Category Archives: holiday 2013

Holiday gift guides, new finds, tips and tricks, and everything you need to make this year’s holiday season a success!

giving thanks

thanksgiving pie, via shopping's my cardio

I’m baking up a storm this Thanksgiving! 

I’m taking a little break from our gift guides today to wish you and yours a very, very happy Thanksgiving. Whether you’re cooking for 20 or ordering pizza, I hope you’ll have a moment or two to take a deep breath, look around, and enjoy the start of the holidays (before it turns into an official onslaught of insanity).

I’ll have our last expert gift guide for you over the weekend – it’s a goodie! – and in the meantime, I’ll be sharing all of the Black Friday sales (plus Small Business Saturday, plus Cyber Monday…sheesh!) I hear about on Facebook and Twitter, so be sure you’re following me there. There are a staggering number of deals in my inbox already, so hang with me there, and I’ll keep the discount codes coming!

Last but not least, friends, I just want to say – this year, I’m thankful for you. Each and every one of you. Whether you read SMC every day or just once in a while, whether you comment all the time or have never said a word, I really do consider you a friend. And I’m so very, very happy that you choose to spend a few minutes of your day with me.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

xox,
B

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gift guide: joy gryson’s finds for the SMC girl

{Editor’s Note: This year, I’ve asked a few of the people whose style I spend all year admiring to share their holiday wish lists. Stay tuned – we’ll have a new expert every day for the next two weeks!} fashion gift guide

I’ve been a fan (bordering on a groupie) of Joy Gryson‘s since she debuted her very first collection…even her very first bag. In fact, I still have my original Skye bag, and I still get stopped on the street every time I carry it. Joy started out designing for big names like Coach and Calvin Klein, and was the Director of Design at Marc Jacobs (where she designed most of their now-iconic styles) before she left to found her own brand in 2006. Since then, Gryson has grown incredibly, but that impeccable quality and thoughtful attention to detail hasn’t changed a bit. What I love most about Joy – besides the fact that she’s a superstar designer who is so friendly and down-to-earth that she still answers my emails personally! – is her ability to seamlessly blend an uptown aesthetic with downtown hip.

Just as I’d hoped, Joy’s wish list is packed with picks that would be just the thing for a girl whose style is classic with a touch of edge…in other words, you and me! I don’t know about you, but this is the list I’ll be forwarding directly to Santa.

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gift guide: bridget watson payne’s finds for the art lover

{Editor’s Note: This year, I’ve asked a few of the people whose style I spend all year admiring to share their holiday wish lists. Stay tuned – we’ll have a new expert every day for the next two weeks!} gift guide art

I love my artistic friends. I love their free spirits, their creative thinking, and the way they can just whip up a thing of beauty with a few brushstrokes, a twist of wire, or the click of a shutter. Alas, when it comes to gifting for them, I’m utterly at a loss…my standard grey sweaters simply will not do for this crowd. And so, I’ve enlisted one of the most creative, artistic ladies I know to help us out. Bridget Watson Payne is the Art Editor at Chronicle Books, which means she has a direct line to whatever magic juice it is that makes those artsy friends of ours tick! If that’s not enough, when she’s not ushering new talent through the publishing process, Bridget writes a beautiful blog that shows off her adventures and finds in the art world. I can’t even look at today’s gift guide without my creative wheels starting to spin.

Oh! And how’s this for good news: As it turns out, Chronicle is running a pretty amazing Friends & Family this week. Get 35% Off Everything + free shipping with code FRIENDS. Happy holidays, indeed!

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gift guide: toni & ben’s finds for the hip couple

{Editor’s Note: This year, I’ve asked a few of the people whose style I spend all year admiring to share their holiday wish lists. Stay tuned – we’ll have a new expert every day for the next two weeks!} gift guide couple

Here’s one of the (many) ways I can tell I’m not hip: while reading Toni Hacker and Ben Harnett’s guide to everything a hip couple could possibly want, I kept intermittently exclaiming “What in the world is that?”…followed closely by “Dang, that’s so cool!” (I mean, really….kinetic sand?) But that’s exactly what I’d expect from the brains behind one of my favorite handbag and accessory lines, Hayden-Harnett. These two Brooklynites just can’t help but be hip! Whether you’re looking for one gift you can give to that couple you double-date with every Saturday, creative ideas for your other half, or a few things for your own wish list, Toni and Ben have come up with a dozen finds guaranteed to put you on the short list for Most Popular Couple.
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gift guide: nichole robertson’s finds for the francophile

{Editor’s Note: This year, I’ve asked a few of the people whose style I spend all year admiring to share their holiday wish lists. Stay tuned – we’ll have a new expert every day for the next two weeks!} french gift guide

I was about to launch into a long story about how much I love Paris. But really, who doesn’t love Paris? Who isn’t fantasizing about jetting off to the City of Lights at the first available opportunity? And therefore, who wouldn’t want a chic Parisian souvenir for the holidays? Nichole Robertson is one-half of the duo behind Obvious State, and the incredibly talented photographer/author of Paris in Color, her gorgeous (and Daisy-approved) series of color-themed snaps of her daily life in the City of Lights. Yes, you heard me. Her daily life. Because you see, besides being a bestselling author, Nichole gets to spend a few months a year living in Paris – eating croissant, drinking café au lait, and imbibing in that quintessentially French je ne sais quois.

Nichole is also seriously committed to supporting the wonderful world of handmade, so brace yourselves for some highly covetable Etsy finds in this lot. And PS: if anyone’s looking for a gift for me? I’ll take those Obvious State black & gold Paris prints, please.

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gift guide: kricken yaker’s finds for design devotees

{Editor’s Note: This year, I’ve asked a few of the people whose style I spend all year admiring to share their holiday wish lists. Stay tuned – we’ll have a new expert every day for the next two weeks!} design gift guide

I’d have to ask her (über-talented) husband to be sure, but I have a pretty good feeling that Kricken Yaker is one of those people on your gift list. The one who is so far ahead of the trends, she’s already over things you haven’t even heard about yet. The one whose house you walk into and spend the next hour trying to suppress the urge to Instagram every perfectly-styled bookshelf and expertly-hung art wall. In other words, the one you’re completely stumped by.

Luckily, Kricken isn’t just one of the most talented interior designers I know, she also has a gorgeous store – Vanillawood – stocked to the gills with exactly the kind of gifts you’ll need for people who are, well, a little intimidating. For the person on your list whose shelves are stacked with books by Kelly Wearstler and David Hicks, who knows her John Robshaw from her John Derian, and whose house rightfully belongs in the next issue of Dwell, trust me – Kricken’s guide is going to be a godsend.

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gift guide: laurie jesch-kulseth’s finds for the master chef

{Editor’s Note: This year, I’ve asked a few of the people whose style I spend all year admiring to share their holiday wish lists. Stay tuned – we’ll have a new expert every day for the next two weeks!} gift guide foodie

If you’ve been reading SMC for any length of time (hurray!), you’ll have noticed that if there’s one thing I love as much as shopping, it’s food. I have too many a fair number of food blogs on my reading list, but I love none better than Laurie Jesch-Kulseth’s Relishing It. If you’re in need of a food blog that doesn’t give you pangs of anxiety, Laurie is definitely the lady you’re looking for. All of the talent with none of the hype, Laurie’s recipes are creative but approachable, her writing is full of helpful ideas, and not once have I made something of hers that didn’t turn out to be completely delicious. Plus, I’m a sucker for a little Midwestern charm, which Laurie has in spades. This is a girl who knows her way around the kitchen. Who better to help you pick the perfect gift for the finicky foodie on your list?

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gift guide: alle fister’s finds for the cool cali girl

{Editor’s Note: This year, I’ve asked a few of the people whose style I spend all year admiring to share their holiday wish lists. Stay tuned – we’ll have a new expert every day for the next two weeks!}

Back when I was but a wee fashion blogger, knee high to a grasshopper, Alle Fister was the very first PR person I ever worked with! Since we first met all those years ago, her career has skyrocketed. From being Shopbop’s first PR Director back in their startup days to her current role as the founder of one of the most successful PR firms in the biz, Alle and her team at Bollare represent everyone from VANS and Timberland to Rachel Palley and Kevyn Aucoin.

As you might expect of someone with this level of insider access, Alle has an undeniably cool sense of style, and an innate ability to spot (or set) a trend from a mile away. A Malibu girl through and through, Alle knows her way around a surf shop, but she’s tuned into every single trend, and always, always knows what’s next. She exudes California cool from every invisible pore.

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