The 2013 Gift Guide For....[THE VINTAGE LOVER]

Vintage inspired clothing and style is all the rage, so it doesn't surprise me that you have a friend who LOVES all things vintage! I love vintage anything, basically.

Here are the gift guides we've don'e so far...

[The HIPSTER]

[The VEGAN]

[The MUSIC JUNKIE]

[The BLOGGER]

[The DIY ENTHUSIAST]

[The GEEK]

& here's what's coming up! Only two left!

[The BOOK NERD]

[The DRINK SNOB]

The following gift list includes lots of retro inspired items to satisfy your friend the vintage lover. Hopefully you find something totally awesome, man. 

Clothing from Shabby Apple

Shabby Apple is an online vintage-inspired clothing and accessories store. I absolutely LOVE their dresses. Other online stores to check out include Ruche and Rusty Zipper.

Style Me Vintage Books

There is an ENTIRE LINE of this "Style Me Vintage" series. You can learn how to do vintage hair, makeup, clothing, and so much more.... all by reading these awesome books! Wanna have a vintage wedding or throw a vintage tea party? They have books on that, too.

That 70's Show

If your friend also likes TV, why not buy them the complete series of That 70's Show? It's hilarious AND every episode is a flash from the modernized past. 

Cat Eye Sunglasses

Oh so stylish. Let's go back to the 1950's!

Vintage Cakes

Now you can learn how to make cakes from back in the day with this awesome, beautiful new cookbook. Doesn't that cake on the cover look divine?!

Vintage Inspired Headbands

I love headbands, and I think this one is super cute. Plus I love anything sort of nautical and looks like it came from the 50s.

Bird Cage Card Holder

Francesca's, a boutique I used to work at, sold these and I absolutely loved them. You can hang jewelry, cards...whatever!

Gift Card to a Thrift Store

Because where else can you find true vintage items?

That's all I've got for you! What did you think?!

The 2013 Gift Guide For....[THE DIY ENTHUSIAST]

Welcome back! It's time for another round of the holiday gift guide! Today we are talking about the DIY Enthusiast. Here's what we've done so far: 

[The HIPSTER]

[The VEGAN]

[The MUSIC JUNKIE]

[The BLOGGER]

& here's what's coming up!

[The BOOK NERD]

[The VINTAGE]

[The TRAVELER]

[The DRINK SNOB]

Now, for the DIY lover. I include myself in this category because I LOVE to make stuff. Your friend would probably LOVE a gift that you made yourself, if you are up for it, and you can find lots of great DIYs on Pinterest (and here, too!). However, if you'd rather buy them something, read on.

Craft of the Month Club

These are pretty awesome. Services like Lullubee and WhimseyBox offer boxes of exciting craft supplies, delievered to your door every month (for a fee, of course). Take a look around and pick your favorite!

Washi Tape

Washi tape is essentially just tape with fun designs that you can use to make virtually anything pretty. Target has a bunch of cute washi tape (and washi tape dispensers!) right now, or you can check out THIS store.

Crochet Today! Subscription

Crochet and knitting are becoming quite popular now (who knew?!). I'm getting into it myself, actually, and I think it's fun. Try getting a magazine where you get a bazillion new patterns to try each month! It's a winner.

Mason Jars

Mason jar crafts are CRAZY popular right now. You can make a ton of stuff out of them, plus they make great "vintage" decor.

Paper + Craft

This book will teach you 25 different things to make using paper! This would be great for all that extra scrapbook paper you don't know what to do with. I love the flag banner in the background of the book cover!

Metal Stamping Kit

I've always wanted to learn how to do metal stamping...you can make jewelry, or stamp on any soft metal or wood surface for some cute designs. You can find a bazillion font and design options on Amazon.

Stamps

Hand stamps are adorable and are perfect for spicing up a homemade card. I love this fox stamp!

Made By Hand // Printing By Hand

Both of these books are written by the same author and include lots of great tips for homemade crafts and paint printing projects. Looks like fun to me!

Burlap

This might be a weird one, but burlap is also really popular for craft projects right now. Your friend would LOVE to get some burlap so she can start making burlap wreaths for the holidays!

Vintage Craft Workshop

This book caught my eye because I love virtually anything vintage, and this teaches you how to make slightly modernized versions of vintage crafts.

I hope this guide helped you! We are now a little over halfway through the gift guide series... what's your favorite one so far? Which one are you looking forward to?!

DIY: Monogrammed Stool

Hey there, friends! Long time, no post. I can't believe I went nearly three months without posting. Oops.

To make up for my absence, I've got a really great DIY post for you today! I decided to make a monogrammed stool a while ago, and I ended up really loving it. It's mustard yellow, which is currently my favorite color, and goes nicely with my hipster/artsy style bedroom.

It's also really simple make! It does take a little bit of time, but it will be worth it in the end - I promise!

First, you're gonna need to get some paint. I used ordinary house paint, and I got one of those little sample size jars that cost around five bucks. You can get pretty much any color you want!

You're also gonna need an old stool. This one my mom found at the thrift store, I believe. It's really a chair that is missing all the back pieces (hence why you see holes around the edge), but I like it that way. I think it makes it look more rustic.

The first step is to paint the stool. It took me about three coats of paint to get the color I wanted. This is what takes time - be patient and let the paint dry completely before moving on!

Once your stool is dry, grab a sheet of the thickest sand paper you can find and start rubbing. Sand wherever you want and however much you want - this is the fun part! The sandpaper makes the stool look aged and worn...it basically gives the stool that "I'm-vintage-but-not-really" feel that people pay hundreds of dollars to have.

Once your stool is sanded, take a pencil and sketch your monogram in the middle. I just did a Google search for monogrammed letters and then copied the picture on my screen. This took a lot of time because I wanted the letters to look just right. 

The good thing about this part is that you can sand the pencil off if you mess up. I accidentally put the "E" in the middle the first time around, and my pencil didn't erase all the way. But after I went back and painted the letters and did some more sanding, you couldn't even tell I messed up. 

After you're done sketching your monogram, go back and fill in the lines with the paint color of your choice. I used a black paint pen, but anything should work. Sand your letters once they are dry if you want them to look aged. Then let your stool dry and TA-DA! You're finished!

Pretty easy, right? I thought so. It just requires some patience. 

Below is a list of all the materials I used.

Materials Needed:

Thick sandpaper

Wooden stool 

House paint in color of choice

Secondary paint in color of choice (for letters)

Newspaper (to put under the stool while painting and sanding)

Paintbrush

That's it, kiddos. Now go make that monogrammed stool you know you've always wanted. In return, I'll start blogging more often. 

I promise.

Let's Play Catch Up (and BIG news!)

Hi friends! Sorry I've been so absent in the blogging world recently. I've had a lot going on and not much time to blog.

And by a lot going on, I mean a lot going on. Let me give you the low-down on what's happened in the past month or two. 

Crossroads Internship - I may (or may not) have mentioned this already, but I've been interning at Crossroads Church for about a month now. I absolutely love it. What a great place to work! I am blessed to work there. I've really had to push myself to do some things - like write a song for Kids' Club. I was ready to give up on writing the music, but I pushed through and came up with something. And I like it. 

CRUX - I bet none of you knows what CRUX is! And that's okay. CRUX is a discipleship training program that Crossroads has on Thursday nights. Basically, a bunch of 18-35 year olds gather together every week to learn about how to disciple others and make discipleship (training others to be Christ-like) the focus of their life. I love the people here like family, and I've really grown a LOT in faith since joining back in March (ish). People have really pushed me, and I've pushed myself. I'm being discipled by a girl I love and admire, reunited with people from college, and am discipling someone myself. Awesome. See the video below to learn exactly what CRUX is!

Nannying - I'm now a nanny twice a week to two boys in Anderson and once a week to two boys in Madeira. I have to say, I really enjoy it. I think I'm going to pursue a full time nannying job in September once my internship has ended, if Crossroads doesn't offer me a job. It's fun and I love it. Plus, it allows me to be crazy creative. We made fossil cookies the other day. How awesome!

Making fossil cookies with the boys I nanny!

Room Redecorating - I'm really into the whole Pinterest/Etsy/hipster/vintage "style" of decor and clothing recently, so I'm slowing creating and redecorating my room to match that style. It's going well, just very, very slowly due the large amount of other things I have going on. 

Car Troubles - Yeah... my car broke down this morning. The left control arm snapped in half, allowing me the wonderful opportunity to have my car towed. Great. So... there's that. 

New Orleans Mission Trip - That's right! My missions trip to New Orleans is coming up from July 20-28. I'm stoked! I'm leading a group of volunteers, plus another group of vacation Bible camp volunteers. I'm also in charge of leading all the classroom presentations for the K-2 age group at vacation Bible camp. AHHHH I'm nervous but I cannot wait!!! It's gonna be so great! I miss New Orleans. 

And FINALLY... what I believe to be some of the most exciting news yet. I'm opening a new blog. Coming soon... Anchored in Hope! A blog about faith in every day life. I've had a lot of God-related stuff I've wanted to blog about recently, and I think this is a great option - especially since I'm a social media intern for a church! I plan on having a staff of guest writers for this blog, so if you're interested, let me know!

That was a lot of spewing information. I have a lot of product reviews coming up soon, since I'm super behind in them. Yikes. Sorry to the companies who have sent me product! 

Love you all. Talk to you soon, I PROMISE!

Shabby Apple Gift Card Giveaway

I love, love, love vintage. Absolutely love it. 

I was contacted by Shabby Apple the other day, and asked if I would like to giveaway a $50 gift card to their store. Um, heck yes I would!

I worked with them last December to giveaway this beautiful necklace: 

Shabby Apple is an online vintage clothing and accessory store that was created by women, for women. A percentage of their sales is donated to charitable causes regarding women and children. Their products are gorgeous. Check out the Bistro Blouse: 

Alice (Come on - a whole collection dedicated to Alice in Wonderland?!)

Trade Winds

Le Soleil

What would  you buy? 

How to enter (leave a separate comment for each):

1. Like Shabby Apple on Facebook 

2. Tell me what Shabby Apple product is your favorite. Take a look around the site! Leave me a link to the product so I can see!

3. Subscribe to Passing Daisies by email (3 entries)

4. Follow me on GFC or Blogger 

5. Tweet about this giveaway, include a link, and tag @cityxlights13

Don't want to wait to win? Why not order something now!

Well, that's it! The giveaway will end SUNDAY, AUGUST 19TH at 11:59PM EST. Winner must be a resident of the USA. 

Much love,