How-to-Tuesday: Holiday Wreaths

Our spoils from the floral market

An easy but fun way to spruce up your home during the holiday season is by hanging a few fresh, floral wreaths. Now, while the task of making your own wreaths may seem a little daunting at first, we hope today's post will show you that the entire process can actually be quite simple. Being wreath making novices ourselves, we started out by drawing inspiration from a lovely book we carry here at the store, The Wreath Recipe Book by Alethea Harampolis & Jill Rizzo. While we didn't follow any of their tutorials exactly, their book is certainly full of all sorts of wonderful ideas that got us off to a great start.  

Wreath #1 Ingredients: Foraged Sticks as Base, Eucalyptus Pods, Seeded Eucalyptus, Brunia, & White Lysimachia  

Wreath #2 Ingredients: Sandblasted Manzanita Branches as base, Eucalyptus Pods, Assorted Mums, & Wooly Bush

This final wreath is one that we came up with ourselves. What we love about it is that other than the antlers & the ribbon (which you can pick up here at The Paris Market), all of the other materials can be foraged right from your own backyard. And that's the great thing about making fresh wreaths in general, while we used pine, juniper, purple seed eucalyptus, pine cones, & sticks, you can use whatever you have on hand or can find outside around your house. 

Holiday Inspiration: Red, White and Blue

The Fourth of July is right around the corner and we're excited to celebrate our independence the good ol' fashioned American way! We're all set to fire up the grill for a relaxing day filled with endless snacks, plenty of sunshine and fireworks as far as the eye can see! And here at the store, we've already begun celebrating by flaunting our best shades of Red, White and Blue! We've set aside a few Fourth of July must-haves for any holiday shoppers out there. So, if you're looking for just the right thing to kick off Independence Day, swing on by the store! We'll outfit you with enough celebratory gifts you'll be seeing red, white and blue for a week straight! Have a happy Fourth!

Happy Memorial Day!

Today officially marks the start of Summer vacation. Which, for many means school is out and the beach is in! But, more importantly, Memorial Day is a day for us to remember and to celebrate the men and women who have died while serving in the country's armed forces. In honor of this Federal holiday, we thought we would grab a few of our favorite Red, White and Blue products to celebrate with on this Memorial Day Monday. So kick back, relax, fire up the grill and enjoy this restful holiday. See you at the beach!

Available at The Paris Market.

On the Shelf: Easter Treasure

Time never ceases to amaze us. It feels like Christmas was just yesterday and now Easter is less than a month away! And before we know it, the summer will have already come and gone. Hopefully this isn't the case, but either way, it's a great reminder to enjoy each present moment, because it will be gone in an instant! Seeing as the holiday is right around the corner, we've begun preparing the store for the Easter Bunny's arrival! Flowers, eggs, cards, bunnies and so much more are hidden throughout our entry display just waiting to be found! Stop by soon and stock up on your Easter treats before it's too late!

Currently Inspired : The Game of Dominoes

While we're not necessarily "gamers" here at The Paris Market, there are a few games that we love to play when we have the opportunity, and with today being a holiday we thought we'd share one of our household favorites! A game that is centuries old, Dominoes first originated in China before making its way to Europe and finally the United States. Like a deck of cards, there are many different ways to play the game, however the most the most common types fall into two categories, blocking and scoring. In blocking the main objective is to empty one's hand while blocking the opponent's. In Scoring the scoring happens during gameplay and is the main objective of the game. No matter which way you play, Dominoes is an amazingly simple and fun game to get into with friends and family. Playing traditionally is lots of fun, however after we've grown tired of being competitive with one another, our favorite thing to do with Dominoes is to take the tiles, stand each one upright in a successive line or spiral and knock them down! You'd be surprised how fun it is to watch them fall one after the other in a perfectly orchestrated pattern. Just give it a try! We hope everyone has a fun and relaxing holiday! Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. day!

The day after Chrismas...

It's always hard to know how to treat the day after Christmas. So much has been building up to the most magical day of the year, how do you come down from that? For most it's a time to relax and take in the beauty and the business of the day before. For the still young at heart its a day to play (or display) with all the goodies you received on Christmas morning. For the grinch among us, its time to start tearing down the tree and trimmings, and go back to business as usual. Wherever you may be this day-after-Christmas, we hope you had a beautiful holiday filled with loved ones and good cheer! We're taking today (and as many of the next few days as we can...) to hold on to the magic of this time of peace and joy just a little bit longer. Snuggle under the tree at least one more evening, and take in this special time to be with loved ones. We've had a wonderful season of decoration preparations, and hope you've enjoyed it as well! If you waited too long to pick up that special something this year (or are already thinking ahead to next year...) come by the store and check out the lovely Christmas ornaments that are still on display- starting today all Holiday decor is 50% off!
Wishing you all a weekend of warm wishes!

Holiday Inspiration: Christmas trees

Embarking on a family outing in search for the most beautiful Christmas tree is always one of our absolute favorite holiday activities. Choosing the right size, shape, smell, color and making sure the needles aren't too prickly is all part of the joy of discovering the perfect tree. Being one of the most popular holiday traditions, the Christmas tree is a very old custom developed in early modern Germany with predecessors dating all the way back to the 16th century! We don't have to spell out every reason why we love Christmas trees, however we will mention that we love them so much so that we like to decorate the house with not just one tree, but a whole forest's worth! We don't mean a living room full of ceiling scraping trees, but trees of all sizes, from 2 inches to 2 feet. Whether they're hand carved from wood, dappled with snow, sparse or fully decorated, it's the variety we love most! Our favorite way to decorate is to mix several shapes and sizes, making a personalized collection to help liven up a mantle, tabletop or shelf with all of the holiday cheer the traditional Christmas tree has to offer! Happy tree hunting and decorating!

Available at The Paris Market.

Holiday Inspiration: Mercury Glass Ornaments

Always a Paris Market favorite, silvered "mercury" glass is considered one of the first true "art glass" types, that is, glass that was made for display and for its inherent artistic value rather than for utilitarian use. Originally produced in the Czech Republic dating back to roughly 1840, mercury glass quickly became popular throughout Germany and England before making its way to the United States. In order to create mercury glass, a glassblower must make a double walled glass first, while adding silver between the layers with a liquid silvering solution, which is then sealed. Although mercury was originally used to provide the reflective coating for mirrors, elemental mercury was never used to create tableware. Nowadays, traditional techniques are no longer implemented, including the double wall and solid bottom found in authentic mercury glass decorations. Call us old fashioned, but mercury glass ornaments never seem to go out of style! Eternally classic and always beautiful, the silvery shine of mercury glass always adds that extra Christmas glint to the rest of our holiday decor!

On the Shelf: Marvelous toys for girls and boys

A recent addition to The Paris Market, and one of our absolute favorites as well, are these adorable, hand painted dolls by Blue Raspberry Designs. Founded by Valentina Felce, Blue Raspberry offers "marvelous toys for girls and boys". Each doll is delightfully unique and made by entirely by hand. After dabbling in different fields, Valentina discovered her true passion in illustration and making toys that represent those illustrations. Although we love all of Blue Raspberry's Designs, one of our favorites is the gentleman pictured below, who is actually the artist Salvador Dali! Complete with his famous mustache and melting clocks tattoo, this little guy is definitely on several of our holiday wish lists! Perfectly acceptable for children of all ages, Blue Raspberry Designs' dolls are guaranteed to make someone very happy this holiday season!

Available at The Paris Market!