What to do with all those leftover calendars

I have a heaping helping of paper lust and an equal helping of garbage guilt and therefore this craft is for me. I love paper. I hate waste. So when the end of the year comes and I have to recycle ye olde calendar of yore, I feel a little bit tentative. These beautiful calendars that some photographer/artist labored over, probably losing sleep as to which pug puppy was going to be Miss September or was the poodle looking more October? They are so beautiful. A multi-page masterpiece even. I visited a cute local boutique that is probably as dedicated to paper lust as am I, and lookit! Look what they did to absolve their garbage guilt! Is this garland made entirely of upcycled Lilly Pulitzer calendars not lovely and clever? I am absolutely going to copy this idea. Too bad I have to wait four-ish more months to do so. Haha. And I kid....

I got all of a twitter about this garland that I started snapping pictures from every angle, and the lady clerks who were attending to the temple of paper were totes cool about it, mercifully so.

[showmyads]

Which is why I'm going to give them a shout out. Southern Niceties, a darling cottage boutique in the Riverview 'hood of Chattanooga, did not in any way subsidize this blog post, but everyone should visit this shop owned by Victoria Adams Bordelon and ogle her pretty wares and probably buy something like the macaron and hot air balloon papers I scored. Hot diggety!

Be well today, darlings. And you should probably send a handwritten letter to your grandmother. You know, just because.

Camp Joe Joe's in #CHA

Last week our little lady was quite trepidatious as Tuesday approached because she was headed to "Art Camp." She wouldn't know anyone. It was on the other part of town. And she'd never been before. We had confidence, based on the high reviews of our friends at Cobblestone Rue who sent their daughters there last year, that Art Camp, aka Camp Joe Joe's was going to rock our girl's socks off.

We were not mistaken.

We picked her up on Tuesday afternoon and she literally dove into the car yelling, BEST ART CAMP EVERRRR! Her confidence was a mile high and her enjoyment of all the activities was superlative.

The camp takes place for 3 days, from 9a-12p at the Clay Pot on the Northshore (which I call NoSho to be cool...so join me in the pool of cool and start saying it. Propagate it, baby. Ready? On three: 1-2-3, NoSho! Yeah, wanna be startin' sumthin'....). The Clay Pot is just such a funky and fabulous little shop of home decore and floral arrangements. I want to move in and learn the ways of the festive mason jar arrangement.

The counselors all seemed genuinely tickled about spending their mornings with exuberant young'ns and tweens. Counselor Nikki was a fan favorite of our girl's.

As for the camp's namesake and fearless leader Joe Jumper, the man is a cartoon. I really think he just walked out of an Archie comic book and opened up an interior design shop and appointed himself Captain Fun of the art camp scene. His enthusiasm for teaching children to love art and make uber cool things at an hour in the day when most folks haven't even drained their coffee mug is just really admirable.

Our girl and our little man can't wait for next summer when they can both go.

In the meantime, we'll enjoy the memories and the masterpieces. Thanks, Camp Joe-Joe!

P.S. Don't forget to enter the Easy Canvas Prints giveaway!

GIVEAWAY: Easy Canvas Print!

We are blessed to have a very lovely mantle in our living room that I like to decorate through the seasons. I finally got the mantle assembled for summer but I felt it was missing something... ...something that represented our family as it is today.

Goodness of goodie gumballs, I became connected to Easy Canvas Prints through my friend Meg over at The Caffeinated Critic, who offered a free 11x14 canvas print in exchange for this review.

Fast forward to last week when I received the print, I promptly placed it on the mantle and decided it was exactly the element that the mantle menagerie needed. A cheerful gleam of our family as we are in this season of life.

As for Easy Canvas Prints, here is what I found: The website: - The site is very user-friendly, with bright, easy navigation. - The prices seem reasonable, based on what I see user-generated print services charge, e.g. Shutterfly, etc. - The extras, e.g. borders and so forth are not sneakily added. You definitely know up front what you are paying for and why.

The shipping: - Shipping was swift. I got my print within 2 days of ordering it. - The canvas arrived by UPS, covered in plastic and sandwiched between cardboard. It was perfectly in tact. If you live in an apartment building, I would be sure to request UPS signature confirmation because the canvas could easily be stepped on if your building is high traffic.

The print: - The print came with a hook on the back if I want to hang on the wall--lovely touch. - The canvas fabric itself feels heavy-duty to me. - The colors are a little more muted than a photograph printed on paper might be. My best advice would be to pick a very vibrant, color rich picture for printing on these canvases.

The company: - Easy Canvas Prints has been fabulous to work with: friendly, efficient, and offering step-by-step instructions. - Let me know if you are a blogger and you'd like to participate in a similar contest!

The offer:

To enter for a FREE 8x10" canvas, click here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I will announce the winner next week!

Thanks, Easy Canvas Prints!