Tis The Season: 5 Holiday Themes To Get You In The Holiday Spirit

I have curated holiday lists for everything you may need to survive the shopping overwhelm of the season — prepping, organizing, hosting, gifting, and of of course… decorating! Because for some people, the idea of decorating can seem overwhelming — where to start, what to buy — I’m sharing 5 themes & color stories to get your inspired with just enough time to spare to get your decor up while enjoying your Thanksgiving leftovers… because round these parts, we decorate AFTER Thanksgiving, and never before.

Here are five holiday themes that you can shop from — mixing & matching is encouraged by the way — to get your in the holiday spirit this year.

Shopping, DesignAlbie KnowsNovember 13, 2023holiday season, christmas, decor styling, shopping, amazon

Creating & Preserving Holiday Traditions + the Traditions We've Started & the Traditions We've Skipped

After a year of unpacking a lot of emotional baggage in therapy, I began to realize that there are already enough “rules” around the holidays & all of my anxiety was self-imposed. The only traditions I needed to observe are the ones we created together as a family - what activities filled our cup and brought us the most joy versus the ones society and/or social media said we should be doing.

Lifestyle, ShoppingAlbie KnowsJanuary 2, 2023holiday season, new year, shopping

Mood Board Inspiration: December 2022

I've never been too much a fan of "traditional" holiday colors, especially when I think about this time of year & Christmas. The widely celebrated holiday has become synonymous with reds & greens, which is likely why I was [consciously or subconsciously] drawn to this palette to close out the year.

ShoppingAlbie KnowsDecember 15, 2022mood board, fall, shopping, holiday season, winter

Getting Ready For Fall: Five Ways To Transition Your Decor From Summer To Autumn

Often, when it comes to seasonal decor transitions, people think they have to go all in with the theme of the season and its holidays... which is fine if that's what you wanna do; however, it's not required. You can still honor the aesthetic of your home while acknowledging the season.

Design, ShoppingAlbie KnowsSeptember 4, 2022fall, decor styling, holiday season, shopping

New Year Digital Purge Challenge

Do you tend to end the year with a purge so that you can start fresh in the new year?

You do a deep clean of everything from the pantry to your wardrobe, donating, gifting, and/or tossing as needed, and when you're done you feel freer, lighter, and excited that you've made room for all new things.

BUT WHAT ABOUT A DIGITAL PURGE?

Business, LifestyleAlbie KnowsJanuary 7, 2022the design influence, designpreneur, technology, holiday season, new year

New Year's Resolutions For Your Home

With a new year always comes new year's resolutions -- all those personal things we want to accomplish over the next 365 days. But did you know that your home affects how you show up in the world? Think about it -- this is the place you eat, sleep, live...naturally how it looks & feels will carry over into how you look & feel.

This is why I've decided to come up with 7 easy resolutions (translation: resolutions that you can actually keep) for your home, to not only help you love your space but also design your life for 2018.

How To Hygge For The Holidays?

Attributed to the Danish, Hygge is finding happiness in the little things and finding moments throughout our day to embrace & create bliss. I grew increasingly fascinated with the concept & principles of Hygge, and the deeper I dove, the more I wanted to learn.

What Hygge represents runs parallel with what the winter holiday season represents — warmth, happiness, coziness, and gratitude.

Last Minute Holiday Gift Ideas (Shopping Guides)

There are two types of holiday shoppers —

the shopper who’s been planning since Labor Day and actually purchasing gifts since Halloween, so on Black Friday, they’re doing “last-minute” shopping
the shopper who only started thinking about holiday shopping after Thanksgiving & isn’t above giving holiday gifts in the new year

I am definitely the latter and I’m willing to bet you are too!

While everyone had their gift guides up and running since November, I decided to put together these last-minute holiday shopping gift guides for us last-minute holiday shoppers.

So what do you get people when you’re shopping at the 11th hour? Yeah, you could start handing out gift cards like they’re candy on Halloween, but I’ve got some better last-minute gift ideas!

ShoppingAlbie KnowsDecember 15, 2021holiday season, gift guides, christmas, shopping

Creating a Basic Hot Chocolate Charcuterie Board

While setting up the kitchen cafe for the season, I stocked up on a bunch of favs for hot chocolate for the family; and now that I have more kitchen (and counter) space, I decided to try something fun this year when it came to what would normally just be a hot chocolate bar. I decided to create my first ever charcuterie board... specifically, a hot chocolate charcuterie board.

Video, ShoppingAlbie KnowsDecember 13, 2021holiday season, hygge, how to, amazon, at home cafe

My 2021 Hygge Holiday Design Plans

Going into this holiday season is the first time I am like geeked to decorate... like actually planning & designing a "holidayscape" versus just picking a color scheme and seeing where it leads me... which is exactly what I would do in the past. I knew the vibes I was looking for & I knew what colors would gimme that. From there, I would just go on a shopping spree of sorts & then figure it all out once everything is unpacked and in front of me. This year - after a year of home improvement projects, deep personal trauma, and just general exhaustion, I decided to reclaim this season. Even as a content creator, I was like I will not be rushed to create or feel forced to perform. I wanted to take my time with this. Who knew the end result would be not one... not two... but THREE holiday designs for the hygge ranch.

Video, DesignAlbie KnowsDecember 5, 2021holiday season, the hygge ranch, youtube

Guest Bedroom Essentials For The Holidays

The holidays certainly aren't the only time of year that any of us may have overnight guests, but during the holiday season — the season of merriment & counting one's blessings — we all want to go the extra mile for our guests.

I've put together a list of essentials that every guest bedroom/suite should have, but this isn't any ol' essentials list — no ma'am (or sir). Each of these items was hand-picked by yours truly to make the holiday guest experience comforting, special, and memorable. But before we start shopping, let's talk about some practical steps to pulling your guests' home away from home together.

Tablescaping for the Winter Holiday Season

While I love to shop — duh! — I don’t believe I always have to buy everything all new every time I want a new look, because no one has that kind of money or storage! When I decided to set the dining room tablescape, this year I pulled out my fav tablescaping pieces from last year — because that’s when almost everything was purchased — and started to plan out place settings with what I had on hand.

5 Online Design Services You Can Offer For The Holidays

‘Tis the season of decorating & entertaining, and while people’s time (and money) may be wrapped up in all the festivities the season brings, as an e-designer you can step in an offer affordable, convenient, and unconventional alternatives to many of the things they’ll already be doing and/or need done.

BusinessAlbie KnowsNovember 4, 2021edesign, designpreneur, the design influence, holiday season

How To Create A Tablescape: Easy Tablescaping Tips & Ideas

Tablescaping isn't exclusive to dining tables, although this time of year, it's often assumed that it is. Any time you're decorating a tabletop surface and/or creating a sort of flat surface vignette -- dining table, coffee table, fireplace mantle, console table, sideboard, bar cart, bookshelf — YOU'RE TABLESCAPING!

Home For The Holidays with The Home Depot

While ideating what Christmas in our new home would look like, I put together a round up of black, white, and gold Christmas decor. In our apartment, our white Christmas tree lived in the dining room, where I would also do light holiday tablescaping. Now having the options to have more than one tree + other trimmings, and tablescape — yay! — The Home Depot was an easy one stop shop for creating our Hygge Holiday Home.

LifestyleAlbie KnowsDecember 23, 2020holiday season, the home depot, the hygge ranch, sponsored post, tablescaping

Shop With Me: Black, White, and Gold Christmas Round Up

It's so funny because I seem to have a habit of moving RIGHT before the holidays — nearly every major move in my has been in the Fall — so I always find myself pressed for time to get myself together to decorate and celebrate. Of course 2020 wouldn't be any different. I'm geeked because, duh, new house; but nervous because decisions have to be made & I don't know that I have the time or bandwidth to make em.

Remember when I talked about saying no to project pressure over on Emily Henderson's blog? Yeah... this is one of those projects I'll likely have to say no to because the alternative would be rushing & doing a half-assed job at what I had in mind, or going balls to the wall & spending an exorbitant amount of money less than 90 days into our home ownership journey.

BUT... that has NOT stopped me from window shopping and oogling everything that I would get, in a perfect world.

ShoppingAlbie KnowsNovember 19, 2020holiday season, christmas, decor styling, shopping

IKEA's 2018 Winter Sale Is Here!

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” Word of IKEA’s annual post-holiday winter sale hit the interwebs & I was all over it, and I gotta say — it’s a good one!Now that the fanfare of Christmas shopping is somewhat winding down, if you’ve been putting off updating your home, this is one sale you’re going to want to get into for yourself. In addition to a whole gaggle of new low prices (like actual pricing, and not just a sale) all over the site, select items are as far up to 50% off online. While you can definitely take advantage of the savings online — which is my fav way to shop — I can guarantee, that you’re really gonna get your money’s worth by actually getting in the car & heading to your local store!

ShoppingAlbie KnowsDecember 26, 2018ikea, holiday season, shoppingComment

Easy Ways to Turn Up The Style In Your Dining Room

With it being the season of good eats & large gathers, it only made sense to follow that up with the dining room! By now, you've learned to how & what to measure for your dining room, so let's talk about really taking it to the next level with these marquee furnishing upgrades.

Albie KnowsNovember 12, 2018dining room, wallpaper, download, design therapy, decor styling, tablescaping, free resource, holiday season, shopping