3 Ideas for Apple-Inspired Wall Decals
Sep.19
WallCandy Arts loves apple season. Our kids are crazy about apple slices, apple cider, apple-based desserts, and afternoon trips to the orchard (here in New York, you can’t throw an apple between Buffalo and Staten Island without hitting an orchard). We’re happy with the apple love around our houses because, no matter which variety we choose, apples are a golden snack – they’re sweet, fiber-filled, and typically under 70 calories.
Once Labor Day weekend has passed and the grocery store’s produce aisle becomes a regular apple variety extravaganza, our nostalgia for autumn is at its peak ripeness. We’re even inspired by the apple’s abundant shape, which is one of the many reasons we created our removable, reusable Big Apple chalkboard wall decal. It’s resilient, it’s classic, and it can help you run a flourishing household. There are many ways to use a peel and stick chalkboard, but we’ve narrowed it down to our favorite three in celebration of apple season:
1. Write down a recipe. First, whip up some homemade applesauce to save for garnishing pork chops and making fudgy (and slightly healthier) brownies. Freeze the leftovers for later. Next, make something delectable to reward your staple stockpiling. We suggest this easy apple crisp recipe from Betty Crocker’s online cookbook:
Ingredients
4 medium tart cooking apples, sliced (4 cups)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of 8-inch square pan with shortening. Spread apples in pan. In medium bowl, stir remaining ingredients until well-mixed, then sprinkle over apples. Bake about 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender when pierced with a fork. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
(We added oven-toasted pecan pieces to ours for extra crunch and antioxidants.)
2. Plan an apple-picking trip. There are at least nine states that can boast a substantial apple crop every fall. If you live anywhere near Washington, New York, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut, or Massachusetts, you’re a simple brainstorm away from enjoying an apple-picking experience. Choose a nearby orchard, block off an afternoon, and gather the kids. In the days leading up to your family’s apple adventure, jot down the details in chalk to keep track of the plan.
3. Encourage better eating habits. According to the Center for Disease Control’s website on the power of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, a 6-year-old girl who exercises between 30 to 60 minutes per day should eat a cup and a half of veggies and a cup and half of fruits daily. Use the website’s handy calculator to find out what each member of your family needs and keep track of individual day-to-day fruit and veggie intakes on a chart you’ve doodled on the chalkboard wall decal. Now’s your chance to practice sketching a few adorable asparaguses. (P.S. One small apple counts as a full cup of fruit!)
Where’s your favorite apple-picking spot? What’s your favorite apple-packed dessert recipe? Leave us a comment and share your apple appreciation.
Football is Back and Life is Good
Sep.15
IT’S BACK!!!!
After the sports drought of summer for gridiron fans, pro football and college football come back each fall to save us from despair just in the nick of time. With so many teams to follow – Penn State, USC, Alabama, Titans, Chargers, Ravens – I’m always challenged to get organized and keep track of what team is playing, at what time, and on what channel…this is hard work! And that doesn’t even include the fantasy players I follow.
Back in the day, I spent time scrawling in pencil on the drywall in the basement or taping up sheets of legal paper until the place looked like a scene from the film Seven. But now, with Wallcandy Arts peel and stick chalkboard wall decals and large stick on white board panels, I can just use the large adhesive decals to keep track of everything. I jot down that the Giants play the Redskins on Monday night and the Titans’ Chris Johnson just rushed for over a hundred yards last week and is on track for a single season title. Life is good! Or, I can erase everything and start from scratch if the Ravens are on a losing streak and I don’t want to look at that ugliness.
Even better, I can peel the material off and place it back on the original backing for transporting to my friend Brian’s house when we watch games there. Because there’s no risk of leaving behind mess or residue on the walls, I’m safe from scuffing up the wall and enduring the wrath of his wife and mine. With Wallcandy Arts products, there’s never a problem.
Baseball is Berry Berry Good to Me
Sep.14
Major League Baseball is entering the final crunch toward the World Series and you need to get those brackets up and running. There’s no better way to keep track than by using Wallcandy Arts peel and stick whiteboard or chalkboard wall decals.
They’re large and can be removed easily and taken to the office to put on the wall near the community fridge… and then removed if the boss objects. (When he or she leaves for the day, just put it right back up and keep on bracketing – it works for me!)
I also like to use WallCandy’s reusable Frames wall decals – they add a retro Polaroid look to pictures of my boy, Derek Jeter, or anybody I think will bring me good luck during the run to the Series. Kurt Gibson and Lou Gehrig are favorites, too.
These removable wall stickers are tailor-made for the sports fan, so check ‘em out!
This Birthday Decorating Kit Requires No Bull
Sep.12
One candle? No way!
As the girlfriend of an Irish lad with a host of small nieces and nephews, I celebrate a lot of single-digit birthdays. Because we were lucky to find an old Queens apartment with a massive living room connected to an equally large, U-shaped kitchen, we regularly host birthday parties for kids (when we’re not respackling the ceiling after the daintiest spring shower, that is).
In fact, we recently wrapped up a first birthday party in early September. Baby James turned one, which meant he didn’t yet have the vocal ability to share any recurring favorite characters or themes to inspire his party decorations. James’s mom and dad planned to stock our apartment with snacks my dearest and I will get to enjoy for weeks to come, so we felt that supplying the venue and decorations was the least we could do. Just as we were wondering how to make his first birthday memorable and easy, on ourselves as well as his parents, WallCandy® debuted the first design in their blooming collection of birthday decorating kits. The kit contains a room’s worth of western-themed wall decals, perfect for celebrating a child too young to insist on decorations that feature a trademarked cartoon character or comic book superhero.
Shopping for party decorations is burdensome; I’ve been to a gigantic party supply store and I could never call the experience anything but overwhelming. Instead of shopping multiple aisles to find complementary or matching decorations, I pressed a button and ordered an all-in-one western birthday decorating kit that just so happened to match a leftover hoard of plain red party servingware.
Once the kit arrived in the mail, I found preparing the party room to be a cinch. The peel and stick wall decals are removable and reusable, so I was able to play with a few different arrangements on the wall before finding one I thought made a lovely focal point. It took less than an hour to create a festive space and I never once worried about the post-party condition of our interior paint job. The cutest part of the kit has to be the bandana birthday bunting, which both inspired and matched Baby James’s party favors, miniature bandanas and sheriff star stickers.
At the end of the party, we returned the wall decals to their original backings and sent James home with some memorable playroom décor to inspire and give setting to any horse operas he might think up as he grows. I suppose we could have kept the kit to decorate birthday parties for other young’uns in the future, but we like to think we’ve planted some western obsession seeds to follow up on once James is old enough to appreciate Gene Autry and John Wayne. And is there a better gift than that?
Decorating a Dorm Room with Removable, Reusable Peel and Stick Wallpaper
Sep.10
Where to begin?
Inhabitants of even the swankiest campus dorm rooms agree – at first, those cinder block walls can be daunting. The wall color is typically an economical eggshell with a dingy yellow tinge, and you don’t have to be a talented interior decorator or celebrated psychologist to know that a week spent with such an icky color can be draining. The goal (and instinct, in most cases) is to personalize and add deinstitutionalized color to a dorm room’s drab walls, pronto.
Unfortunately, a significant roadblock to better dorm room design typically exists. Students who live on campus are familiar with the strict no-tape-no-tacks rules, and even those who dare to repaint with the promise of returning the wall to its original hue at semester’s end risk receiving a write-up once the first round of room inspections commences. Regular glue-reliant wallpaper poses a similar liability, but a quality alternative is newly available. WallCandy® recently launched a collection of removable, reusable peel and stick wallpaper that won’t elicit groans from an overworked campus maintenance staff. It’s a cinch to use, relies on a water-based adhesive that won’t ruin a dorm room’s paint job, and comes in stripes and patterns so cool visitors will wonder if they’ve somehow stepped off campus and into your posh first apartment.
If you’ve never worked with wallpaper before, no worries – this is not your typical wall covering. For starters, no primer, water, or glue is required. As you prepare to begin a full-time campus life, here are five suggestions for decorating a dorm room with peel and stick wallpaper:
1. Create a focal wall. Highlight the unique size and shape of your dorm room by covering the most prominent wall with colorful stripes or an eye-catching pattern. If you’re working with a railroad-style room, consider covering two small walls instead of one large wall. Once the mid-semester doldrums hit, you’ll have the option to change things up without worrying over chipped paint.
2. Design a unique headboard. It’s a cinch to cut each wallpaper sheet with scissors and add a little oomph to an assigned sleeping spot. Trim scalloped or ornamented edges with a quick cardboard guide, and then complete the look with bedding in complementary patterns or bright solids, depending on which wallpaper design you’ve chosen. If the standard-issue twin bed already has an existing headboard, a larger wallpaper headboard behind it will create some dimension.
3. Cover the ceiling. If you happen to like the color your school has selected for painting the dorms but need something other than chunky furniture to break up the monotony, consider adding a layer of wallpaper to the ceiling for a chic overhead view. Hey, it might even help muffle your upstairs neighbor’s midnight bowling sessions.
4. Line bookshelves, drawers, or dresser tops. Those massive textbooks won’t cover all the scratches and scrapes your borrowed bookshelves and bureau drawers have earned over the years. Give subtle spaces new life by lining them with leftover wallpaper and you’ll find that your room’s daily aesthetic value has increased exponentially.
5. Make a nook. Cover two perpendicular walls surrounding a corner desk to create depth and a multiple-room illusion. Decorating a designated space to look significantly different compared to the room around it can open up even the tiniest efficiency apartment and do wonders for a dorm room.
Perhaps the best part of working with removable, reusable peel and stick wallpaper is taking it with you when it’s time to move on. At the end of the semester, peel away each sheet and transfer your wall decorations to their original backing until it’s time to spruce up a new dwelling or give your old home bedroom a makeover.
Got a great idea for decorating a dorm room? Tell us about it! Leave a comment and share your vision for the perfectly adorned campus home.
How to Decorate a Nursery Using Destination Inspiration
Sep.8
We were pretty stoked to see a WallCandy® design in the Fall 2011 edition of Pregnancy & Newborn Buyer’s Guide. The magazine featured our peel-and-stick frames wall decals in a spread suggesting a few ideas for holding a couples-friendly baby shower that doesn’t overdo it on the baby pinks and blues.
Frames are truly among our favorite removable, reusable wall decals because of their decorative versatility. They can be captioned and recaptioned with a dry-erase marker, and just like the Polaroid camera resting quietly among the dustbunnies in your attic, they make any image look coolly vintage.
As kids armed with our own Polaroid cameras, we loved dabbling in landscape photography. While portrait shots of our parents, grandparents, and childhood doggies needed time to appreciate in aesthetic value, photographs of backyard sunsets and mountaintop views from Girl Scout campgrounds were always instantly amazing. Those Polaroid-captured lookouts got us thinking about the places we’ve been and how each destination could potentially inspire us as we were deciding how to decorate a nursery. Any of the following five decorative destination ideas could be pulled together with a few carefully chosen snapshots displayed on the wall in Polaroid style, but we’ll let you use your imagination:
1. Nashville, Tennessee
You won’t need to fly all the way to Music City to find a few country-inspired items for decorating a nursery. Paint the room in shades of moody blue, pose your guitar in the corner near a cozy rocking chair, and add a framed poster of the Parthenon shot during a semi-rare winter blizzard. If you’ve got time to do some hunting, you could easily add a row of baby-themed country records on one wall. Give yourself a big country kiss if you can find “Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On” by Conway Twitty, “Baby Let’s Play House” by Elvis Presley, or “Baby on Board” by The Oak Ridge Boys.
2. London, England
Start with a search for crib bedding and textiles in just the right shade of Tower Bridge blue and top with throw pillows printed with the Union Jack or graphic renditions of famous London landmarks. Add touches of Royal Botanic Gardens with clusters of colorful flower wall stickers near the baseboards or on the wall behind the changing table. Pull the nursery’s theme together by using removable and reusable wallpaper in a London bus print to create an accent wall that doubles as an ode to the oh-so-stylish Brits.
3. New York, New York
Anyone who declares the city to be no place for babies has never fallen asleep to the soothing din of muffled afternoon traffic. If you can paint squares and straight lines, start your city chic nursery with a handpainted black-and-white-checkered skyline. Design your own rush hour motif with peel-and-stick car wall decals that could potentially highlight a crib repainted in taxicab yellow. Complete the look with a removable, reusable apple chalkboard wall decal for displaying a few lines of “Mannahatta,” Walt Whitman’s plush poem about New York City.
4. Eugene, Oregon
If your idea of serene is lined with tall trees, keep Eugene in mind as you prepare the nursery for its peaceful little inhabitant. Choose nursery furniture made with natural wood, and cushy textiles in leafy greens and chestnut browns. Continue building your forest room with a reusable tree wall sticker you can arrange and rearrange to resemble a sweet spring sapling. If you’d like to add some adorably watchful nighttime critters to your baby’s abode, try a few owl wall decals in a kit that happens to also contain a silvery shade tree and matching night sky.
5. Corea, Maine
Spend one afternoon in a maritime museum and you’ll likely emerge an expert on how to decorate a nursery in a nautical theme. Begin by designing a focal wall covered with peel and stick wallpaper in blue and cream stripes. Use the leftover wallpaper to line bookshelves where jars of sea glass can share space with a few decoratively displayed books, such as Lois Lenski’s The Little Sailboat, or Jerry Pallotta’s The Boat Alphabet Book. Add lamps that cast a seaside sunset glow, then create spaces for snuggling with schools of stuffed fish, lobsters, and mermaids.
What’s your destination inspiration? Leave a comment and share your own favorite places and nursery decorating ideas.
BRIGHT BULBS – Night Light wall decals glow beyond energy debate!
Sep.7
WallCandy's "Night Lights 2" decals can brighten up any evening!
Not sure if you’ve been following the ugly light bulb debate in Congress, but there’s been a huge fight over whether Americans should be using traditional incandescent light bulbs (the ones we’ve been seemingly using forever) or more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. The former are much cheaper than the latter, but don’t last as long. Critics of the new efficient curly-Q bulbs say they don’t produce the same brightness or quality for reading light.
You can weigh the pros and cons yourself by clicking below on the comparison chart created by the McClatchy Tribune news wire.
But Congress has strangely overlooked a third and more attractive option: glow-in-the-dark removable wall sticker light bulbs.
Yes, it’s true: WallCandy’s Night Lights decals will add a friendly glow to your child’s bedroom without a single volt of electricity. Go ahead and unplug that incandescent blub night light – and retire it forever even. Stringing these Night Lights stickers along the wall from the windows to the hall will safely guide your little ones to middle-of-the-night bathroom trips or even a midnight snack.
BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED: Night Lights that don't require any electricity but still do the job -- in style!
You get 48 glow-in-the-dark light bulbs and 18 feet of “electrical cord” to festively string them along the wall. Did we mention that the cord also doesn’t add a penny to your utility bills?
Personally, I have fond memories of a glow-in-the-dark monster poster that hung on the back of my childhood bedroom door. The message was “PLEASANT DREAMS!” in a glowing spooky font, with the eyeballs of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and a zillion vampire bats staring at me all night long. Those monsters helped me find the bathroom for at least two of my formative years without a single stubbed toe.
Quite frankly, these Night Light bulbs are a lot classier. And if you are in full decorating mode, the WallCandy Arts classic decal gallery now includes Benjamin Moore paint color suggestions for each sticker set!
(Are you redecorating your child’s bedroom or playroom? Share your before and after pics with us at hello@wallcandyarts.com )
What to do on a Rainy Day – Five Simple Indoor Activities for Kids
Jul.25
Photo credit: Ann Kunst
“Mom, can I go outside now?”
During the summer months, my friend Ann’s two daughters pose this question as early as 6 a.m. almost every day. The youngest one, Emma, opens her eyes to begin planning her outdoor day the second the sun hits the horizon. The eldest, Jane, joins her sister an hour or two later, delayed only by the penchant for sleeping in she’s developed over the past couple of years.
The two girls are happiest outdoors and, for them, any trip to the children’s museum or movie theater must be reserved for days when torrential downpour is persistently visible both through the window and on the weatherperson’s radar. These indoor activities aren’t necessarily the markers of bad days, but Ann says her girls are definitely affected by too much time spent inside.
If you’re a parent, you’ve probably noticed an improvement in your ability to improvise. Denying kids those unique, often bizarre moments of joy that are only accessible before the preteen years hit is like locking a puppy in a closet with only a typewriter – it can feel downright cruel, whether or not your intention is to harvest self-reliance for future disappointments (or Fluffy’s ability to write your blog posts). That’s why parents pretend it’s Halloween nearly every afternoon, play 15 straight games of Crazy Eights each night, and rewrap opened birthday presents on the spot for instant, frenzied reopening.
If your kids adore the outdoors but occasionally find themselves faced with ongoing summer thunderstorms or other fun-blocking disasters, a little creative improvisation can be the cure. When you’re wondering what to do on a rainy day, start with these five indoor activities for kids:
1. Warm up your décor. It makes sense that a child who feels at his or her best while outside playing in the sunshine will feel most at home in a room that exudes warmth. Decorate your child’s bedroom or favorite play area with bright throw pillows, a whitewashed bookshelf highlighted with candid beach photos and a dried starfish or two, and a glorious sun wall decal that begs for basking.
2. Turn your bathtub into a swimming hole. Subtract the usual bathtime soap-up and there isn’t much difference between a kiddie swimming pool and the tub. Suggest your kids don their bathing suits, floaties, and goggles for some wash-free water play and marvel at how much fun they can have shallow diving for quarters.
3. Start up a family-operated seasonal restaurant in your kitchen. Help your kids put together their ideal summer menu with appetizers, salad, a main course, dessert, and drinks. Work together to redesign the dining room atmosphere and create a summer lobster shack or barbecue hut. Once you’ve “hired” a couple of cute chefs who look just darling in makeshift aprons, you’re ready to prepare a delicious meal together.
4. Go camping in the living room. Clear a space for setting up the big backyard tent, or make your own provisional version with sheets and blankets anchored in tall places. To recreate the classic camping experience, make s’mores on the stove, teach a little learner the first few bars of your favorite sleepaway camp song, and decorate the room’s most window-happy wall with strands of glow in the dark wall decals that cast a dim firefly light.
5. Do some dirt-free gardening together. Choose a wall that could use a dose of nature’s finest aesthetics and use peel-and-stick flower wall stickers to design a wild indoor garden. Once you’ve created a colorful natural setting, cover the floor (and any favorite pieces of nearby furniture) with a few old sheets. Grab a few small clay pots (or clear out the collection of pickle jars gathering in the fridge and wash them well), some craft paint, a few sheets of stickers, and a waterproof sealant. Ask the kids to draw blueprints for the coolest flowerpots they can imagine, then help them paint and decorate each pot. Once they’ve finished, secure their work with the waterproof sealant and let the whole shebang dry on the counter overnight. Later, ask the kids to pick out a few seed packets from the grocery store for a sunnier day when you can all enjoy the dirtier aspects of gardening.
For those unavoidable icky days, parents of tiny nature lovers can always use a few good backup plans. Leave a comment and share your own ideas for bringing a little sunshine inside with creative indoor activities for kids.
Homemade Ice Cream Recipes for Planning Summer Dessert Socials
May.11
When I was a kid just old enough to navigate the dry goods in our pantry, my favorite game to play was Pretend Restaurant. My patrons (sisters) ordered spaghetti and steak, so I served them cereal and marshmallows. My middle sister, who is now a chef, liked to feign outrage, become unruly, and refuse to leave without taking an irritating nap on top of my place settings. Pretend Restaurant became much more fun during the summers, when it often became Pretend Ice Cream Parlor instead. I’d spend scorching afternoons watching my grandmother’s electric ice cream maker spin inside its little wooden bucket, ready to serve whatever manner of frozen chunky peach or mint chocolate chip ice cream would appear inside that thick metal container after hours of torturous waiting. My patrons were better behaved during the dessert course, but a surplus of sugar usually led to monkey antics at the ends of their bowls.
Wherever that little ice cream maker is, I bet it still works like new. Since one of my summer aspirations is to host a Saturday afternoon sundae bar soiree with a few pals (and maybe a sister or two, if they can control the urge to digress), I’ll need to browse a few used electronics sections to find one so comparably sturdy and loud. Decorating the adult version of Pretend Ice Cream Parlor should be easy, since I’ve long envisioned shades of chocolate browns glazed and spackled with oversized sprinkles.
One of the latest designs from WallCandy® Arts happens to be an extremely spacious ice cream cone chalk board wall decal. I got a chance to play with it during the ENK Children’s Show in March and immediately bought one the moment it appeared on the website. It doesn’t take much to get me thinking about ice cream, but an adorable person-sized space to play with sundae bar ideas is the stuff dreams are made of. Once my very real ice cream menu has been somewhat finalized and the soiree draws near, I’ll erase my blueprints and use it to display descriptions of my creative toppings for any visual learners I might invite. Or, if I’m feeling like a sharer, I could write my recipe in the sherbetest of invented fonts.
Even if summers are already pretty magical in your house, simply adding homemade ice cream to your summer to-make list will send a psychic shiver of glee down the spines of any child within a 2-mile radius. When it’s your turn to host a play date, suggest the kids decorate their imaginary ice cream shack and while you taste your way through the various stages of sorbet-making and topping chopping.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, start with this basic single-serving homemade ice cream recipe from curvygirlguide.com to satisfy summer cravings without making a dessert run:
Ingredients
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size sealable plastic bag
1 gallon-size sealable plastic bag
ice cubes
Directions
Fill the large bag half full of ice and add the rock salt. Seal the bag. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag and seal it. Place the sealed small bag inside the large one and seal the large bag carefully. Shake until mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes. Open each sealed bag carefully and enjoy!
For a more grown-up ice cream party, try this homemade raspberry buttermilk sherbet recipe from foodnetwork.com:
Ingredients
6 cups raspberries (5 or 6 pints)
1/4 cup 100% grape or apple juice
1 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and freshly cracked pepper
Directions
Puree the raspberries, juice, and sugar in a food processor until smooth. Pour through a mesh strainer into a bowl and discard the raspberry seeds. Stir in the buttermilk, cream, and a pinch of salt, then cover and refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours. Serve sprinkled with pepper.
I’m personally going to try my hand at a sherbet punch ice cream. I haven’t found a solid recipe yet – at least not one that includes any warnings about turning the punch into a solid ice cream – but experimenting with dessert sounds about as risky and intimidating as laying on a beach in Bermuda. I’m sure it’ll be fine, as long as no one demands a sample before my concoction’s official Pretend Parlor debut.
Toast the Royal Wedding with Hip Housewares and a Fairytale Sale
Apr.28
Only 24 hours to go! (Photo credit: Chris Ison/AP)
With Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton only one day away, Royal Wedding Fever is at its most contagious. If you find yourself scowling at your spouse’s sudden obsession with E!, your dental hygienist’s plan to host a WilliKate lookalike party, or your cubicle neighbor’s suspicious new accent, just breathe and remember it’s perfectly natural to find the British monarchy fascinating, if only because any governing organization that dates back to 400 A.D. makes our own political pot look so shallow. If you’ve watched even 20 seconds of The Tudors by accident (or the entire series in one shameless sitting, thank you very much), you and I probably share a category – temporarily interested, but only because it’s more tantalizing than baseball or bickering politicians. Yawn.
If there’s one thing about the Royal Wedding I’m enjoying, aside from a wicked case of gown anticipation, it’s the opportunity to save on a few Kate-inspired fashions or home accents for my own Buckingham Palace, which is slightly smaller and much more prone to hosting city mice but still my favorite place to fix up and Feng Shui. I appreciate any occasion that inspires my favorite designers to add new items to already fabulous collections and oft-visited stores to knock a few bucks off the things I’ve been eyeballing for weeks but avoiding due to a mysterious wallet drought. (If you know a few stores who are taking advantage of the Royal Wedding by allowing me to take advantage of a sweet sale or two, post a comment and clue me in!)
Brandon and his Union Jack
I admit that I never paid much attention to the Union Jack until I visited the humble abode of WallCandy®’s leading lady. I’d seen that most famous of flags numerous times on postcards and flagpoles – and once on a well-sculpted forearm – but its place in the Hall of Style Icons is hard to recognize without the proper medium. As a high-quality home accessory carefully planted among complementary shades and shy standards such as, say, a quilted maple bench purchased straight from the furniture maker’s dusty warehouse, the Union Jack truly stands out as a lovely bit of geometry done up in bright, classic colors. One of the most noticeable items in Allison’s house is the crown in her son’s bedroom, a thick Union Jack throw rug, which I daresay he’ll enjoy as a bit of warm-but-masculine décor well into his teenage years.
The Union Jack toolbox
In case you were wondering how cool the Union Jack can get, take a look at the newest addition to WallCandy’s hip housewares collection, the Union Jack metal toolbox by Alice Supply Co. What better way to commemorate Prince William of Wales’s terrific taste than to treat yourself (or your hosting dental hygienist, who just might know the secret to making homemade Aero bars) to the most stylish method possible for keeping up appearances? Use it to keep jewelry in a safe place, corral day-to-day supplies, or give an inherited tool collection a proper home. However you use this sturdy does-it-all, you’ll surely fall in love with a classic historical icon that just happens to be an effective space-sprucer all on its own.
WallCandy’s own Royal Wedding celebration doesn’t end with a groovy toolbox. From now until May 7, every item for sale on the website is 10% off – simply enter the code royal10 during the checkout process and save on a few fun things that will surely last way longer than the televised exchanging of vows.
Queen Elizabeth II prefers sprinkles.
Anyone itching to start a new season can score a pack of large whiteboard wall stickers or a chalkboard wall decal for planning a warm weather bake sale to christen the newly green front yard. Once rampant Royal Wedding Fever has subsided and we can all unglue our eyes, help your kids plan a menu of royally decorated pastries on our spacious cupcake chalkboard wall decal, throw those windows open, and let the scent of springtime baking permeate the neighborhood with the sweet smells of reality. When the first batch is sold out and everyone’s enjoying a sugar coma, it’s a cinch to move any of our reusable chalkboard decals to the playroom wall for an entire summer spent pretending to be the Royal Family’s official caterers.
