Oh my gosh!! It's 2013 & I made it out of 2012 alive!! I hope you all did too, but if you're reading this, than I will assume you have as well and are enjoying the new year! I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already!! I tried soo hard every year to 'pre-celebrate' so that by the time the 25th finally does roll around, I'll be over flowing with Holiday Cheer lol But time never fails to get the best of me at the end of every year. One day your eating Turkey with family and then the next day Santa filled your living room with gifts! It's crazy how fast time goes by, especially during the holidays. I will try better next year to perfect my 'pre-celebrating' so that I can fully enjoy Christmas in its entirety.
The weeks leading up to Christmas were full of many Christmas activities and traditions. We started off by building the most pathetic gingerbread house I have ever made. I was almost to ashamed to admit I had assembled and decorated it, as it was no where near as nice as some that I have made in the past.
But to be quite honest, I usually buy my kits from Michael's and this year I purchased mine from Target. The quality was atrocious, and the fact that the one I bought was one of only two left and both were open mind you, did not help in the process of assembling/decorating it. But to say the least, it was fun to do it with my younger siblings.
For this year's Christmas presents to my aunts and grandma, I made embroidery hoop ornaments. This was my very first attempt ever at embroidery, and I must say I really do enjoy it. I even got my one younger brother into it, and he practiced making candy cane embroidery shapes on some scrap fabric that I had. All the ornaments came out more perfect than I ever could imagine they would, especially because it was my first time embroidering.
This was only my second Christmas making handmade ornaments for my family, but I love the little tradition that I started with each relative, and the fact that each ornament I make is a true reflection of the person receiving it + they'll all have a pretty sweet collection of one-of-a-kind, handmade ornaments to adorn their Christmas trees with each year. I only wish we all didn't live so far away, so I could give them their gifts in person, as opposed to send it through the mail. But, at least I get to make their holidays a little bit bright with a handmade gift.
And speaking of gifts, if you follow me on twitter or instagram, than you may already know that I spontaneously decided to make my own hand stamped wrapping paper for all the gifts I was giving to family members. It was a glorious idea in my head, but then when it came down to actually making each gift's wrappings, I was having second thoughts. I also maybe shouldn't have waited until Christmas Eve Day to make, stamp, and wrap all the presents I bought.
There had to be at least 15+ presents of all shapes and sizes to wrap!! It was insane, the amount of time it took to wrap them all. I think I stated around 9am and didn't finish until well after 4pm!!! Am i crazy or what?! The response I received, and above all the appreciation I received, from my family when they saw the hand stamped wrappings was soo well worth it!! [Side Note: I am working on a tutorial for this little blog! So if any of you are interested in making your own hand stamped wrapping paper, you should definitely be on the look out for that post soon!!]. Mia attempted to assist me in the process, but as you can see she didn't last long. 
Also, I even managed to make my own hand stamped gift bag. Which was such a mission to accomplished [lol]. But, it too, came out amazing (if I do say so myself). I loved it, as did all of my family, who were quite impressed with it. I used this Pinterest post to create the gift bag shown below. I tried to find the original post on the blog this pin links to, but it was a failed attempt. I amy do a tutorial for this one as well. [Let me know in the comments below if you all would like to see a more in depth gift bag tutorial].
As for all us making it out of 2012 alive and proving those Mayans wrong, I didn't do much celebrating at all. For New Year's I just stayed home with my family and keep the tv on in the background while I worked on a business card design for a friend of mine. [Side note: Carson Daly makes some good background noise]. I have been sightly neglecting my Etsy shop since the beginning of December because I just did not feel prepared enough to accept orders that had to be delivered before Christmas Also, because of this, I had to turn down a truly great opportunity to be a vendor at a local craft fair. I was super stoked to partake in the event when I was contacting by the coordinator of the event via an Etsy convo, but after many days of back and forth conversations, I reluctantly had to decline the offer as I was no where near prepared for such an event. I do plan on participating in as many shows as I can this year in an effort to really bring people's attention to my shop. I want to take this little baby of mine, whom will be 1 year old this coming May(!!!!), to the next level and really try to quick my day job and make this my full time gig. [Wishful thinking to some, but I just feel like 2013 is my year].
I truly hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, or which ever holiday it is you celebrate or if you don't celebrate any holidays in December! As well, I hope the New Year brings nothing other than Health, Happiness and Success to all of you and yours.
The weeks leading up to Christmas were full of many Christmas activities and traditions. We started off by building the most pathetic gingerbread house I have ever made. I was almost to ashamed to admit I had assembled and decorated it, as it was no where near as nice as some that I have made in the past.
But to be quite honest, I usually buy my kits from Michael's and this year I purchased mine from Target. The quality was atrocious, and the fact that the one I bought was one of only two left and both were open mind you, did not help in the process of assembling/decorating it. But to say the least, it was fun to do it with my younger siblings. For this year's Christmas presents to my aunts and grandma, I made embroidery hoop ornaments. This was my very first attempt ever at embroidery, and I must say I really do enjoy it. I even got my one younger brother into it, and he practiced making candy cane embroidery shapes on some scrap fabric that I had. All the ornaments came out more perfect than I ever could imagine they would, especially because it was my first time embroidering.
This was only my second Christmas making handmade ornaments for my family, but I love the little tradition that I started with each relative, and the fact that each ornament I make is a true reflection of the person receiving it + they'll all have a pretty sweet collection of one-of-a-kind, handmade ornaments to adorn their Christmas trees with each year. I only wish we all didn't live so far away, so I could give them their gifts in person, as opposed to send it through the mail. But, at least I get to make their holidays a little bit bright with a handmade gift. And speaking of gifts, if you follow me on twitter or instagram, than you may already know that I spontaneously decided to make my own hand stamped wrapping paper for all the gifts I was giving to family members. It was a glorious idea in my head, but then when it came down to actually making each gift's wrappings, I was having second thoughts. I also maybe shouldn't have waited until Christmas Eve Day to make, stamp, and wrap all the presents I bought.
There had to be at least 15+ presents of all shapes and sizes to wrap!! It was insane, the amount of time it took to wrap them all. I think I stated around 9am and didn't finish until well after 4pm!!! Am i crazy or what?! The response I received, and above all the appreciation I received, from my family when they saw the hand stamped wrappings was soo well worth it!! [Side Note: I am working on a tutorial for this little blog! So if any of you are interested in making your own hand stamped wrapping paper, you should definitely be on the look out for that post soon!!]. Mia attempted to assist me in the process, but as you can see she didn't last long. Also, I even managed to make my own hand stamped gift bag. Which was such a mission to accomplished [lol]. But, it too, came out amazing (if I do say so myself). I loved it, as did all of my family, who were quite impressed with it. I used this Pinterest post to create the gift bag shown below. I tried to find the original post on the blog this pin links to, but it was a failed attempt. I amy do a tutorial for this one as well. [Let me know in the comments below if you all would like to see a more in depth gift bag tutorial].As for all us making it out of 2012 alive and proving those Mayans wrong, I didn't do much celebrating at all. For New Year's I just stayed home with my family and keep the tv on in the background while I worked on a business card design for a friend of mine. [Side note: Carson Daly makes some good background noise]. I have been sightly neglecting my Etsy shop since the beginning of December because I just did not feel prepared enough to accept orders that had to be delivered before Christmas Also, because of this, I had to turn down a truly great opportunity to be a vendor at a local craft fair. I was super stoked to partake in the event when I was contacting by the coordinator of the event via an Etsy convo, but after many days of back and forth conversations, I reluctantly had to decline the offer as I was no where near prepared for such an event. I do plan on participating in as many shows as I can this year in an effort to really bring people's attention to my shop. I want to take this little baby of mine, whom will be 1 year old this coming May(!!!!), to the next level and really try to quick my day job and make this my full time gig. [Wishful thinking to some, but I just feel like 2013 is my year].
I truly hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, or which ever holiday it is you celebrate or if you don't celebrate any holidays in December! As well, I hope the New Year brings nothing other than Health, Happiness and Success to all of you and yours.
Happy Thursday all!!
xxoo
