I read the about page this time around. Read the about page! I love how she describes herself and her process. She is honest and true to herself. Something you would hope to find in a good artist.

Do yourself a favor and visit Mallory's website or follow her daily sharing of art via her instagram account @malloryrobinart.

[images via mallory robin website]

Caravan Shoppe

If you haven't yet heard of the Caravan Shoppe, you probably haven't been on the internet! This newly shop opened by Melanie and Alma is a real keeper. First of all, they both have talent oozing out of their ears, a keen sense of style, and are so generous to offer their designs at ridiculously affordable prices.

The concept of the Caravan Shoppe is genius, choose your prints, posters, menu planners, decor...pay one flat price and print as many as you would like at your local printer. I went wild and chose a couple of calendars, a menu planner, and several of the chalk art posters.

I quickly sent the constellation poster and the camera poster to my local staples and they had it ready for me that night. Did I mention it cost me a total of $6 to print both posters?! Wondering how to print these? All directions are given on the Caravan website and as you can tell I printed mine slightly smaller than the large size shown on their website...so, do as you wish and make them suitable for your space.

And, if you spend $25 [which isn't hard to do] you receive 20% off your order with code: itsaparty. Anything on this site would be perfect as Christmas gifts for those far away friends and family no?

A Hip Handmade Holiday

 [photo credit]

Lets get in the Christmas spirit a little early shall we? We're excited to partner with The Craft Pack and share their new endeavor, A Hip Handmade Holiday. One glance at this e-book and you'll know that a lot of beautiful collaboration + talent + heart was put into it. I loved talking to Susan about this endeavor and her saying that one night she had the idea and the next thing she knew, she was making it happen. It's incredibly inspiring to associate with people like this. I often wonder how big things come about, how dreams come true, how you do what your heart tells you; and this is how!

As you can read on the website, A Hip Handmade Holiday provides "gifts for everyone on your list for $10 or less." It's a step by step digital book for the crafting novice or the crafting pro. I love that it not only provides the ideas and the how-to, but also the actual designs and printables to make the projects a reality. Sometimes I see an idea that looks amazing and possibly simple, but the actual figuring and compiling of needed items is where I may or may not actually complete it. This book gives you everything at your fingertips and the best part, the gift ideas range from your grandma to your dog-- don't forget mans best friend!

So, get a head start on those neighbor gifts so that you can enjoy the holiday a little more; but stay away from the Bear Necessities Gift Tin because that's what I'm giving to you *wink.

Want to buy A Hip Handmade Holiday? Purchase via our sidebar >>>>>>>>>

And speaking of Christmas, we're excited to be a part of the annual Creature Comforts Holiday Gift Guide today. A really tasteful and beautiful selection of gift items ranging from giving to the host, for teens, useful gifts, tasty gifts, etc.

bear cave studios

annie is one of my favorite people to talk to, so honest, so nice, and so original. and well ya know, cool people are normally doing cool things. she happens to teach art classes for ages 3 up at her studio bear cave studios. this isn't just your average after school finger painting session, this is an opportunity for your kids to explore and create and use that wild imagination. i love the story behind bear cave and how it came to be.

sessions begin in just 2 weeks and because she's so nice, annie is currently offering a 15% discount on registration. enter 15FORFRIENDS in checkout.

you can also view some of the lovely work from last seasons classes here.

Giveaway on The Fresh Exchange

today through the 17th// hexagon necklace// enter here!

i stumbled upon the fresh exchange via twitter and fell hard and fast. megan's keen eye for good design and her clever sprucing of the everyday are genius. we're honored that our new hexagon necklaces are gracing her pages...and of course her fantastic graphic design skills were put to excellent use on the giveaway image. i adore the colorful graphics.

shop swap

i was happy to join in oh hello friends shop swap and even happier to be introduced to a new shop. le petit hoot sent me this lovely little clutch in which i immediately put newly purchased beads in. i'm sure it will be rotated for many uses. i'm smitten with the bicycle print.

le petit hoot shop
le petit hoot blog

getting clear

yesterday while checking up on some of my favorite bloggers, i clicked on this video over on freshly picked. the title of her blog post as well as her statement made in the video ran through my head for the rest of the afternoon. it was like when i let my daughter watch yo gabba gabba and then the songs are on repeat in my mind for the next several days. i was confused and inspired all in one. "get clear about the life you want...." how does one do that? it seemed so overwhelming to me. sometimes i think i'm there and sometimes i'm apparently not...i must not be completely clear.

i loved so many things about the video; that it made me dig deep, that it made me itch for something bigger, that it made me want to talk to the hubs about everything we do and why we do it. i loved that although the subject of the video was focused on small business, that it mainly showed susan in her natural element, as a mom. i loved that she talked about being in the moment of working or playing with children, not both at the same time. as people in general we wear many hats but as a small business owner, the hats of home and business can sometimes drift together. this is a constant wonder of mine; is it normal to think that as a small business owner you must work at any moment you need to, or, do you work hard when you've allotted work time and play hard when you've allotted play time? it's very hard for me to separate because my work time isn't always determined depending on if it's a good nap day or bad nap day if you know what i mean. however, i am more so seeing the light and realizing how important specific time allotments are. we all know it can be super easy to drift from productivity to wastefulness by simply clicking from one link to another.

the video was enlightening in a way that i felt happy for the success and insight of a fellow small business owner but then i also felt ready to figure out what path i'm on and where it's going. do you know your current path? it seems our paths are never constant, but our passion and our desires can be. even our end goal may change due to new opportunities but our will and the result we want from our efforts should be consistent.

it's nice to know that we're human beings of change and progress and trial and error but in the end, we should as susan put it, "get clear about the life you want and run like hell at it." [susan from freshly picked]

fresh

as you may have noticed, we've had a little freshening up of this space. i've wanted to re-vamp this site for quite some time and with the soon to be update of our website, i figured it was perfect timing. because the master behind all of our branding & design who also happens to be my business partner and husband is quite busy as of late, we decided to reach out and appreciate the talents of someone else. i happened upon blog milk one day and then re-visited over and over not able to keep the good design out of my mind. i emailed the blog author, ana, without even knowing that she actually had a web design shop. after already contacting her i found her design shop. how lucky was i to find a site i adored and then find out that that person actually designs blogs! so, what do you think?

ana was such a pleasure to work with. she listened to my many ideas + desires even when i wasn't quite sure what i wanted the outcome to be, used her skills to design exactly what i wanted but didn't know to begin with, and made changes as needed on the spot. she seemed to always be available plus gave us a full 5 days to work and change and finalize. she added elements i didn't even know were so awesome and just basically felt like a friend through the whole process. not to mention, i fell in love with her blog design and so she gave us several of the elements and changed hers, which i just fell in love with again. it's a good read.

so if you need something of this sort, you know where to go right.

also, just a few pictures of the goings on around here. we celebrated the little gal turning two, rearranged the bedroom + studio space a bit, bundled up and took a winter walk, and are now preparing for another birthday celebration this week.