How to Make Beautiful No-Sew Rope Bowls

Now that she can visit you for the first time in a year improve her photo game for summer travel.

Help her get her home styled for happy living with this color + pattern interior design class.

You can reap the benefits of having mom take this cake decorating class! #lickthebowl

This class taught and designed by Tiffany Whipps will give her everything she needs to make hammered wire and beaded earrings for herself (and likely all of her friends).

Jenna Rainey walks you through mixing colors, making different brushstrokes, painting beautifully natural floral designs.

Farmgirl Flowers teaches mom everything she needs to know about selecting, processing and arranging her own unique florals!

Lauren Essl of Blue Eye Brown Eye gives mom a way to practice her penmanship and tap into this oh-so-hot-right-now lettering trend.

Transport mom back to summer camp in the 70's. In this class, taught by Natalie Davis of Canoe Goods, she'll learn how to add textured designs to leather and construct this handy tray for keys, jewelry and other bits 'n' bobs.

Mother-daughter duo Nur-E Gulshan and Nur-E Farhana Rahman own the awesome jewelry company Knotty Gal, which gives us serious mother-daughter relationship goals. Take this class together!

Our friends at Hello!Lucky will teach mom how to print her very own cards for every holiday with a handy-dandy tabletop letterpress machine.

B+C Classes offer creative and business skills taught by the world's best experts. Choose individually from 120+ courses, or subscribe to our All Access Pass for all-you-can-learn at just $10/month.

We all love to create, whether that’s deciding what to wear in the morning, what recipes to prepare at night or how we decorate our homes. That’s why we decided that our next chapter would be a permanent retail space where we connect, inspire and CREATE in real life with you!

Makeshop, located just outside of San Francisco in Mill Valley, CA, is a new type of retail experience designed by all of us here at Brit + Co where you can both make and shop, all under one roof.

With themes that change every couple of months (this month's theme: School's in Session), you can find colorful, creative and innovative products curated (or created) by Brit and her team, as well as a Make Station where you can sit down to make your own free creative project to take home. In our first rotating collection of goodies from our favorite designers, we're excited to represent our friends from Esselle, ilootpaperie, Wanderwild, Maika, Hooray Socks, and Society6. We're also offering some of our own Brit + Co products, including customizable planners, pins, patches, sticker sheets, DIY kits, books and more.

Whether you live in the Bay Area or you’re here on vacay, come on over to the recently renovated (and so darling!) Mill Valley Lumbar Yard, grab lunch at one of our fave local eateries Flour & Craft Bakery and hang out with us to make, shop or just say hello. We can’t wait to meet you!

Makeshop

129 Miller Ave.

Mill Valley, CA

To stay up to date on all things Brit + Co, be sure to follow #britstagram on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

1. They're always being dismissive.

Have you ever been really excited or upset about something only to be met with a dismissive tone from someone you confided in? This person is displaying toxicity which "gradually undermines trust in relationships," according to English. Would you want to keep sharing things with a person if they're always downplaying your emotions? Probably not.

2. Controlling others seems like a sport to them.

English says another way to determine someone is toxic is pay attention to their controlling behavior. It can be something as simple as telling you what to wear or something greater such as forcibly limiting your contact with anyone they think isn't good for you.

3. They consistently makes excuses for their behavior.

Have you ever let a close friend know certain behavior bothers you only for them to make an excuse for why they keep doing them? Bennett says this counts as "avoiding responsibility for actions." Furthermore, "constantly" doing so or looking to "push the blame onto someone else veers into toxic territory," she adds.

Another way to look at this is if someone is always falling into a pattern of "victimizing themselves," according to Bennett.

4. They tend to be manipulative.

Manipulation is tricky because it's not always obvious until it's too late. It's kind of like not realizing you were bit by a mosquito until your skin becomes itchy and red. Bennett says this is toxic because there's a knowing that someone can "appeal to a certain person's characteristics or personality traits." This looks like saying or doing something "with the intention of getting a certain reaction," according to her.

Bennett says, "An example may be one partner in sobriety who consistently uses their poor mental health as a reason to not be proactive about finding a job. They do this because they know that the other partner is worried about their loved one relapsing so they use that fear against her."

5. They never miss an opportunity to gaslight people.

Calling this a "well-known example," English says gaslighting often occurs when someone denies the reality of another person." What would cause someone to do this? Well, a toxic behavior often doesn't want to take accountability for their actions so they'd rather "cause people to doubt their own perceptions," according to English.

6. They're always looking for reasons to criticize someone.

The catty behavior on The Real Housewives of New York may be entertaining for TV, but that kind of behavior gets old quickly in everyday life. No one wants to hear why "so and so thinks they're all that" even if it's disguised as humor. English says, "Regardless of their motivation," behaviors like this "can lead to stressful and emotionally distressing situations."

Alena Darmel

Is it time to cut that toxic person out of my life?

We live in a society that started prioritizing ending relationships with people as soon as we spot red flags, but English and Bennett don't think this should be our immediate reaction. English says, "The decision to disengage with a toxic person in the relationship will depend on how harsh and serious the relationship is" because "it is often personal."

According to her, if you notice a consistent pattern where the behavior is "damaging your emotional health," it's okay to walk away from that person. Still, she believes "completely cutting [someone] off is often a last option when other approaches to changing the behavior have not worked." Bennett says something similar and notes how to approach different scenarios.

"If it someone you need to communicate with because of a job or family, there are things you can do to protect yourself," she says. She suggests reminding "yourself who you are dealing with" if the person is adept at gaslighting others because "it may be easy to become convinced that you are wrong or something did not happen the way you recall." A phrase she encourages you to tell yourself is, "I know that my experiences are my experiences no matter what."

If you're dealing with an aggressively toxic person, you'll have to "set and reinforce boundaries," Bennett says while English adds that "engaging in therapy to faciliate healthier relationships" may be a next step.

Here's how Bennett suggests navigating communication with someone like this:

• Set a boundary to end the conversation when you notice toxic behavior such as invalidation of your feelings.
• Receive support from another person so they can remind you of things you're trying to accomplish

If you're dealing with a friend or spouse, Bennett wants you to remember "you cannot change them" but you're in control of how you respond. English says, "It is important to analyze the whole situation and know when the cost of the relationship is greater than the benefits."