Thursday, December 29, 2011

christmas 2011: the gifts

we definitely had a handmade trend going on this year for christmas gifts. probably my favorite present this year came from my mom -- a raincoat, made from scratch (and amy butler fabric) for my first seattle winter! read more about how she made it here.


my favorite present to GIVE went to b. i was inspired by my friend paige when she turned her blog into a book for christmas last year. genius! i've been blogging regularly here since 2007, so i thought it would be fun to make a book of my own. 


i used blurb -- they have software that's super easy to download and use. blurb just sucked up my blog, and i ended up with 800+ pages from ONLY the posts from 2007 and 2008! oy. it took me probably 5-6 hours to go through and edit all the photos and text, but i got it down to 200 pages. it was sooo hard not to say anything to b as i went through and read all my old posts -- there were so many happy, funny and special memories from those years. i felt super nostalgic while working on this project. 



i finally got everything the way i wanted it and made my order -- the book arrived less than a week later! i was THRILLED with how it turned out. i feel like a real author, something i've actually dreamed of becoming since i was a little girl. little did i know i'd publish my memoir before i wrote a novel :) blurb is the best. can't wait to create the 2009-2010 book in the next few months. 

i also made jack a stocking this year. my mom helped me with it over thanksgiving break and i was pretty happy with it. [b told me i was forbidden to cross-stitch it, like my own stocking from my mom, because that is too 80s...so applique was our middle ground.] i still see flaws every time i look at it, but i hope jack loves it & uses it his whole life the way i've loved mine. 



for jack, we stuck to our three gifts rule. we got him a tool kit, some tiny toms, and brown bear brown bear. he is pretty much obsessed with all three. he also got a handmade rocking horse, made by b's grandpa -- it is a work of art and jack rides it at least 20x a day.



oh, and we also got THIS bad boy. i feel like such an idiot whenever i try to use it -- it's soooo complicated. sometimes technology is hard. 


we were so blessed this year. sometimes i think presents are silly because all i really need to be happy is b, jack, and a good batch of cookies -- but it's pretty fun to get a new roll of washi tape in my stocking too.



 hooray for the 2011 wells family christmas! 

2 comments:

Emily said...

We did the three gifts thing too for Emma! Thanks for the idea, way back in the day! (I read it from another blog post you did)

The Mid Life Guru said...

Love the family Christmas picture and it makes me happy that my gift was your favorite.