Homemade Gift Exchange

My siblings and I draw names for a Christmas gift exchange around Thanksgiving time each year.  It's always a hyped up process that involves writing down everyone's name on precisely the same size piece of paper and then asking my dad (a neutral party) to first draw the order of names, and then to re-draw again to see who drew who's name. 

In the past there had been only three basic rules:
1.  Spouses can't draw spouses names
2.  Twin can't draw other twin name
3.  $50 spending budget

This year one of my younger brothers piped up and said something along the lines of "Are we doing handmade gifts this year?"

We laughed at first.  Then the idea grew.  My mom described a homemade gift exchange that she once did with her siblings and how it was fun and how my uncle still has the gift she made him many years ago. 

We decided to give this handmade thing a try.  The 2012 Christmas exchange rules were:
1.  Spouses can't draw spouses names
2.  Twin can't draw other twin name
3.  $50 spending budget
4.  Handmade gift 

Hubs and I had fun with this one.  We both put together the same homemade gift - with different customization for each of our name draws.

We bottled some of our homemade raspberry wine and made homemade labels. 

Although simple in theory, it was a little time consuming.  We had to purchase small bottles of wine, consume the small bottles of wine, sanitize the bottles, peel the labels off the bottles, fill the bottles with the homemade wine, cork the bottles, cap the bottles, and shrinkwrap the top of the bottles before we could put our labels on.  It was totally worth the work.  We were so happy with the way the came out.  We could hardly wait for them to be opened.

I drew my older brother for the gift exchange.  He has a dog named Freddy that was the muse for my labels.

Hubs drew my older sister for the gift exchange.  His two labels were inspired by a "How to Draw Cute Animals" book.  

For some reason we don't have a picture of his other label on its own. Oh well.

Christmas 2012

I broke a promise to the blog world - to post a pic of my tree before it was actually Christmas.  Please forgive - and enjoy the photos below. 

 Our tree was red, white, and gold themed this year.  I love the candy cane look to it!

My mom crafted our stockings.  We hung them on our entertainment center since we don't currently have a fireplace or mantle to decorate.  Hubs stocking is John Deere colors and a tad larger than mine.  Notice how it is so heavily filled that it is practically walking away in this picture.  Lucky Hubs!

I decorated the entryway table with a basic berry vine and small white light set. 

Our decorations are still up and we are enjoying the relaxed pace around here.  We had a great time celebrating the season with both our families and we are so grateful for all that we have.

Random Thursday

1.  We finished wrapping presents tonight...finally.

2.  I promise I will post a picture of my Christmas tree before Christmas is actually here.

3.  Hubs and I have been working on our homemade gifts for family members on my side of the family.  Pics and post to come after Christmas.

4.  The weather forecast is calling for some pretty strong winds tomorrow - I hope we don't lose power!

5.  Chocolate covered coffee beans are pretty delish...just sayin'!

Cake Pop Till Ya Drop

Holiday baking season is here at last!

We have been meaning to try cake pops for some time.  Hubs picked up a cake pop kit while out running errands a few weeks ago and we got busy baking last weekend.

The kit was very easy.  It could be easily replicated without a kit - and we totally will be trying it again without a kit!

I'll break it down for you into 10 steps:

1.  Bake a cake (We will use a boxed cake mix next time to make more cake)
2.  Let the cake cool, then crumble the cake into a mixing bowl
3.  Make frosting (We will be buying a can of frosting for ease of use next time)
4.  Mix cake crumble and frosting to a roll-able consistency
5.  Roll cake balls
6.  Place cake balls in freezer for 20-30 minutes
7.  Heat dipping chocolate (We will get better dipping chocolate next time...the kit didn't provide enough to dip very well)
8.  Stick cake balls on candy sticks, and cover in dipping chocolate

9.  Let dipping chocolate on cake pops cool and dry

10. Decorate your cake pops! (The most fun part - for sure!)

Happy Cake Poppin!

Random Thursday

1.  My baby sister turns 21 tomorrow.  Which means she'll be partying tonight.  Just. So. Crazy.

2.  If you were to look in our guest bedroom you might believe we are hoarders.  We really just have no storage space.  No storage space = wall of stacked boxes threatening to topple over at any minute.  That room scares me.

3.  Last night Hubs and I wrote a parody of "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  It's titled "'Twas 10 Nights Before Christmas" and we used it as a dinner invitation for some friends.  I'm pretty proud of the end result.  Here's a sneak peak of our poem:

"'Twas 10 nights before Christmas, when all through the apt.
Both (my name) and (Hubs name) were cooking, minus a cat.
Their stockings were hung by the TV with care, 
In hopes that dinner guests soon would be there."

4.  Yesterday I volunteered with the Salvation Army to sort toy donations and to "shop" through the donated toys for children in need. This is the second year I have volunteered for this activity with the Salvation Army and for the second time I am completely amazed at the toys that people and organizations donate.  It's so great!  One item on a child's list was a "remote control helicopter."  When I read that item, I thought I would never find something even close to it.  I shopped around for a few other items on the list and then...there it was...a brand new remote control toy helicopter.  Perfect!

5.  Have you ever purchased a large tub of cheese balls?  Hubs requested that I purchase one the other day so that he could use the tub container for a project at work.  I love me some cheesy poofs but we officially have a disgusting amount of them at this time.

Christmas Card 2012

This year is the first year I have ever officially sent Christmas Cards. 

I was attracted to cards with the text "Merry and Bright" because I knew I wanted to showcase a wedding sparkler send-off picture.

I purchased my Christmas cards from Snapfish.  I love the quality of Snapfish prints.

Since Snapfish sells cards in batches of 20, and cards get expensive after awhile, I only ordered 20.  Hubs and I only had enough cards to send to our immediate families (we've got big families ya'll!).

If you are a close friend please do not be offended!  I will purchase more than 20 cards next year so I can include you in the distribution list.

May your days be merry and bright this holiday season!

Random Thursday

1.  Tonight we are going to see Elf on the big screen at a local theater.  Admission to the throw-back film is a toy to donate to children in need.  We picked up two small sets of legos to donate.  I'm pretty excited about our lego set donations and I'm equally excited to watch a classic Christmas movie! 

2.  I took hubs on a surprise date to a local college basketball game this week.  It was a great game - tied up until the last minute when things got crazy.  We think we may try a local college hockey game soon too.

3.  This week I skipped zumba and went swimming with Hubs.  He tried to teach me how to tread water the correct way.  At one point I thought I had it.  I can't seem to do it for very long - probably not even one minute.  I should try timing myself.  Improving my swimming is on my 30/30 list - I will figure it out eventually!

4.  I have been spending 1 hour each week for the last 3 weeks knitting a scarf at work for the Salvation Army.  I love being able to volunteer at work and I really love getting to do crafty volunteer work!

5.  I can't seem to find a local radio station that plays Christmas music.  Shouldn't there be a station that dedicates December to Christmas music?  Is that just a back-home kind of thing?

Give Thanks Jar - Highlights

November is officially behind us and our Give Thanks Jar was full to the brim with things to be thankful for.  Hubs and I were very diligent about giving thanks each day.  I'm positive this is a tradition we'll be continuing for our future Novembers.

We opened the jar together last night over wine and read through everything that we are thankful for. 

Here are a some of the highlights:

• All our family members were kept safe during Hurricane Sandy
• Spontaneous date nights!
• Having a warm apartment
• The right to vote
• Being able to provide for ourselves
• Getting to take a walk during a lunch break
• Dishwasher safe pots & pans!
• Model railroading as a destresser
• Quiet crafty weekends
• Cabot cheese powder for popcorn - YUM
• That we have each other!

Random Thursday - First Random Post

I need to find rhythm in the blog world.  To help build consistency, I hereby declare Thursdays to be "Random Thursdays." 

Here goes:

1.  I have purposely been trying to remember to take a big ugly multi-vitamin everyday so that I can justify buying new chewable Flintstone child vitamins.  Just because.

2.  Last night while surfing the internet, I came across "The Haters Guide to the Williams Sonoma Catalog" I am not opinionated about the company or the catalog, but found it funny nonetheless.

3.  On Tuesday hubs and I spent significant time and effort rearranging furniture in our living room to find a new home for our Christmas tree.  After we moved everything, we realized that the TV and our gas heater were on the same circuit and there wasn't enough electricity to go around.  We tripped the breaker 4 or 5 times before declaring it was dinner time.  Eventually we pulled ourselves together and moved everything back where it was in the first place.

4. Over Thanksgiving break lil' sis toyed around with my cell phone and I realized that I was that old lady that doesn't know how to use her phone.  Thanks to her I now have apps for Instagram, Pandora, and Netflix and I finally figured out how to turn T9 texting on.  Wow.

5.  Somehow I am not able to properly "fluff" an artificial Christmas tree.  Hubs demonstrates the technique to me every year, but I just. don't. get. it.

Things are getting crafty around here

Things are getting crafty around here! I've officially started working on my wedding scrapbook.  You'll notice that its completion is listed on my 30/30 list.  I anticipate it will take me awhile since I have SO. MANY. PICTURES of the happy day. 

It's been a slow start for the wedding scrapbook.  I have one page officially completed, and 3 more in progress.  I'd say that my usual process for working on scrapbooks is to get pages and layouts in the works before adding journaling and final embellishments.

So far it's been hard for me to choose the main color/design background page for the 12x12 layout and to get going with a color scheme.  A lot of my papers are bright and bold.  I love the bright bold papers, but they aren't formal enough for many of my wedding pictures.

Hubs and I visited 2 craft stores over the weekend so that I could restock my scrapping selection.  I ended up selecting lots of blue papers.  In reality, I think I may need lots of neutral/formal papers for many of the layouts.  Time will tell!

Hubs has got craft fever too.  He spent his time in the craft stores searching for hobby sets and things for his model railroad.  He's got a great Z scale layout going and he's currently working on a mountain scene.

Our office area is cluttered with scrapbooking papers and model railroad equipment.

I love it.

Work Out Music

I bought another Zumba punch card which means I'll be dancing at 10 more classes these next few weeks.  The class is ideal because it is literally 1 mile away from where I work and it begins at 5:30.  The class is offered 4 times a week and I am able to select what days I want to go.  To top it off, my punch card doesn't expire.

What I really love about Zumba is the music.  It's loud, upbeat, and the combination of the music and the sweating makes me feel really good at the end of the workout. 

I thought I'd share some of my favorite Zumba jams in case you are looking for some good workout music.

will.i.am  "T.H.E (The Hardest Ever)"

I finally feel like I've mastered the zumba moves to T.H.E. and I love the mix of J.Lo and will.i.am.

Shakira "Waka Waka "

I'm always ready for some Shakira.  I love the lyrics...

“The pressure is on,

You feel it.

But you’ve got it all,

Believe it.

When you fall,

get up, oh oh.”

Pitbull "Pause" and Pitbull "Krazy"

"Mr. Worldwide" is pretty popular in my Zumba class.  Love the repetition in these songs!

What are some of your favorite workout songs?

Giving Thanks

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." - Cicero

It's officially November and Thanksgiving Day will soon be here.  Gratitude and giving thanks has been on my mind.  For me, November is always a reminder of the importance of gratitude and giving thanks. 

Now that Hubs and I are officially a unit, I'm ready to start creating some traditions of our own.  This year I created a "Give Thanks" jar that we will use to record one thing that we are thankful for each day in November. 

Interested in doing something similar?  Here's how:

Step 1:  Locate jar to collect thankful notes

Step 2:  Decorate jar
I used acrylic stamps to write "Give Thanks" on scrap-booking paper.  I used a hot glue gun to secure a navy bow around the top of the jar.

Step 3:  Cut paper strips to write thankful notes on

Step 4:  Explain to husband the project you just completed and get him on-board with the new tradition. 

I'm looking forward to reviewing our thankful notes together at the end of the month.

Do you have any November traditions?

Goo..Goo...GOULASH

Back in the day I use to truly believe that my mother invented the meal goulash.  I thought she invented it by throwing random tomato items in with hamburger meat and pasta.  I use to HATE goulash.  Notice the bold-faced type...I really didn't like that stuff.

Somewhere along the way I realized that goulash was not invented by my mother and that it in fact could be a very good meal.

On Facebook today I saw someone pinned a goulash recipe, and lightbulbs went off in my head.  The lightbulbs were:
1. You have all of the ingredients you need to make goulash
2. You should really start your ambition of learning 2 new recipes every month for your 30/30 list.

Drumroll please....

I give you....

GOULASH.

 It was actually quite delicious!  Here is a link to the recipe I used:  Goulash

I've become a bag lady...

Confession:  I've become somewhat of a bag lady with all of the bags that I find myself lugging to and from work on a daily basis.  It's frustrating.  By the time I make it up 2 flights of stairs to the door of my apartment I'm out of breath and ready to throw the bags off of me. It's so much weight to be carrying around!

Guess what else?  Twice this past week I have left my keys in the doorknob!  This is probably because I can't wait to set bags down after opening the door.

I usually bring at least 4 bags to work on a daily basis:  my work backpack, my purse, my lunchbox, and a re-usuable shopping bag that plays the role of gym bag for the days I go to zumba.  I sometimes come home with even more bags if I stop at the grocery store or run a few errands on the way home.

This evening I switched out the work backpack for a more professional looking work tote.  I've had this tote since grad school and I'm going to see if I can condense my bag load by throwing my wallet and lunch in the work tote to eliminate two of the bags.

Let's see how this works...

How many bags do you take to and from work?

I love Target!

It is no secret that I love Target.  Unfortunately, the closest Target is a ferry ride away, making it more difficult to visit.

This weekend, we made the ferry trip along with two of our friends.  I went right to the home section with Hubs to look for inspiration for our apartment.

We came home with some string lights (clearance priced!), a vase, and vase filler and created a pretty cool light for our entry-way table.

It took a little trial and error to get things looking just right in the vase.  On our first try we ended up with an extra bulb outside of the vase close to the wall outlet. We used an extension cord to give us the extra inches we needed to make all the lights fit inside the vase.

 I am pleased with the results!

A Random Acts of Kindness Birthday

Guess what world?  I celebrated my quarter century birthday this week. 

One of my “30 before 30” items was to celebrate my birthday in random acts of kindness.  I got the idea from reading other blogs and I was intrigued to try it myself. 

It felt so good doing things for other people on my birthday.  (You should try it too!)

Here is a breakdown of my 25 random acts of kindness:

1.       Made lunch for hubs

BTW his lunch looked SO delicious.  He was grateful!

2.       Had a bouquet of flowers delivered to my mom

My mom called me to let me know she received the flowers.  She was so excited.  She couldn’t remember the last time she got flowers.  It felt great to know how much she enjoyed the surprise!

3.       Held the door for someone

So easy!

4.       Donated clothes at the Salvation Army

Donated some great professional clothing that will surely be loved and worn by someone new.

5.       Donated cans for a food drive

I choose cans of soup that would appeal to children.  NOM NOM NOM.

6.       Recycled a plastic bag

So easy!

7.       Dropped off half a dozen donuts at my local pharmacy

I purchased donuts and then wasn’t sure who to give them to.  I was traveling in the direction of my pharmacy when I realized that pharmacists are underappreciated!  I dropped them off explaining I was celebrating my birthday in random acts of kindness.  They were surprised and elated to have a morning snack.

8.       Left a lottery ticket taped to a gas pump

I chose a “Lucky 9’s” ticket.  I mean…it was the 9^th of October after all…

9.       Mailed a surprise to a friend in Canada

She’ll love it!

10.   Mailed a surprise to a sister-in-law

She’ll love it!

11.   Mailed a surprise to a friend in South Korea

He’ll love it!

12.   Picked up trash

So easy!

13.   Taped quarters to a soda machine

The soda machine was in a heavy people traffic area, but I did manage to pull this off and get away without getting caught!

14.   Bought a $5 Panera gift card and had the manager use it on whoever was next in line

The manager was surprised by my request but happily obliged.

15.   Gave a street performer $1

She was playing the accordion with a big smile.  

16.   Gave a complement

So easy!

17.   Left a generous tip

So easy!

18.   Left a note on a changing table in a public restroom

Moms are rock stars.  I hope this encourages someone.

19.   Gave a Yelp review for a local business

So easy!

20.   Left quarters in the laundry room

So easy!

21.   Left returnable bottles by the bottle redemption at the grocery store

 So easy!

22.   Returned a misplaced cart to a cart return

So easy!

23.   Made a charitable donation

Feels good!

24.   Wrote nice note to waitress on receipt for dinner check

So easy!

25.   Left a dollar in a geo-cache with a note

So fun!  I wonder what the person that takes the $1 will do with it?

My random acts of kindness birthday was a success. It was a great way to celebrate an awesome milestone birthday!  Are you intrigued?  Try it!  It doesn't even have to be your birthday - it could be an any day adventure!!!