Wrapping up 2011

So this year I tried to go all natural in my wrapping and not spend any money on paper or
ribbons and bows. I first started out taking some of my old wrapping paper
and reversing it and using the white side. As you can see just below a small peek
of color on the present on the right of what it actually is. But then for the rest I used
packing paper that I had bought from Walmart. It's kinda off white and I think it looks better. You can get packing paper for so cheap and it comes in large squares. I think you can get like 140 really large squares for $9 bucks that's more bang for your buck in wrapping.

We had a wedding this year and burlap was the trend so I've been using up my burlap and hemp twine as ribbon. As for the gift tags, I got this idea from a shop we visited a week ago. They were selling vintage type gift tags for $4.00. Yep one gift tag for $4.00, okay so
I caved and bought one, thinking I'll use it on my mom's gift, she deserves something
special. But I got to thinking, how hard would it be to make my own? I'm always doing that.
I may not come up with the original idea, but I love to duplicate it for cheap or rather nothing.
And that is what I did with all my gifts here.

At first I just went on Yahoo, yeah I'm still using Yahoo, and just typed in Vintage Christmas images, and then 1910 or 1920 girls black and white images. I just copied and pasted them on
word and then cropped them to fit, printed them out on regular paper and
used some of my cardstock, embellished them a little with glitter, stamped a hole on the
top and waa la, gift tag.

I started thinking, hey I can really personalize these by copying my hubby's and daughter's pictures in black and white and making them into gift tags. So That's him above from a picture on our honeymoon in Mexico 22 years ago. He was a cutie, or I should say he still is.

This gift tag above is how this whole thing started, can you believe I paid $4 bucks for that thing? And I ended up using it on my daughter's gift instead and made an original one of my own for my mom.

This gift tag is of my daughter Cece, she was Audrey Hepburn one year for Halloween and it was already black and white. I decided to just plant it directly on the wrapping paper and embellish it a little with glitter and the ribbon is just raffia I had laying around.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I have so much to be thankful for but most of all I am thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, the son of God. He is our elder brother. He loves us more than we can ever appreciate. Remember to keep Christ in your Christmas.

many blessings

'georgie'

Paying it Forward I hope.

Every day should be a day of thanksgiving and taking the time to do something for someone, at least I try to even if it is a small gesture. We live in beautiful Apple Country and every fall everyone in the world, (at least it seems so) migrates up to the foothills where we live to come for apples and everything and anything made with apples. I love it. Our town gets gets busy, people seem
to be in happy moods.
Some time late October is was another
great Fall day, the sun was shining, the air was crisp, perfect for a
Hot Chocolate. I convinced my hubby to go to Apple Hill (I know normally us locals do
the Hill during the week, cuz it's usually crazy busy on the weekends, with
all the tourists. ) but before we did, I wanted a Hot chocolate, so we went through
the drive-thru at Starbucks.
There was a pretty good line so after we placed our
order there were still two cars ahead of us waiting for their order. As we sat waiting,
Hubby said " you know I've heard of people paying for the order of the person/car behind them
before, just because. " Well you know me, I quickly chimed in and " said, we ought to do
it, I mean instead of just talking about it, let's do it!" So as we got up to the window
Hubby and I kept going back and forth, should we? shouldn't we? And of course
I kept saying, Yes! Come on, it will be a nice surprise for them, whomever they are.

Of course I looked back through my mirror to see who we were surprising. They looked like a
nice little family, a dad and mom and I could see there was a child in a car seat
in the middle of the back seat.
Hubby would make up conversations that he thought they
were having, and he even thought maybe they were fighting, he was joking of course.
Side note: does your hubby when people watching, make up conversations that he thinks they
are saying, with different voices?

Any whoo,
We got up to the drive-thru window and as the young girl took our money
and was handing our drinks, we told her that we would like to pay for
the car (suv) in back of us.
She went "awe" that's so nice. And ran their
total, it came out to be $9 and some change, It was more than our order.
What!?
No, just kidding, that's okay, it felt good. As we drove away
hubby wanted to sneak around the corner and watch their expression, but
I told him "no, let's just get going and be anonymous."
So we
left the parking lot and headed up to the hill. As we were driving away
I said, maybe they'll pay it forward for the next car, and so on and so on,
creating the whole domino effect. Who knows.
I have to say it felt really good!

p.s. today would be my father's Birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!
I love you!!

"georgie"