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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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Things I’m Gifting, and My Picks While Online Shopping

November 27, 2016

Not to brag, but I’m about 72% done with my holiday shopping and feeling pretty good about it. We bailed on the brick and mortar Black Friday shenanigans this year in favor of online browsing, and some of the deals have been just too good to pass up. Less time standing in store lines = more time to scour the ‘hood with the kids on a mission to find the most realistic Santa.

Anyways, the online shopping stuff. In addition to ordering our custom holiday cards, we’ve hand selected a few special things for our people this year, and I thought you might enjoy seeing a round-up of some of them (and other things I really liked too). Minted sponsored this post and allowed me to incorporate affiliate links, but the items I’m choosing to feature are my own, and many of which are things I actually bought. Happy shopping!

On the low end, $:

  • I really liked the colorful and whimsical stationary options for myself, but especially loved the designs targeted for kids and tweens. So cute! And happy. So much easier to get kids to scribe handwritten notes on fun paper. (Similarly, the notebooks, thank you notes, journals are all fun small gift ideas for kids, adults, teachers, bosses, etc.) The science lab stationary note paper that I customized for Julia came with envelopes, and I know she’ll appreciate having something that’s all for her.

Stationary customized for a tween who loves science from Minted.

  • Custom clothing and name labels are great too – and I love gifts with purpose: These things stick to anything (jackets, backpacks, water bottles, foreheads). They withstand the washing machine, dishwasher, and are nice to have when you have items stored at daycare or camp. Minted has a LOT of design options for kids of all ages. The rainbow design I selected for our daughter, below, is by artist Shirley Lin Schneider.

Sticker labels for jackets, backpacks, water bottles, and all other school and daycare items. Label design from Minted.

In the middle, $$:

Man, I really love prints from Minted. At Minted you can find items in a broad range of cost and style. The size of your print is the main factor dictating the range in cost. The variety of independent artists featured means something suitable for everyone, but since it’s the holiday season and you’re probably searching for something just a little more personalized, I’m going to suggest you browse the section of the site dedicated to completely customized artwork.

From letterpress location maps created in a range of colors, to custom silhouettes created from your own photographs you can create your own art for Dad, Grandma, etc. You can buy the prints, or order it with a frame. My pick below? It’s a custom print from Sam’s 1-week photoshoot applied to the Circle Dots Art Print.

A customized photo from Minted.

Worth the splurge, $$$:

  • I might admit, with a bit of patience I could probably make something sort of like The Little Artist Shelf™, but for the cost and quality buying it would be a nice indulgence.
  • The Artful Shelf™ made of copper is really beautiful too, artistic in its own right. It’s something I definitely wouldn’t be able to construct myself, and I like that it (like all shelves) can be ordered in a variety of lengths.
  • Don’t tell the kids, but this teepee is going to be a gift to all three of them on Christmas morning. I had 30 minutes free earlier this week and assembled it lickity-split just to show you what it looked like. Kind of bummed that I had to take it down immediately before they got home from running errands, and looking forward to setting it back up for Christmas morning. They’re going to dig it, and I bet your kids will too. It’s SO TALL compared to a lot of the other play teepees I’ve seen sold (well over my own head), and while I picked one of the designs where the fabric options were pre-selected, you can also choose your own fabric options.

A tall kid's teepee from Minted as a Christmas surprise for our kids.

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Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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    Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️ Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️
    Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garl Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garlic went into the home garden: 10 rows [L>R] 6 whole Nootka Rose as an experiment, 3x8 Mennonite-grown cloves from Aman’s, and 6x8 (and, I think, total 112? notes are cryptic) “normal.”
#gardennotes #growinggarlic #garden2023 #whatisnormal #merrypadathome
    Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of mind! #garden2024 kicks off with my favorite biennial: elephant garlic! 15 cloves planted from small, to medium, to enormous. #gardennotes
    Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this i Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this is getting ooc, and I love it. 👩‍🌾🧑‍🌾

🧄 65% of the planting is in a new plot in the country. 🧄 Seeing if NR grows bigger with more sunlight. 🧄 Big @chasefarms cloves from 2021 were really productive in our home garden; can’t wait to see how they can show up next year in the new space. 🧄

Hand-turned a small bed, but big thanks to my sister, who rolled into town just in time to help me double its size (and did not complain once).
    One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stal One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stalks and 7 scapes, and I can’t wait to see this mammoth looks like when it’s pulled next month. #garlic2022 

Also, fierce springtime performance by parsley, chamomile, and self-seeded cilantro.
    Annual garlic notes #garden2022 ~315 cloves total Annual garlic notes #garden2022
~315 cloves total
50 in new, unfenced garden
Still need thick mulch on everything
Did a terrible job tracking varieties when I harvested, so it’s all a mix of hardneck now 😒
Added some big cloves from @chasefarms and look forward to adding some @fruition_seeds in #garden2023 when @porterfarmscsa delivers.
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