Gift Tags Galore!

I’ve been busy these past 2 weeks making some gifts for family. My Mother-In-Law’s family exchanges family gifts (there are individual gifts for the cousins who are much younger than Nate and I) and since Nate and I are celebrating our first Christmas as a “family” we decided to move into the adult exchange. Most of the family gifts are homemade, like a loaf of bread, or venison sweet bologna from the hunters, but neither Nate nor I consider ourselves bakers, and we don’t don the camouflage for some tree stand time come hunting season. So, naturally I turned to my never ending supply of scrap booking paper.










Since we gathered before Christmas, I decided to

make some gift tags for each of the 5 families. I was inspired by the snowman and Christmas tree tags I made for the first presents I wrapped this Season. I made 3 tags of each of the 4 designs. Since I wanted each of the designs to be the same I first made a template out of black cardstock. Then I traced it onto colorful paper, usually added a border and wa la! A little punch finished off each one. I made one from each of the designs a little more special, like the Christmas tree with a beaded garland which is pictured below.

After I had all of them ready to go I had the next dilemma of presentation. And like the famous chefs, I always think presentation is just as important as the product itself. Nate suggested I put them in envelopes and decorate the outside, but since gift tags aren't exactly a conventional gift, I thought they deserved a better "grand entrance" then some "lick n' seal" packaging. Thus, the next few photos:
I decided to make some little boxes to "wrap" each set of gift tags in. I looked up some simple instructions online, and after a few minutes of
creasing and folding I had these little babies to fill with my handmade tags.







They looked so cute when they were all put together ... and I got to show off my paper cutting skills!

Here's a shot of all of them together ... one big happy family! :)

and a close up of the aforementioned Christmas tree with a beaded garland


and a bow and gift tag (what else would you put on box of gift tags... hah :)) stand in for the cherry on top


Merry week of Christmas!

P.E.A.C.E. ... la paz

Contact Paper & Paper Chains

As an apartment DIYer I usually have to reign in my first thoughts about a new project. First, our lease isn't very DIY friendly. No paint ... No nails ... No knocking down walls. Okay, I probably haven't thought about knocking down a wall, but I have had my doubts about an apartment with every wall painted a muted periwinkle. At first I didn't think it would be an environment my color craving self could live in. Despite my desires to spend a few hours in the Lowes paint depart, I've been pleasantly surprised at how well I like the place in all it's lavender-esque glory. It's made being a DIYer even more satisfying with more challenging problem solving. Check out my solution to a headboard.

And since I naturally always purchase too much in the DIY department, I ended up with a whole unused roll of contact paper and a receipt long gone in the trash. Hense, our new dining room wall decor.

I love having these words to look at in the morning when I'm waking up over a nice bowl of cereal.

Micah 6:8

"He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God"

What a great reminder of why I am here on Earth.

Lastly, I'll end my post with a jingle bell, or two :)

Since I don't have a collection of Christmas decorations yet, I decided to make some! What else would a DIY gal do to spruce up her digs? These Christmas paper chains lighten up our living area and they were super cheap and easy to make!

Since I still have sheet after sheet of scrapbooking paper left over from my honeymoon memory book, these were the perfect
projects to use some of it up ... and they look super cute too!

P.E.A.C.E. and joy to you this Christmas season...

An Ode to the Question Marks

A while back (July 30 to be exact) I wrote a post about finding my one true love. Okay, maybe just a hobby since I think my husband has a monopoly on the “one true love” title. So, with the approach of a new year, I thought it was time to reflect back.

Enjoy!

6 hobbies I thought were "gonna be the one"

- Card making: I bought the supplies, read card making blogs, thought up many ideas for designs, made a total of 9 cards and quit. The pretty paper I bought is still mostly untouched.

Although I don’t have a stock of these to show off, and those card making blogs put my little greetings to shame, I have continued to make my greeting cards instead of purchasing them. It’s fun to add a personal touch to a gift, and I even came up with a little logo for the

back. That’s right, go check your wedding cards recent brides … I made all of those by hand! They’re no hallmark beauties, but they send love and cheer all the same.

- Cooking my way through a cookbook (Julie and Julia style): I have the books, couldn't pick the right one, tried a recipe for a curry that turned out a bit too spicy for my tastes, and quit.

Well, I’m not so sure I have any update here. I did however find a better way to use my “Foodnetwork” magazines. Check it out …

I love the recipes in each issue but find it hard to remember to use them, and let’s be honest, at 5:30 after a long day in the office the last thing you want to do is page through a 200 page issue to find that one recipe you think you remember seeing. Plus, the page covers make a perfec

t defense against those roaming ingredients and sauce covered spoons. What? Am I the ONLY one who gets pizza dough stuck in between the pages of her nice Betty Crocker Cookbook EVERY time I try my hand at the Italian delicacy?

- Scrapbooking: Now here is one that, through the years, has left me the owner of 3 or 4 unfinished scrapbooks. Well, none of them are really started either. Since I had the paper and supplies from the card making binge I decided I was finally going to accomplish putting together an entire, completed book of our honeymoon pictures. 1st step: order pictures from snapfish or shutterfly. hmmm.... I'm still on the 1st step :)

Ah Ha! I prevail! (at least one of these things has true tangible progress!) Okay, not quite. I’m 3 pages short of completing (yes, you read that right) our honeymoon scrapbook. I ordered the pictures from Snapfish during one of their “get 50 free prints” deals. Saweet! Then of course our postal system had a bit of a hard time getting them into our mailbox (yes, I know a side porch entrance is hard to find Mr.

Mailman, but really…). In the end, I landed myself with 2, count ‘em, 2 sets of the pictures. Ironically the original order came 2 weeks after the nice Snapfish customer service people sent me reprint order. Anyways, I’m almost there… so close I can taste it.

- Photography: a good camera (that I of course absolutely need to start this hobby) is a bit out of my price range. It would cost me a good year's worth of fun money... and do i really want to give up all that fun so that a year from now I can take a few pictures and move on the the next hobby idea?

A few months back Nate and I welcomed a new member into our family.

Welcome to the world Nikon D3000!

I should probably come up with a cute name for it ... like people do with their cars. Any suggestions?

I LOVE my new camera. I even had my first “parenting” lesson. ALWAYS put the strap around your neck! My poor Nikon has a bit of a broken lens due to my careless handling. What is funny is that I got this first lesson about 3 minutes after my own Mother warn

ed me that my arms looked a bit full to try to carry the new camera too. Guess we know who isn’t ready for her very own baby. But, all is well with a few rotations of a screwdriver every so often.

- Gardening: This one started back in the spring, but as my garden wilts and dies (from a fungus in the soil that is apparently impossible to kill) I have of course given up and moved on.

Eh, skip.

The only gardening I do these days is nurturing my ever growing family of spider plants. Mama spider plant, who I adopted way back in 6^th grade during a class activity, is still making those babies (I don’t think menopause is in her future)!

- Blogging: This one makes me laugh a bit. I started this blog with the intentions of using it as an outpost for my thoughts on being a newlywed. It soon turned into ramblings about hobbies I wanted to pursue as my life before the ring was full of them, and now being a Mrs I seem to have lost them or left them on the way. As you can see... I didn't post for a whole month.

Well, I guess my blog is now a space for me to share my little DIY projects. It gives me some form of accomplishment to publish my craft creations … it’s even more rewarding when someone mentions “Hey, I saw that on your blog …”

Enjoy the Holidays and

P.E.A.C.E. … La Paz

In the Spirit of Christmas ...

Thanksgiving has past, along with the turkey and sweet potato leftovers, and I'm in full swing for Christmas. A few months back Nate and I purchased our very first Christmas tree, and yes it surely is a fresh cut fir wannabe. There is much to be desired ... fraying multi-colored fiber optic lights and all. But, the price was right at only 6 George Washington's. Here's our baby standing tall in all of her (too pretty to be a boy) two and a half feet of blinking glory the day we brought her home. (I was pretty excited)

and here she is after a loving touch and few combs through her tangled branches.

I've always been a "white light" kinda gal, so I strung a white mini-light set on it instead of using the fiber optics. We even have a few presents by the tree already.

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As you can see I have been busy creating Christmas cheer in our little home

1. I decided to forgo my pottery barn tablescape after I happened upon the discovery that a candlestick fits in my old oil diffuser bottle. I love the mix of heights and shapes.

2. So, after making my wreath, decorating the Christmas tree and filling a bunch of decorative glass vases with that bargain lot of ornaments, I STILL had some to spare. It felt like the ornament well was never gonna go dry! So, to add a bit more Christmas spirit in our little apartment (which after my last decorating spree is pretty much bursting at the seams with jingle bells) I threaded some ribbon through the remaining ornaments and now our door is all decked out in it's Christmas best!

3. Lastly, (for this post) I crafted some fun wrapping paper out of newspaper that was waiting its days in our green bin and added some cute hand-made tags.


That's all for tonight ... stop by soon for some more of my Christmas projects!

P.E.A.C.E. ... ... La Paz ... ...