holiday – Small Fry

holiday pjs 2017

If you haven’t already snagged your Holiday PJs it seems this weekend is a good one to go for it! So many great deals. 40% off Hanna Andersson, 50% off Old Navy (pug life, ha!), 40% off Gap etc. etc.

Fair Isle is a huge trend this holiday season and there are loads of PJ options to suit! Teddy Bear Fair Isle – comes in this one piece too if you prefer! //Burt’s Bees KILLED it this year with their PJs. Such perfect classic prints and even some less obvious but still festive. This plaid and the gray plaid and the black cuff one at the bottom, too! // This Yoda Gingerbread Fair Isle might be my favorite PJ of the whole round up. Too funny. // Also love this tiny gnome pattern! // Mini Boden has a set of PJs, perfect for a holiday weekend away! // Gray with Strung Lights – darling // I love this sweat suit set, wear it out and about, it feels a little less PJ and more loungey which I love. Rock and Roll Santa! // Academy of Cool for your too cool for crazy Holiday PJs kid. // Holiday Rags to Raches (did you see they make stockings, too!) // Classic Plaid set! // Darth Vader Fair isle // This isn’t Christmassy but still such an cool idea. Color on your PJs with their special markers and you’ve got something fun to do after you open them, too! // Aden and Anais makes the softest jams and they come up to size 4 now, too! This resembles a snowflake but actually isn’t so it works all year round! // Books to Bed is a line at Nordstrom that would make the most darling gift any time of year but especially their Holiday line. Go check it out to see what I mean – its so perfectly retro! Hard to see in this tiny collage, but worth a look for sure! And each set comes with a book!

nutcracker garland

We are a little bit smitten with Ikea’s Holiday line this year. So many awesome graphic elements and as always they think of every detail. We likely went way overboard this year, and even though it’s a little late in the game, wanted to share how we’re using them in our decor! Using, or reusing, in this case. One giant nutcracker gift bag transformed into a giant nutcracker garland!

First you’ll need a few of the aforementioned bags. They’re double-sided so you can get two out of each bag.

Then cut the nutcrackers and attach them to the twine or string of your choice:

If you truly want to maximize your gift bag purchase, you can also cut out the little nutcrackers on the sides of the bag for a mini version.

If you need more inspiration to deck your halls for a party or the big day next week (ack!) check out our Holiday Pin board. So much talent from all over the web!

cheer package

We had so much fun this Holiday getting these gift-giving challenges! Today we teamed up with HomeGoods to create a gift package and here’s what we picked.

Start with a gorgeous gold wire basket:

Fill it with cozy necessities like a blanket, cocoa, popcorn, gold handled mugs, and gold baubles for their tree.

We sent this package with Quinn to his teacher, but could have easily gifted this to any of our wonderful support systems. Friends, sisters, neighbors.

We love gifting in reusable storage like this basket, or a vase, or pottery. Even after all the goodies are gone, you still have an awesome piece for your house!

The best (or maybe worst, depending on your wallet) part is that we could’ve filled multiple baskets, HomeGoods has so many darling options! Check our Instagram and their #HomeGoodsHappy hash tag for some more ways we’ve been styling finds into our homes!

Quinn’s pajamas via Skylar Luna.

christmas tree cones

Do you all tackle the gingerbread house each holiday? We’ve found that with small kids that can be quite the undertaking. So we wanted to simplify the experience without losing what is so fun about it – the candy decorating of course. Enter Waffle Cone Christmas Trees! This is a great addition to a gingerbread house making party, or a standalone project.

Here’s what we used:

Colorful candies, sprinkles, pearls and colored sugar flakes for decorating. Waffle ice cream cones for the trees, and store bought frosting (right from the can!) to bring them all together. Also, for crafting like this or any baking we do, you gotta have a Wilton cake spatula. You have so much more control than using a knife or regular spatula and it makes frosting a dream.

Here are four we whipped up. Of course when we remake these with the kids in tow they’ll be much more… colorful. So for your viewing enjoyment:

If you notice the far left tree with the green sprinkles, this little whipping action was done with Wilton! Simply pull the frosting upward and it takes that snowy tree look. If you make these with your kids tag us #SmallFryDIY!

black friday deals

Holiday Party Wear

We debated whether to participate in the craziness of Black Friday deals, but ultimately decided that we were shopping them anyway, so we might as well save our favorite finds and share them with you! Hopefully this makes your gift giving that much easier!

Today we’re sharing holiday party wear. Those special pieces that adds festivity to even the most simple everyday looks. We’ve got 50% off pieces from Gap, Jcrew Factory, Express, Nordstrom and awesome deals from all over the rest of the web.

and for the kiddos too!

The only code you should need for these is Jcrew, enter “HOLIDAY” for 30% off at check-out!

FRYday : Nicole

Hi! Happy Holidays guys!

Last week I was traveling and happened upon a darling little kids boutique in San Clemente called Red Balloon. There I spotted some darling red pajamas for the boys. I hadn’t started thinking about Christmas shopping yet, I typically wait until after Thanksgiving, just to make things easier on myself (wink). But this sparked my FRYday inspiration. CHRISTMAS PAJAMAS! In my home, we grew up opening one gift on Christmas Eve. Year after year it was the same gift, a new set of pajamas. This gift seems to be the clearest memory I have out of all the gifts any of my siblings and I received each year. I can think back through the years and tell you what pajamas we got. It is such a cherished memory of mine, I knew as Dash’s first Christmas approached, that I wanted to incorporate this tradition into my family. I want to do an entire round up of all the darling Christmas pajamas on the web, but, for today, I wanted to share what I’ve decided on for this year. Sometimes each cf ours are found at different shops. This year, it’s a one stop shop for everyone!!

For the papa: Navy and Red dot set

For the mama: Red striped set

For the little guys: Glow in the Dark Light Strand

More for the Littles: Red Union Suit

For the tiny girls: Gold Foil Trees

For their feet: Lodge Moccasins

Enjoy your FRYday!

Nicole

holiday gift guide: for baby

Happy Monday and happy gift guides continue! Next up is for the littlest lady or lad in your life. Although babies are probably just as thrilled to play with the discarded wrapping paper as anything, we love shopping for them all the same!

1. Brimful is a new-to-use shop for babies that we can’t get enough of! So many beautiful things to choose from. This hedgehog rattle is no exception.

2. When a baby first discovers their mobile it is a truly magical experience. Legs kicking, arms flapping, and coos for miles. Petit Collage does simple modern mobiles so right!

3. Nothing is as sweet as a babe and their favorite plush toy. Finding something for them to sleep with, tote around, and love to death is such a fun quest! We’re sure this Emiko whale would make many little ones a perfect mate.

4. Playmats are a worth investment for tummy-time, and when you need a little shower break, showering, eating, etc. etc. This plush mat from Pottery Barn is so soft and has so much for them to do!

5. We love this graphic pillow for any nursery!

6. As baby gets more dextrous they will be putting everything in their mouth. This set of blocks is totally safe and will grow with them into their toddler years for building.

7. This simple play gym is a great addition to the plush play mat and we love that you can interchange the toys to keep things interesting.

8. This shop is local and a fan favorite to all mamas, the blankets are the softest knit and huge! Nothing is worse than getting blanket that barely swaddles your infant, this one is such a great size and will grow with you for years.

9. Walnut Animal Society plush toys are so sweet, hand embroidered and gorgeous. We had a hard time choosing just one to share. Eleanor the Bear won our hearts, but see the rest here!

LittleList app

Brought to you by Pinwheel, formerly known as LittleList.

We were getting ready to launch our Gift Guide series for this holiday season when we learned about the LittleList app and wanted to share it with you guys! We think it will make gift giving such a breeze this year. Pinwheel is a gift wishlist brought to you by BabyList, a universal baby registry that lets you register for exactly what you want from the retailer of your choice – including your favorite local or independent shops (like Etsy). So many of the moms who used the registry for their baby showers were also using it make birthday and holiday list too! So that’s when Pinwheel was born!

Just like a baby gift registry, Pinwheel let’s you create a gift wish list by adding items from any store. It even offers suggestions for what to add based on your childs age and interest – we found this part so helpful! They have categories for just about everything and if you don’t feel like searching the web, their suggestions are very well curated. To be honest, their suggestions might be a little dangerous because they’re all so amazing! Once you create the list anytime a grandparent or loved one asks “What does ____ want for Christmas” you can make it so easy and show them. Then they can reserve what items they want to give making sure that there aren’t any duplicates.

We’ve also found this app incredibly helpful as we start thinking and planning out what we want to buy the boys for Christmas, too! Have you ever gotten to the end of a Holiday season and realized you went way overboard? Shiny things caught your eye and before you know it you’ve over spent. We love that you can keep track of what you actually want to give this year and keep that focus that can be hard without something to organize for you!

At first we were hesitant about this app, would we really want to answer the question “What do they want?” with a giant list? But coming from a gift-giving perspective, it’s hard to think of something a child will want, need, read, or wear without asking the parents first. It’s frustrating when gifts need to be returned, or when kids end up with lots of things they don’t really need (and parent’s don’t want in the house), less waste is always what we aim for and this is so helpful!

You can check out what we’ve picked for our own lists if you’d like to see how it works and get ideas!

For Hayes / For Dash / For Quinn

lucky little scavenger hunt

One of our favorite contributors Lindsey Marlor of Pillow Thought put together this darling scavenger hunt just in time for St. Patrick’s Day! She has included the free downloadable sheet of clues, a cheat sheet to keep track of the action, and the final love note at the end. Ready to begin?

01:: Clue #1 takes you to the place you have so much fun!

Send them to their room where at the other side of the door Lindsey attached streamers and the second clue!

02:: Clue #2 takes you to a place where you shampoo!

03:: Clue #3 takes you to a place where you watch T.V.!

04:: Clue #4 Takes you a place near your front door!

05. Head to Clue #5 where dirty clothes go to get revived!

Once they get there they will find their Pot of Gold! And a sweet little note from you “I’m so lucky to be your mom.”

To download the free printable of clues click below! Also, Lindsey has included a sweet card for the Pot of Gold at the end and the clue sheet to keep everything running smoothly.

For more of Lindsey’s awesome ideas head to Pillow Thought.

finger puppet nativity

We cannot believe Christmas is tomorrow! As kids, Christmas Eve always felt like one hundred years, and this year we have tried to compile some things to help take the edge off our kids’ anticipation. We partnered with Say Yes to Hoboken for this project and you can read all the details over at this post.

This is a pretty quick craft considering you can keep it forever, and finally! A nativity that kids can not only touch, but play with.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday! We are simply blown away at all the support from our Operation Sandy Hook benefit over at Brickyard Buffalo. We have sold more than 1,000 prints so far and with each sale we hope some of the weight has been lifted over the people of Newtown. We’ll be taking this week off to spend extra quality time with our loved ones. We have an awesome week of healthful posts to kick off the New Year when we return!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

The Small Fry Editors — Emily, Jenna and Nicole.