About Arren Williams
If Arren Williams were to walk through one of those new scanners at the airport, security personnel might be surprised to see chairs, tables and lamps floating around in his head. As one of Canada’s top stylists, editors and trend reporters, he is always on the hunt for the next great find that could take a room from blah to spectacular.
Sweet Gift Ideas
design diary canada
(Dec.01.10)
Yes, we’re all getting busier now that the countdown is on to the Holidays, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least attempt to stay calm and on track.
On my list, as usual, I have oodles of small gifts to sort out: for friends and colleagues, not to mention the prezzies I need to keep on hand for host/hostess gifts when the inevitable come over for a drink invites roll in. And, as usual, I try and come up with something that’ll both look great, but is relatively easy to pull off — since there’s got to be time to get it all done between decorating the house, work and sleep.
My good old standby is dark chocolate covered almonds poured into a glass storage container and tied up prettily with a bow (if you’re in Toronto you should check out Mokuba for completely gorgeous Japanese ribbon). One year I even scored some vintage never-used milk cartons at an antique fair and used those, so it definitely pays to be creative.
Now, while Martha might have you believe that you can make your own chocolate covered almonds – here’s her recipe – I tend to go perhaps a simpler route and buy mine in bulk at Costco. Oh, and if anyone asks, those almonds are practically health food, not to mention all the health benefits of dark chocolate!
One option I’m considering this year – If I can somehow steal a day from my busy schedule – is baking and packaging gingerbread cookies. Ikea’s Drommar set of cookie cutters has a cool wintry vibe (well, perhaps not the snail...), and I totally love the Christmas-y red Tripp set of tins.
Once the cookies are all baked I would layer them with the natural coloured parchment paper – rather than the standard white – to give it more of a homemade feel, and then tie up the tin with a ribbon to finish it off. These cookie shapes would also make great Christmas decorations for your tree. Chatelaine magazine’s food editor Claire Tansey told me a great tip that Nigella Lawson passed on to her for baked decorations – add cayenne to the recipe and Fido hopefully won’t attempt to swipe any from the tree!
Thought that was sweet? You'll enjoy: