Last Minute Gifts

Oh boy.  So I had forgotten about a couple more projects I made this week.  It's seriously been an insane week of last minute crafting.  Teach me to not put things off anymore.  Okay, probably not really.  I finished everything up Wednesday night, I'm just a failure and forgot to blog about them on Thursday when I posted about everything else.  So, this is it until Christmas.

I made one last Secret Santa gift.  I had totally seen it on Pinterest, no original ideas here.  I just used a basic acrylic picture frame from the DG, some scrapbook paper I already had, glue dots, and I picked up some butterfly shaped Post-Its.  I thought it turned out super cute.  It was supposed to be my Thursday gift but since I wimped out because of snow Thursday it's getting gifted today along with the big present.  I kind of want to make one for myself.

Okay, the paper I used is honestly a little country for my taste, but the teacher I was gifting it to likes primitives and her favorite color is purple so I thought it worked.  The tag does actually say her name, it's just blocked out for privacy.

And I had one more homemade present for my sister for her birthday.  Since she was the one that supplied the bottle caps for my bottle cap tray, I thought it was only right that I make one for her too.  I actually like hers better than mine.  I just used a wooden tray from JoAnns.  Since I'd heard horror stories about the wood trays leaking, I caulked all the seams like I did on my first one.  Then I painted it with silver craft paint, I would've like to spray paint it, but it's too cold out for spray paint to dry properly.  And this time I got smart.  I laid all my bottle caps out first to make sure I spaced them properly, there are 63 of 'em if you're curious.  Then I hot glued them down so I wouldn't have any floaters.  I had a couple that didn't cooperate, but it worked so much better than just laying them in and pouring in the acrylic water.  All in all, very happy with the end result.  I may have gone picture crazy....

And if you're paying attention, every single bottle cap is different.  That's a lot of beer drinking.  And a cream soda & ginger ale.  Don't worry, they were drank by multiple people over a long period of time.

So, this is it until after Christmas.  From my house to yours, wishing you a very safe and happy Christmas!  Stay warm and cozy and enjoy your loved ones!  

Dear Santa

In my family we've switched up how we do Christmas now that we're all adults.  I have three sisters, two parents, and now there are boyfriends and a husband.  So there's kind of a lot of us.  And it gets super expensive to buy a good present for at least seven other people.  Do the math people, it's a lot.  So we've tried different things.  There were a few years we did homemade gifts.  I personally loved it but not everyone was so thrilled by it.  Then we did the get everyone a small present thing, like under $10.  Personally this was my least favorite.  This year we're back to doing one of the things I really like, we draw names and just buy a gift for the person whose name we drew.  My sisters and I do stockings for my parents.  My parents do stockings for all of us and then get us all something small.  It works out pretty well I think.

So, since we draw names, and we actually pick names out of a bowl, you don't always end up with someone you know what to buy for.  Last year I got my sister's friend who comes to our holiday stuff.  I had no idea what to buy him.  So we set up a family email address and we all send a wish list to that email so everyone can get on and see what we want.  It works out pretty well.  Except sometimes it's really hard to come up with things you want.  Our price limit is $50.  I'm really bad about just going and buying the things I want.  Or the things I might want are too expensive.

Like these.

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So I accidentally bought them for myself the other day on Amazon because I was buying a couple of counseling books for my elementary kiddos.  And I found a coupon.  So yes, I justified spending $80 (with my coupon) on boots just because I was buying boots.  Don't tell my husband, m'kay?  These are supposed to be the best boots though.  They're waterproof, thinsulate, and rated to like -30 degrees or something insane like that.  Perfect for Chiefs games, general winter yuckiness and maybe even duck hunting. 

Anyway, back to my list.  I finally came up with things to ask for.  I thought really hard.  I still feel like I could've done better on my list, but this is what I've got.

 

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And a turquoise lamp for the living room.  Something like one of these....

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What do you have on your Christmas list?  Or do you even still make a Christmas list?