If you are in need of a snappy mantra for holiday cheer to get you through the season, stick around. Friends, please meet Kalli Verbecky. She’s visited us before, is generally fabulous, and today has shared a refreshing perspective and gentle reality check, to which I say amen. IT’S ALMOST FREAKING CHRISTMAS I mean, duh, right? You have your advent calendar out, your halls are decked to the max, and cookies and treats, and zoo lights, and making gingerbread houses,…
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I don’t know about you, but online shopping is my best friend this time of year, a godsend actually, considering that we’ve been in survival mode for the past several months at our house. Not that that makes us any different from any other family, aren’t we all in survival mode? Preach! I haven’t left my house to Christmas shop at an actual brick and mortar store once this year, and I’ve somehow managed to avoid the mall all together,…
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Friends! It’s December and the holiday spirit is everywhere, except I’m not feeling it. I thought November would never ever end, but here we are on December 4th and the festivities are upon us. Somehow in the last 3 days we’ve managed to decorate a Christmas tree, put lights on the house, mail greeting cards, and listen to every Christmas album we own. A stack of our favorite holiday movies is on standby for the coming weekend, and the shopping…
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Today’s how-to is all about preserving garden herbs for winter. Did you know that was a thing? If only my teenage self could see me now. She’d be horrified that I not only keep a garden, but take extra steps to preserve my herbs for the Winter. It’s all good, teenage Allison, chill out. Learning how-to preserve your herbs to use in the cold months of the year is a thing, and it’s a super easy thing at that. Also,…
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My mom’s granola is one of the better things this earth has to offer, and I’m not even kidding a little. It’s the simple things in life that make it so good, you know?
Growing up as one of the younger siblings in a family of 8 kids, I got ripped off a fair amount of my young life. I never had anything new, and anything precious I did have was broken / stolen / maimed within moments of landing within my reach. But, like any good cliché, I always had a playmate, which came in handy every year when we took our family vacation. >> Read More
Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!
This Toffee Apple Dip is going to make you very popular this fall. I know this because once, many years ago, my husband and I attended a grown-ups only Halloween party at a neighbor’s house. In the middle of the buffet was a platter of apples and a bowl of a creamy, sweet dip I’d never heard of before. Guests were wild for it. The lovely gal who made it explained that it’s her go-to treat to take to all…
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***Congratulations to our winner, Elizabeth C. who said: What a hard question! I have a bunch of favorite movies… But because it’s nearly Halloween and I’ve been watching a lot of scary movies, my favorite movie currently is Poltergeist. Please contact Petit Elefant directly, Elizabeth, and a special thanks to everyone who participated. I’m a movie fan. Which is to say, I love a feel-good movie of any sort, especially the romantic. So sue me. Life is hard enough on…
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Eff, it’s been a hard year for me. EFF. Like, the hardest year since ever. How about you? You hanging? I’m taking this Fall one day at a time, one foot in front of the other, sometimes even one half hour at a time. But I don’t want to get off to a bad start on this post, so let’s start off by watching Jimmy Fallon and will.i.am break it down in the best video to hit 2014 Ew, ew!…
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Happiness seems to be a buzzword recently, and by recently I mean always. What makes a person happy? What is true happiness, as opposed to temporary fun and how does one get from the day-to-day happiness of our lives to something more longstanding and ultimately more fulfilling? Is this something you think about? I think about it all the time. In fact, you could pretty much make the argument that any bucket list, or Life List in my case, is…
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