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Pop The Prosecco for This Showcase In Luxury Outdoor Living

Designer Kellie Smith’s schnorkie Elsie de Woof sits beside SmithHonig Crespi Arch outdoor throw pillow.

During any summer, the most coveted space is outdoors. Yes, outdoor living was wildly popular before the words “quarantine” became a word in anyone’s vocabulary. Yet as a majority of Americans have changed or canceled their summer travel plans, home furnishings association members say that they’re seeing an increase in outdoor furniture sales (and surely Prosecco sales). Designers and contractors have been overwhelmed by requests to create luxury outdoor spaces where clients can escape into nature and fresh air. 

As more clients choose staycations, what are they looking for in their upgraded outdoor experiences? Here, we round up the most popular outdoor luxury touches from our clients to help you make the most of styling and building your own outdoor experience.

Patio Life

Swenson Granite Works’ stone featured throughout the exterior of Eva Amurri’s home.

The outdoor environment you create should be in line with how you live inside and with your home as a whole. When Eva Amurri, the lifestyle blogger behind Happily Eva After renovated the inside of her historic Connecticut home, she set her sights on making the outdoor space reflect the era of the Greek Revival home, built in the mid-1800s, while still capturing the modern updates she had made.

An outdoor fireplace sets the stage for staycations with the family. 

In an effort to stay true to the home’s roots, Eva was committed to working with local brands, including sourcing granite products from Swenson Granite Works’ New England-based quarries. The backyard patio area is separated into zones with gray granite bush hammered pattern pavers and Yankee style steps, as well as native fieldstone walls all in Swenson’s WOODBURY GRAY® granite. Modern touches include built-in lighting and a projector for family movie night.

Fireside Chats

Family game night fireside. 

Speaking of cool summer nights, that’s the ideal time for relaxing by a fire: not too cold, not too hot. It’s Goldilocks time: just right. A cozy fire pit is always a family-favorite, and is also an ideal place to unwind after a busy day at work. It’s hard to feel stressed when you’re listening to the wood crackle while gazing at the stars.

Swenson Granite’s DIY fire pit kit will have the family roasting s’mores in no time. Photo by Mike Altino of Silver Style Pictures.

And with Swenson Granite’s easy-to-assemble DIY Woodbury Gray granite fire pit kit—with a 30” diameter cast iron ring and tilt back cooking grate included—you can create your escape in just an afternoon. And, good news! You can enter to win one—a $1,235 value—now through July 31, 2020. Featuring solid 50 lb. granite blocks that are easy to assemble, you can pick it up in the morning and be roasting marshmallows by nightfall.

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Spa Style 

Modernism Week’s Mesa Modern Feature Home’s Project Manager/Producer Karen Okner created an outdoor oasis in Palm Springs. Photo by Chipper Hatter.

Is there anything that says “living your best life” quite the same way as a pool and spa? We don’t think so, and were especially wowed by this luxe option created by landscape architect John Feldman of Ecocentrix Landscape Architecture for the Mesa Modern Feature Home at Palm Springs 2020 Modernism Week.

Island Stone’s Ripple tile in Stratos Matte reflects the sunset sky. Photo by Chipper Hatter.

“We thought that there needed to be some levity in the exterior and lighter and brighter colors and colors that tied into the San Jacinto Mountains, which are so close and immediate that they are reflected in the pool,” said John. “The Ripple tile in Stratos Matte is blue but subtle. It’s a color that harkens to the temperament of the sky.”

He used a variety of Island Stone tile, including Spindrift Marble in Tempest, throughout the space, from the pool to the spa to the outdoor shower.

This Palm Springs home’s exterior space is a beauty night or day.  Photo by Chipper Hatter.

“As a landscape architect, we kind of relish the opportunities to design custom features,” said John about the project.

Outdoor Dining

Luxury touches like Wolf Appliances and Polycor natural stone are featured throughout this kitchen. Pictured: Indiana Limestone pavers and veneer, Pearl Grey marble backsplash, and American Black granite countertops. 

A grill is great, and outdoor griddles have been impossible to find this summer, but the real luxury is an outdoor kitchen. Creating a culinary oasis follows the same rules outside as inside: An optimal layout—for both cooking and socializing—with every convenience is key. From the cabinets to the countertops to the appliances and floors, everything should be weatherproof and coordinate with each other and the natural surroundings. That’s why so many designers chose natural stone; it withstands different climates and looks amazing in many outdoor spaces, naturally.

American Black granite countertops make the ideal outdoor surface for their durability, fade resistance and beauty. 

Whether you have chef-level skill or not, doesn’t it sound like more fun to cook a meal out in a summer breeze than clanging pots and pans together inside? Every alfresco meal feels like a 5-star culinary experience when prepared and served in a timeless, high-end outdoor kitchen.

Touches of Home

Bring the indoors outdoors. Featured SmithHönig items: Crespi Arch outdoor throw pillow, Medina Arch outdoor throw pillow, and Shar Sheeba Wool Tassels.

Whether it’s granite, limestone/marble or pebble, natural stone sets the stage for any outdoor experience.  And with the stage set, it’s time to decorate. After all, outdoor living is all about making your outdoor spaces as luxurious and livable as your indoor ones.

Designer and lifestyle creator Sara Raak takes date night outside for the summer.

“I’ve always loved bringing the indoors outside in creative ways,” said lifestyle creator and creator Sara Raak. “I believe emulating the things that make you feel cozy in your home, outdoors, will encourage anyone to want to spend more time outdoors.”

She recommends bringing accessories that you already own outside, like the colorful pieces she has from wanderlust-inspired lifestyle brand, SmithHönig. SmithHönig’s pieces are perfect for the homebound vagabond: they are inspired by the founders’ endless world travels and joyous adventures.

“I always like to bring some of my items from inside my home, outside, for the evening,” said Raak. “Bringing out my fun Shibori Indigo poufs, rugs, pillows, and dinnerware adds fun and interesting layers to the space!”

Orange adirondack chairs pop against the lush green lawn at Designer Kellie Smith’s lakefront Georgia home.  

SmithHönig co-founder Melanie Hönig agrees, and thinks the most important thing you can do with any outdoor space is to embrace the ease and beauty of the summer season.

“I definitely get less formal in the summer,” said Melanie.

Melanie Hönig’s outdoor sanctuaries have created precious family memories for years. 

Her home garden is an ever-evolving project, filled with defined living spaces and plants passed down for generations with a private backyard and woodlands beyond. While planning elaborate dinners and creative table setting is a delight for Melanie, outdoor living is all about keeping it low-stress and enjoying the company of your family and friends. The most important thing you can create for your clients is a place where they will make memories.

Let ultraviolet help you showcase your luxury outdoor project or product. 

If you’re a design professional looking to feature your latest project on your website or a luxury building or design brand looking to partner with an influencer to take your product to market, contact us to learn more about our services. 

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Talking Lead Gen With Our Lead, Jennifer Smiga

When we want to talk about lead generation (we’re a bunch of marketing nerds who love talking about this stuff), we go to ultraviolet founder and creative director Jennifer Smiga. Jen isn’t just our esteemed leader, she’s a marketing mastermind and was asked to share her expertise at next week’s Design Influencers Conference. The whole ultraviolet team will be there: we’re sponsoring the Genius Bar where we’ll host appointments with brand reps seeking to improve their online presence and serve up sparkling rosé at our Mingle & Matchmaking event.

Today, we picked her brain about lead generation, real-life parallels, and why everyone needs a marketing blueprint.

Meet our lead, Jen

UV: What do you want people to know about lead generation, from a high level, that you think they might be missing?

JS: Lead generation is a completely different beast from just pushing out content.

UV: How so?

JS: With lead generation, you’re required to lay out the steps. Every campaign has to have a process, and when you’re focused on the lead gen, that process has a start, a middle and an end. The end is when you have developed a sustained relationship with a client or customer.

UV: And that relationship is the goal of the whole thing, right?

JS: Correct. You start with a campaign, and then you begin telling the story around it, to attract the right people. Then, whatever inbound marketing platform you are using, it integrates all the information you are getting from this storytelling and the response you’re getting to it, and you can see the journey, you can see it all.

UV: And other than feeling like an all-seeing superhero, what can we do with that information?

JS: Well, that ability to see all of that information is incredibly valuable, especially before an event like the Design Influencers Conference. DIC is dominating the digital design space in the lead-up to the event. People are writing about it, reading about it, sharing it on social—and this is all before it starts. We’ve been laying the groundwork ourselves, tweeting, and posting on Insta and Facebook, and writing and sharing blogs, we even partnered with DIC on a blog for their site. It’s all for relationship building. We’re hosting a Mingle & Matchmaking event there, with rosé (naturally) to help people develop these kinds of relationships in person.

Photo by Design Influencers Conference

UV: As much as I want to pretend we’re just hosting a rosé-fueled rager, I know we’re really doing this to get people together. What is the purpose of making these connections?

JS: It’s about, on the surface, meeting great people and introducing them to your brand, whether it’s corporate or personal. But really it’s about getting a step closer to your goals. I’ve been big into the concept of a blueprint lately. Being in the design space, it’s a familiar concept whether you have any marketing experience or not. It all comes back to that core idea of having a process and following it.

UV: When you’re creating a blueprint for a client, what do you do?

JS: Well, I ask them about a thousand questions first, like: What’s your product focus and how is that tied to your marketing for the year? Where’s your calendar? Is your custom content related to events, products campaigns? Are you participating in any social experiences or webinars? When was the last time you did a site audit? And after we have all of these answers, and I understand what their goals are, I create the path for them to get there. And in a lot of instances, this is where ideas like influencer partnerships come into play. They can really be the asset that pushes a campaign from being a goal into being a success.

UV: Yeah, we love our influencers!

JS: Yes we do! And for a lot of reasons. We’ve talked about it before and I’m sure we’ll talk about it again. Finding the right partner—whether you are an influencer or you are a brand—is the key to building a successful, mutually-beneficial partnership. And one of the things I take pride in is our ability to find the right person—whether it’s a designer, a macro-influencer, whoever—for a brand. Which is why I’m so excited to host the Mingle & Matchmaking sessions at DIC. Speaking of, you know I could talk about this all day, but those bottles of rosé aren’t going to buy themselves.

Meet Jen and the rest of the ultraviolet team at the Design Influencers Conference, Mingle & Matchmaking sessions, Sunday 3:00-3:30 pm and Monday 3:15-3:35 pm. And if you miss it, text DIC2020 to 66866 to download Jennifer’s brand track presentation on influencer marketing.

Think you’ve found the perfect influencer to showcase your products? Let’s help you kickstart the relationship on a positive, professional note.

Social Climbing: Why Partnering With the Right Influencer Matters

As an agency that works with both brands and influencers, we’re always striving for authenticity in partnership building. We want our brands and influencer partners to align so seamlessly that one seems a natural extension of the other.

For example, one of our clients, Polycor, quarries natural stone, so we would not pair them with a designer who uses a lot of manufactured materials like quartz. But if you are a design influencer who uses organic materials in your work and frequently speaks about sustainability, then their natural stone is for you.

Eva Amurri—mom, actress, entrepreneur, and founder of lifestyle blog Happily Eva After—is a natural stone lover. See what she’s excited about in the world of design for 2020.

We know that thoughtful, relevant and real campaigns provide value to an audience: they allow influencers to provide useful tips and give helpful advice while providing a platform for brands to reach the influencer’s enrapt audience. But there’s a line that’s easy to cross here: irrelevant, ill-conceived or insincere partnerships can alienate an audience. And too many brand sponsorships can have the same effect.

finding the right influencer

The kind of influencers you want to partner with care about their reputation and the authenticity of their content. When sponcon, aka sponsored content, is done right, it’s a golden opportunity leveraged perfectly, where everyone from the brand to the influencer to the audience, benefit. But when it’s not, it can be awkward, disengaging and in the worst case, a PR disaster.

With this potential for problems, why do we think brands should partner with influencers? According to a study commissioned by Snap Inc. with Sparkler, 31% of people say influencers and celebrities inform their purchasing decisions. Influencers are expert communicators who build brand awareness with their engaged audience. They drive traffic, convert leads and generate sales. And when you’re working with micro-influencers, they’re an excellent value providing great opportunities for smaller brands. The bottom line is this: influencers are called that for a reason: they are influential.

how audiences perceive influencer sponcon

One of our design influencer partners, Kate Pearce of Kate Pearce Vintage recently asked her followers on Instagram what they think about branded content. Here are a couple of the responses she received:

Kate Pearce features her eclectic mix of unique vintage pieces and maxed out color and prints.

suzannerian: The only time I get turned off by branded content is when every post or almost every post is branded and it becomes clear that the voice of the page and the art that drew me there is no longer authentic and fun.

thegoatabode: Sometimes ads do seem forced, but most of the time I actually like seeing what people do with the products. I’m all for artists and creators getting paid by big companies for their ideas! When big companies get behind creators, I think good things happen.

brooksandstone: There are a few accounts that I follow that suddenly started promoting Walmart for example and I just can’t get behind that knowing it’s 100% about money.

curlydawn: I think if it’s unique and not forced, it’s so much less annoying. Can I tell you how sick I am of watching every IGer and blogger open the same damn Fab Fit Fun box? Unique, authentic content won’t ever annoy me.

Sarisa “Risi” Munoz, the insta-famous creative guru behind The Indigo Leopard Home, was a style match for global home décor brand SmithHönig.

Instagram has been around since 2010, so it’s reassuring that followers understand being an influencer is a real job and that the people they follow deserve to get paid for what they do. And while being an influencer might seem like it’s all island vacations and avocado toast, it comes with real responsibility: the Federal Trade Commission is constantly updating the guidelines for social influencers and brands.

Most influencers will say that they genuinely like and use the products they promote in their sponsored posts, but since those posts are designed to blend with organic content, it raises some questions for their audience: Is this a genuine post or am I being sold to right now? Am I supposed to believe this is their real opinion and not ad copy? If your authenticity is a commodity, is it even authentic even more?

Some other influencers weighed in on Kate Pearce’s branded content post, too:

Joanna Hawley of jojotastic gets real about her life as much as she does about the products she endorses on social.

jojotastic: I always make sure any partnership I take on is the right fit because honestly… readers can smell BS a mile away! It’s not worth it!

design.playbook: I always try to work with brands that relate to the content/subject matter I’m creating. I always ask myself if the brand aligns with my mission/goals/reason for why I have the account. If it’s questionable then I don’t do it.

From the consumer, brand and content creator perspectives, it’s clear that pushing product on the wrong audience is worthless. Which is why it’s so important to us that when we play matchmaker between brands and influencers, we set them both up for success.

Looking to assess your current influencer marketing strategy? I’ll be speaking at the Design Influencers Conference, the premier conference and experience for professionals interested in learning about social media and digital content marketing in the interior design industry. Join me and countless influencers, designers, social media practitioners, traditional media, leading brands, new media innovators, and industry leaders in exploring where the worlds of interior design and new media converge.

Think you’ve found the perfect influencer to showcase your products? Let’s help you kickstart the relationship on a positive, professional note.

Talking 2020 Design Trends with Eva Amurri

It’s hard to embrace the whole “new year, new you” mentality if you feel uninspired being surrounded by the same old stuff. Looking for help to get us in the spirit of reinvention for the new decade, we spoke with friend of ultraviolet and constant source of inspiration, Eva Amurri—mom, actress, entrepreneur, and founder of lifestyle blog Happily Eva After—about trends, tips, and what she’s excited about in the world of design for 2020.

Courtesy of Happily Eva After

uv: Your home seems so uniquely you, with a careful eye toward crafting a beautiful space that reflects you and your kids. How do trends fit into your design approach?

Eva: I firmly believe that design trends are fun and interesting, but that when designing your home, it’s imperative to come back to the elements that really speak to YOUR soul personally. Following trends instead of your heart can ultimately make you feel uncomfortable in your own space years down the road.

uv: Getting back to nature is a trend that’s about a lot more than just bringing in plants. It’s focused on reconnecting with the natural world. The natural stone countertops featured in your kitchen and bathroom came immediately to mind—are there any other unexpected ways you recommend to bring natural elements to a home, indoors or out?

Eva: Natural stone! Putting a spotlight on beautiful, local landscaping! I also think rooting oneself in the history of a home and celebrating the old while bringing it into a more modern space is also a great way to highlight life’s process.

Courtesy of Happily Eva After. Featuring Polycor Pearl Grey marble.

uv: Sustainability is being labeled as a trend, but it seems your approach to sustainability has been more of an expectation or intrinsic requirement than a temporary demand that can go out of style. Do you think sustainability is more a movement or a moment?

Eva: I hope it’s a movement! I love reutilizing lots of natural materials as well as repurposing vintage furniture and accents.

uv: Gender-neutral kids rooms are one of Pinterest‘s big trends for the year—why do you think parents and parents-to-be are drawn to the concept of unisex nurseries and every-kid playrooms?

Eva: I’ve recently turned my daughter’s room into a more gender-neutral space for my two older kids to share once their baby brother arrives this spring. I think people are starting to have more kids with less space and keeping it neutral is just easier.

Courtesy of Happily Eva After

uv: Are there any other trends for 2020 that you are particularly excited about?

Eva: Ceiling treatments! I think it’s so fun to bring some intrigue to your space by drawing your eye to the ceiling with fabric or paper. We used this in my home in a few spaces. I also have always loved industrial lighting (another forecasted design trend), and recently I’ve been into vintage industrial lighting. I love mixing old with new.

Courtesy of Happily Eva After. Dining room ceiling wallpaper by Nicolette Mayer.

uv: Do you have a color that you can’t wait to use in your home this year?

Eva: I’ve been bringing in a lot more black than I normally do, and I’ve been loving the drama it contributes! I have two built-ins in our house with Benjamin Moore’s Soot. It’s such a good paint color.

uv: You’ve mentioned that Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace is your go-to white paint. So, thinking about that from a fashion perspective, if Chantilly Lace is your perfect white t-shirt, do you have a paint equivalent to the LBD?

Eva: Soot! I also love Caviar, which has the most subtle hint of an inky, eggplant undertone.

Courtesy of Happily Eva After. Featuring Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace on the walls and Soot on the island, and Polycor White Cherokee marble.

uv: And along the same line of thought, just like how you’d mix trends in with classic pieces when putting together an outfit, how do you layer trendier pieces or accents into a space?

Eva: Listen to your instincts. If you love every element in a room, they all DO go together in some way. You are the common denominator!

Check out everything Eva on Happily Eva After and don’t miss the details of her gorgeous historic home, which combines old and new, including her new natural stone patio here.

Interested in what top design professionals are sharing about their world? Download our guide.

Influencer Marketing: Partnerships Built On Trust (and Good Design)

Social media is a huge part of many people’s lives—the average daily social media user is on 136 minutes a day—so it’s no surprise that social media plays a big role in the customer journey for many brands. The picture-perfect posts that capture attention, likes, and engagement are the result of careful planning, creativity, hard work, and analytics.

As consumers increasingly move toward social media and away from traditional advertising, brands are losing the battle while influencers are gaining ground every day. Because of this shift in behavior, identifying and engaging with the industry influencers on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest is a critical component of many company’s marketing strategies. Influencers provide companies with new ways to create engagement, expand their reach, and capture the interest of their target market.

what is influencer marketing?

But what is an influencer anyway? They are trusted figures within their online communities, with a loyal following thanks to their authentic content and their skill for connecting with their audience. They can drive conversation, increase traffic, and improve brand awareness for companies they partner with thanks to their specialized area of influence. And if you partner with the right one, these content creators are already marketing to your ideal audience, allowing you to deliver your brand’s message to the right people while expanding your reach.

Influencer marketing is a collaboration where a brand partners with an influencer to promote a product, service or campaign. In today’s digital world, these influencers can offer considerable value to brands, which is probably why more than two-thirds of North American retailers use some form of influencer marketing.

A brand partnership between blogger and digital influencer Joanna Hawley of Jojotastic, Sinkology and Polycor White Cherokee marble. She features the collaboration with her chicken Nancy Kerrigan, of course.

the right influencer matters

Finding an influencer who aligns with your brand, your audience, and your voice can be an incredibly impactful way to increase brand awareness and drive sales. Influencer marketing is effective because it relies on proven marketing tactics like social proof and word of mouth: consumers trust influencers more than they trust companies or brands. People don’t want to hear what brands have to say about themselves; they want to hear opinions from trusted people who they already deem credible. When you successfully partner with an influencer, they will create unique content that seamlessly features your brands’ products or services in their usual aspirational content mix.

a partnership built on trust

Influencers don’t want to jeopardize the trust they have earned or have their followers question their credibility—ever. This means that the influencers need to be marketed to first so that they want to carry your brand message and share it with their audience. These collaborations, when strategized effectively, can be a win-win situation for both you and the influencer.

Having an influencer take over your social media profiles is a great way to leverage the positive feelings that their followers have for them. For example, if you have a designer or design blogger take over your Instagram account to post content for a day, their presence can give your followers a better association with your brand. Brands can also cross-post content from influencers on their own channels to help highlight the collaboration.

Polycor, the world’s leading natural stone quarrier, partners with designers, bloggers and influencers to take over its Instagram account to boost brand awareness. This is Atlanta designer Pam Sessions of Hedgewood Homes.

design: perfectly positioned

The interior design and remodeling industries are uniquely positioned to take advantage of influencer marketing. Sharing their ideas on home improvement and decor, these influencers inspire audiences around the world. Due to the visual nature of most home products, followers can see posts every day that can inspire them to make changes in the different spaces in their home. Whether they are posting aspirational images of their homes or documenting the ups and downs of a home renovation, influencers are continuing to break new ground on social media and help lead the way in the world of digital marketing.

Room for Tuesday’s Sarah Gibson shared her laundry room reveal to inspire her audience to make changes in their own home.

questions you need to answer

And while the design industry is a unique position to take advantage of influencer marketing, it can be tricky to navigate:

  • Would you be better with an influencer who has a small but growing following or someone with 1M+ followers?
  • How do you even find the right influencer?
  • How do you vet them?
  • What do you pay them?
  • How do you start that first conversation?
  • What do you need to include in a contract or agreement?
  • How do you measure results?

You get the idea. There’s a lot of information that needs to be identified before you can even begin building a strategy. But the ROI on working with an influencer, especially a micro or nano influencer with a small but loyal following, is hard to beat. Nearly 90% of all marketers find ROI from influencer marketing comparable to or better than other marketing channels. And a recent survey found that 42% of daily U.S. Instagram users bought something because a blogger or influencer they trusted recommended it.

Brands who work with these influencers can create a partnership that expands beyond their own reach and target audience. By partnering with influencers, brands can leverage authentic messaging that aligns with your brand, your target audience, and your voice.

Looking to assess your current influencer marketing strategy? I’ll be speaking at the Design Influencers Conference, the premier conference and experience for professionals interested in learning about social media and digital content marketing in the interior design industry. Join me and countless influencers, designers, social media practitioners, traditional media, leading brands, new media innovators, and industry leaders in exploring where the worlds of interior design and new media converge.

Think you’ve found the perfect influencer to showcase your products? Let’s help you kickstart the relationship on a positive, professional note.

Holiday Gift Guide: Our Ultra Good Picks from At Home Saunas to Natural Stone Accessories

As temperatures drop down to the thirties, the uv team can’t help but dream about the holiday season. Have you given into Christmas movies or (super ambitious) started your holiday shopping yet? If you’re at a loss on what to get your family and friends this year, read along as we pick out our must-haves for the holiday season featuring some of our favorite client products, and a few others we just can’t resist.

UV families and significant others, we hope you’re taking notes…

Shannon’s Picks

Polycor’s Pearl Grey Notebook

For teachers, writers and all people who like pretty stone things.

iFetch Interactive Ball Launchers for Dogs

So my dog will stop chewing on my vintage couch.

Danielle’s Picks

Polycor’s Saint Clair Limestone Cheese Board

For when I serve up cheese and crackers at get-togethers and parties. I love the look, just as much as I love my cheese.

Asics GT-2000 Sneakers

So I can work out in style. I love the rose gold color. Hopefully they feel as good as they look.

Julia’s Picks

Swenson Granite Works Water Feature

I want to be able to sit outside, watch the birds flock to the feeder and the bees visit the wildflowers, and then lay back on my reclaimed vintage lawn furniture and listen to the gentle flow of water.

Home Sauna

Working online every day can be a literal pain in the neck. And though I love the sauna at my local YMCA, if I had one in my home I know I’d use it every day (and feel better every day, too).

Lexi’s Picks

SmithHönig’s Navy Luxurious Velvet Pillow

I want to cozy up with a SmithHönig velvet pillow and drink hot cocoa by my Christmas tree. The rich navy jewel-tone matches my living room couch so I’ll be my sister’s envy as I rest my head on it and read a book.

Christmas Tree Sweater

Santa, are you listening? Every year when the holiday season comes around I need an ugly Christmas sweater. This year I want a Christmas tree sweater that I can put on when I’m feeling extra holly jolly.

Jess’ Picks

Polycor’s Pearl Grey iPhone Holder

For the digital marketer in me. A beautiful natural stone holder + instant notifications like “This influencer tagged you in a photo” right in front of my face = perfection. And maybe I’ll finally stop asking “Where’d I put my phone?”

Tempur-Pedic pillow

Not boho or luxe, but THE pillow for the best night’s sleep I’ll ever get. I tried my friends’ and I’ve been dreaming about it ever since.

Jen’s Picks

Polycor’s Alberene Soapstone

Oh yes. I’m going big. In a dream world, I’m renovating our early 90s green ivy wallpapered, vinyl and formica kitchen in 2020 and can’t wait to install this silky, touchable black stone from Virginia on our countertops.

Woodhouse Lodge Stay

Then take me away for a stay at Woodhouse Lodge in upstate New York so I can enjoy an adult-only vacay at their gorgeous property.

There’s still plenty of shopping days until Christmas, Chanukah and Festivus. So feel free to pass this link to anyone looking to pick up a little something for their favorite uv’er.

In the meantime, we’ll be here at our cozy CoLab at Bell Works writing, scheduling and taking the marketing world by storm. We hope you have a happy, healthy and cozy holiday season surrounded by friends and family.