Christmas Archives - The Curated House

Gifts With Heart: Your Curated Gift Guide to a Compassionate Christmas | Ten Thousand Villages

It’s December 1st and that time of year again! The time when we scour the globe in search of that perfect something that will light a spark in our loved one’s eye and make them feel treasured. Honestly, gifts are my top love language {tied with words of affirmation} so I really value the opportunity Christmas brings to shower love on my special people this way.

For me, the best gifts are gifts with heart – gifts that are thoughtful, meaningful and personal. But gifts with heart can also be gifts with a compassionate conscience.

As you all know, I’m beyond passionate about the process behind a product, believing that the way something is made can contribute {positively or negatively} to its true beauty. If a product is made in a way that honours the people and planet involved in its creation, then it has true and lasting beauty. Conversely, if a product is made in a way that abuses people or the planet, then any outward beauty it may hold isn’t authentic.

That’s why I’m thrilled to shine a spotlight on Ten Thousand Villages today for my first Curated Gift Guide for the season. Ten Thousand Villages is all about authentic beauty from the inside out. They are one of the largest and most experienced fair trade retailers in the world, which could bring with it some hefty buying power. But rather than negotiating for the lowest possible price from the artisans they work with, they pay fair prices as set by the artisans themselves and reinvest company profits to support education for the next generation, food security, community development and the creation of more employment and leadership opportunities. Now that’s a beautiful process.

Oh yes, and the products? Gorgeous! Just take a look at my Curated Gift Guide from Ten Thousand Villages this year.

ONE: HORN OF PLENTY BANGLE // TWO: BLACK +WHITE VASE //

THREE: BLUE IKAT PILLOW // FOUR: OMBRE SILK INFINITY SCARF //

FIVE: EMBROIDERED STARS TREE SKIRT // SIX: BRASS SNOWFLAKE ORNAMENT

I recently popped in to visit our Oakville location and was blown away by how many incredible finds were there waiting for me. So much beautiful craftsmanship, so many beautiful stories behind the products! And so many meaningful gifts waiting to be given.

The line up of products is so extensive I could never feature it all, so why not pop into a local store or visit them online and get your shopping done without ever getting out of your jammies? No one will be the wiser, and they’ll be feeling the love when they open their gorgeous gifts with heart.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|December 1st, 2014|0 Comments

Gift Wrapping Inspiration | Simple Sophistication For Holiday Treasures

I’ve seen some really amazing ideas lately for wrapping gifts with drama and flair – wow! All you have to do is a quick search of Pinterest and you’ll find an astonishing array of extravagant efforts. Gift wrapping is truly an art form for some, and I love seeing so much attention to detail put into the presentation of a thoughtful gift.

I too love gift wrapping, but my style has become increasingly minimalist over the years. I think it’s in line with the mantra that I’m learning to live by as embodied by Leonardo DaVinci’s quote:

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

I find myself cycling back to these words on so many things – interior design, fashion, life choices, balance. And yes, even gift wrapping! So much so, in fact, that last year I bought a giant roll of brown paper with the cutter attached so that my go-to favourite means of wrapping gifts would always be readily on hand.

{Remember my road-map-wrapped gifts from last year? I did love them, but this year I’m taking things in a different direction.}

As it turns out, my blogging friend and paper-afficionado-extraordinaire, Lindsay Stephenson of Little House Blog and The Penny Paper Co., shares my love of brown paper packages tied up with string. OK, so actually it’s more like “brown paper packages tied up with ribbons and bling!” A girl can’t be too simple about these things. But she is my paper-loving-soul-mate and that’s really the point here.

I was truly inspired by Lindsay’s recent post about holiday wrapping and naturally fell head-over-heels in love with her chevron grosgrain ribbon, so I was beyond delighted when she offered to send me some ribbon to play with for myself. {Confession time: I have a blogging crush on Lindsay and think her photographs are quite seriously gorgeous. I love her aesthetic and her honesty, too. You should definitely follow her if you don’t already.}

I’ve come to find that one of the keys to simplicity is quality. Less really is more when the “less” can stand on its own. Just take this gorgeous ribbon for example! All that was needed to finish these packages was a personalized tag. I used this template for the “Oh Joy!” tag above {printed at about 50% scale} and then searched out a shield shaped post-it note and an ampersand-framed address label I had in the house to trace as my templates for the other two tags.

You might want to check out Martha Stewart’s line of post-it notes at Staples for some possible templates to trace – cheap and super cute! And if you’re not into making the paper part of the tags yourself, you can always buy these from Lindsay and use one of her gorgeous stamps to personalize things and keep it all looking gorgeous!

Using some matte black card stock and a simple gold pen, I got my artsy on and created these personalized tags filled with holiday wishes. I simply traced the templates in paper, cut them out and then got a little creative with the gold pen. I really think the simple palette of black, white and gold on the humble brown paper packages works. It makes a statement without being crazy-over-the-top…just my style.

What’s your gift wrapping style this year? I’d love to hear what is inspiring you. Is it all about colour and glamour or are you more of a simple statement girl like me and Lindsay {and Julie Andrews}?

Whatever your style, I hope this holiday season is one of joy and happiness for you and yours. Take time to savour the people who make this time of year meaningful to you. Make memories together. You might not be able to wrap them up, but you’ll treasure them forever and they’ll be more meaningful than anything you place under the tree.

xo
s.

P.S. In a brilliant moment of pregnancy brain, two weeks has turned into three! That said, I am delighted to announce the winners of the Oh Baby! Freshly Picked Giveaway…Amy and Lesley, please email me with your mailing addresses, and CONGRATULATIONS!

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|December 10th, 2013|0 Comments

Our Family Photos + Some Gorgeous Custom Christmas Cards from Minted

As my sneak peek from Tuesday suggested, we just had our family photos done by the fabulously talented Gabriela Hansen. Unbeknownst to her, Gaby is the first photographer to take our family photos for us two years in a row. With many portrait photographers, once you’ve done one session with them, you’ve pretty much captured their aesthetic and there’s not really anywhere else to go with it. Gaby, on the other hand, just keeps growing and evolving and I knew she would do a brilliant job of capturing the essence of our family in a fresh new way again this year.

And I really think she nailed it. I mean, just look at these shots of Noah for starters!

Somebody call Kinfolk Magazine, because I think I just found their next photographer/model team. I know I’m biased, but is this kid not irresistible?

I’ve loved this man for almost half of my life, and I’m going to love him for the rest of it. He makes me laugh and supports me and loves me through thick and thin. I am truly blessed.

I love how Gaby captures the feeling of family. One of my favourite things in life is holding hands with my boy. I didn’t tell her that, but she seemed to know it intuitively, and she captured it beautifully. In fact, I would say her editorial style captures moments and creates memories, even as you’re enjoying the shoot with her. Noah loved the afternoon just as much as the rest of us, despite the chilly temperatures. If you can make a 10 year old happy and get him laughing while taking his photo on a freezing cold day, you’ve succeeded in my book!

We actually laughed a LOT, and there may or may not have been some photobombing that took place.

The truth is, there were so many great shots to choose from that we had a really hard time landing on just one to use for the front of our custom Christmas cards from Minted. Pretty great problem to have, right? And we had the same awesome problem when it came to choosing the card style!

I was beyond thrilled when the creative team at Minted generously reached out to me and offered to provide us with our cards for this holiday season. Minted is a crowd-sourced design company based in San Francisco that draws upon design talent from all around the world with monthly competitions to find the most creative and refreshing designs and designers going. The winning designs are then printed in a variety of products, including totally customizable holiday cards.

Just take a look at some of the gorgeous options available:

And they can all be customized with seemingly endless options, from super thick paper to folded cards to laser-cut shapes and even Christmas ornaments like the first image above! I guess I’m a bit of a traditionalist, but I still like writing inside a folded card, so here’s what we chose:

And here’s how we customized it inside. I love that there’s still room for us to write a personal message while having our broader family holiday wishes captured for us ahead of time with the customization of this layout. Brilliant!

If I’d been a tad more organized, I totally would have taken advantage of the free option to have them print all of the addresses on the envelopes as well. How awesome is that?! Even the liner of the envelopes and the Skinny Wrap return address stickers are adorably detailed:

In the spirit of generosity, Minted has offered my readers a 15% discount on all holiday card orders now until the 27th of November. That’s one whole week to make it happen, and then you can kick back and relax with a good cuppa knowing your gorgeous custom cards are on their way to you, lickety-split! {Shipping and turnaround times are super fast.}

Just use the discount code CURATED15 when you check out, and let me know how your cards turn out! This is probably the most excited I’ve been yet to send mine to family and friends. Thank you Gaby for the gorgeous photos, and thank you Minted for the incredible cards!

I’m a grateful girl.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 21st, 2013|5 Comments