Black Friday + 2014 calendar + Christmas cards!

Last night I stayed up until 3am finishing my 2014 calendar and it's FINALLY complete and listed in my etsy shop. Phew! This is the latest I've ever posted it and everyone in the universe probably already purchased their 2014 calendar, but I'm just happy that I actually finished. I felt so creatively stunted this year.. every single time I started drawing the illustrations for this I'd come up blank. I took my sketch pad with me every time I was in the car, I took it to Disney World, down the shore, and always came back with empty pages. Then somehow in the last week I cranked out almost every single drawing and I love how it turned out! And even though it's super late to be debuting a calendar at least I know my grandmom wants one, lol :)

The calendar is available here. I'll be listing all of the new drawings as prints later today!

I also have a 20% off black friday sale going on in my shop.



















I also decided to turn the drawing for June into a Christmas card, it just seemed so warm and cozy! The greeting reads "Wishing you a storybook Christmas" and they come in packs of five cards.



And I don't usually send out Christmas cards that I design myself, but... I think I need to this year. My dad gave me the idea for this one and I love how it came out! If you're an Office fan hopefully you'll love it too ;) They're available here.

november wishlist + $50 modcloth giveaway! [closed]

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Modcloth is offering one lucky lady $50 in store credit! Obviously I can't win myself, so I'm just going to send this wishlist to my mom and keep my fingers crossed that the items will be under the tree next month ;) Modcloth has a bunch of really cool & creative gift guides this year (my favorite is the mid-century marvels one!) but I limited myself to shopping on the "for gals" and "under $20 for all" guides for this wishlist, because let's be honest -- this post could have easily had 400 items in it if I hadn't lol :) (ps. When you look at the gift guides page, hover over each image! They are really cool stop-motion animations!) pss. their black friday sale already started if you want to take a peek!



What you'll win: $50 store credit to Modcloth

How to enter: To enter simply leave a comment letting me know your favorite modcloth gift guide. And I need some way to contact you (twitter, e-mail, your blog.. whatever floats your boat!) Also, you must be a follower of this blog to enter! This is mandatory, too! (And, please, none of this follow-and-leave as soon as the giveaway is over jazz.. that's super rude!) This giveaway is open to everyone on planet earth!

For an additional entry: (leave a separate comment for each entry)
1. Tweet this "I just entered to win a $50 modcloth gift card on @kategabrielle's blog http://www.scathingly-brilliant.blogspot.com" (Only counts if you use that exact tweet. Entries from twitter accounts used for the sole purpose of entering giveaways will not be counted.)

This giveaway ends on 12/03/13 at 12:01AM EST. Giveaway has ended.

Winner:

my cat-friendly menorah

My dad was raised Jewish and my mom was raised Christian, so I'm one of those lucky people who gets to celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah! We've always made a bigger deal out of Christmas since my dad's family was never big on holidays, but lately I've been making more of an effort to celebrate both sides of my heritage this time of year.

The one hindrance to doing so in my own apartment is that I have very ornery cats (and, I have to admit, I'm a huge klutz myself) so lit candles are just not an option. Even if I sat at a safe distance with my cats locked in another room I'm pretty sure one of us would still manage to set my building on fire. Enter -- the cat (and Kate) friendly menorah!

I purchased this wooden toy menorah from amazon and simply painted the base pink with some leftover wall paint. The candles were already colors that I'm smitten with so I left them the way they were. Now here's the awesome thing about this set -- the little flames are removable! So you can technically "light" each candle! I love it!



Target is carrying wooden menorahs this year, too. As long as the shape is pretty you can really paint it any color to suit your own style! Obviously I will always go the pastel route, but I also think it would look so pretty painted white with gold candles and light blue flames!

baby it's cold outside

I thought I'd change things up a little and give a peek at another part of my apartment (one of my favorites!) I don't really love it as an outfit post background but I didn't feel like taking new photos again after this and the lighting was already starting to get bad so... there you go.

This is my little entryway, right when you get to the top of the stairs. I already had one dresser that I was using as a nightstand in my old bedroom, so I just bought one more and painted it to match to create the illusion of one long cabinet. Ideally I'd like a nice big vintage piece there someday but it's just not in the budget yet. In the meantime I do love how this turned out! I framed a bunch of old family photos in embroidery hoops (post on that coming soon!) and it's the ideal place for my lilac Christmas tree!

We're starting to have some really cold days here now (hence the coat & cupcake beanie!) but it's still fluctuating a lot. One day you're all bundled up and want to swim in a tank of hot chocolate and the next you're guzzling lemonade and wearing shorts. Make up your mind already, mother nature. Today is one of those freezing days so I'm layering up and enjoying it very much! :)

coat - c/o oasap | shoes -  bait footwear | tights - target | sweater - f21

skirt - asos | faux fur collar - asos | cupcake beanie - modcloth

trousers and cats

While half my dresses are still at home, somehow all of my pants made it over to my apartment, which is super useful considering I wear them like three times a year. These are actually really comfy though and I don't *totally* hate the way I look in them, like I do in most pants. I think it's mostly due to the really high waist (which you can't see here because there's a cat sweater covering it.) I've been snatching up high-waisted trousers whenever they're available because I absolutely loathe how everything seems to be super low-rise nowadays. Is anyone actually comfortable in them? Even if you say you are I probably won't believe you.

Anyway, Mr. Hubble decided to join in on the outfit post photo-taking yesterday and I was pretty excited about it. The cats are always curious when I do this but as soon as I try getting them into a picture they're having none of it. I've said it before but I swear cats can sense when you want to take their photo and deliberately try to sabotage your efforts... so anytime I get one like this it's quite the monumental day ;)

cat sweater - f21 | cardigan - c/o oasap | pants - asos | shoes - bait footwear

Branchbound lace necklace giveaway! [closed]

This week Branchbound is offering up this beautiful lace necklace to one lucky lady! It would make such a perfect Christmas gift (or a keep-for-yourself-gift! ;)



What you'll win: This lace necklace from Branchbound, $25 value.

How to enter: To enter simply leave a comment letting me know your favorite item from the shop! And I need some way to contact you (twitter, e-mail, your blog.. whatever floats your boat!) Also, you must be a follower of this blog to enter! This is mandatory, too! (And, please, none of this follow-and-leave as soon as the giveaway is over jazz.. that's super rude!) This giveaway is open to everyone on planet earth!

For additional entries: (leave a separate comment for each entry)
1. Tweet this "I just entered @branchbound's lace necklace giveaway on @kategabrielle's blog http://www.scathingly-brilliant.blogspot.com" (Only counts if you use that exact tweet. Entries from twitter accounts used for the sole purpose of entering giveaways will not be counted.)
2. Like Branchbound on facebook
3. Purchase an item from the shop during the giveaway
This giveaway ends on 11/26/13 at 12:01AM EST.Giveaway has ended.

Winner:


In addition to the giveaway, Branchbound is also offering 10% off with code "Kategabrielle"! And be sure to check out their other shop, Pinhole Stars, too! :)

a wall of cats

The rest of the dining room is still a work in progress but I had to share this little peek at my new cat wall!! They're gold vinyl decals from Emerging Thoughts and they're basically my favorite thing ever. I have a bookcase that separates my workspace from my dining room and I keep peeking around it to stare at the wall some more. The wall is about 8 feet by 8 feet and one pack of cats was the purr-fect amount to cover it. I even had a few leftover so I made my pen cup on my desk look extra fancy too ;)

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If you want a cat wall of your own (you do. I know you do) you can get 15% off today with code "Kate" The discount also applies to everything in the store, including the things shown above (those lip earrings were handmade by me!) and the Hypatia dress! And this perfect pink furry coat! :)

gravity

This afternoon I'm going to see Gravity with my mom.. I'm so excited! It's not often that I'm interested in seeing new releases but this one looks so good. And I had the perfect dress for the occasion! ;D

Like 75% of my clothes and accessories are still at home and I haven't brought over any mirrors yet, so it's been a challenge getting dressed each morning. The only mirror I have is in the bathroom and it only reflects from about my shoulders-up (you can see it in this post) so I'm just winging it. If I had my whole wardrobe at arms-reach I'd probably have worn a hat to match my shoes or maybe different shoes entirely but I just have to make do until we have time to move over more stuff. At least it's coat weather so mismatching isn't a huge problem. I could probably just wear pajamas and a big coat and I'd still look okay when I go out lol :)

dress - modcloth | shoes - lulus | cardigan - old navy

DIY Cracker Barrel inspired centerpiece

After I set up my dining room table I spent way more time than I'd like to admit mulling over possible centerpieces. I didn't want to do anything conventional like candles or flowers, but I couldn't really think of anything else. Then I went out for dinner at Cracker Barrel with my family and as we passed around that little peg game while we were waiting for our food this idea came to me!

I got a vintage tray on etsy (scalloped border!!) and filled it with fun games (a Rubik's cube, a deck of cards and a magic 8 ball) as well as restaurant table condiments like sugar packets and salt and pepper shakers. I also added a little bowl of candy and, well, I went with some flowers after all. It just needed some height and they look so pretty! ;)

I got the pea pod shakers and sugar packet container from amazon, and all the games were from K-Mart. I love that whenever I have guests they can fiddle around with the toys while I'm finishing up in the kitchen, or munch on some candy if we're just hanging out around the table. Since it's on a tray it's easy to move it when I want to bring out food... and in addition to being functional, it does make for a pretty (and fun!) centerpiece!

photo an hour on my birthday!

Last year I took a photo an hour on my birthday (and then lost the photos, oops!!) so I decided to do it again this year (and then quickly post them so I don't repeat last year's mishap!) The day started out kind of slow... none of my family was ready to do anything with me so I just worked and hung around my apartment until about 2pm. After that we had a lot of fun, though!

9am: waking up with this furry baby snuggled up next to me!



10am: getting ready to put on my birthday dress! I bought it from Fancy That Vintage on etsy and it's by far my favorite vintage purchase ever. It fits like a glove, it's SO pretty (the sleeves!! the bow!!) and the shipping was like practically overnight. So happy!!



11am: working. blah.



12pm: listening to records while I work, starting with the Doctor Zhivago soundtrack



1pm: trimming my bangs and then chopping off more hair on a whim. I keep forgetting to bring over my hair brush from home so I've been using my novelty dinglehopper (see: little mermaid) brush from Disney World in the mean time



2pm: FINALLY on the way out to celebrate my birthday!



3pm: I haven't changed my address for shipping yet so I stopped home to pick up my mail. I had some beautiful greeting cards and basically every purchase I've made in the last couple of weeks arrived on my birthday. yay!



4pm: Parking. It was already dark out at 4:30, what?!?!



5pm: Dinner at Zorba's. If you live in Princeton or nearby they have THE best pita bread and hummus, and their fries are out of this world.



6pm-7pm: shopping at Princeton Record Exchange. Every year on my birthday I plop myself down at the start of the $1 bins on the floor and work my way through all of them. Nobody who shops with me would ever let me spend that much time perusing records on any day other than my birthday lol ;)



8pm: looking through the used books at the Princeton library. I ended up buying the 'Famous Men of the Middle Ages' book in the middle of the photo. I also read the blurb for Wanderer, Sterling Hayden's autobiography, and it sounds SO interesting! It was more money than I wanted to spend yesterday but it's definitely going on my wishlist.



9pm: I had a little birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, so we stopped at Target to pick up some Christmas decorations! Jenny and Danielle posted these on instagram recently and I was dying to have them.. I may have purchased all of the deer on the shelf. oops!



10pm: Home for cake and presents! My mom bought all of the wall paint for my apartment as a birthday present, so on my actual birthday she wrapped up the paint chips with corresponding little gifts (like a pink ice cream scoop, blue washcloths, etc.) that matched each paint color. It was so cute!



11pm: Back at my apartment for the night



12pm: Reading one of my favorite books in bed before watching an episode of the office and hitting the hay. It turned out to be a very nice birthday after all.

I think if someone had told me on my 26th birthday that within a year I'd have gone to Disney World two more times, met Steve Carell, got my own apartment, seen Niagara Falls, got a brand new car and started driving again I would have thought they were off their rocker. Who knows what my 27th year holds!