Half of November is gone already, so if you include an advent calendar in your holiday traditions it’s time to start thinking about this year’s. Here are 25 you can buy or DIY – no judgement either way! The Tree Advent Calendar is what we’ll be using to countdown the days in my home this December.
It’s already freakin’ freezing here in Pennsylvania! This weekend’s plans will include swapping out lightweight closet pieces for layers and sweaters and seeing what else I may need to pick up to fill in the holes. I’ve already grabbed a mid-length sherpa jacket with a low pile, a few sweaters, and some new socks – what’s on your shopping list?
Abbreviated Boyfriend Cardigan // Alpaca Wool Blend Round Neck Sweater
Aran Popcorn Knit Mittens // Belted Wool Coat
Boxy Wool Blend Sweater // Cashmere Lined Leather Gloves
Cowl Neck Tunic Sweater // Cozy Joggers
Dina Slipper // Donegal Inland Turtleneck Sweater
Double Breasted Peacoat // Dylan Turtleneck Sweater
Donegal Kent Beanie // Double-Breasted Coat
Fairisle Camp Sock // Faux Shearling Hooded Coat
Wool Double-Breasted Overcoat // Flannel Blanket Scarf
Fluffy Fox Sweater // Furry Hooded Parka
Jaden Ribbed Fringe Blanket Scarf // Keep a Secret Cashmere Sweater
Lesley Cable Knit Tunic // Lightweight Down Stand Collar Coat
Lodge Cozy Socks // Long Sherpa Faux-Suede Lined Coat
Marled Shoulder Button Sweater // Mock-Neck Bouclé Coat
Multi Stripe Scarf // Natural Yarn Cardigan
Out n About Plus Boots // Oversized Mohair-Blend Sweater
Perfect Puffer // Plaid Button-Front Jacket
Plush Fleece Sweater Leggings // Real Soft Crew Socks
Sophia Cozy Nubby Oblong Scarf // Speak Now Sherpa Jacket
The ReNew Fleece Sweatshirt // The ReNew Long Puffer
For the past six years our Thanksgiving coverage has always included You’re Invited, a post featuring a menu, tabletop, and decor that made up my idea of the perfect holiday setup for that November. This year things are changing up, and I really hope you enjoy it as much as you’ve liked the turkey posts of the past! I’ll still be sharing Thanksgiving tabletop and decor ideas in a later post, but this one is for those of you missing bits of a menu, inspiration for what to take to the potluck you’ve been invited to, or ultimately planning an entire meal if you’re playing host next Thursday. (I like to call it Choose Your Own Adventure after the popular book series.) Follow the prompts to create your own perfect meal – my suggestions are based on 10 to 12 dinner guests so adjust accordingly!
Row 1: Apple Cider Punch with Bourbon // Autumn Gin & Tonic // Belgian Beer Sangria Row 2: Pomegranate and Lemon Rosé Spritzers // Rosemary Paloma // Spiced Pineapple Rum Toddies
Row 1: Baked Goat Cheese Balls // Blackberry Cucumber Caprese Skewers // Charred Corn Sweet Pepper Crostini Row 2: Cranberry Salsa // Feta Spinach Stuffed French Bread // Fried Brussels sprouts with Lemon-Chive Dipping Sauce Row 3: Gruyere, Mushroom & Caramelized Onion Bites // Mini Cheese Ball Truffles // Pumpkin Queso
Row 1: Apple Cider Glazed Turkey Breast // Citrus Tea-Glazed Roasted Turkey // Grilled Spatchcock Turkey with Maple Butter + Apple Cider Brine Row 2: Herb and Butter Roasted Turkey // Sausage, Cherry, and Sage Stuffed Turkey Breast // Smoked Turkey
Classic Southern Gravy // Make Ahead White Wine Gravy // Perfect Gravy Without the Bird
Row 1: Butternut Squash and Wild Mushroom Stuffing // Caramelized Onion Stuffing // Ciabatta and Sausage Stuffing Row 2: Classic Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing // Gluten-Free Sage Chestnut Stuffing // Healthy Sausage, Fennel, and Cranberry Stuffing
Row 1: Broccoli Apple Salad with Yogurt Dressing // Brown Rice Salad with Carrots, Feta, and Pine Nuts // Kale Salad with Cranberry Cinnamon Vinaigrette Row 2: Lemon Sea Salt Arugula Salad // Matchstick Apple and Celery Salad // Wilted Cabbage Salad
Row 1: Buttery Dinner Rolls // Garlic Bread “Cinnamon” Rolls // Garlic Parmesan Dinner Rolls Row 2: Honey Pumpkin Dinner Rolls // No Knead Artisan Bread // No Yeast Dinner Rolls
Row 1: Hasselback Potato & Shallot Gratin // Mashed Potatoes with Saffron Garlic Butter // Polish Dill Potatoes Row 2: Pumpkin Potato Gratin with Brie // Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs // Savory Sweet Potato Casserole
Row 1: Blueberry Applesauce // Cinnamon Spice Baked Apples // Easy Maple Apple Cranberry Sauce Row 2: Instant Pot Apple Cider Apple Sauce // Roasted Apple Cranberry Relish // Tangerine-Port Cranberry Sauce
Row 1: Balsamic Broccolini & Mushrooms // Broccoli Mash with Garlic and Parmesan // Caramelized Brussels Sprouts Row 2: Cauliflower Puree with Sautéed Mushrooms // Grilled Zucchini with Chili and Mint // Healthier Green Bean and Pepper Veggie Casserole Row 3: Roasted Vegetables with Rosemary Maple Balsamic // Rosemary Roasted Beets // Sticky Miso and Tahini Aubergine Wedges
Row 1: Apple-Cinnamon Pie with Lattice Crust // Biscoff Cheesecake // Brown Butter Maple Chess Pie Row 2: Chocolate Peppermint Upside Down Dessert // Cranberry Tart // Easy Tiramisu Row 3: Hazelnut Pumpkin Tart // No-Bake Chocolate Cream Pie (V) // Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Pecan Streusel & Bourbon Cream Sauce
Posted In cocktails, entertaining, food, holidays, living, round up, series, thanksgiving
Clockwise from top left: Amarante Throw // Amped Fleece Throw Blanket // Covelo Chunky Throw Blanket // Coral Herringbone Oversized Throw
Clockwise from top left: Chunky Knit Throw // Geo Tufted Tassel Throw Blanket // Harbor Cotton Mauve Throw Blanket // Midnight Graphic Throw
Clockwise from top left: Grey Herringbone Pattern Fringe Throw Blanket // Luxe Chenille Throw // Raised-Design Pleated Blanket // Overlook Throw
Clockwise from top left: Soft Throw // Solid Basketweave Throw // Waffled Throw // Sweater Knit Blanket
Posted In accessories, house and home, living, round up, series
Time for the calendar craziness to really kick in as we begin the snowballing roll into the holidays! Make sure you and your desktop are set with November’s desktop calendar download.
Brie is a perfectly delicious runny cheese of its own right, but when combined with a few other complimentary ingredients it get moved up an entire level. It’s a cheese that can swing sweet or savory and find its way into just about any meal. These twelve recipes look especially tempting!
Whether you’re having a spirited party this weekend and are on the hunt for a few signature drinks or just want some autumnal libations to unwind with at the end of the day, you’re sure to find more than a few with potential below. Cheers!
Apple Cider Margarita // Apple Cider Mojito
Autumn Apple Bourbon Fizz // Autumn Gin & Tonic with Apple & Blackberry
Blueberry, Dark Cherry, and Calvados Cocktail // Dark and Stormy in the Pumpkin Patch
Dark Matter Cocktail // Fig Honey Thyme Prosecco Smash
Frankenpunch // Haunted Graveyard Cocktail
Poisoned Apple Cider Cocktail // Red Apple Cider Sangria
Smoke and Bramble Cocktail // Spiced Plum, Fig & Kombucha Cocktail
Spiked Pumpkin Pie Punch // Spooky Halloween Batch Cocktails
Tamarind Apple Cider Fall Margarita // The Whiskey Jack
Vanilla Bean Fall Punch // Witches Brew Cocktail
Posted In cocktails, halloween, holidays, living, recipes, round up, seriesHave you carved your jack o’ lanterns already or are you waiting for the weekend? Ours probably won’t be done until a few days before Halloween, and I suspect they’ll be old school with faces. If that’s not your plan – maybe you’re looking for something a little more outside the box – check out these clever ideas for decorating your gourds!
DIY Block Printing Inspired Pumpkins by Oh So Beautiful Paper
DIY Halloween Candy Bowl Pumpkin by Martha Stewart
DIY Lettered Pumpkin by Lisa Troy
DIY Macrame Pumpkin Planter by A Kailo Chic Life
DIY Mini Playhouse Pumpkins by A Beautiful Mess
DIY No-Carve Terrazzo Inspired-Pumpkins by Oh So Beautiful Paper
DIY No-Carve Painted Pumpkins by Think Make Share
DIY Yayoi Kusama Inspired Pumpkin by Handmade Charlotte
DIY Rainbow Pumpkins by The House That Lars Built
Posted In halloween, holidays, living, make it, round up, series
I Wonder by Marian Bantjes
This book features the elaborately crafted word pictures of Marian Bantjes, the most inventive and creative typographic illustrator of our time. Whether intricately hand-drawn or using computer illustration software, Bantjes’s work crosses the boundaries of time, style, and technology. There is, however, another side to Bantjes’s visual work: her thoughtful treatises on art, design, beauty, and popular culture that add a deeper dimension to the decorative nature of her best-known work. Intended to inspire creatives of any persuasion, this is more than a collection of ideas: Bantjes has meticulously illustrated every page of the book in her inimitable style to create an accessible work of art that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called The Lost City of Z. In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for Z and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.
Six Women of Salem by Marilynne K. Roach
The first work to use the lives of a select number of representative women to illuminate the larger crisis of the Salem witch trials. By the end of the trials, beyond the twenty who were executed and the five who perished in prison, 207 individuals had been accused, 74 had been “afflicted,” 32 had officially accused their fellow neighbors, and 255 ordinary people had been inexorably drawn into that ruinous and murderous vortex, and this doesn’t include the religious, judicial, and governmental leaders. By examining the lives of six specific women, Marilynne Roach shows readers what it was like to be present throughout this horrific time and how it was impossible to live through it unchanged.
Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount
Book lovers rejoice! In this love letter to all things bookish, Jane Mount brings literary people, places, and things to life through her signature and vibrant illustrations. A source of endless inspiration, literary facts and recommendations: Bibliophile is pure bookish joy and sure to enchant book clubbers, English majors, poetry devotees, aspiring writers, and any and all who identify as book lovers.
Corn-Fed: Cul-de-sacs, Keg Stands, and Coming of Age in the Midwest by Melanie LaForce
Poignant, humorous, and honest, Corn-Fed will take you from childhood overnight camp, to a first job at Dairy Queen, to the ultimate culmination of rich and debaucherous adult friendships. Corn-Fed follows LaForce’s growth, struggles, and exhilaration with communities of women over the course of life. Most importantly, this book contains critical references to boobs and butter.
Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne
What does it mean to be a designer in today’s corporate-driven, overbranded global consumer culture? Citizen Designer attempts to answer this question with more than seventy debate-stirring essays and interviews espousing viewpoints ranging from the cultural and the political to the professional and the social. This edition contains a collection of definitions and brief case studies on topics that today’s citizen designers must consider, including new essays on social innovation, individual advocacy, group strategies, and living as an ethical designer.
Do Story: How to tell your story so the world listens by Bobette Buster
Today’s world wants to know you and the real story behind why you do what you do. Whether you have a product to sell, a company mission to share, or an audience to entertain, people are more likely to engage and connect if you deliver a well-crafted story with an emotional core. Find out: how to source, structure and shape your story; ways to discover the essence of your story; why finding the emotional connection with your audience can take a story from good to great. ALSO SEE: Do Lead, Do Sourdough, Do Open, Do Listen, Do Purpose, Do Inhabit, Do Improvise, Do Fly, Do Design, Do Breathe, and Do Grow
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.
Creativity Takes Courage: Dare to Think Differently by Irene Smit and Astrid van der Hulst
It’s not always easy to be creative — it takes courage. Organized around a series of twelve “dares” — including Dare to Fail, Dare to Be a Kid, Dare to Be Bored, Dare to Go Offline, Dare to Collaborate — Creativity Takes Courage encourages the reader to be fully present and spend idle time staring out the window. To leave your comfort zone and start a project, without hesitation, and nourish yourself with museum visits and reading time. Each dare includes fill-in pages and prompts to go deeper into what motivates us or hinders us, like mindful questions to identify fears of failure, or a Dare to Commit notebook for recording both daily and weekly projects.
A Few Minutes of Design: 52 Activities to Spark Your Creativity by Emily Campbell
This colorful, handy card deck presents fifty-two exercises and activities to jump-start your creative juices, free you from creative block, start a new project, or finish an existing one. Each exercise offers insight into the innumerable small decisions involved in design: how to establish a pattern, continue a series, how to say it without words, how to name a project, what fits, and what doesn’t? These cards benefit established practicing designers or creatives in any field with activities that are sometimes playful, sometimes challenging, but always enlightening.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.