I hope you will indulge me in a Christmas post even if that was “so last year.”  If I don’t write it all down now, I will forget — and I thought this year was kind of cute.

Each Christmas, my husband and I have made our own gift tags.  Some years, they were fancy.  Some years, silly.  Some years I don’t think we could even remember why we started this, but now it’s a tradition — and (usually) fun.  The amount of fun seems to be directly correlated to the amount of holiday “to do’s” left when we start cutting them out.

This year we decided to do a photo booth tag.  I never know how these things are going to go.  Sometimes it’s all fun and games, and other years it’s more like negotiating a peace treaty.

2011 was a good Christmas tag year thanks to my husband.  He set up a mini photo studio on the floor of the living room (really just a roll of wrapping paper hanging down from the mantle in front of the camera/tripod).  We held up a blank piece of paper in each photo.  After we picked our favorites, he laid them out in a strip in Photoshop to get that photo booth look, and added in all of the words.

My husband is really big on conserving paper and ink so he likes to wait until we know exactly how many presents each person has before we print them out.  So on Christmas Eve, while I finished up the holiday baking, he printed the tags out on glossy paper with our Canon photo printer, cut them all down to size, and hole punched each one.

The best part (aside from the fact that I did not have to cut them out) is that I have a big collection of holiday photos of us (which almost never happens) — including a lot of pretty ridiculous outtakes.  Quite a few of our friends and family said “we should do this next year!” so I hope it catches on, and I can have a little collection of photos.  Having a real, live printed photo feels like such a luxury these days.  I think this would be really fun for people to do with their kids or pets.  Maybe by next year we’ll have a cat, and she can be in the pictures in my place.  I won’t even have to comb my hair.

Well, we had hardly made it to Friday, and the Advent calendar I made my husband had already fallen off the mantle 3 times.  It is heavily laden down with CHOCOLATE.  I spent last week cracking up every time I heard it falling from the other room.

I had sort of given up and thought I would jut let him pick up the chocolates off the floor.  (Is that bad?)  I know he wouldn’t mind.   Turns out, he had a better idea, and hung it from the bookcase where it appears to be staying put.  The people at the grocery store gave me that look when I brought home a frozen pizza and about three pounds of chocolate.

I have seen so many beautiful advent calendars out there, but this is a simple one I put together when we were first married.  I bought 24 different miniature stockings (on sale) and tied on numbered tags I cut out with a circle punch.  The first year I tried to be really creative about what to put inside, but realized all he really wanted was candy.  Now, I am smarter and put in enough so I get a piece of chocolate too.  Otherwise, by day 13 I’m a little bitter about the whole thing.

[Image above: the Advent calendar hanging in our old apartment from the ballet barre I had installed in the living room, circa 2006]

Last week, my husband was gone on a business trip for a few days.  Does that mean I get to eat Day 1 and 2 for him?  I’d hate for him to feel behind.  Nothing’s worse than that holiday pressure of needing to catch up.  I’m available to help where needed, you know.

Last night, my husband was out of town so I dashed off to the Sewing Arts Center to put the finishing touches on my button down shirt.  I started this project last year when I was gearing up for my pattern drafting classes.  It occurred to me that I had never sewn a proper shirt with a collar stand and everything, and I thought it would be a good warm up for drafting.  (It was.)  Unfortunately, I got to the 85% complete mark and never had a chance to finish.

For all of you people out there taking pictures of clothes you’ve sewn while you are wearing them, I have to give you some serious credit.  I call these photos “An Hour of My Life I Can’t Really Justify.”  However, I am on a bit of a roll this week, so I didn’t want to wait.

The pattern is from Qwik Sew (3555) and sews up nicely.  Next time, I think I would add a pleat in the back where the back joins the yoke and lengthen the shirt and the sleeves just a tad.  But all in all, I’m pretty happy with it.  There are more reviews of this pattern here.  I can’t really comment on the quality of the pattern instructions, because I had a teacher on hand showing me shortcuts and handy little tricks.  (For those of you who are local and want to sew garments, I can’t say enough good things about Russell’s classes.)

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for the week.  I’m spent.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  I’m feeling that great “finishing what I started” energy, so I hope to carry that with me on into the weekend.  Take care!

Last month, I finally got a new phone after putting it off forever. Since I plan to keep this phone until it’s a billion years old and technologically obsolete, I really didn’t want to get it all scratched up.  If you’re a woman, then I think you know that slight feeling of terror when you put something delicate into a purse full of sharp objects, scratchy zippers, and keys.  Good luck, little phone.  Hang in there.

I couldn’t find a case I liked all that much and we were heading out on vacation, so I grabbed a thick, fuzzy sock and used that for awhile.  (Half of you are probably horrified that I am admitting this publicly — and the other half are acknowledging that it’s a bit genius.)  “Lamb chop” as we nicknamed the sock was a bit embarrassing though.  When the phone rang, I would have to reach in and try to remove the sock without anyone noticing.  On a positive note, the phone looks as good as new.

I have upgraded “Lamp chop” to a very simple knitted cozy.  This project took approximately 45 minutes to knit and at least 4 hours to master the mattress stitch seams.    (There is a great video tutorial for the mattress stitch that I found here.)  I know this probably isn’t to everyone’s taste, and that’s ok.  However, I really like the nubby texture, and I’m happy to have an extra layer of padding.  It’s dangerous in there.

I think the E-book reader might be next.  What about you?  Do you knit?

The month of May kicks off a flood of gift gifting occasions in our house.  Technically, it begins April 30th (happy b-day Kristen!) and stretches right into July.  I try to plan ahead to avoid that last-minute card choosing panic.  You know that feeling where you’ve read every card in the store 3 times and can’t find a thing.

This morning I was looking for some gift giving inspiration and found this project in my archives.  I made this shadow box thank you note for some colleagues out of an empty jewelry gift box.  (These pictures are several years old now, and what can I say – I think my photography has improved.  This top photo makes me laugh since the lens cap for the camera is in the background.  Oops.)

I think these little gift boxes might be more fun than a store-bought card.  Hallmark has been letting me down these days.  I don’t want to pay $6 and have the card light up and sing songs.  I think there is a conspiracy to make the regular cards less and less funny to drive you over into the premium section.  No?

Maybe I will start a boycott and make some shadow box cards instead.  What about you?  Do you make your own cards?