Winter Wish List

Christmas is just around the corner! In fact we have already started to decorate here at the Park Household. I can only decorate however when Emma is home as I got into A LOT of trouble decorating for Halloween without her!

Well... as we get closer my family continually asks me what I want for Christmas... Here are a few items on my wish list this year.

• Bubble Necklace. I'm loving the bubble necklace trend... trend being the keyword and while I adore the $100+ selections out there... I feel that for an item that I will likely not wear 5 years down the road I should go with a cheaper option like this beauty from Shop Design Spark. At only $34.99 it makes the statement I would want without breaking the bank. I also love that the necklace is white and would go with just about anything.

• Running Shoes... I figure that I better start to exercise at some point
• e-Series Case. I would love to get one of these great plastic cases to hold my xoom in. I think that this would be great for the pool, beach, or bath. The one below is from The Container Store and comes in three sizes ranging from $19.99 - $29.99.

• Tablet and Reader Stand. Also from The Container store is an acrylic stand for my zoom that I can use in the kitchen while cooking. Only $19.99

• Granada Rug. I love the Granada Rug from Ballard Design. I think that the blue would be perfect in my master bedroom and I've been wanting a rug in there for some time now. The rug is pricey at $649.00 but the site frequently offers 20% off.

• The Handbuilt Home. I really have the desire to hand make a piece of furniture. I think that it would be such an accomplishment and I would take such pride to point at something beautiful in my home and say... "I made that." I think that the perfect start would be Ana White's new book The Handbuilt Home. 

• Young House Love. Another book that I would love to get my hands on is the new book by John and Sherry Petersik. I love their blog and cannot wait to see what projects they have been secretly working on for their book.

• New drinking glasses. One thing that Matt HATES about me is that I constantly break glasses. I would say that on average I break one a week... sometimes more. When we registered for our wedding we registered for a ton of glasses knowing that they would get broken and we would need replacements... well a little under two years later we have gone from having 24 large drink glasses to FOUR!!! and I don't even want to get into the juice glass count... I'm Matt's Bull in a China Shop! Well I told my amazing Sister-in-Law about my little glass issue and she raved about the Picardie Glass Tumblers from William Sonoma. While they seem a little pricey at 6 for $30 for full size glasses... It would be worth it if they do not break so easy (Our last glasses were thin... sure Julie that's why you always break them)... Well Anne swears that she has dropped and banged around these THICK glasses and guess what... no breaking. Hope that I will have the same luck.

• Overlays. These lightweight composite pieces allow for a dramatic inexpensive transformation on furniture. While I would LOVE to get rid of our IKEA Malm dressers they still work great and I have other items that I would rather be spending money on at the moment. Also, in 5 years we are going to do a massive addition on our house which will create a new master bedroom and Matt wants to wait to buy expensive new furniture until that time... Well I guess I could settle with creating an expensive custom look with our existing IKEA furniture by using Overlay panels that have been all over the blogs in the last year. I mean look at the dresser below... You would never think IKEA!

• Dried Flower Arrangement. Sounds odd but this is something that I have wanted for three years now... Ever since The Nest Egg opened in Fairfax Corner and I saw their beautiful dried hydrangea flower arrangements. I LOVE having flowers in my house and typically buy them every two-three weeks for my sofa table. But they add up and I always thought that the dried flowers would be a more economic option. You pay a lot upfront but HELLO they last forever. I'm just NOT a fake flower person... I pretty much feel that there is never an appropriate time to have a fake flower except for perhaps a carnation or rose ball that is suspended 10 feet in the air above you and you would never know the difference... personal opinion though. Loving the arrangements from here. Maybe I could even be adventurous and try to make my own arrangement. You can buy bulk dried flowers from etsy

What are you wishing for this year?