Make Your Holidays Merrier!
The all-new version of The Nice List is here!
The All-New Nice List is here!
Introducing The Nice List All Year and The Nice List Christmas Workbook!
THE NICE LIST: PAPER EDITIONS
The Nice List includes two separate notebooks:
The Nice List All Year: a gift-giving tracker to last for years to come
The Nice List Christmas Workbook: a planner for the entire Christmas season to keep you organized and help bring a little sanity to your holiday season
Both are available individually or together as a bundle and are designed to be used in a traveler’s notebook or independently.
FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE:
The Nice List books are designed so that they can be used in a traveler’s notebook -- a simple way to keep them together. For a limited time we will include a FREE handmade, upcycled traveler’s notebook with each purchase of The Nice List Bundle (while supplies last).
THE NICE LIST CHRISTMAS WORKBOOK INCLUDES:
How to Use The Nice List
How to Use The Christmas Workbook
November Calendars: weekly and monthly (undated)
December Calendars: weekly and monthly (undated)
Weekly To Do Lists for November and December (undated)
What Sparks Joy for You? Setting priorities for the holiday season
Budgeting worksheets: to establish a budget for your Christmas season — and for each gift, too
Coupons & Codes: tracker for holiday sales and discount codes
Giving Lists: to help you prioritize where you spend your money and on whom
Thoughts on Thoughtful Giving: ideas for gift giving and reducing the stress of the holidays
Thank You Note Tracker
Holiday Card Tracker
Menu Planners
Baking Planners
Shopping Lists
Blank pages for notes and planning
With a little planning and some careful thought before a gift is ever purchased, The Nice List can help you keep Christmas from spinning out of control and help you find the perspective you need. The Nice List helps you set deadlines to avoid high shipping charges and has a tool for tracking all of those promo codes and sale codes that start to flood your email inbox, too.
The Nice List All Year gives you a place to track all of the gifts you give the loved ones in your life -- not just at Christmas time. It is designed to be used for multiple years and can be purchased separately if you have more than 15 people in your life to track.
THE NICE LIST ALL YEAR INCLUDES:
How to use The Nice List
How to use The Nice List All Year
Giving Records for 15 people covering multiple years
The Nice List All Year is also designed to be used by anyone -- not just people who celebrate Christmas. From Hanukkah to Lunar New Year, Kwanzaa to Eid, and birthdays, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day and more -- record every gift you give and make notes for coming occasions, too.
Plus, when you use The Nice List All Year year after year, you develop a record of your gift-giving, so you never give the same gift twice!
A BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS PLANNER
Not only is The Nice List a beautiful planner, but it also comes with online tools including an extensive giving guide with gift suggestions in every budget for every person on your list — parents, inlaws, kids, friends, teachers. We have suggestions for them all and exclusive discount codes as well.
I love the Christmas season so much I have written what my husband described as my “love letter to Christmas” — The Nice List!
Order your copy of The Nice List today, and give yourself the gift of a very organized and holiday season!
The One Room Challenge Begins!
Exciting news! The Fall 2020 One Room Challenge has begun! Check out all of the details!
You can get all the details on the One Room Challenge and my projects here:
I hope you will stop by!
XOXO
A
Staying Home and Staying Cozy
How are you spending your Coronavirus confinement? I have a few ideas in case you are starting to lose your mind.
My dear friends, it has been a minute! Actually, more than a few minutes. I took some time away from writing to work on other projects, and then COVID-19 happened. One month ago today, in fact, we started to shelter in place. Aside from daily social-distancing walks with the dog and the child, we really haven’t left the house. And like so many of you, I’m juggling school lessons with a spouse working from home and my own work projects, too.
It is a lot.
And let me tell you: if you aren’t ok, that is totally ok. This is a remarkable, historic time. It is scary and insane and strange and monumental all at once. And it is ok not to be ok.
But now that we are a month into this with no real end in sight, I have gathered a few ideas and resources which might help you make your own confinement a little easier.
DIY Face Masks
First, I have put together tutorials for making face masks in three different styles. I have made more than 30 masks, and I tried several different ways to make them. Finally I decided on three different masks that seemed to work best — and are easy to make. If you need to make masks for your family, I hope you’ll try these out. Let me know how it goes!
Hygge Makes Everything Better
Early on I chose a word for this period knowing that a focus would make everything a little easier. My word is: hygge. What’s hygge? It is the Danish concept of coziness, happiness, and goodness — all rolled up together.
Focusing on hygge has allowed us to jump into our confinement with joy and love. My husband travels a lot for work, so having him home for an entire month has been amazing! We are cooking a lot, snuggling on the couch, reading even more, and I’ve taken up needlepoint which is a wonderful distraction.
I have updated my What I’m Reading Now list — lots of good book suggestions!
I am also journaling — sometimes angrily, sometimes creatively, sometimes with great sadness. And we have become Zoom experts — along with the rest of the world — from class meetings to get-togethers with friends.
But I’m also doing a lot of sleeping — or at least reading in bed. And I have some tips for sleeping Scandinavian-style which is all about bringing the hygge into your bedroom. We love it!
Small Home Projects
We aren’t tackling anything big right now. The Spring One Room Challenge was supposed to start on April 1, but it has been postponed to May at the earliest. But we have been doing small projects around the house. Our kitchen, for example: we were supposed to remodel it this spring, but those plans have been put on hold. So we have taken on a few small projects — temporary fixes for a truly dysfunctional kitchen. Small projects like this can ease the daily stress of living in a house that doesn’t work well — even if they are temporary fixes.
Celebrating
I’ll be honest: I didn’t feel much like celebrating Easter. But as the day approached, I realized just how much we needed a celebration in the middle of it all. We have also celebrated two big birthdays for family — one with a Zoom-call party and another with a silly drive-by parade. Life goes on, and we can still celebrate milestones, even if we can’t do it in person as we would like.
And when I did hang the Easter eggs from our branch chandelier and put out the Easter decorations, the change was welcome, and we had a wonderful family celebration.
In the next few weeks I will share some of our favorite recipes and projects. It is almost time to get out into the garden again — despite the fresh snow today! And one day soon we will be back to something that approximates “normal” again.
But until then, stay safe! Wash your hands. Wear a mask. And stay home as much as is humanly possible.
XOXO
Angela
The Thoughtful Giving Guide is Here!
The list of the most thoughtful and useful Christmsa gifts for everyone on your list is now available!
I have been searching all year for unique, useful, and thoughtful gifts, and they are now collected together into one place. The 2019 Thoughtful Giving Guide is here! Enjoy!
Budget-friendly gift suggestions for everyone on your list! Lists include:
My Favorite Gifts | Gifts Under $15 | Gifts for Mid Modern Lovers | Gifts for Children | Books to Give Gifts to Make | Wines to Give | Bubbles for the New Year
Prime Day Deals I Love!
A few of my favorites are on sale for Amazon Prime Day. Check them out!
It’s Amazon Prime Day, and I spotted a few bargains that I wanted to share with you. These are all products I love personally and can recommend highly or that are on my wish list right now. If you aren’t a member, there’s a link above for a free 30-day trial which will allow you to take advantage of all of the Prime Day bargains.
Happy Shopping!
Working
Having a good printer is a must, and I really love my Epson EcoTank printer. I have an older version of this one. Here’s what I love: the ink lasts forever. It is more expensive to buy it, but Epson has changed the printer/ink model. They charge more for the printer, and you don’t have to buy ink nearly as often. The ink also doesn’t come in cartridges. It comes in bottles which you use to fill the tanks — less plastic waste! If you are in the market for a new printer, this is a good one!
When I was traveling more than I do now, I always carried my LaCie Rugged Mini External Hard Drive. It is a great device for offloading photographs while on a long trip — or even for hauling around lots of photos or documents when going to client meetings. Now that it comes in a 4TB size, too, it is even more valuable.
Tired of your office or home never being the right temperature? We recommend a Nest. We have one, and we love it! We easily manage the temperature settings for our house, and save money and energy when we aren’t home without even thinking about it.
Making
I have the Cricut Maker, but this is a great price on the Explore Air 2! And it includes lots of goodies to get you started!
I snagged a set of these. I find I need multiple mats to be more efficient when I am doing complicated projects.
Watercolors just work best on watercolor paper. It’s hard to find it on sale, too!
Reading
As an author, I always try to buy the book instead of checking it out of the library. We have to stick together, you know! But I don’t have room in my house for all of those books! My Kindle makes me so very happy for that very reason. It helps keep our home tidy! Though I do still read A LOT on paper, too!
I can’t stop raving about Madeline Miller’s two novels, The Song of Achilles and Circe. I loved them both, and they are amongst a very few books available for Prime Day. I highly recommend them!
Mothering
There aren’t many books on the Prime Day sale list, but these caught my eye. We love all of them! I Want My Hat Back is especially funny when read almost as a play at bedtime. And the Elephant and Piggie books are fabulous for early readers. The Tale of Despereaux is a sweet chapter book that is wonderful read aloud!
Building
My sister won Aunt-of-the-Year when she gave Bambino the Star Wars Darth Vader’s Castle for his birthday. I am not sure who enjoyed putting it together more — Bambino or my husband.
Bambino also loves this tree house set, and has had hours of imaginative play with all kinds of animals and characters hanging out in the tree house.
This is a great, basic Lego set with some simple instructions for making a frog, a helicopter, and anything else you can imagine. A really good starter or add-on set!
Organizing
I know Marie Kondo says not to buy anything for drawer organizing, but I did buy a set like this which keeps ties, underwear, and tights well-organized in our drawers. You could absolutely do it with a shoe box as she recommends, but I think the dividers in these boxes are just a bit tidier.
I always have a stack of plain paper bags on hand for quick gift wrapping or dropping something off at someone’s house.
My office would be a mess without boxes like these. I keep the clothes that I am selling, unfinished projects, supplies, and those awkward things that don’t seem to fit anywhere else — all in boxes like these. Mine came from Ikea, but I know these are essentially the same. Neat and tidy!
Drinking
Ditch the plastic straws! I like paper straws and try to keep a bunch in my purse, so I can refuse plastic straws when needed. I also like these other reusable options, and just might be ordering some to try them out, too.
Homemaking
Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my Roomba? Nope? Well, it was one of the best Christmas gifts EVER! I absolutely love it, and this is a newer, fancier version which I am eyeing when mine needs to be replaced — but I’ve had it for more than 4 years, and it is still going strong. Dogs? Cats? Kids? Get a Roomba!
My last vacuum cleaner lasted for more than 20 years. I know. It was a workhorse, but when it came time to replace it, I chose one like this Dyson which I truly love. We have had it for more than 3 years, and I am happy with it every time I pull it out to vacuum.
We don’t have one yet, but we just got back from Hawaii where our hotel had Toto Washlets in the bathrooms. It was Bambino’s first bidet experience, and he is on a mission to convert the world now. So this will be on the wish list for our new bathrooms when we renovate them for sure!
Journaling
I am also stocking up on both of these. We go through a lot of glue in our house. I use Super77 when I am art journaling, and both Bambino and I use glue sticks almost daily!
Ok. I don’t have this one yet, but it is on my journaling wish list!
Traveling
Bambino has the best suitcase in the family: a hardside suitcase with spinner wheels. As we replace our luggage, we will all get hardside suitcases like this one.
I’ve written about how Marie Kondo has changed my life, but I’ve never told you about how the KonMari Method has changed my packing practices. Well, it has. And I’ll tell you more about that soon, but these packing cubes are an important part of that practice. They make packing and unpacking a suitcase so much better!
I have a box almost identical to this with which I travel, and it is one of the best little things I’ve ever purchased. I just love it!
If you found any Prime Day deals that I need to know about, leave them in the comments! Ciao!
Thanks a Thousand
I have a whole new section of my website devoted to gratitude this year where I have a guide to writing thank you notes, a review of Thanks a Thousand, and much more!
About fifteen years ago I had the world’s most boring job. There were days when I had nothing to do. Nothing. So I stocked my office with stationery and started most Mondays writing letters and thank you notes.
I left the job, but I kept those habits. This week my first task each day is to write a few thank you notes for the gifts and hospitality I received over the holidays — all of which I wrote down in The Nice List.
My word for 2019 is gratitude and writing thank you notes is one of my gratitude practices. I am not always perfect about doing it, but I feel so much better when I have. Not out of guilt but because it is good to meditate on your blessings and the gifts of time or talent that your receive from others.
So this is my thank you note to each of you! Thank you for supporting me in this new venture. Thank you for buying copies of The Nice List — and for telling me how you have used it! Thank you for being good friends and cheerleaders! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
On one of the opening spreads in my 2019 planner, I wrote this quote: “It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” Brother David Steindl-Rost made that observation, and I encountered a version of that quote in AJ Jacobs’ latest book — Thanks a Thousand — where Jacobs sets out to thank everyone who made his cup of coffee possible.
I have a whole new section of my website devoted to gratitude this year where I have a guide to writing thank you notes, a review of Thanks a Thousand, and much more!
I would be most thankful if you would drop by and check it out! 😉
XOXO
Angela
Thanksgiving Books and our Book Baskets
What’s in our Book Basket right now? Autumn and Thanksgiving books! I have a list of Autumn and Thanksgiving Books for Children today, too. Enjoy!
Thanksgiving is nearly here. Soon many of us will be baking and cooking and roasting — or traveling far and near to join family and friends. The air is crisp. The leaves are nearly gone. And we had a big snow on Sunday, though it is largely gone now. And the squirrels are enjoying the smorgasbord of pumpkins and gourds on our front porch.
I have a Thanksgiving treat for you today! This is our Book Basket…
Actually, we have two — one upstairs and one down. As the seasons change, I collect our seasonal books — Fall and Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Summer, etc. They go into the book baskets so they are easy to find for story time. This way we are sure to read them all at least once during the season. The Thanksgiving and Fall books are in the upstairs Book Basket right now, and yesterday I put the Christmas books downstairs. They will go upstairs after Thanksgiving.
But what is in our Book Basket right now? So glad you asked! I put together a list of our favorite Fall and Thanksgiving Books for your family to enjoy!
After Thanksgiving, I’ll give you a peek into our Christmas books, but I work really, really hard not to move from Halloween to Christmas. I love Autumn, and I’m luxuriating in these last few days.
I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! Follow me on Instagram to see what we will be doing for Thanksgiving — it is going to be soooooo fun! I can’t wait!
Ciao!
Angela
New Today: Gifts!
Today: two gifts — one to keep and one to give! I have instructions and printables for a darling Autumn Bunting project for your home as well as details on the best baby gift ever!
I have been spending a lot of time thinking about gifts and giving as I am preparing for The Nice List to arrive. Have I mentioned that I can’t wait!
Well, today I have two gifts — one for you to give, and one for you to keep!
To give…
Best Baby Gift Ever
My friends and family seem to be in a baby boom! So many babies have been born in the last month! So today I am sharing my favorite baby gift to give. It isn’t expensive, and it is the best baby advice new parents will get! I’m writing about Me Ra Koh’s amazing book Your Baby in Pictures! Check it out!
This is the best gift we received! Find out why and see some of the pics I took of Bambino.
To make & keep…
Autumn Bunting
This week I pulled out our fall decorations, and welcomed fall into our home. I made this sweet bunting for our fireplace, and I’ve written up instructions for you! You may have the materials needed already at home — paper lunch bags and two kinds of ribbon plus the free printables I’ve provided. It is really simple, and looks very cute on a fireplace, a doorway, or anywhere you need a little boost.
Instructions and printables to make this sweet autumn garland for hearth or door.
And as a bonus I have also included a free printable for this cute garland for your door — or a smaller spot that needs a little touch of hygge. You’ll find it on the Autumn Bunting page, too!
Happy Fall, y’all! Wishing you crispy apples, cool breezes, and crunchy leaves today!
XOXO
Angela
