Wishing you all a...

Greetings and salutations to you, dear friends! Wishing you all a year of happiness and love, adventures and wonder. 

xoxoxo

Christine, Monika, and Catherine

Wishing you a

Do I see some tenting?

Okay so I have officially wasted hours, well not wasted, but just spent hours on Pinterest this morning. Why shouldn't I? I'll tell you why. It was during one of the only times today when it won't be too hot to go outside, and I am sure Olive would have really loved a nice quiet morning stroll; but Pinterest it was.

 Two reasons why I was so captivated. First, I started a new pin board entitled Tents that features, you guessed it, tents.

Camp Decor

Soul Sweet

Anthropologie Altair Tent

 Lucy Hutchinson

Zeynep Arda

 Second, I started another new pin board Pinwheels for Dawn.
This board is for my lovely friend Dawn who is soon to be wed.

I love these colors. So fun.

wedding chicks

Martha Stewart

iseethemoonphotography

 If you want to see how we sisters are progressively wasting hours on pinning you should follow us.
Come now, you know if would be fun.



instaweek

Bruno Jenkins woke long enough to look incredibly cute. 

Catherine graduated from her Masters program! 

The Mister and the Master heading home from Evergreen. 

Mom and I stopped at the Hess Bakery and got delicious bread. 

Signs at the European deli. The dude looks like he's drunk walking.

And the lady looks like she's posing for a career woman magazine. 

I rubbed this sweet clover all over my wrists. Instant perfume!

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Like the cake says...

Catherine turns 27 today! Happy Birthday, sister dear!!!

delivering the goods

As I'm mulling over the wrapping options for Monika's birthday presents--late, yes, but better late than never--I've been scouring all the lovely packaging pins from pinterest. Oh, pinterest! How do I love thee? Let me count the pins!
I mean: packages...

candy pouches via ISLY

carrot treat boxes, via Craft

circus tent gift boxes via Folksy

origami house boxes via How About Orange?

geometric favor boxes, via Ruffled

favor boxes via Oh! Crafts

fringed pyramid box via Martha Stewart Weddings

Wouldn't you go mad for a gift stowed inside one of these packages? I would. Now, if only the gifts themselves were tinier. And if only I were ready to part with them. In all actuality, Monika will not receive any birthday presents until I visit her in May. That's the way it goes with us Nicolai girls and gifts. You rolls the dice; you takes your chances.

But onto more pressing matters. Which package is your favorite? I'm partial to the fringed pyramid boxes myself, but then I can't tear my eyes away from anything shiny. And they're all soooo make-able (except for the circus tent, which is purchasable, or would be except for the fact that it's sold out). Follow the links for instructions, my dears!

Happy Birthday!

To this little lady. AKA, Monika. AKA, the middle sister. 

a snapshot from birthdays past

She's chilling in Tacoma with Mom. Lucky birthday girl. 

skewered

Cake toppers, drink stirrers, plant adornments...take your pick. 

supplies: sparkle poms and bamboo skewers

instructions: skewer the pom with the bamboo

I borrowed these poms from Matilda.

It represents only a small part of her pom reserves, so I don't think she was too concerned. 

brand new

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hey, it's a brand new bloglovin widget for on my honor. Welcome to 2010, sisters, we finally made it.

bows that sparkle

Somebody stop me. Seriously. Someone please pry these sparkle pipe cleaners from my hands, before it's too late. Well, it might already be too late because I made a sparkle bow barrette from a pipe cleaner and a bobby pin. 

Can I just say that it is incredibly difficult to take pictures of the side of your head?

But I do believe my ear looks lovely. Uh-oh, that's ear hubris. Now my ear will probably get burned off in a fire. 

P.S. Glitter pipe cleaners can easily be fashioned into kitten halos.

Even for bad kittens. 

sparkle & fade

The silver and gold pipe cleaners will not be denied. Let's make some sparkly table decorations!

Supplies: small glass jar or candleholder, tealights, matches, pipe cleaners*

Graft the pipe cleaners together. 

Make sure they're tight, like best friends.

Tape the end of your pipe cleaner chain to the bottom edge of the jar.

(Whoops! Forgot to mention tape.) Don't worry, it'll get covered up.

Start wrapping around the jar, making sure to keep the pipe cleaners tight. 

If they get loose, this happens:

So keep things in order. 

Wrap and wrap and wrap until you come to the end. 

While keeping the coils tight, push down the upper rings and tape the end of the pipe cleaner to the jar.

At this point, it should be safe to release the coils. Arrange the rings so they cover the taped end

and are evenly spaced. Just be sure to leave some gaps to let the light through.

Happy crafting!

*The number of pipe cleaners will depend on the size of your jar or candleholder. For my 2.5'' x 3.5'' jar (in gold), I used nine pipe cleaners. The 2.5'' x 2.5'' candle holder (in silver) took four pipe cleaners, but the silver pipe cleaners are about twice as wide.