Holiday wrap-up: What I gave

Sami — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:37:14 +0000

This holiday season was my favorite so far as an adult. I had so much fun gifting! Most of my gifts were handmade and the few things that I bought were mainly fun gifts. Here are a few of my gifting highlights:

My all-time favorite gift was the Hogwarts acceptance letter that I gave to Jill:

I bought it from this Etsy seller who customized it with Jill’s name and address {right down to “The Loft in the Tiny Apartment”}, and I sneakily left it clothes-pinned next to her door while she was at work. See her reaction here. This was my favorite gift because it had nothing to do with the money I spent, it was 100% about how perfect it was and how crazy excited I knew she would be when she found it unexpectedly. That is my favorite thing about gift-giving and surprises. Images courtesy of {totally stolen from} Jill.

As I said before, many of my gifts were handmade, including these holiday-themed soaps, made possible by an early gift from Michele and Jeff:

I also made these two necklaces with the help of Ali from Birds and Beads. The one with just the sparrow was for Stan’s sister Danielle, and the one with the sparrow and scissors was for Mish.

Another thing you must know about me: I am a prankster, especially when gift-giving. One year, I got my brother an iTunes gift card and I put it in about 4 layers of wrapped boxes. It was great! My prank gift of this season was actually a gift box from Prank Pack. They sell gift boxes that look like the packaging to “real” gifts. The products on the boxes aren’t actually real, but they’re crazy enough that they just might be. The one I got for Stan was for iDrive, a supposed mount that you use on your steering wheel to play with your iPad while you’re driving. Ha!!!!

The idea is that your recipient thinks they got this whacky gift, and you let them think that for a while, then you tell them that their real gift is inside. Prank Pack has some other hilarious ones like a shower coffee maker, slipper speakers, and a griddle alarm clock, which reminds me of The Office episode where Michael burns his foot on the George Foreman grill that he kept by his bed. I bought the iDrive one because Stan doesn’t have the best driving record {that’s putting it mildly…} and he’s pretty obsessive about his Apple devices.

I made a few candles and some bath salts and sugar scrubs for friends and family, and I made a mix cd for my Dad, but I didn’t take photos of those things before wrapping them. What were some of your favorite things you gave this holiday season? xo

Holiday ’09 Wrap-Up

Sami — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:25:57 +0000

Christmas this year seemed to have come and gone very, very quickly. Too quickly! But not too quickly for good times to be had, and merry to be made. My favorite event, as always, is the big family get-together at my Uncle Tom’s house, which happened yesterday. It’s pretty much the only time when all of my Dad’s family gets together all in one place. It’s always so much fun because, as I mentioned in my post about the Christmas tree, Christmas for us is mainly about family.

Though everyone in my family is a bit whackadoo in some way or another, we all have amazingly different personalities that seem to somehow work together nicely. My Uncle Tom, for instance, is ludicrously smart, an excellent photographer, and the only one in the family who has ever been good with money (he could give Mish & I a few tips, eh?). My Uncle Bob is hilariously obnoxious and uncensored — some of the best stories come from him. My Aunt Kathy is quick-witted and good-natured (which was good since Stan somehow broke two of her serving spoons over Christmas dinner, which he will never live down), my Uncle Dave (who lives in California and couldn’t make it yesterday) is patient and thoughtful, and my Dad is a combination of all his bothers and his sister (minus Tom’s trait of financial savvy). I wish I could explain to you how awesome my family is to be around, but you just have to experience it. One day, I’ll video tape a day in the life of my family and you can see it first-hand! I may add some family photos into this post later, though, if I can steal some from Uncle Tom.

All in all, holiday ’09 has been great. I gave and received some really great gifts. My favorites were some of the books I was given, including the entire Harry Potter collection in paperback from the most awesome boss in the world. Even though I have read all of them, I have been wanting the entire collection in paperback since the 7th came out! I will be reading them again and again… I’m currently reading the 7th to Stan, but I’ll be reading them to my children, my children’s children, and if I’m still alive, their children! I know, I’m a bit of a maniac. Mish got me “Cute Stuff” by Aranzi Aronzo, which shows you how to make all kinds of, well, cute stuff! Dad got me DIY: Design It Yourself by Ellen Lupton, which is a graphic design book that provides tips on designing your own t-shirts, business cards, blogs, and so so so much more. Stan got me Color Design Workshop by Terry Lee Stone and AdamsMorioka, the masters of color. Another amazing graphic design book, this one teaches you how to use color, and which colors are most effective in different scenarios.

I love everything and I can’t wait to start designing and making cute stuff!

{edit}: I can’t believe I forgot about the milk frother my Dad got me! I made my own chai tea lattés with frothy milk and they were delish! :D

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Holiday wrap-up: What I gave

Holiday ’09 Wrap-Up