DIY Christmas gifts

Seems like another lifetime ago that I was frantically scrambling to finish the long list of pinterest inspired DIY gifts I decided to make for Christmas.  I had a blast stressing myself out (in a good way) trying to finish the majority of them during finals week and the week before Christmas.  Everything turned out great and amazingly I stayed inspired until I was finished! (I usually get brainy ideas like this but I don't always follow through with them...so this is kind of shocking!)

Just thought I would share them with you since Christmas is (long) over :)

**Complete credit goes to the creative people I find through *pinterest* ;)

12 days of Christmas Gifts -
I've always wanted to send someone 12 days of Christmas gifts and this year, since I was overly ambitous and decided to send them to a few different friends. FYI - There are more than 12 ideas b/c I didn't send all of the same gifts to each person.

I sent 1 set the 12 days before Christmas, and other 2 sets the 12 days after Christmas - I works either way.  I just didn't have time to finish all of them before Christmas! 

I also sent all of the gifts at once. I just put tags on each gift that I found here, with the number of the day to open it on.

 1. Jar of Reese's M&Ms that says "I Love You to Pieces"
2. Paper clip book marks
3. Dry erase picture frame to write notes on.
4. Flower hair clip
5. Clothes pin message...
6. Bible verse cards

 Cute "gift carrier." Tutorial found Here.

 Another "gift carrier" with a bag of hershey's hugs & kisses.  Tutorial found Here.

 Snow man kisses and large decorative clothespin. Tutorials found Here and Here.

 1. Pringles jar, cleaned, decorated, and filled with cookies.
2. little hershey's chocolate bars wrapped with paper, and packaged. Tutorial found here.
3. M&Ms sewed up inside paper.

The final products, wrapped and ready to be sent!

Bubble Burlap Wreath
I got this idea from a tutorial found Here. With a few modifications...

 1. Supplies needed
     a. 10 or 12 in foam ring (I used a 12in)
     b. lots of pins w/ heads
     c. burlap 1 1/2 - 1 1/4 yds burlap
     d. old sheet (Optional)
     c. scissors
2. tear ~3in strip from old sheet
3. hot glue one end to ring and wrap around the rest, ending by hot glueing the other end. (Doesn't have to look great...it will get covered up.)
4. Begin cutting burlap in 4x4 pieces (or close to that. Mine were definitely not all the exact same sizes)

Ignore 5. & 6...just realized that was from something else I made from burlap! ;)
7. Refer to the turtorial for a better description of how to pin the "bubbles"
8. The covered wreath!

 I decided to add some spice to the wreath by putting some flowers on it.
1. I used 3 different colors of yellow felt.  Cut into a circle (size depends on how big you want your flower to be.)
2. Cut circle in spiral shape.
3. Roll up felt from the outside - in. place a dot of hot glue where the #3 is. The tighter you roll the felt, the tighter the flower will be.
4. Ta-da! Finished product.

 And Ta-Da! The Complete project! I just attached some ribbon to hang it by...the ribbon can be easily changed to a different color for different occasions. :)

I realized that even if I was in a complete rush and I had the basement in utter caos, making crafts is actually moderately relaxing and stress-relieving! :)

Silence

That pretty much sums up my blogging life for the past month and a half. 
It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about. 
And it's not that I haven't necessarily had time. 
And not that I haven't began numerous posts, only to stop and leave them in my draft box to complete at a "later date." 
I don't really know what the reason is for my silence. 
Not in the mood? Nothing exciting to talk about? Unmotivated? Overwhelmed?
I think it's possibly a combination of all 4.

For one, I have to "be in the mood" to post something.  Which sounds kinda silly but it's true.  If I don't have the ispiration and I try to write a post, I get frustrated and end up trashing it or just leaving it there for "when I am inspired". Maybe it's because deep down, I'm have this expectation that I have to write something soo profound to keep my reader's entertained.  Or maybe it's because I'm afraid to expose my heart as an open book for all to read.  Or maybe it's just the fact that writing can be overwhelming to me unless I have the inspiration. I don't really know.

Having nothing exciting to write about is a matter of the reader's opinion I guess.  I'm sure I've had something more exciting to write about than just plain silence. But I guess I decided to resort to silence.

Unmotivated.  That kinda goes along with "no ispiration."  However, I feel like unmotivation is the story of my life right now.  And I think we all know how that goes in our own lives (or maybe it's just me).  If it's present in one part of life, it's there in every part.  It's like a progressive disease.  It develops in one small area, and begins to grow.  If it's not caught and treated right away, it spreads. And soon it's infected every area and from there it continues to spiral downward. I feel as if I am climbing and fighting against the downward spiral at the moment.  I've recognized my problem, maybe a bit too late, but early enough to have the strength to fight against it. My first treatment is to admit my problem.  SO we shall see where it goes from here! ;) 

Overwhelmed I think is a symptom of my unmotivational progressive disease.  And since I know that just treating the symptoms doesn't erase the problem, I've realized I have to fix the cause of my disease before the rest of my sumptoms will disappear. Which leads me to the reason this whole disease began and my best prognosis is - plain and simple "laziness."

**Edited to add: Wow...I appologize for the long, boring, and completely unitentional therapuetic writing session I just had with myself.  I just diagnosed myself with a disease I never realized I had prior to this post!  About that open book...

So on to a more exciting and less intense update on my life! ;)
Well...It's officially 2013!! (I'm only a month late!) While I would love to do a run down of how extremely blessed year 2012 was, that looks a little overwhelming to me at the moment so I will just attempt to update you on the past few weeks. :)

Christmas was such a blessing, as it is every year.  There's is just nothing comparable to plain and simple "family time."

FIrst Christmas was with the Eisenmann's:

These 2 are quite the rascals together!

Deira being her sweet self!

The 3 Stooges...well we used to be (or more like the 2 stooges and the other 1 easy prey) but now we're just 3 wonderful friends. :)

The traditional "live play" of the Nativity.
I think this year's was officially that fastest one on record...but it was still sweet.

Next on the schedule was our family Christmas.  Everyone ended up spending the night and we all had breakfast the next day together and opened our stockings. Oh and celebrated Jeremy's bday. Love love LOVE family time!

RIver putting together the puzzle I gave him. 
He is quite the "puzzle-er!"

New Year's Eve at Brenda's.  I was a loner since mom, dad, and jess were all in mexico over the new year.  But I enjoyed the evening playing games and hanging out with brenda and the dotterer's!

Lovely appetizer table.

Playing "Ha Ha" with out smiling.  Good luck.

Deira took her first steps!! But she hasn't taken many since...she's getting there!

SO many random, last minute memories with these lovely ladies.  :)

 

 



And since this post has become overwhelmingly long, I will sign off, with a promise of more posts in the near future! ;)