A Sweet (and minty) Christmas Deal

The Fab.com sale concluded early this morning and now it's time for the Vivi Dot elves to start packing up all of those orders. I am so, so happy about how the sale went and feel very thankful to have been featured on such an awesome site. In celebration of a very successful sale on Fab I though it would be nice to feature a holiday deal in my online store as well. I've put together a minty fresh gift pack perfect for the holidays. Here's what it includes:

One Holly Jolly Button Set that also doubles as a gift tag


One Minty Fresh Peppermint Ring


And one pair of festive Peppermint Earrings


You can wrap it all up for one lucky recipient or divide it up and stuff three different stockings with some holiday dots. There's always the option to keep some of it for yourself too! If you buy each item individually it will run you $24.50, but this special holiday set will only set you back $18! No coupon code is needed for this price - nice and easy!

Extra Bonus Gift: If you leave me a comment at check out that let's me know you follow me on twitter and/or follow the Dot Girl Blog then I'll throw in an extra free gift with your purchase. This extra bonus deal is valid on all orders placed before the holiday order cut off (12/19/11)!

Thanks again to everyone who supported the Vivi Dot sale on Fab by tweeting about it, inviting friends to join, blogging about it and making purchases. It's been a week filled with a ton of happy emails and congratulatory tweets that made me feel so very warm and fuzzy!

Thankful

I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, just as I always do.

In the last month I've gotten married

to the man of my dreams

who I got to hang out with for seven magical days in paradise (after throwing an amazingly fun wedding/dance party).

And when we got tired of that, we did this

I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving filled with love, family, food, good health and good cheer. I can't wait to share all of the wedding details with you in the coming weeks as well as some big, exciting news next week.

PS- I've missed you!!!

August Birthday Love

My birthday is coming up this weekend (the 14th to be exact) so it's been fun to see who else in the blogging community was born around the same time. I have been pretty behind on my twitter feed lately but I have been by enough to pick up on all of these lovely leo's birth dates (so sorry for anyone I've left out). It makes me feel like the universe really gives the August babies an extra dose of creativity and drive. All of the images I used are pulled from each birthday girl's/boy's blog so just click on each one to be sent straight there.







I hope you all let your lion manes down and party big in celebration of the all kinds of awesome you are!

Summer in Seattle

If my lack of blog posts wasn't already a dead giveaway then let me fill you in - it's been a crazy few weeks. My calendar shows no sign of letting up, but it's okay with me because there's a ton of exciting things going on. I've got a bachelorette party weekend in Portland for one of my best friends, a wedding in Idaho and we're closing on our house (knock on wood, barring no unexpected hiccups, etc) all before the end of the month! Plus it's light from about 5 am until 9:30 pm so I've got extra daylight to make things happen. Speaking of, I'm also trying to squeeze in as much outside time as possible to make sure that the amazing Seattle summer doesn't escape me.

Here's what I've been up to....
This is the view through my shades on my first trip out on Lake Washington this past weekend. It doesn't get much better than being on a boat on an 80 degree day! I went down south for a wedding shower and got even closer than normal to the beautiful Mt. Rainier. I will miss the peekaboo view of this beauty we have from our rental house now.Duncan's friends flew up from LA and SF and road tripped down the coast, camping and hitting a bunch of skate parks along the way (it was Duncan's Bachelor party). I got one night in Seattle with all of them before they took off.Nothing's ever official until we get those keys, but we're getting close on the house! It has a chicken coop with 5 chickens in the already amazing backyard. I can't wait for it to be ours!!I've been trying to get in some evening sun after work each day. Don't let this Instagram photo filter fool you - I am as white as can be. And of course little Olive and big Indy have been hanging with me as always.Hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! What's new!!?

Oh Momma!

My cousin Katie and I cooked Mother's Day brunch for our Mom's and Grandma Dot. I had a great time putting the table together and making it feel extra special.All of the Mom's love working in their gardens so they had some flower seeds and gardening gloves tied together with a tissue paper flower waiting at their place setting. I also made personalized clip on wine charms for everyone so we could keep our mimosas straight. Grandma Dottie and I finished setting the table.All of the food took way longer than I would have liked, but I think it was worth the wait. We had a roasted red pepper, mushroom, spinach and feta frittata, hash brown casserole, melon salad with crème de cassis dressing, almond puff, and brown sugar and cayenne pepper bacon. Most of the recipes were repeats of the amazing Easter brunch my Mom made Duncan and me a few weeks earlier.Then it got pretty quiet as we all chowed down. It was decided that the melon salad looked like Vivi Dots so a photo to capture the dots was in order. Grandma was wearing her Mad For Polka Dots Earrings and matching Flower Brooch - representing as my unofficial PR person, as per usual. I hope you all had an amazing day celebrating the Moms in your life! Did you do anything special to make them feel especially loved?

Will You Be My Valentine & Bridesmaid?

Duncan and I went back and forth about our wedding party. We had the common problem of do we go small (just our siblings) or do we go big (which means 8 on each side)? It hit me like a ton of bricks one night. What am I thinking!? Of course we need all of our besties involved. Once that was decided I wanted to ask each one of my ladies in very special way. Here's what I put together:
I started out by creating a graphic filled with fun fonts in the colors of l-o-v-e. Once I cut those out I attached them to some pink card stock and started decorating the back.
Each card was unique and had a cute little gingham pocket for a personalized note.
I couldn't wait to send them so they ended up arriving a littler earlier than your average Valentine. My good friend Andrea still hasn't seen hers yet. She's a teacher in Turkey and is on holiday in London right now. I can't wait for her to have it waiting for her at school when she returns on Valentine's Day.

If you'd like to ask your bridesmaids the same way then I'm happy to share! You can download the graphic I designed by clicking here (they print two per page).

Light Your Valentine's Fire

This is a super cute and simple little gift to give your loved ones on Valentine's Day. They've always been a big hit when I've given them over the years and I can't believe I haven't shared a tutorial on them sooner. The trickiest part of the whole project is finding matches in boxes. They're one of those things that you see all over, but when you need to actually find them they can be hard to track down.Go through your craft supplies and pull anything pink and red and start getting creative!Glue is an obvious option, but I definitely prefer my Xyron Sticker maker. It saves time and it isn't messy like glue. I start by covering the top and bottom of the matchbox with a paper that's thick enough to hide the text on the box. Make sure to leave the sides uncovered so you can still light the matches on them. I suggest starting with the paper a little too big and then cut off the excess so the edges are nice and lined up.Now think fire, burning love and other hot little Valentine's Day sayings and get decorating! I layered hand cut hearts, stickers, washi masking tape and origami paper, but anything goes.These cute little gifts from the heart make a great stand alone Valentine. You can also give them with a scented candle or even take most of the matches out and put a tiny little gift or a special love note inside. xox Happy crafting!

Merry Stressmas!

I always have such great expectations about what I want to get done and blog about in December. Well, truthfully it's a year round struggle, but December just seems especially difficult when it comes to time management. There's the usual: full time job, teaching dance classes, and Vivi Dot orders to take care of with the added holiday craft shows, festive parties to attend, shopping to be completed and, and, and. I need to face that fact that my visions of multiple, fabulous, holiday DIY tutorials and new handmade decorations likely ain't gonna be executed. As of today I'm allowing myself to feel okay with that. Heck, I haven't even bought a tree yet! So with literally no time to deck the halls I've decided to the deck my workspace in the meantime. I strung up these adorably festive stickers by Michelle of Bubbly Shnooks above my desk. I do spend a good 10 hours a day in this very spot so it makes sense to start here. Plus once I do finally get to some holiday gift wrap blog posts (I WILL do at least one of those) they'll be nice and handy!
Do you find time management extra tough during the holidays too?

O is for Overindulging & Oregon

I spent an amazing long weekend in the sticks of Oregon with Duncan and his family. We rented a house about 30 miles East of Salem and had a fantastic time. After dealing with our first ever frozen pipe on Wednesday morning we hit the road at about 1:30 for our four hour and forty minute drive. Four hours and only 100 miles later we finally got through traffic and made it to our destination in eight long hours in the car. I woke up early on Thanksgiving ready to get started in the kitchen. We cooked and drank and played games all day as we waited for the turkey to be done. We overindulged a bit on the pre dinner drinks because the turkey just wouldn't cook fast enough! I later realized that the oven door didn't latch all the way shut which is why it took a good two hours longer than expected.
The rest of the weekend was filled with Uno, Scrabble, Apples to Apples, hot tubbing, walks in the snow, movies, crashing on the couch with the animals and prepping for a Vivi Dot holiday show I have coming up next weekend.



It was a cozy weekend full of too much wine and food and just the right amount of family time- just how I like my Thanksgiving!

Would You Like That Gift Wrapped?

My love of gift wrapping was inherited from my Mom. I knew how to create crisp corners and fancy handmade bows out of floral ribbon before I hit my double digit years. It was a running joke at my friend's birthday parties that the gift I brought could be spotted a mile away. My family is big into stocking stuffers too and we individually wrap every tiny thing that goes into them. The only sales we religiously hit on December 26th are the ones where we can stock up on fancy wrapping supplies at 50% off. Okay, I think you get it - we're into wrapping packages!

Unlike my Mom who has a boxes full of holiday wrap, bows, ribbon and gift tags I always end up scrounging for supplies. Now that Duncan and I don't plan on moving for a while I think I can finally warrant stocking up on some pretty, festive supplies. I think it will be fun to share with you my purchases as well as creative, eco friendly, and money saving alternatives here on the Dot Girl Blog as the days quickly countdown to Christmas.

I'll start off this 'Would You Like That Gift Wrapped' series with some of my all time favorite places to shop for gift wrap supplies as well as some fun new finds.

Target - I just spotted some incredibly cute holiday paper in the $0.99 section of Target. Unfortunately, it was when I was in Las Vegas so now I'm just hoping they have the same thing at the one I go to.

Daiso - Oh how I wish there were a Daiso in Seattle! Just about everything there is from Japan and costs $1.50. They have cute wrapping paper, but my $1.50's add up the fastest in the stationary section. Watch out for cute gift bags in varied sizes and adorable gift tags and cards. Lots of them have fun little sayings translated into English that almost make sense. That's the fun part!

Ikea - If you're willing to brave the crowds or are already there for other reasons Ikea usually has cute bags, tissue and wrapping paper at affordable Ikea prices.

Happy Tape - Japanese washi tape has changed me forever! More on that soon.

Paper Source - I could live inside a Paper Source store and be happy forever. So much cute stuff! Their paper products are really high quality, but you pay for it. I plan to share my tips on how to make the pricier stuff like this last so you get more for your money.

I love a good bargain so it's tough for me to spend a lot of money on paper products, especially when they're mass produced. I'd be happy to pay more for these handmade options though!

Ink + Wit - 'luxe gift wrap offset printed on durable 100% post consumer recycled paper' = SOLD! (found this shop via SFGirlByBay)

Alexander Girard - Handmade wrap so pretty it could be framed! (found this designer via Creature Comforts)

Viva Greetings - 'Letterpress Wrapping Paper with playful phrases in english, spanish and spanglish are perfecto!"

Here are some of my gift wrap creations from a few years back.

Contact Paper Branch with Holiday Berries and Leaves

Snakeskin Paper Christmas Tree

Festive Robots

Rudolph

Where do you get your gift wrapping supplies?