Win a Love Story from Suburban Video!

We wanted to share this fantastic opportunity for bridal couples to win a gorgeous Suburban Video Love Story Film. Entering is easy – just make a 3 minute video telling your love story and submit for Suburban Video to post on its website and Facebook page. The video with the most likes wins a professionally produced Love Story Film – A $1,500 Value!

Click here to watch Suburban Video’s most popular award-winning finished Love Story: Vik and Ritu.

It’s the romance of your life so why not capture it on the big screen with the two of you starring? Please let us know if you decide to enter so that Something Fabulous can help you get likes!

2013 Calendar Roundup!

Calendars can serve as a compass for your year, and as 2013 approaches you may feel lost until you have safely secured a new one.  I have a real soft spot for calendars, datebooks, planners, and all things organizational – especially if they are lovely to look at! Although I do utilize technology (I like to use my phone to set up reminders for appointments), I also enjoy having a large calendar on the wall for our whole family to write on, a cute desk calendar, and a datebook for notes and strategical planning. There are a lot of calendars out there, and you’ll be stuck with it for an entire year, so how to choose?
Here are some favorites for 2013 that I’ve been drooling over or that I have used and loved. Enjoy and happy organizing!

Wall Calendars

1. Monthly Calendar Chalkboard Wall Decal, $30, Studio 336 2. Large 13 x 19 Poster Colorful Peacock 2013 Calendar, $35, deKanimal 3. 2013 Paper Source Academic Blotter Calendar, $26.95, Paper Source.

Desk Calendars

1. Tastee Toaster Desk Calendar 2013, $22, DooDaStudio 2. 2013 Coaster Letterpress Calendar, $30, W+K Studio 3. 2013 Letterpress Art Print Calendar – Sunflowers and Bees, $10, Smock Paper.

Planners

7. 19th Annual 2013 Radical Organizer, $6 Pocket-Sized, $12 Desk Calendar, Slingshot 8. 2013 Planner, $35, Red Star Ink 9. Little Otsu Annual Vol. 4 Weekly Planner, $18, Little Otsu.

Hanukkah Charity Giving Roundup!

Coming up with a gift for all eight crazy nights can be a daunting task. No matter what holiday you celebrate, incorporating tzedakah, the Jewish practice of charitable giving, is a great way to enrich your gifting repertoire. Inviting your children to participate in choosing a charity is a fun way get your whole family involved.  With the internet it’s easier than ever to make a donation as a gift – there’s no postage to worry about or checks to write and it’s environmentally friendly, however the range of options can be overwhelming. Here’s a few of our favorites:

Kiva provides micro-finance loans to people in need all over the world who may not have access to traditional banking systems. The loans may be only a few hundred dollars, but that can be enough for a farmer in Africa or a student in Armenia to escape generations of poverty. Providing interest-free loans instead of charity gives the borrower, or Field Partner, a sense of dignity. It’s highly interactive so you or your giftee can choose the recipient of the Kiva loan from hundreds of Field Partners, and when the loan is repaid you can choose a new Field Partner.

Heifer International works to end poverty and hunger by providing up to 30 types of animals—from goats, geese and guinea pigs to bees, silkworms and water buffalo to people in need. By giving families a hand-up, not just a handout, Heifer International empowers its recipients with a reliable source of income. With their gift catalog you can enable your giftee to choose what kind of animal they want to provide. You can also partner up to go in on a larger donation such as a heifer or water-buffalo.

Looking for a crowd pleasing, sure-fire, no brainer?  When you donate to JustGive.org your giftee can choose from almost 1.8 million charities. Their website offers advanced search tools for researching charities as well as an “Act Locally” guide for keeping it local anywhere!

Feeling all fired up and want to take your giving a step further? Consider volunteering as a family for the holidays, or plan for a group of friends or your office to volunteer to get into the holiday spirit. VolunteerMatch is a wonderful resource for easily locating volunteer opportunities right in your neighborhood.

Do you have a favorite holiday giving or volunteer tradition? We’d love to hear from you!

Tree Trimming Tips

Trimming your tree is a great way to reflect and remember with special ornaments and Christmas tunes; you can’t help but recall years past and feel those childhood traditions. Here are some things to keep in mind while designing your tree:

• Place lights first. Better to catch the burned out strands now before your tree is complete with all the trimmings. First uncoil (and de-tangle if necessary!) all of your lights and test them. Begin placing your lights near the trunk of the tree and weaving them along the inside branches, working your way out. This will create a much bigger impact.
• Garland is next. Be creative with strings of beads, or even some great ribbon (we love Midori ribbon).
• Next up are the ornaments!  The key here is to make sense out of different styles you may have collected over the years. Often we collect ornaments that have special meaning from the past and each year you can recreate a personal timeline in your living room. You want to highlight these ornaments and at the same time create a harmonious visual flow. Filler ornaments are a great way to do this. These are basic ornaments that are all one color or a variety of colors in similar styles. Evenly space all the filler ornaments around the tree, then you will have a great base to start filling in your personal heirlooms. Make sure to put your ornaments on the ends of the branches as well as inside the tree which will create depth and interest.
• Grab some eggnog, sit back with your loved ones and enjoy your beautiful tree!

What are your favorite tree trimming tips? We’d love to hear from you!

Holiday Preview at the IDEAS studio

The countdown to the holidays is on, and Something Fabulous is ready to help! At our Holiday Preview Event at the IDEAS Studio last week we opened our doors to friends and family to share inspiration and tips for holiday decorating, stationery, entertaining, gift giving and wrapping. We had lots of fun getting crafty and enjoying tasty snacks together. Couldn’t make it? Don’t worry! We’ll be featuring some of the highlights in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned. And let us know in the meantime if there’s anything we can do to make your holidays merry & bright!

New York Bridal Week & The Martha Stewart Party oh my!!

International Bridal Week and New York City, on their own each of these two things excite me and put a little pep in my step…. Together they are AMAZING and keep me glowing for days! Today’s Fashion Forward Friday is a recap of my week in “the City”. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed taking them! New fashion, old and new friends AND LOTS of new inspiration.

The view of New York City from the Penthouse of the London Hotel.

Sareh Nouri wedding gowns waiting for the next showing.

A lovely Sareh Nouri dress.

An intricate sash embellishes this beautiful Sareh Nouri gown.

A stunning Enchanted Atelier necklace.

I enjoyed talking millinery fashions with the fabulous Melissa Bolin, founder of Kitty Andrews Millinery

It was a full house at the Martha Stewart Party!

Who doesn’t like a bedazzled white pizza?

One of the many stations at the Martha Party. Mini-manicure anyone?

Sandy Patangay designed this amazing wedding cake – Creme Delicious is just that!

I had a wonderful time and came home with notebooks full of ideas and a camera full of great photos. I can’t wait to share more about my travels to New York and the amazing designers & inspiring trends we have to look forward to this coming year.

Fabulous Find – Soliloquy Bridal Event

Our Fabulous find comes from our friends at Soliloquy Bridal . Every Wednesday, now through August, they are giving their clients the chance to save. Upon entering, brides will be greeted and asked to draw a “wild card”. Their card will reveal between 10 and 25 percent savings on ANY purchase over 100 dollars. You can save on your couture bridal gown, veil, bridesmaid dresses or all of the above. We can’t wait to hear what you find!

Fashion Forward Friday: Hats off to Summer

With Summer here and the bright sun shining, what better time to find the perfect summer hat! With so many styles to choose from we decided to share a few of our favorites.

1. Wide Brim Floppy –  Who doesn’t love a wide brim floppy hat. This classic style will keep you looking fabulous all summer long.

2. Straw Chambray Trilby Hat – Just as J Crew puts it “Dapper Defined”  This classic straw woven hat sets the stage for a stylish summer. We’re obsessed with the chambray striped band.

3. Biltmore Panama Hat – This style hat may have been the gentlemen’s hat for centuries but it sure look on the ladies this seasons.

4. Floppy Hat with Decorative Scarf – The perfect hat for any outfit. Just pick your favorite scarf and viola your look is complete.

What hat will you be wearing this season?

Think About It Thursday: Bright-Kite Delight

Think About It Thursdays are an opportunity to learn something fabulous every week; a fresh perspective on an old stand by, a lesson learned or a tip to share – take a minute and just Think About It…

If you read yesterday’s post you learned how to create a custom kite. For some it’s a fun craft project but if you Think About It it’s a fun detail that can be incorporated into your baby shower decor and then transferred into your baby’s nursery. This fun DIY is a great way to incorporate some meaning behind your details and make a memory that will follow your baby into childhood.

Below you will see how we incorporated our DIY kite idea into a kite-themed baby shower:

For the mother and father to be, this design process was a particularly rewarding experience; the couple were able to select fabrics that matched with their nursery decor as well as choose patterns that reflected their personalities and style.

Invitations are a fun and creative way to tie in your DIY project with your theme. We incorporated the kite and kite fabric into all the centerpieces and paper details. We were able to play with color, texture, fabric and patterns with this kite inspired baby shower.

1. The Mommy and Daddy to be both chose pictures of themselves as children with their parents to use as table cards – note the kite accent detail.

2. You can never go wrong with a kite inspired cupcake and a candy licorice tail. Note: Ribbons to accent the clear cupcake package were selected to compliment the kite’s fabric.

3. These hand cut mini-kite place cards helped set the tone for the celebration. All mini-kites had matching fabric with the larger kites that soared above.

If you Think About It, this DIY project is a gift that keeps on giving. It’s not only a a fun project that you can do with family and friends, but a talking point for your shower and colorful detail piece for your nursery. After hearing back from this mother reflecting on her shower, she said the greatest gift was watching her daughter enjoy this kite and having a sentimental keepsake to always remember the special day.

D.I.Y. Hen and Chicks: Our Brown Thumb Solution

If you have a brown thumb like us, we have found the perfect plant for you. Hen and Chicks are everywhere this season in bridal magazines, bouquets, and home decor. It’s the plant that keeps on giving. Once you have one hen, you will have chicks for years on end.

Working with Hen and Chicks is as easy as one, two, three:

1. Find a Hen at your local garden shop or ask a friend to share.

2. Gather an assortment of rocks in your garden and any type of soil – you don’t need much.

3. Find your favorite container. We tried combining teacups with other items just laying around the house!

Feel free to play around and get creative. There’s no wrong way to create a centerpiece, favor, or home decoration. Check out a couple of our fun ideas below:

Feel free to share how you have gotten creative with Hen and Chicks this season!