Tag Archives: celebrate

The Ultimate Gift Guide For The Love Of Your Life

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The Ultimate Gift Guide For The Love Of Your Life

You might think that Christmas has only just said goodbye for another year, but you will need to get your gift giving juices flowing again as Valentine’s Day is creeping up on the horizon. If you are in the throes of love, then chances are that you want to show your beloved exactly how much you care on the 14th of February. While those more miserable amongst us might be worried about the commercialization of the day of love, it is still pleasant to make your loved one feel special. Whether you are in a new relationship or whether you have been happily married for decades, take a look at these wonderful gift giving ideas:

Jewelry:

There can’t be many more romantic gifts than jewelry for your loved one. You might choose to go down a relatively traditional route and choose a ring or a necklace for your darling. Or perhaps opal bracelets and their stunningly unique designs might be more up your street. If you are tempted by a piece of jewelry, consider the colors that your beloved adores. White gold is very on trend at the moment as is titanium and rose gold. The more traditional diamonds and yellow gold jewelry items are still as popular as ever. Or, you might want to go the fully customized route for a one of a kind piece of jewelry on a website like Holts Gems. How special to have a necklace or ring that no one else in the world has! For the man in your life, why not consider cufflinks or a tie pin. Just because they might not be a big fan of the bling, something small and classic could make them smile on Valentine’s Day.

Experience Gifts:

If you are tempted to look for something a little more unusual or your loved one is a bit tricky to buy for why not consider a more experiential gift. Think about what your soulmate adores and think about their personality type. If your beloved is an adrenaline junkie, think about purchasing them a bungee jump, a chance to skydive out of a plane at five thousand feet or perhaps a driving experience would be more worthwhile. You could buy them a sand dune drive, a rally drive, or a lap around a track in a Formula 3 race car.

For those individuals who aren’t as thrill seeking, something more relaxing might be better. A spa weekend or a relaxing reiki head massage experience may light your loved one’s face up. Alternatively, you could book a weekend away and treat yourself to a couples holiday to spend some quality time together.

Traditional:

If money is tight or you are looking to save your pennies for a big ticket item, think about making your gift a little smaller. There’s nothing wrong with going down the traditional albeit slightly cheesy route. You could pick up a bunch of roses and a box of chocolates for single figures. The scale of the gift isn’t important, it is the thought behind it. You might even fancy whipping up a home cooked three course romantic meal for your loved one. These gifts are more thoughtful and special. Forget about the grand gestures and opt for the more romantic.

Follow this guide and you can be sure of a romantic and special Valentine’s Day!

Featured Image By: Pexels

Merry Christmas!!

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Merry Christmas!!

Hello everyone and a very Merry Christmas to all of you! No matter how you celebrate in the holiday season, I hope that it has been a happy time full of warmth, love, family, and friends. I have been looking forward to Christmas day for a long time now and I’m sure everyone else on my gift list has been too, so that I can quit badgering them to let me announce what I bought for them!! But, the time is finally here and I can’t wait to see everyone’s reactions to their presents.

Last Christmas, I was recovering from a horrible surgery gone wrong and couldn’t enjoy anything about the day. I was in an insane amount of pain and I may or may not have shit my pants while everyone was eating Christmas dinner… but that’s a story for another time. THE POINT IS, that this year I get to actually be mentally and physically present for one of my favorite days with my beautiful family and boyfriend and I am going to revel in every minute of it.

I am so thankful to be well enough to have a great day and my Christmas wish is that the same goes for all of you on your celebrated holidays or Christmas. As always, thank you for your continued love and support and happy holidays to all! Much love. -Sarah

How To Make Your Home Feel Like Christmas

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How To Make Your Home Feel Like Christmas

It’s winter, the days are shorter, and the feeling of wanting to stay inside and watch movies is getting stronger by the minute. Not to worry, most of us have had the winter blues at some point. Christmas is an excellent opportunity to get into the festive spirit, decorate your home, and invite friends and family over to enjoy the holidays with you. Here’s how to make your home feel like Christmas for your celebrations:

Make it smell nice:

Having Kindred Fires scented candles around the house can do wonders for getting you into the festive spirit. Feel free to change candles throughout the week, and try pine-scented candles as well as clove and cinnamon. Along with candles, if you have a real Christmas tree, the natural smell of pine will go beautifully with other Christmasy scents. Feel free to make your own candles if you’re feeling particularly adventurous!

Make warming recipes:

A delicious way to dine this Christmas is to create wholesome dishes that will keep you warm this winter. While you may want to save yourself for the big day, the Christmas period is a time for indulging so don’t feel bad for having a few extra treats. Recipes that taste particularly good when it’s cold include soups, stews, and roasted vegetables. Traditional recipes and comfort food can be enjoyed in abundance during this time. Try to cook this recipe for homemade chicken and drop dumplings, a delicious recipe that is both seasonal and harks back to grandma’s cooking.

Light it up:

Placing lights around your house will automatically give it a Christmas feeling. Keep the lighting warm and low, with soft lamps and candles rather than overhead lighting. Outdoor lights will go wonderfully in your backyard, especially when the sun has set and you look outside your window in the evening. There are many kinds of lights that you can go for, but consider using energy-saving lights, as the cost of lighting decorations and electric lights over Christmas can be very expensive.

Set up treats around your home:

Setting up bowls or jars around the house filled with Christmas goodies is a nice way to enjoy some sweet treats while also functioning as decoration. Cute ideas include filling these bowls or jars with candy canes, chocolate coins, and marshmallows. Having these treats on hand is great when you’re making hot chocolate, as you can grab a couple of marshmallows or chocolate pieces to add on top.

Blankets, throws, and cushions:

Staying cozy at home with a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate or mulled cider automatically makes me feel Christmasy. Having blankets and throws on your couch adds a nice winter feel, especially if you are lucky enough to have a natural fire. Thick knit blankets and woolen cushion covers are both comfy and fashionable additions to your interior design.

Spending time with loved ones is the best way to enjoy Christmas. After all, that’s what the season is all about. How ever you choose to enjoy the winter period, keep it festive with the tips above!

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Gorgeous Gifts For The Girls In Your Life

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Gorgeous Gifts For The Girls In Your Life

Gift giving is an excellent way to show love and appreciation to those that are important in your life, especially at Christmas time. Of course, for the genuinely special loved ones such as the female friends in your life, pre-bought gift sets just aren’t going to cut it! Instead, you will want something more thoughtful and personal. Fortunately, we’ve given this matter some thought and came up with some suggestions. The best of which you can read below:

Flowers:

Flowers aren’t just for romantic couples. In fact, they have traditionally been given as a token of affection of friendship for hundreds of years. Something that makes them an excellent choice for a gift that shows the girls in your life how much you care. There are several options to consider when gifting flowers too, like having an elaborate display delivered to a friend’s work or bringing a single bloom when you visit their home.

You may even wish to get deeper into the language of flowers if you’d like to convey even more meaning. For example, as you can see from the post at thelanguageofflowers.com a bouquet of yellow roses is a way to express friendship, while sunflowers demonstrate loyalty and longevity.

Jewelry:

Another popular gift for the ladies is jewelry. Of course, you do not have to spend a fortune to find a piece that your friends will love. In fact, you will find that there are numerous sites online that provide personalized pieces of jewelry at a reasonable price. You can then use a guide like the one at rogersandhollands.com to select a birthstone or engraving that can be customized to your choice. Thus giving you the perfect opportunity not just to get something beautiful, but to get a gift that is meaningful and lasting, as well.

Something personalized to their interests:

One of the best ways you can show your friends how much you care for them is to choose them a gift that is based on their own interests and passions. The good news here, is that if you know what their hobbies or interests are, you can use the gift guides at sites like allthestuff.com to find a present that suits them down to a T.

Something customized:

Finally, if you are looking for a gift that is a lot more personal than something you can buy off the shelf, why not go for a custom item? There is a vast range of products to choose from that can be monogrammed or customized, including clothes, ornaments, purses, and even photo books and calendars.

That is not the only way to customize items, either. Actually, there are now some makers that specialize in creating art that includes images and words representing the recipient’s most favorite things. This being an option that means the person you gift it to will get a great decoration for their home. While at the same time will be shown how well you know them and how much their friendship means to you.

Show all of your favorite ladies how much you value their presence with the gifts above!

Featured Image By: Pexels

Cool Crafts: Personalized Card Making

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Cool Crafts: Personalized Card Making

Creating cards and letter writing is a lost art. Taking the time to make something with care adds personality to your crafting, something that cannot be replicated when buying cards from a store. That’s actually where most of the fun comes in, making a card that is entirely unique and took incredible patience and skill. If you’re just teetering on the brink of getting started and buying the various equipment you need, then take a look at these examples where card making becomes the perfect craft:

A mark of professionalism:

What if you could make your business card yourself? If you had the freedom, what kind of design would you use? When it comes to card making, it’s not just the normal greeting cards that you will be able to make, but business cards too. Right from scratch, you can decide the material so when someone touches it, they get a unique sensation. A business card made out of foam, for example, is much more memorable than typical card stock. Being able to make your own 3D designs so again, anyone who is rubbing their finger over it gets a different feel. And, rather than the typical rectangle business card, how about curved edges? Any colors, fonts, dies and materials, the choice is yours.

A bespoke wedding:

Wedding cards are, perhaps, the most difficult to choose. It’s not like a birthday that comes around every year, weddings are once in a lifetime. People who have been invited to the wedding will often fret whether or not their card looks extravagant enough and does it warrant being saved by the couple. Usually the married couple will only choose a select few cards that they’re going to save for the rest of their life along with all of the other wedding day memories. To make your card worthy of being kept and valued, you’ll need to make it yourself using Sizzix dies. These dies are some of the most detailed in the crafting world and there are plenty of them to choose from. Characters, letters, houses, animals, patterns and jewelry designs, for starters.

For your wedding card, you may wish to use thinlit dies, which are intricate patterns that are used to cut out the frontal design of your card. This allows the cover to be see-through and show a bit of what’s inside without opening it. The festive repeats, floral, seasonal, and mystical dies would go great for celebrating a moment of love and happiness.

Celebrating a milestone:

Normally, people get into crafting because they want to make a brilliant birthday card, which is fine. But you can use your crafting skills to make a card that marks a special milestone. This could be something like giving your parents an anniversary card for their 20 years together. It might be giving your daughter a card for her promotion at work. A moment in time where an achievement of perseverance and struggle is documented, acknowledged, and celebrated is perfect for making a personalized card.

First, you need custom dies which you can very easily order online. But what kind of dies would you need? For a promotion, how about the logo of the company they work for? For an anniversary maybe a picture from the photo album? Anything that relates to the focal point can be made into a 3D design with a custom die. Next, you should use materials and colors that match the event. Again, you could use corporate colors for the promotion card or the favorite colors of the couple. Ribbons and flowers are a great addition to personalized cards as a change of material and adds depth to the card.

Making a children’s book:

Children will one day grow too old to be read bedtime stories but, while you have the chance, make them a personal bedtime story. You can make up your own characters and story line to reflect the kind of teachings you want them to learn. With using the dies, you can make a 3D book which has lots of opportunity for interactive storytelling. Popup books are popular because they have moving parts, so you might want to incorporate that into your crafting skills, as well.

Handcrafted cards are incredibly personal and will instantly be recognized for the hard work you have put in. Start crafting a card and make something special for someone you care about!

(Late!) Father’s Day Story

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(Late!) Father’s Day Story

Hi everyone! I want to extend the happiest of late Father’s Day greetings to all of the daddios that celebrated such a special day. I also felt so inclined to share with you my Father’s Day gift purchase for my dad as well as a story about what makes mine the best of the best from when we enjoyed a family lunch this past Saturday. First, take a look at the hilarity that I got him for his beautiful garden:

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Not only does my dad have five hundred green thumbs, but he also has a fantastic collection of outdoor decor to add even more charm to his handiwork. You can only have so much of anything, though, and my dad put the kebash on anyone getting him more garden gnomes.

So, to solve the problem, I got him a surefire way to keep the gnomes at bay with the new garden statue seen above. Is it a T-Rex? Godzilla? Or something the world doesn’t even know about yet? I don’t know. BUT, this statue entitled “The Massacre” was a hit for my dad and everyone else in the family. My dad said that “only Sarah would find something like this” but I’ll give you all a hint: I got in on Amazon!

As I’ve said hundreds of times on my blog, my dad really is amazing. And, I was reminded of that when we went out to lunch at First Watch last Saturday. As we waited for our table, an older man gestured for his wife to look at me in all of my tattooed glory and she then proceeded to mean mug the ever living shit out of me. I didn’t know anything was even happening until my dad made a broad gesture and loudly exclaimed “Wow, Sarah, she’s checking you out!”

I was so tickled by this encounter because my dad HATES my tattoos. He’s constantly asking for me to stop getting them and to get laser surgery, lol. But, he hated his daughter getting treated like a member of the freak show at a carnival even more. I didn’t notice the interaction between this couple and, even if I did, I’m used to it. So, it was really touching to know that my dad is literally always looking out for me even when I don’t know it. And, although he might not agree with all of my choices, he still supports and protects me no matter what. #myhero #daddysgirl

How did you celebrate Father’s Day? How does your dad look out for you? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Birthday Fun!

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Birthday Fun!

Hellooooo!! My June 7th birthday came and went and I am now twenty-five years of age. How about that! I had a wonderful birthday weekend and the celebrations are not over, as I have belated tom foolery scheduled with some of my girlfriends. During my birthday weekend, I enjoyed eleven hours of being tattooed, a subpar Mexican dinner with my family, and a lovely hang out with my boyfriend. Despite the Margaritas being weak AF and my dinner being cold, it was a definite success!

I received many beautiful gifts from everyone who celebrated with me. But, what I’m most excited about is the tickets that I got from my parents to see The Raconteurs at Stage AE in Pittsburgh this August. This will be my second time seeing Jack White in the past two years and they are playing at one of my favorite venues so, needless to say, I am beyond excited. 😀 #bestgiftever

Although I am not thrilled about being twenty-five, I had a great time quietly celebrating my birthday and thank you to everyone for the well wishes, which made my day even more special! ❤

How did you celebrate your birthday this year? How did you celebrate your twenty-fifth birthday? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Sephora Birthday Gift

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Sephora Birthday Gift

Howdy! When it comes to my birthday, I always try to cash in on the freebies that are offered through rewards programs at my favorite stores and eateries. As a Beauty Insider for Sephora, that means I get to pick a freebie birthday gift between two mini gift sets. This year, the choice was between a Kat Von D liquid liner, loose powder, and lipstick samples or a cleanser and moisturizer by Drunk Elephant. Because I don’t use liquid liner or any type of powder, I went with the Drunk Elephant option seen below:

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I have never used any Drunk Elephant products before, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it so I am looking forward to giving my freebies a try. I can always use moisturizers and cleansers, too, so even if these don’t last me very long it will be a few days of using something that I didn’t actually buy. And, for a frugal gal like me, this is always a plus! Although I wasn’t too thrilled with the birthday gift choices from Sephora this year, free is free, and maybe I will have found a new favorite brand!

What did you choose for your Sephora birthday gift? Have you ever used the Drunk Elephant brand before? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Happy 25th Birthday To Me!

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Happy 25th Birthday To Me!

Hello everyone and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!! Today, I turn the ripe old age of twenty-five and can you say hello midlife crisis?! Lol, nah, crisis mode won’t kick in until twenty-six so I have one more year of turning up to do. In all seriousness, it is an exciting time to be a Lil Red. I got my first apartment less than two months ago, my businesses are booming, and lifewithlilred will have been a thing for FIVE YEARS come September. Wow!

Although twenty-four had a lot of moments that were about a bitch from two of the dumbest relationships that I’ve ever been in to a month and a half of misery from a surgery gone wrong, it ended strong. And, for that, I am definitely grateful. I am looking forward to what twenty-five has in store for me but, I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t wishing that time would slow down just a little bit! We all know that that isn’t going to happen, though, so here’s to enjoying another year here on planet Earth. 😀

Happy Birthday To Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! ❤

Happy Mother’s Day!!

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Happy Mother’s Day!!

Hello everyone and happy Sunday! I wanted to extend warm Mother’s Day greetings to all of the wonderful moms in the blogosphere and all over the world today. Whether you are a mom to a beautiful baby or a darling dog, you have lost a child, or want to be a mom really badly – today is for you. I hope you have a beautiful day full of love and flowers and are surrounded by things that make you smile. Happy Mother’s Day from lifewithlilred! ❤