The Free People Buying and Planning teams adopted 3 families through the Salvation Army this holiday. Here is a photo of them shopping for gifts!
We were so happy we were able to help these families get some things they needed and hopefully made their holiday more cheerful.
Merry Christmas & Happy 5th day of Hanukkah!
Happy Holidays to all!
Hooray!
xo
FP
Picture of cute snowmen via LookU.
Happy holidays from the New York showroom team! Here they are enjoying a little pot luck holiday celebration in the office.
I really like this bracelet that was spotted on Dries Van Noten's Spring runway! It's so cute and festive - but even better is that Carbon Couture has created an awesome DIY version, with step-by-step instructions so it's really easy to make! See how cute their version is below - I kind of like it even better than the Dries Van Noten one! Click here to go to the instructions!
Now that's a Christmas tree that doesn't take up too much floor space! Jane of All the Luck in the World created this alternative tree with a bunch of random objects she had laying around that she had collected over the years. The objects themselves are so pretty and interesting - they're like the tree and the ornaments all in one!
A lot of you have a little break next week, and maybe you want a fun holiday craft to do? I posted these a couple years ago and everyone loved them, so I thought I'd share again!
Our display team made these beaded trees with those styrofoam cones you can buy at the craft store, a bunch of beads, and straight pins. They are SO easy to make and look so pretty and festive. Dump out that bead box and start pinning!
I can see these looking really pretty in more specific colors too, like if you did one all white and sparkly, or used just a few colors instead of the rainbow.
I couldn't resist sharing this adorable picture of baby Ruby with you! Ruby's mother is Julie, our Email Support Supervisor at our customer service center in South Carolina. Ruby just turned 3 months old on Tuesday, and is all dressed up for the holidays! So cute!
I couldn't resist sharing this photo of our "pet wall" with you! One of our accessories designers got the idea to put pictures of all the pets belonging to girls in the accessories room up on the wall in the hallway, and soon it spread to include pictures of everyone's pets! It's especially fun to see pictures of everyone's kitties, since they don't get to come to work like the doggies do!
You might remember when we put up our FP Community Tree a while back. It includes a picture of each FP home office employee. Recently, it got updated for the holidays, and it now has a picture of each FP home office employee as a child! It is so much fun to see how everyone looked as a little one!
Our lobby has recently been updated for more holiday fun too! I am crazy about all the hanging lights and garlands! They are such eye-candy- our Visual Display Team did a great job! (Thank you!)
I love this "ice tree" created by Paprika for Domison furniture stores in Canada. Trying for holiday decorations that were more original, Paprika hung glass water bottles at various heights to create this ice tree. Why didn't I think of that?
Via Yatzer.
Anna has been busy at the showroom preparing for the holiday. She's handsewing names on stockings for everyone in the NY office! Later they'll be filled with treats:)
Check out this entry for more of Anna's handtouches at the showroom
For those who use an advent calendar during the holiday season, I sure thought this was a cute one! Brooke, author of the blog inchmark, made it out of felt for herself and family to use. I absolutely love that for each day there is a little ornament to hang on the buttons of the tree! It's such a fabulous idea! And a fun craft project too!
It's beginning to look a lot more like the holiday season here at the Home Office!
These awesome yarn trees appeared in Building 543 yesterday! They are a lot more tall than the photos suggest!
They are each a bit different from one another.
Santa has decided to keep one of his spare sleighs at Building 543 - an excellent sleigh-garage.
Here we have our friend Luren enjoying her lunch beside the goldfish pond.
Walking a little farther, we come to my favorite take on the yarn trees - a yarn tree dress! Wouldn't that be fun to wear?!
I'm loving the gift tag tutorials from A Little Hut. My favorite is tutorial #2 fabric + paper. The contrast of the straight edge of the paper and the soft frayed edges of the fabric is really appealing. And I always need a reason to use up fabric scraps!
Check out all of the Little Hut tutorials (there are more gifty ones)
found via Crust Station
We have yet another fun holiday diversion for you! I recently went around and asked everyone here at the home office for their favorite holiday or wintertime songs! We have put them together on a playlist for you, which you can access by clicking here. Please note however, that you need to have iTunes installed on your computer to be able to view the playlist. We have been experimenting with different ways to put up playlists for you, so we of course welcome any feedback!
At any rate, check out the playlist! It includes over 30 songs, including this awesome classic sung by Eartha Kitt below...
It's the day after Thanksgiving, and the holiday season has officially started! We are already getting excited, and our graphic designers have created a little holiday card for you to use! Click here to be taken to a page where you can download and print it! Once you print it, simply cut along the dotted lines, then fold it in half, and half again! Presto- cute little holiday card!
In preparation for Thanksgiving tomorrow, we passed around a couple sheets of paper and drew or wrote down what we are thankful for, just for fun! The papers ended up looking really cool, and it was neat to see what everyone put!
What are you thankful for?
These gorgeous shots are from Kuwana Japan's annual winter light show, in their Nabana no Sato theme park. There are reportedly 4.5 million LED's in the show! I've always wanted to visit Japan, now I wish I could get there before March, when the show ends! So beautiful!
Via Gizmoto.
Just some pictures of our newest Free People store in Portland, all decked out for the holidays!
I love all these different kinds of tape! I was thinking about our post about decorated tape from the other day and did a little search for adhesive tape and found I love sticky tape! It's a blog which is, as you might imagine, devoted entirely to tape, and it has many cute and cool types of tape featured on it! I especially love the tinsel tape - it gets me in the mood for the holidays!
Free People is hosting a winter craft swap called The Art of Giving! It's been a long time since our last swap, so I am super excited. Join us in handcrafting some amazing gifts for your fellow Free People friends and spread the winter cheer.
Here's how it works: You fill out the simple form with your name, email, and mailing address. People outside the United States are welcome to join, but if you live in the U.S., you can indicate if you do not want to ship internationally. I will match you up with a partner and send you their email and shipping address.
You'll have until New Years to make a gift and mail it to your partner. You can make anything you want. The wintery theme can be your inspiration. You can make something to keep warm, decorate your home, or simply make your partner smile.
Click here to join the swap. Sign up will end next Friday, November 21.
Check out some of our old flickr groups from previous swaps! Valentine 08, Dark Fairy, Travel, and Valentine 07.
I'm sure you toss some cereal boxes in the recycling bin. And you've probably been stuck without a gift box for your friend's birthday and especially around the holidays. Head over to instructables to learn how to make a gift box from a cereal box! My only advice would be to dress it up a little more than what they've done in the photos. Paint it, get pretty ribbons, glue on some sequins, make it pretty!
Black Eiffel posted these modern gingerbread houses. I love them! CBGBs is pretty funny. I have to say, the old classic gingerbread houses definitely lend themselves to the use of candy a bit more. Much more fun and whimsical. But I do love the idea of these mod houses! Check out Black Eiffel for links to the photos...
Check out the Free People gingerbread if you haven't seen it! Video and pics!
fpgirls's tips for throwing a fantastic holiday party...
Crafty activities are key. Supply your guests with all of the ornament making needs. Sparkly tinsel pipe cleaners are absolutely essential. And google eyes. Oh, and pompoms...
Above are the beaded trees currently decorating the lobby in our office. These were so easy to make. You just get those styrofoam cones from the craft store and cover them in beads attached with straight pins. We used these in our store display last holiday.
And here we have some polar bear ornaments made by Sabine Brandt. She made these for an ornament swap. Notice the use of sparkly tinsel pipe cleaners.
Next tip...Forget about real food. Just serve desserts. They tend to be both prettier and yummier. This recipe for Martha's peppermint icecream sandwiches covers both the pretty dessert requirement as well as the crafty activity. I count crushing up candy canes as a crafty activity.
Final tip... No hostess is complete without an amazing party ensemble. I'm sure these holiday looks at FP will do the trick! Crafts, desserts, and an amazing party outfit. That's all that really matters.
Our display team just finished installing the holiday display at the Free People store in Paramus, NJ and it looks awesome. The rest of our stores will be decorated over the next week, so if you live near one you should definitely pay a visit to see what they've done. (find store locations here)
The inspiration was vintage wintertime and they were looking at lots of vintage Christmas images, toys from the 1950's and even found this crazy chair made of stuffed animals. So they got really into the stuffed animals and decided on this huge 150 pound teddy bear for the front window. The bear's patchwork was done by hand by our display team here in Philly.
Each store will have an "advent" calendar, also hand painted by our display team. Each day the store employees will open a window or door to reveal a hidden picture. There was supposed to be chocolate behind each door, but there were some technical difficulties. The team left the store staff a package of chocolates that they can eat each day instead.
Some painted skis and ice skates...
and the wall of cookies, also made by the display team.