the perfect gingersnaps

This LA Christmas wouldn't quite be complete without a cactus, a dinosaur, a little lemon cypress tree in a tin can, and my favorite, ooey-gooey-with-crispy-edges-gingersnaps. If you want your house to smell like Christmas, bake these. We ate so many this weekend, as a late night snack with wine & then again with hot coffee in the chilly morning. I found this recipe from the Creme de la Crumb blog last year and it is still my favorite--chewy and pillowy, impeccably molasses-y. I added a little extra salt, just like my mama taught me, but other than that followed the recipe exactly. The perfect Christmas treat.   

little Christmas bits.

just a few more bits & pieces of Christmas around our little apartment. the cute jars were thrifted and their contents were found on a sunset walk with my sister, along with the giant pinecone which was the ONLY one in the whole park. kind of suspicious, I think, but I grabbed it anyway. We took gingersnaps & scotch shortbread cookies to our neighbors to say hello, but kept a few for ourselves because, duh. those precious stockings were a gift from our sister Katie, and I'm obsessed with them! 8 days, people. but more importantly, only 6 until my golden birthday. so far, I've nailed down brunch plans for the day...which is the most important part, anyway. 

DIY: paper cone christmas trees

We're not getting a tree in our little apartment this year, so I've been doing basically every other little crafty thing to make it look Christmas-y. And things that use glitter are a plus, obviously. So I made these paper cone christmas treees to bring some cheer to our bookshelf, which are the easiest thing in the world: roll up + hot glue square pieces of any paper into a cone, trim off the excess, add teeny-tiny accessories, et voila!  

And, just to add a bit more glitter, I had to make another banner out of these letters I picked up a few weeks ago at Pigment, my new favorite store in San Diego. If you can think of any other possible way for me to add glitter or gold to this set....let a sista know. 

crafting > packing

My parents threw a supah-fun going-away party for my sister & I before a few days before I left for California--a perfect send-off with friends old & new, yummy snacks, lots of bubbly, and a bonfire under twinkling lights. We had such a diverse group of people at their house: family friends going back years, my friends from college, my sister's friends from high school and now...it was just perfect. So much love & joy in one house! 

I was a bit under the weather in the week leading up to leaving, and I just reaaally hate packing but reaaally love making crafts, so I went a little banner-crazy for the party. I hung the pendant banner made from a map of Portland & the CALI BABY banner above the food & drinks, and then made this little sass wall in the hallway, in-between family photos. I was kind of obsessed with it, and it was fun for guests to find themselves on it! I bought a whole pack of this fun sparkly paper, so I'm sure you'll see a million more glittery crafts. The instagram prints are from Origrami, and I adore them! Pretty sure we'll be recreating the sassy wall in some shape or form in our new place...it just seems necessary. 

shout out to my parents for throwing us the party & to all our friends who came! i love you all.