For our rehearsal dinner at The Piggy Bank in Beacon, New York, my husband designed these place mats. He divided the heart like a meat cut chart with each section labeled with something about us. We couldn’t find pre-cut kraft place mats, so we bought sheets and cut them individually with a rotary cutter outfitted with a scallop blade. These were silk screened by local Brooklyn artist, Philip Sachs.

Perfect material for tags. From left to right: The Paper Addict ($5.75 for 50 tags); Scrap of Mine ($1.75 for 30); Anna Ruby King ($5.50 for 10 tags)

Book City Jackets (Bookshelf set, $11)

  

Perfect for table covering: Kid’s holiday table cloth, complete with crayons. Instead of place cards, write your guests name in the center of a red wine stain. Genius.

I love this—for 2 reasons. It’s a garland and it’s a stamp. Oh, and it’s DIY. So that’s 3 reasons. Check out how easy it is to make one and how fabulous the result is on Just Something I Made.

Found via Creature Comforts.

I’m not really a fan of conversation hearts (although I hear their recipe is new and improved), but a cookie that tells me that I’m Hot Stuff or a Sweet Heart or a QTπ is alright in my book. You customize the cutters by sliding in letters or premade words to form a name or message. When you press the cutter into the dough, your lettering is imprinted on the cookie.

Message-in-a-Cookie Cutters via Just Our Story.

PS…if you have a soul and love cookies, check out my friend Scott Sternberg’s cookie blog.

It’s kind of amazing when your profession and your obsession are the same thing. I get to craft for a living. For reals, I’m not kidding. I get to wander slowly through craft stores, fabric stores, the flower mart (my favorite block in NYC) and if I’m caught day dreaming at work or playing with pipe cleaners, it’s totally excused. In fact, it’s celebrated.

The other day I had to do some craft errands to finish up a project and visited a few of my favorite sources. I plan on adding a sidebar list to TVH of my favorite stores (I have no problem revealing my secrets), but until then, I’ll be posting “Time for Craft Shopping” posts.

From left to right:

Best for buttons, ribbon, trim, iron-on, feathers: M&J Trimming

Best for cheap findings, wire, colored bells: Toho Shoji

Best for candy, candy, and more candy: Dylan’s Candy Bar

     

I’m usually really into my birthday, but for no particular reason this year I was not; I would have been totally fine if it had come and gone sans celebration. But it was kind of a big one, number-wise, and my husband would never have believed that I really didn’t want to acknowledge it, so he coined January 30th Amanday (naturally). He planned the perfect afternoon that started at 3 o’clock at one of my favorite places in this amazing borough of ours: the Brooklyn Flea.

Here’s what went down: Michael made scavenger hunt cards that had 2 clues each with an opportunity for bonus points. Everyone’s card was different—each clue had something to do with yours truly and the gift could not exceed $10.

I walked around with Michael while our friends moseyed about, hunting for a $10 trinket and treasures for themselves. Here are photos of the brilliant finds (plus 2 unplayed cards to finish out the grid) followed by a list of their clues:

1. Find a pin that’s cute as sin. (Aaron found a mink pin, thus accomplishing both clues 1 & 2.)
2. Find something that’s warm, cute, cuddly or sweet.
3. Find 35 of something.
4. Find something that’s good in the kitchen. (Michael bought me a sweet apron.)
5. Find something that let’s you play a game. (Lindsay found this chalkboard, drew a hangman game, added the dice and won bonus points with the ALK in chALK!)
6. Find something that always brings a little amusement.
7. Find something that stamps, cuts, snips, glues or clips.
8. Find something that brings things together. (Jocelyn and Dave were so right that Nunu hot chocolate does just that.)
9. Find something that rhymes with Amanda.
10. Find something that’s too cute for words. (Micah got it: felt+owl+tissue holder=totally precious!)
11. Find something that shows an owl. (Ami, being a Bklyn Flea newbie, was shocked at the plethora of owls. Therefore, I scored 2: a pin and a wood carving by an artist named MC.)
12. Find something that’s always a hoot.
13. Find something that starts with an ‘A’ and ends with an ‘A’. (Nicola accomplished both 13 & 14 and the bonus: the Alvara label begins and ends with ‘A’, red buttons look awesome with gray, an eraser goes with graphite, read: gray, and a playing card with the letters mAK, thus earning her bonus points!)
14. Find something that looks better with a little gray.
15. Find a moody photograph of Brooklyn.
16. Find something that works well in different positions. (ah-chem)
17. Find something that writes right.
18. Find something that’s worth talking about.
    **Bonus. Find something that has the letters AK or ALK on it.

Thanks to Michael (the husband), Ami, Dan, Lindsay, Aaron, Micah, Nicola, Sean, Rachel, Jocelyn, Dave, Lissa, Alex, and Finn (or is it Fin?) for the best birthday ever!