+ 3 IDEAS TO MAKE YOUR HOME SMELL LIKE FALL {+ an APPLE CIDER RECIPE}

I don't know about you, but I love when my house smells like fall.  The smell of apples, pumpkins, cinnamon, cloves, etc. makes me very happy... here are 3 easy ways to make your house smell delectable:

1. Heirloom Pumpkin Candle:

I have tried every pumpkin candle on the market over the years and this one by far smells the best.  It doesn't have that artificial smell that some of the other brands have.  It's a bit pricier, but it lasts for a really long time- and, it's made with natural soy beeswax.   The tins are awesome as well as the glass.  Large tin, small tin, and the diffuser (works just as well if you don't like candles).

2. Cinnamon Broom:

It's not really something I want displayed in my home, but I have found that hiding a cinnamon broom behind the sofa makes the entire house smell as if I'm baking up something delicious!  You can find them at any market, but here is a link in case you can't find one and are interested.

3. Pomanders:

A very inexpensive way to make your entire house smell like fall is pushing cloves into oranges and displaying for all to see (or you can hide them).  You can find instructions on how to make them here. 

Lastly, I'm not adding this to official list- but, my absolute favorite way to make the house smell fall like is whipping up a batch of apple cider (recipe below).  It takes a few minutes to make, but your house will smell divine for hours ;)

6 cups of good apple juice
1/4 cup of real maple syrup
6 cloves
1 orange peel
1 lemon peel
2 Cinnamon sticks

Juice goes into saucepan, add syrup, add the rest of the ingredients into a cheese cloth, and then simmer for at least 10 minutes without letting it boil.

Enjoy!

+ 14 VALENTINE'S DAY TREATS

I had so much fun putting together a list of some of my favorite (or on my wish list) pink, red and heart covered items in light of the upcoming holiday!  Naturally, there are 14 items...

1.  Have you all heard about Mark & Graham ? A new company under Williams Sonoma-  dedicated to all things monograms... there are a lot of wonderful items, but I've had my eye on this bag for a while.  p.s. just saw that they have a free shop code today only-  the code is FREESHIP

2.  Very excited to recently find out about the new "it" flats, Tieks.  I'm currently on their waiting list for the ballerina pink and can't wait to try them out.  I'm hearing a lot of good things about them (Oprah even put them on her favorite thing list)!  I'll have to report back.

3.  How awesome is this I love lists notepad by Paper Source? You can even personalize it... need it.

4. This candle will always be one of my favorites.  The smell is soft and romantic but not overbearing. 

5.  My friend swears by these eye masks but I've yet to try one!

6.  It's no surprise that I've added a Fresh product to this list- the Rose color is perfect for Valentine's day.

7.  Love this delicate pave heart bangle from C-Wonder.

8.  How cute are these heart pj pants?  The price isn't too bad either!

9.  A friend here in the city started an awesome company that produces stylish (yet functional) flannels and I've had this one on my wish list for a while.  The foxes on the cuff are fabulous...

10.  This heart mug is perfect for sipping a cup of coffee on Valentine's Day morning.  p.s. they have free ship today as well

11.  I could LIVE in all of my Old Navy Rockstar jeans.  Now I want them in every color they sell them in.  The pink is a must for February.  I've talked about them several times in the past, but I still can't get enough of them.

12.  My scrub making could sure use this rose oil.  Might need to purchase this and whip something up!

13.  Hunter boots are the perfect travel accessory but sooo bulky.  Pain in the butt to pack.  Stoked they came out with the packable version.

14.  I will always love Rifle Paper Co. cards and this one is perfect for Valentine's Day. 

our wedding: welcome~

welcome to compass rose gardens!

we found out about this venue through word of mouth while staying at the lodge one weekend, side note: i happen to grow up crabbing with my family in bodega bay~ c&c gate initials purchased here

i originally planned to do large hurricanes but found out it was way too pricey so went with mason jars~ i filled them with sand to tie into the escort table ~ mason jars purchased from here, candles from here

welcome book from here

for our welcome table sign: i cut out the flowers from our invites, glued them onto the back of our invites, and then wrote with a white gel pen in the navy stripes, and framed 

for the welcome book: i had multiple sizes of cards made by minted with love notes to c&c using the same floral design from our invites, and then a coral border on the others

pencils: i had love notes to carlee & chris pencils made from here

champagne was served before the ceremony started

passed apps & drinks for after the ceremony

drinks- east meets west- our time in boston represented by the pahkd cah (parked car~ in boston accent) and a sanfran-ito ~navy & white paper straws ~ signs are navy paper with a white gel pen ~ vase from here

coral napkins embossed with a heart and then our initials in gold- turned out to be a much more tedious project than i had expected. took hours...

escort cards: minted printed "eat...THEN DANCE!" chris' idea :) and then we hole punched the cards, wrote with a VersaMarker pen, embossed, then chris tied reef knots on all 120 of the cards- he's a keeper~ placed the cards in two wooden boxes filled with sand

all of these details would not have come together without the help of our awesome team that day, thanks again to our caterers and lovely ladies from enjoy events!

next up, reception details!

*all photos gem photo

+ FALL SPECIAL ADDITIONS

one of my favorite seasonal things is "special editions" of brands that I already love. 

spice cake candles & deep romantic burgundy nail polishes make for fun fall treats.

do you have any fall favorites that are "special editions?"

a little bit of life lately...

I have been posting my favorite candles for a while here on do so I thought it was only appropriate that I post the newest one I picked up this weekend.  Voluspa Saijo Persimmon.  This is a coconut blend layered with juicy peach and red currant.  If you're in the market (I never am I just can't stay away from candles, it's an illness) I highly recommend this one!  I had it burning my bedroom yesterday and I could smell it through out the entire house.

I went wine tasting all day Saturday with friends and ended up at EDK for dinner.  Everything on the menu was delicious, but if I had to pick just one...I'd go with the jalapeno peach martini!

 and the s'mores tart...ok, I pick two.

my fiance made french press coffee with our new fav whole beans by bicycle coffee, a local company based out of the Mission that delivers organic coffee by bicycle all around the city...

there is a new stationery store in the SF Center and it's dangerous. Maido is the name, and they give you  credit for every purchase on a punch card.  Definitely worth a visit...

hope you all had a nice weekend! 

birthday peonies!

I'm back from Lanai BUT wish I could have stayed there forever! Unfortunately, today I had to make my way back to San Francisco. Today is my birthday and that mixed with these peonies are helping make the transition back to reality a bit easier.  I've been thinking about doing a 30 before 30 list this week...but I'm not sure how that will go.  Anyway, I have a lot of photographs from my trip and will post some soon.  Hope everyone had a nice week!

a {short} week recap

1. refinery29 shop crawl was a blast last week {pictured: me, caitilin & taylor} 

2. favorite gluten free pancake mix with blueberries & cinnamon added on the patio

3. delicious treats on the shop crawl

4. san francisco sunset

5. goodies from fresh, i swear by their products & customer service! 

6. view of golden gate on our way out to sam's on the ferry {highly recommend the crab sandwich}!

7. wine at prima palate 

8. cutest shop/salon in tiburon...picked up a candle & lantern shown in photograph 

9. the birds drafting off the back of the ferry!

10. smores' on the patio in the evening 

hope you all had a nice weekend!

*all iphone pics {most are from twitter}

*first photograph is from taylor

obsessed.

with this. 

~giveaway! elizabethW candle!

Last week, I was checking out BAE {a little home decor store in SF} and fell in love with elizabethW candles! I happily purchased the Magnolia scent and can't stop burning it.  

As you can imagine, I'm very excited that elizabethW is giving away one of their delicious candles to a lucky reader! 

 elizabethW candles are 100% soy wax, they all contain essential oils, they are lead-free, with paper-core wicks, and hand poured in San Francisco! They even have a lovely store in Ghiradelli Square.  If you live in SF, I would definitely stop by!

To enter this giveaway...

1. go to elizabethW & come back and leave a comment with which scent you'd pick if you won
2. make sure you're a follower of Deliciously Organized {or subscriber, etc.}
3. tweet, blog, facebook etc. about this and come back and leave a separate comment
4. giveaway ends Sunday, February 13 @ midnight
5. sorry this giveaway is for US readers only

{new} favorite candle.

Growing up, one of my favorite moments was our families arrival to Lake Tahoe.  I would roll down the window and take in the strong scent of the outdoors...which is typically the towering pine trees surrounding the lake.  If you haven't been to Lake Tahoe, it's also a lot like the scent that fills your home when you first bring home your Christmas tree.  I finally found a candle that smells just like that wonderful scent {at whole foods of all places, never know what you're going to find there}.  It doesn't have that fake smell that some pine candles have!  It's called Roland Pine by soap & paper factory.

 Would love to try these ones too {by them}, made for patch nyc:

adore the packaging....

and the candle obsession continues...

after dinner snack: yuzu peach

Since we've been discussing candles this past week {here & here}, I thought I would share a delicious one by illume at target...bella yuzu peach is the scent and it's on sale! Also, how cute is that packaging behind the candle?

Candles: Everyone's Favorites

I personally love suggestions from bloggers {and commenter's without blogs} on their favorite products and have found wonderful items through their recommendations.  Today I thought I would post everyone's favorite candle companies from yesterdays post.  That way we can all have some delicious new candles to try! 

First up is diptyque recommended by A Brit Greek:

and Zara Home Black Vanilla:

and lastly Zara Home White Jasmine:

Danielle from Off the Hanger and Carly Anne from All this is Grace and Charm picked Capri Blue Volcano

Lucinda from PaperJunk-LC loves Trapp Candles, particularly Bob's Flower Shoppe Scent and Red Currant

Chic Coles picked the lovely Seda France

Katie from Good Nite Irene picked  Lafco New York:

favorites...grass, geranium mint and duchess peony

Ginger from Happy House Blog's favorite is Votivo's Red Currant {also one of my favs!}:

Jessica from Lavender and Lilies mentioned the seasonal Williams-Sonoma Candles are wonderful:

Padgett Hoke said the Joya candles are delicious:

and lastly, Bryn from Bryn Alexandra Interiors said the Delirium & Co. candles are amazing:

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!  Can't wait to try all of these! 

blissful candles

I have a thing for candles and have several favorites...

I've always loved Voluspa because they burn forever and smell divine...and recently I found this mini version of the larger tin.  This scent is fleurs de fete.  

You can get them here, but a wonderful little shop called Bliss in Portsmouth, NH sells them {which is where I got mine}.  If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend taking a peek.   

I thought I would show a few images from their site, love the shot with the guitar.

Question: What is your favorite candle company?

+ DIY: MERCURY GLASS

I get several emails about the diy mercury glass that I posted about a while back asking if I have tried it. I never have any advice to give so I thought I would try it myself.  It ended up being a very easy project.  If I had time to do it again I would make a few changes.  Below is the process that I did and I will write what I would have changed:

I used these cheap votives from Michaels:

taped them off {because it's an odd shape, I twisted the paper at the ends}

Here is the BIG change.  I would have used the paint (found here) that was suggested, not the silver.  My Home Depot didn't have mirror paint so being impatient, I went with the silver.

I did about 3-4 squirts of water, and then a couple of sprays of the silver. 

If I did it again, I would have done less of both.  The water left streak marks down the side {see below}, and the silver was too thick. Personally, I think it's all preference.  I rather have less paint, and more light coming through. 

My advice is to do less water.  Maybe 2-3 squirts at the most depending on the size of your votive/vase, and again, your preference.  

I turned them upside down to dry:

and that's it....

you could do a large amount of these without breaking the bank.  I think if you had a patio/roof deck, a handful along the ground or ledge would be really cool.  Wish we did because It was 70 today in Boston! A perfect night for an outdoor dinner party...

*update on mirror paint*

find it here.