Organic Wraps for Gift Giving.

What does organic mean to you? With society pushing the use of all natural, organic, raw and no preservatives in food, papers, coffee cups and even household cleaning products we use every day why not go one step further with giving and organic wrapped gift for the holidays or any time.

Remember he first day of school your assignment was to go home and cover your books.  Instead of buying pretty book covers, my mother always made us use  DeMoulas (now Market Basket) brown paper shopping bags.  Who would have thought that giving a gift of a nice book for the holidays would return back to an organic brown paper recycled bag used as glorified gift wrapping  What a great idea using wonderful natural embellishments to finish the look of the gift.

Giving a gift wrapped in brown paper, recycled and wrapped with hemp can be fun.  especially if finished off with all natural embellishments such as items from the woods.

Brown craft paper and bags can be found at Staples http://www.staples.com/brownn+kraft+paper/directory_brownn+kraft+paper? or even your local dollar store.  Or make is simple, use brown paper shopping bags and lunch bags for the smaller size gift.

Here are some simple and inexpensive ways to make your gift giving a special one.

homemade recipe book with handwritten recipes on organic papers

hemp wrapped brown paper gift boxes

simple pine cone and twine embellished gift

for the book club gathering a centerpiece of covered books and table runner of craft paper

the black and white photo says it all

Personalizing and creating a small or larger gift with brown organic or recycled papers can be fun and meaningful. Make the embellishment on the outside of your gift as special as the inside.

Remembering Your Grandmother's Afghan

Do you remember the Afghan?  It wasn't until I was searching for my winter comforter that I came across mine..  That special knitted blanket that my grandmother knitted for me in  1982.  How do I remember the date?  Because my Yiayia (Greek word for grandmother) had always hand-sewn  a special tag on the corner of her afghans with a little To and From note and the date of the special event she was creating for. What was funny was on the tag  she spelled my name with an " i " .  Yup that was Yiayia!

I also remember when I was a little girl that my parents also had one of Yiayia's afghans hanging on the back of the recliner in the den.  It was more autumn-like colors of oranges, olive greens and golds with long yarn fringe.  I never liked it so much until now that I can appreciate the hard and long work taken to create these beautiful blankets.

My grandmother always had a way with giving her hand-made afghans.  You always knew if there was a special occasion or life milestone such as a marriage or new baby on the way, you were going to get a new afghan and a little message sewn to the corner.

Mine is three shades of blue and white, the colors of the Greek flag.and was made for me for a wedding shower day of May 16, 1982.  After being tucked away for years, I am happy to pull it back out of storage and proudly use it as my bed blanket.

Yiayia has been gone now for 13 years but her special afghan blankets are proudly displayed in my home, my siblings and cousins home.

If you have an heirloom afghan share your story..  Remembering passed family members that have made an impact on your life is so very important. Recognizing them and the heirlooms and memories they've created is truly a blessing.

Closet Designs for the Littleones

So many little children are dressed to the nines these days.  The cutest little outfits can be seen walking down the sidewalks of the city, in the playground and let's not forget about the formal affairs of their little bodies outfitted in little fancy dresses and suits.

Designing a closet for displaying these little outfits can be part of a child's room design.  Because the fabrics are so colorful clothing can be be used as part of the room's color pallet.

Pink painted walls coordinate with the background of this open closet.  Open closets make it easier to view selections for choosing and assist in the ease of dressing little ones in the morning.

This space doubles as closet and book storage shelving

Mint green walls as a soft background let the clothing become color accessories in this closet

This closet stores not only clothing but has a built-in desk for duel usage of the wall space

Red, white and blue makes this closet an all American favorite with coordinating storage bins

Pretty in pink open framed closet without doors and a tab top curtain to hide clothes if needed

Color coordinate painted size dividers makes it easy to sort clothing

A neutral wall color lets the clothing colors stand out in this closet design

A standard closet opening can be used more efficiently with shelving and fabric covered bins

No matter what the design theme is for your child's room an open closet can add to the decor and theme of the room. Use coordinating fabrics for covered bins. baskets for small socks and shoe storage as well as adding themed pictures to the back of a closet wall to bring the room all together.