Owls in fashion

Owls are in everything these days. The interesting bird has left the obscurity of the night to come to light in jewelry designs, accessories, ornaments and even wrapping paper.

I remember Kelly Bensimon the former model-turned-editor-turned reality star in The Real Housewife of New York presenting her owl inspired jewelry line. Later on I saw “very similar” designs in Forever 21.

Owls are now in a lot of beautiful objects. I love the wrapping paper, that I saw in Decor8, it is different and cute. The hair band in the picture is by Marc Jacobs. I wonder for how long the owls are going to enjoy the light before going back to darkness.

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More gift wrapping ideas

I love to wrap gifts and I am always looking for interesting designs. I found these pictures I hope you also enjoy the designs.

The Shabby Chic design is so simple and romantic. I also like Sweet Paul's idea of creating initials with wire to add to the ribbon. I like them all.

Gift wraps

I love to give and to receive beautiful gifts, and by that I mean beautiful wrapping. The conservationist in me struggles with the fact that we waste so much just wrapping gifts. Most of the wrapping is not remarkable and goes to the garbage without even looking at it.

There are many ways to wrap gifts in an eco conscious way.
1-The best way is to reuse what we have and use our imagination to create beautiful new wraps. These include paper and ribbons from gifts we receive, shopping bags, magazine or newspaper pages etc.

2- Another way is to use reusable material such as tablecloth, towels or similar to wrap the gift, in this case the wrapping is part of the gift.

3- Use natural materials such as flowers, leaves etc.

I hope you enjoy the samples and inspire you to create memorable eco conscious wrapping.

My favorite things from Oprah's favorites

Yesterday Oprah presented her highly anticipated "Oprah's favorite things," an episode in which she shares with the audience her favorite things and the lucky ones who attend the show get to take home one of each of these articles.

In previous years I have checked out some of her recommendations for gifts and for myself. She is very influential in shopping habits. I remember a few years ago she picked one item from the Bath and Body Works products (a pumpkin mask or something similar) and I wanted to buy the product, but it was sold out for months after her program aired.

Obviously not every object on the list is of everybody's liking. So I thought I will pick my favorite things form this year's list.

Samsung SC-HMX10C. This camcorder is small and powerful at the same time. It is not cheap at almost $800.

Toywatch watches. I love the colors; Oprah also does. These watches are a great gift. They start at $150 and go all the way to $1,500.

The Artisan Stand Mixer. This is a classic appliance in all American kitchens, has wonderful quality and looks so beautiful. I do not have a mixer (because I do not bake much), but I have always wanted one.

The Discovery Channel's 11-part series Planet Earth. I watched the whole series (I think) on TV, and as Oprah said, it is breathtaking. Our planet is so beautiful and there are so many unscrupulous people trying to destroy it
for money or convenience.

I picked 4 out of 20. I also like the movie collection, but at almost $900, it is a bit expensive.

A few years ago I cooked Oprah's suggested menu for New Year's eve, the whole menu for 2. I had a hard time getting all the ingredients, because I did not know some of them, but it was easy, different, low cost and really delicious. I looked for the recipes to include them in this post, but they are not in website anymore, but I think I will try some new recipes this coming holiday season.

You can see some of the products: Oprah's favorite gifts 2007