Not Your Everyday Homemade Christmas Presents

I've been a busy elf making Christmas presents for friends and family.

Here are a couple of the presents I've made. Since they've been given, I can share!

The first is a sign that says "Not My Monkey, Not My Circus." I gave these to teacher friends. We teachers easily get caught up in things that are out of our circle of influence and get bogged down in areas of the school that we have no control over. It's nice to be reminded to let it go! And there is just something fun about saying... not my monkey, not my circus...about things that bother us that we can't fix!

I screen printed the signs. I made close to 50 to end up with 10 decent signs. It was one of those projects! Who knew that the black chipboard would turn the white ink PINK! Grr.  I did make a tshirt for myself. :)

Then Saturday night, Libby came over and had me scan an old recipe from her husband's side of the family. We talked about the recipe and the heritage and I was inspired to go make up something for my sisters and my dad for our Christmas celebration.  

I have to say... my keeping of all things turned out great for this project as years ago I scanned in my Grandma's recipe, so I just had to find the file on the computer. And then to find the picture of my Grandma in her kitchen, I went to the tote of leftover pictures that my parents left here when they moved. It's not the best picture of my Grandma in her kitchen, but it didn't matter for this project!

So an hour later, I had these babies printed! I used Grandma's Lime Jello Salad for a couple of prints and her Big Red Ice Cream recipe for a couple of others.  

It was a fun project. I slapped them into the leftover frames from my teacher project. So really, it's a double gift. Behind the recipe project is the screen printed sign!

I love making gifts for people.

I've got a couple more that need to be made today..

A Friendship Wreath

We had some new friends over for dinner this week. After we ate, my friend gave me this wreath.

 

I love it.



And while she dogged her gift, it hit me that this was the first handmade gift that I have received in a long, long time. As she gave me the precious gift, she apologized saying that since I was a crafter and art teacher.... blah blah blah... that I might not like this GIFT!

 

And it got me thinking, why do we think that people who make art wouldn't appreciate other's art? I do this myself. I dog my own gifts. I dog my ability. I dog my craft. I realize that I do it out of fear of rejection. I'm afraid that what I just painstakingly made is not going to be received well. That it won't be appreciated, or it might even be made fun of.

 

So here is what I have decided to do. I'm going to take appreciation to the streets! I am going to start telling people that I appreciate their efforts, their time, their gifts. Because heck, I don't have to like something a student made, but I can tell them that I appreciate their efforts! I don't have to enjoy standing in line for the cashier at the store, but I can appreciate the fact that the cashier is their to help me and I can verbalize that!

 

So, to my dear friend. I am so thankful for the gift of your friendship, the gift of your smile, the gift of our daughters budding friendships. And I truly thank you for the beautiful handcrafted wreath you made me. I appreciate the gift and you.

14 years of adventure, fun and love

Today is my 14th anniversary. I truly can't believe 14 years have flown by!  We have done sooo much in these years.  I can't fathom what the next 14 will bring :)

 

Back in the early fall I thought about the upcoming anniversary and what I wanted to get for Doug. With all of my weight loss, I really wanted to do something that encompassed my new vitality and I kept thinking about my wedding dress.

 

My wedding dress symbolized all of the love and excitement and hope that we started our marriage with.  Over the years with kids and work and weight gain there was still a lot of love, but energy and excitement was lacking.

 

So, on Thanksgiving with my sister's and my brother-in-law we went and took pictures of me WEARING FOR REAL my wedding dress. We didn't have to pin it together in the back to make extra room and we didn't have to give me oxygen. I was super pumped!!

 

It took a little planning and I know that Doug caught a glimpse and wondered what the heck we were doing, but he didn't ask (thank you!).

 

Here are a few of the pictures.

 

When I saw the pictures, I decided to do something different with one. (you know, different for me.. not a scrapbook.) So I ordered one on metal. It is really cool.

 



It says:

14 years ago a

young bride married

her true love.

 

She would do it all again

now that she knows

 what true love really means.