What's in that Package?

"The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution."

-Stephen Sondheim

Let's play guess what's in that package... 

[BTW... if you happen to know the recipient in person, you're sworn to secrecy!!]

Inspired by this awesome Box of Teacher Goodies from the super creative eighteen25 blog, I couldn't wait to adapt the idea for my own Christmas gifts.

After watching my sister and brother-in-law huddle around a crossword puzzle book while on vacation this summer, I decided to whip up a "Crossword Kit" for Jordan, full of lots of goodies that would come in handy while working puzzles.

 Here is what's inside:

• Pages of a crossword puzzle book rolled up and tied with string
• Needs no explanation : golf pencils
• Keep it sharp : pencil sharpener
• For those occasional mistakes : pink pearl eraser
• When you're feeling confident : pocket pens
• Mark your page : decoupaged magnetic bookmarks
• Relieve the stress : brain-shaped stress ball
• Nourish your mind : black and white M&Ms
• Boost your brainpower : mini Rubik's cube
• Finished the puzzle... give yourself a hand : plastic clapper toy

You could also pair this with a great puzzle book, an electronic crossword game, a daily crossword calender, a crossword puzzle dictionary, the movie Wordplay, a set of mystery novels about crosswords, or the World's Largest Crossword puzzle. You'll just have to guess which one I chose...

Signed, sealed, and delivered...

"Christmas is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas."

-Dale Evans

Well, maybe not delivered yet... but they're on their way.

I took advantage of a freebie deal from VistaPrint and printed our photo and Christmas message as a small postcard with envelopes. I'm pretty tickled with them.

Not our Christmas card...

"Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly."

-Rose Franken

In honor of our Christmas cards being dropped in the mailbox today, here are some of the photos we rejected for this year's card...

Can't imagine why!

Felt letters how-to...

"Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket."

-Charles Simic

My youngest nephew turns two next week. With his birthday so close to Christmas, I knew I wanted to make something special for him.

At first I was inspired by the many different ABC projects that I saw on Pinterest:

1. Fabric letters, 2. Applique beanbags, 3. Lettered beanbags, 4. Felt letters

Then I remembered I'm a commitment-phobe, and I could never commit to 26 individual letters. But, what about numbers? There's only ten of them!

Look how cute they turned out!

If you want to make a set of your own, you will need:

• Plenty of felt : I bought one mini-sheet of each color.
• Plenty of thick embroidery thread
• Needle
• Stuffing : I actually used quilt batting because I could cut it into strips.

Steps:

1. Print outlines of the big numbers on cardstock; I fit four to a page.
2. Trace each number on the felt with a sharpie.
3. Stack/fold your felt and cut two of each numbers.
4. Use the blanket stitch to sew around the exterior of each number. I had to reacquaint myself via a tutorial at Futuregirl Craft Blog.
5. Use a pencil/pen/chopstick/etc. to stuff the numbers as you go. Stitch up the final hole.
6. Throw the number to the side, and start the next one. Thank goodness that you have only 10 to do!

Find a small totebag or make a little drawstring bag to hold all of the numbers. And, of course don't forget to attach the cute tag!

What's under my tree...

"You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving."

-Author Unknown

Take a guess... what do you think is inside? 

Only one of my favorite gifts that I'm giving this year. One that I've been working on for a couple of months.

Remember when my nephews came to stay with me for a week this summer? Here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Needless to say, I took a lot of photos of all the fun things we did... with hopes of turning it into a photobook for them.

And, then a couple of weeks ago, I took advantage of a free 8x8" photobook offer from Smilebooks--you can get one for yourself here!-- and all I had to pay for was shipping!

I hope the boys will always look back on our week together with fond memories!