A Few of Your Favorite Things

This Christmas hubby and I kept things pretty simple, and for my sister in-law we put together a gift bag with a few of her favorite things. I got this awesome idea from my friend Crissy who found it via Pinterest. She designed the graphics for the labels and I went in and edited the text to fit the gifts I was giving.

Here are the things that went into the gift:

A quote about books: A good book

"A chick flick for our favorite chickadee": A chick flick (Water for Elephants)

"For your mistle toes": Fuzzy socks with a nail polish tucked inside

"We love you a latte": Hand knit coffee cozy with Starbucks gift card tucked inside

"Eat drink and be merry": Sparkling French berry lemonade

Everything was put into the brown paper gift bag with a tag that said "these are a few of your favorite things". I found the bag at Target but it came with purple ribbon handles, so I changed out the ribbon for the red polka dot (thanks again Crissy for your idea!). The ribbon handles were tied together with some string twine.

Although this was a Christmas gift you could really give it for any occasion, just change up the color scheme and some of the sayings. The only rule is that when you give the gift you have to sing: "brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of your favorite things..." Any Sound of Music fans out there? I'm not, but I do know that much. I also know that Austria is amazing and beautiful and I would like a second home there. That is really the only alluring thing to me about that musical. I hope that's not too harsh--I am just not a fan of musicals. 

But anyway...hope you like the gift idea! What would you include in one of these gift bags? I'd love to hear your ideas!

An Announcement

Well I think I am finally ready to come back to the blogging world. Being a teacher, I have had the amazing pleasure of having the last 2 weeks off for Christmas and New Year's. It definitely came at the right time, and I was in desperate need of some rest and relaxation. This means I also have taken a 2 week break from my job as a Scentsy Family Independent Consultant and from the blog. It has been so amazing to have no commitments that I need to worry about. I spent a lot of time hanging out with my hubby (he is a teacher too so we had an awesome break together) and we traveled to spend time with both of our families. My plan is to have a Christmas recap post up before the end of January. We'll see how I do...

Until then I thought I would share a quick Christmas post by revealing the Christmas card that we sent out to our family this year:

Yep, that's my handsome hubby! Oh, and we're expecting! I am 16 weeks, so in just a month we find out if baby to be is a boy or girl. So exciting! We had the picture printed as a postcard and sent it off to extended family as our way of announcing.

The inspiration for this picture came from here and the photo was taken by Dory of The Doyle Dispatch.

Hope ya'll had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's!

Adventures in Christmas Wreath Making

Two Saturdays ago I went with two friends to Deck The Halls, an annual fundraiser for Hilliard House. You can read all about Hilliard House and this fabulous event here.

We got to the farm where the event was being held a little later than we had originally planned because that morning my friend Katie and I had been canning applesauce. This was only my second time canning and the process is still a little slow going. Anyway...

Once we got there we dove right in by getting our wreath forms and choosing our greens. The event was super organized and there were areas for each type of green, wreath accessories, bows, etc. We found ourselves a table and began crafting. Let me tell you it was really overwhelming. Where does a non crafty person begin with a pile of greenery and a metal circle?! Bit by bit is the answer. I didn't really have a "vision" but I slowly started attaching little bits. Here is what the start of my wreath looked like. Puny right?

Here are some pictures of the girls working on their wreaths:

This special creation has a story to go with it. Check out my friend Dory's blog over at The Doyle Dispatch for the low down on this:

Here we are with our finished products!

And here is my little wreath hanging on my front door. Its a little wonky, but not too bad for my first attempt. I wanted to go with the natural Christmas look, which is why I chose the pinecones and burlap bow. 

After our adventure here are some lessons we learned for next year:

1. Bring a folding camp chair. Standing over a table for several hours gets a little tiring.
2. Get there at the beginning so you can create all day. It takes longer than you think to make one thing and if you want more than one (you can make as much as you can carry) then you need a lot of time.
3. Bring a tote bag to easily get your creations home.
4. Go to Homemades by Suzanne in Ashland for lunch first because it is amazing. We were so sad we didn't think to do that this time around!

Be A Guest Blogger?

...Don't mind if I do! Stop on by Virginia is for Bloggers by clicking here and see my guest post from today!! I'll give you a hint...it involves some holiday fun. Hurry on over and while you're there check out some of the other VA bloggers on the site. They are pretty awesome. Happy Tuesday friends!