Christmas prep

You know how some people wrap gifts so perfectly? And you don't even want to open it, because it looks so pretty? Some people enjoy wrapping and even add fancy touches, like feathers or ornaments.

Well, I'm not one of those people. (See my earlier post about my arts and crafts project. Wrapping fancy packages is up there with craft projects: not in my skill set.) I invariably get tangled up in scotch tape, misjudge the size of my packages and either have way too much paper or not enough... You get the drift. I just finished wrapping most of my Christmas gifts and I feel like I should get a prize or something.



The main reason I wrapped everything now (instead of Christmas morning) is because I want to give my boss his gift ASAP. I got him a bottle of fancy booze and it makes me nervous to have something so fragile and expensive hanging around! I feel like the longer it's in my possession, the more chance there is of me breaking it. It was the most I've ever spent on a single bottle of alcohol...granted I'm pretty thrifty with consumables, but still...the sooner it's outta here, the better I'll feel.


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Ho Ho...no

I'm trying not to make every blog about dog stuff, but really, there's not a whole lot going on lately. It's been really busy with holiday stuff plus the usual stuff...but nothing exciting.

Tonight I was out running errands- getting ready for an ugly sweater party tonight. After getting most of the things on my list at Walmart, I stopped at Home Depot for mouse traps. I was in for a total of maybe 10 minutes. During that time my 20 pound dog ate about three quarters of a loaf of bread. I've left him alone in the car with Chinese food and he didn't touch it, so I thought my wonder bread would be ok. Not so much. It was the kind with added fiber, so I'm sure he'll be tons of fun later. He's VERY quiet right now, except for the occasional burp.

Is it mean if I take advantage of him being under the weather? I'm thinking this is a good time to try trimming his nails.


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Craft project: holiday garland

I saw a really cute holiday garland banner on etsy and wanted it. But, I'm cheap, impatient and picky: I didn't want to spend almost $30 with shipping; I wanted it now- if I had to wait a week for the order to process, then ship, it would be pretty close to Christmas; and my holiday color scheme is pink and green- not red and green. All the garlands on etsy had red in them. I wanted my garland to hang on the French doors right behind my tree, which has a pink and silver color scheme.



(One of the outtakes from our holiday card photo shoot. Note the pink and white Lilly Pulitzer tree skirt- I bought it on sale in June or July, I think! I was SO excited.)

Apparently these factors created a perfect storm...clearly I wasn't thinking rationally. I blame holiday excitement-this was the first time I put the tree up with the new skirt, and I was really excited. So I decided to make my own garland.

Umm. Arts and crafts have never been my strong point. I taught myself how to read by the time I was 3- my mom didn't even know I could read, until one day when she was pushing me in my stroller and I started reading off street signs. But I got a "check minus" on cutting and pasting in kindergarten.

This seemed like a pretty easy project. Right? Wrong. For starters, I was trying to save money. I probably spent over $20 on supplies, so not much of a savings there. Not to mention all the time I spent running around getting supplies. Oh, and the actual labor itself. Ugh.

At any rate, to make a long story short: this didn't come out quite how I wanted, but it's decent. I used card stock, grosgrain ribbon and a green paint marker. After going to 5 stores and not finding stencils in the font I wanted, I used a combination of stencils and freehand.

It was very much a trial and error thing- I didn't plan to cut out pink snowflakes, but that just kind of happened. I had actually picked up some snowflake cutouts, planning to mount the letters on them. Instead I used a snowflake cutout as my stencil to make the pink ones, then stenciled the letters directly on to the snowflakes.



Here's the work in progress. (The blue pile is the stencil sheets. Other tools used were scissors and hole punch.)

This project was a total comedy of errors- everything went wrong. Even the hole punch was wrong- the only one I could find at the craft store, and it cuts mini holes. Wtf. I had planned to use glitter glue to edge the letters...didn't work out so well.

I finally decided to cut my losses and work with what I did have. It's not how I pictured it would turn out, but it works:



(Sorry for the weird lighting in this pic- my couch is cream and tan, not weird neon!)



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Christmas photo shoot

One of the best Christmas cards I've ever seen came from a guy my dad works with. There were a few family pictures on the front, none of them perfect. At least one of the kids was making a goofy face, picking their nose, or getting licked by the family dog in every shot. The greeting inside said something along the lines of "instead of getting frustrated that we couldn't get the "perfect" picture, we decided to relax and drink hot chocolate as a family. We may not be perfect, but here we are, and we're grateful for every moment." I laughed my tail off when I saw that card, and it's definitely one of the best I've seen.

Well, folks on my Christmas card list may be getting something similar this year, because my attempts to pose Brewster by the tree have pretty much been a disaster.



















He looks like a prisoner in the last one!!

Mac was always so food oriented- all it took was a few bites of hot dog and he'd mug for the camera. Brewster still just wants attention, poor little thing. Every time I try to plop him under the tree he tries to crawl over into my lap.


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Brewster update

It's been just over a week since I brought him home, and Brewster is doing great!



I still can't believe someone gave him up. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for him to go wild and turn into a crazy dog...but so far he's been so well-behaved. (Although I guess after owning the craziest dog ever, my expectations for behavior were pretty low!)




He is just the sweetest little thing. His favorite place is on my lap or anywhere else that's ON me- here he is sleeping on my chest:




He is so clingy- poor thing, I think he's terrified he's going to get left again. I joke that I should have named him Barnacle, not Brewster- he follows me everywhere and cries when I leave him. But he is such a good boy and so sweet. I still miss Mac so much, but Brewster is a nice addition.



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