December Note from the Editor
Our editor reflects on her first full year with the magazine!
Editor Wendy Manwarren Generes (photo: Jennie Sullins)
What a difference a year makes. It’s been exactly one year since I first addressed you. A year since I took over as editor of this magazine and shared with you my vision and hopes for the year ahead. I think I’ve kept my promises. I committed to giving you a fresh perspective, warmth, personality, take aways and engagement. I believe I’ve delivered on all of that. But, we’re not done making improvements.
In the next year, you can look forward to more original online content since we just hired a web editor. Welcome to the family, Julia Dixon Evans! I’ll share more of what we have in store for our digital space and our social channels in the months to come—after we let Julia settle in a little.
As far as this issue is concerned, this is my first holiday issue. Yes, I was the editor at this point last year, but the stories were photographed and completed long before my arrival, so while my face landed on the editor’s page, the content and ideas did not come from me.
So I’m excited to bring you my first holiday issue with San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles. It’s packed with so many great things.
First up: a gift guide from San Diego’s biggest tastemakers. These individuals are your virtual go-tos for what’s hot in everything from fashion and beauty to home, garden and travel. We asked them—these people with their finger on the pulse of cool—to tell us what they’re giving their friends and family this year. Find 44 presents for everyone on your list (including yourself) in our Holiday Gift Guide. It’s just one of our many gifts to you in this issue.
Click for each gift guide:
Another comes in the form of a stress-free entertaining guide. We partnered with Native Poppy’s Natalie Gill and asked her to create a wreath-making party with us. It’s beautiful, easy and fun, and she shares all her secrets, including how to make pretty wreaths (seriously even non-creatives made masterpieces) in “A Crafty Way to Gather Friends.”
A crafty way to gather friends (photo: Gary Payne)
We’re also giving you some non-traditional ideas for sprinkling a bit of festive decor throughout your home. Beyond trees and candles, we’ve got tips for incorporating nostalgic texture, setting a pretty table and doing something other than lighting a fire in the fireplace, thanks to Couture Events’ Krystel Stacey’s “13 Fabulous and Simple Holiday Decorating Ideas.”
13 fabulous and simple holiday decorating ideas (photo: Stacy Keck)
And finally, the home we’re featuring in “Crazy Cozy Cool” is unlike anything we’ve done since I came on board. Chains, propaganda art and airplane tires make their way into one of the most creative interior spaces I have ever been in (and I’ve been in a lot in 16 years of doing this).
Crazy, cozy, cool (photo: Alen Lin Inc Photography)
Thank you for reading our pages throughout this last year. I hope you continue to join me on this incredibly fun journey of discovering San Diego’s prettiest interiors, amazing gardens, coolest people and so much more.
Happy holidays!
Wendy Manwarren Generes
