Pfffew, this week went fast! I hope you enjoyed the full Christmas inspiration this week on Instagram! It certainly put me into a holiday mode, and I plan on adding some holiday decorelements at home this weekend. Wishing you a lovely weekend, and leaving you with my favorite finds and reads this week. Xo, Si-
• This dutch baby pancake recipe looks so good and so easy to make, it’s on my must-try list this weekend.
• Have you seen the house tour of the couple behind Maman, Manhattan’s most Instagram-worthy new café? So much goodness!
• If you haven’t yet seen Mindhunter, a newly released series on Netflix, you should. I couldn’t stop and binged watched the entire season during the Thanksgiving break. Well done, Netflix!
• Aren’t these DIY Gucci-inspired velvet appliqué pillows gorgeous?
And we’re off for the holidays! I am taking a holiday break, away from blogging, to regroup, chill out and recharge my creative batteries, sort of a digital diet – emphasis on ‘digital’ because, let’s be honest, I plan on splurging on good food during the holidays.
We’re planning a staycation this year, and I dream of decluttering my home from all the photoshoot props and boxes, decorating for the sake of decorating, without a camera in hand, cook because I want to, read and garden. I also plan on resuming my running routine, which has suffered these last few weeks from my work schedule.
I hope you get a digital diet as well, if not, there is plenty to catch up on, on the blog. I wish you a happy holiday, surrounded with your loved ones and filled with positivity. See you all back soon! Love and light, always. Xo, Si-
I recently discovered Fab Goose, a Scandinavian company that designs 3D paper holiday decorations and home decor pieces. Have you heard about them? They kindly sent* me a few samples of their holiday pieces, and I’m in love.
Fab Goose collaborated with Danish illustrator Theresa Jessing, from Sort Lakrids, to offer 4 different DIY sets ready to assemble at home. Each kit includes :
Paper arks with ready-to-use elements made of 175 g sturdy paper with natural antique finish. FSC and ECF certified (no heavy metals or chlorine bleaching)
100% natural silk string with a special safe needle attached – 2 m
Plastic beads – (400+ pcs.)
Simple assembling instruction with illustrations
You’ll receive your decor piece ready to assemble [we did it with Maya and it was super easy to follow the instructions and get the pieces ready and assembled, like 5 minutes top].
and then, all assembled, you get this adorable nordic fir tree on foot.
I also adore the nordic fir hanging tree version:
Or the mistletoe one… Cute and clever design, isn’t it?
Fab Goose is committed to its environment, and produce all its products locally in the most sustainable way possible. Their products all comply with strict ecological standards.
Gift season is now in full swing, and this year, I promised myself I wouldn’t do my Christmas shopping at the last minute, which is why I was excited to partner with HP to Reinvent Giving inspired by their latest commercial.
It’s both exciting and stressful to find the perfect gift for the ones you love: what do they need, how to find the perfect gift they’ll use? – versus the beautiful but useless paperweight that ends up being re-gifted or thrown away in a desk drawer.
This year, I am gifting my oldest girl, Inès, with an HP laptop. She’s been borrowing my laptop computer for the many school projects her rigorous IB program requires her to work on, and she’s also preparing for the SATs – and college applications soon.
Ha, talk about another stressful moment both for a teen and her parents! As you know, we’ve started visiting college campuses, and she set her heart on UCLA as one of her top college choices so far. But the road to get there is filled with challenges, with a 20% admission rate and extremely high SAT scores required.
This girl of mine is special. I know a lot of parents think their kids are special, but this girl is really special. At only 16, she’s strong, focused and so passionate about things : from participating to beach cleanups on her free time because she feels connected to the environmental cause, to holding a stage manager position in her school play, donating her time to feed the needy with “Curry without Worry” [love the name of this organization, don’t you?]. She even participated as a volunteer at one of the US election voting centers a few weeks ago. She’s strong, assertive, and she doesn’t hesitate voicing her opinion and taking stands when she hears someone make a derogatory comment toward minorities, women or the LGBT community. Her classmates and friends often call her the social advocate of her class promotion. This girl is very special, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for her.
So this Christmas, Inès will get her own laptop : the HP Spectre x360. Super compact and slim, very light – so she can carry it around and even take it with her to school, and with more than 16-hour-per-charge battery power, this laptop is the perfect study tool for Inès. I also love the fact that you can rotate the computer into a 360 angle so the screen becomes completely flat. It also features some Bang & Olufsen built-in speakers, perfect for Inès who often listens to music while studying – by the way, how can kids do that these days? I always wonder; talk about multitasking!
Inès’s sister, Maya, helped me wrap the HP Spectre x360 so the wrapping is as beautiful and magic as the gift itself. I can’t wait for Inès to open it and see the joy in her eyes. I’m also looking forward to owning back my personal computer since she’ll have her own now. Now SATs and college applications, we’re coming for ya!
And… great news! You have the chance to win* a Spectre x360 to share with someone on your holiday list! All you have to do to enter is comment #ReinventGivingSweepstakes on this Instagram post. Bonne chance, and happy holidays! Xo, Si-
* NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. (D.C.) 18+. Ends 12/14/16. For Official Rules, including odds and prizes, visit http://bit.ly/2gBz4HD. Void where prohibited.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know how fond I am of alternative Christmas tree ideas – we have a round up of original non traditional Christmas trees every year here on the blog. So when I heard about the “Green Christmas” initiative from the city of San Francisco and Friends of the Urban Forest, I got really excited and happy to spread the word.
You see, if you live in San Francisco, you can adopt a living tree this year and return it at the end of the holiday season so it is planted in an area of the city that needs it. Pretty cool, huh? The tree you get will not be a traditional Christmas tree, but add a few ornaments, some magical holiday lights and accessories and voilà!
How gratifying it is to know that a simple gesture will change your city’s green landscape and add beautiful greenery around you! Green holiday trees reduce waste and post-holiday litter. After they’re planted on the streets of San Francisco, they clean the air, reduce storm-water runoff into the Ocean and Bay, and provide wildlife habitat. You can even participate in the planting of your adopted tree if you wish to do so.
Trees will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, and include varieties such as fern pines, japanese blueberry trees, catalina ironwood and small-leaf tristania trees – all great trees for our city. For a tax-deductible $75 donation to Friends of the Urban Forest, you get a fine tree for the holidays – and you make the city greener!
You can sign up, pre-order and pick up your tree via the Friends of Urban Forest website. Pick up your tree, make ornaments, and join the city of San Francisco and Friends of the Urban Forest team for refreshments at the Green Christmas Tree Lot on Saturday, November 19th from 10am-2pm. You may also pick up your tree after November 19th by arranging a pick up at the Friends of the Urban Forest office during open office hours.
We decorated our adopted fern pine tree and are ecstatic: our Christmas living tree looks really good in our living room [I simply decorated it with honeycomb paper ornaments found on Etsy], and we feel so proud that we did our part this holiday season to help Mother Nature!
Now Miss Daisy is patiently waiting for Santa by the chimney – I have a feeling Santa will be proud of us and be good to us this year! Happy holidays guys! Xo, Si-
• This post is in partnership with SF Environment. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep FrenchByDesign’s doors open.
Well, folks, it’s time for me to take some time off and enjoy a holiday break with my loved ones. I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy holiday break, and I hope Santa will spoil you this year ;-)
I will be off for the entire holiday break, so in advance, I also wish you a happy new year. See you all very soon, xo, Si-
I’m inviting you to my holiday party, so paint your nails in your favorite shade of red, put some lipstick on and let’s mingle!
I love this time of the year, the magic of the holiday season, the crisp cold weather, the bare trees, and this feeling that the year is coming soon to an end and there are new beginnings ahead. And if there is one time of the year where we can go all glitter, it is now or never, right?
So when Pier 1 asked me to partner up again and share some holiday table inspiration, I said yes, excited about this new creative challenge. This time, I switched things up with a buffet table, because the holiday season for me is about gathering, mingling with the people I love and enjoy gathering with, in a chic, glamorous, but casual setting, instead of sitting at a formal dinner table. Are you in? Welcome to my glitter wonderland table!
Isn’t this faux fur wine scarf adorable? I just couldn’t resist getting it for my holiday table, and I used it as a Champagne bottle scarf. So chic and très Audrey Hepburn!
My buffet table may be all glittery, but as always, I want things to be chic yet simple. Understated elegance is the keyword here. Here is how I dressed up my holiday table with Pier 1:
I chose the beautiful champagne flutes from the Pier1 Schott Zwiesel collection. Then, I used some edible glitter as glass rimmers, to add a bit of ‘va-va-voum’ effect. On other glasses, I just added some miniature gold balloons – or white balloons on which I dip painted some glitter paint – attached to wooden skewers.
For the table ‘floral’ holiday touch, I cut out a branch from a dying tree in our backyard, and spray painted it for a white holiday feel. I put my “holiday” tree in a big glass vase, securing it with stones and small rocks inside. To cover my installation, I filled the vase with some white linen fabric and wrapped a set of Pier 1 glimmer string lights around the fabric, inside the vase. When lit, it’s truly magical!
The ornaments I chose from the Pier 1 collection are : the icicle glass ornaments, some beaded ball gold ornaments, a few luster drop ornaments – because I adore their simple and clean design – and some gold rattan star ornaments. Because my DIY branch holiday tree is so simple and white, these ornaments work well and add just enough glitter and magic to my buffet table, don’t you think?
I also used a Champagne beaded garland as a table runner to add more magic and glitter to my table.
For the menu, since it’s a buffet table, I prepared some fancy bite-sized dishes that are easy to prepare in big batches : salmon and dill toasts, mango salsa and grilled shrimp bites, and some brie and pomegranate crostinis. I also added some chocolate truffles for the sweet-tooth aficionados. For presentation, I chose some delicate but very simple pieces to present the food : the a gold charger, and some white porcelain spoons for my mango shrimp bites.
And because no party prep is complete without some music, I prepared a new mixtape to share with you. In fact, I am not a fan of traditional Christmas carols, so I prepared for those of you who like less-traditional holiday tunes a playlist, with some holiday remixes and funky lounge songs. Beware though, some of your guests may end up transforming your reception area into a dance floor!
GLITTER WONDERLAND || MIXTAPE NO.3 || Listen on Spotify
I hope you enjoyed my glitter wonderland holiday table and got some inspiration for an upcoming holiday event of yours. What’s your favorite element? Xo, Si-
• This post is a partnership with Pier 1. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make FrenchByDesign possible.
Hey guys! It’s time for me to take some time off and enjoy a holiday break with my loved ones. We’re heading to the Big Apple for a few days then enjoying a little stay cation here in beautiful San Francisco.
Thank you, to each and everyone of you, for a great year of inspiration, for your sweet encouraging comments and for inspiring me to share on this blog. This has been a truly wonderful year for the blog, and you are, without any doubt, a huge part of that. So merci, this blog wouldn’t mean a thing without you and your support. Merry Christmas! Xo, Si-
Art direction and styling FrenchByDesign – Photography Radostina Bosseva
Here is another easy DIY alternative Christmas tree project for those of you who want something a bit different from the the traditional Christmas tree.
You’ll need for this project some wood lattice moulding, some vinyl decal dot stickers – I got mine on Etsy – and some mounting tape. Be careful not to use too much of a strong double tape so that the wall doesn’t peel off when you try to remove the wood pieces from the wall after Christmas. Cut the wood in different lengths and arrange the pieces on the wall to create the shape of a tree. Then stick your wall dots and voilà! Oh-la-la effect guaranteed!
Art direction and styling FrenchByDesign – Photography Radostina Bosseva
