Holiday Storyteller... Christmas project to-do list

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 
Toys in ev'ry store 
But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be 
On your own front door."

[This year I'm participating in Holiday Storyteller, a free e-course from Simple Scrapper. I thought it would be a wonderful way to get in the mood and reflect on the season. Maybe these journaling prompts will inspire a few blog posts as well.]

Dec. 2 - Holiday projects... Do you have everything you need? How often will you work on it? Can you simplify further?

Besides shopping for Christmas gifts (which I hope to complete this week!), I have very few must-do crafty projects on my agenda this holiday.

Link to my Holidays Pinterest board

1. After putting up my decorations yesterday, I have a hankering to make my fireplace mantel sparkle a bit more. I searched on Pinterest for inspiration, but haven't yet found a picture of exactly what I want... something bold and graphic, colored with red, white, and green. I think I'll try to squeeze in a trip to the craft store this week for a bit more greenery and maybe a decoration or two.

2. One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is sending and receiving Christmas cards. I always love a good excuse to design pretty paper goods. This year I found invitations/envelopes at Hobby Lobby that I'm going to use as the main part of our card. I still need to pick up printed photos from Sam's to attach to each card, as well as to decide on what message to write or print on the other side of the card. And, then of course there's addressing, stamping, and licking envelopes, but that can always be tackled late one night by the light of the Christmas tree.

3. The one handmade gift on my list this year will accompany my nephew's Lego sets. I saw a great tutorial online for a toy bag to keep all of the small pieces together. I need to run by the fabric store to purchase both some clear vinyl and some coordinating fabric, and then most importantly need to find a chunk of time to lock myself away with the sewing machine. Of course my grand vision includes adding a pocket to the front of the bag... I hope my sewing skills are up for a challenge.

Holiday Storyteller... kicking off Christmas

Each year, you bring to me delight
Gleaming in the christmas night.
O christmas tree, o christmas tree,
Of all the trees most lovely

This year I'm participating in Holiday Storyteller, a free e-course from Simple Scrapper. I thought it would be a wonderful way to get in the mood and reflect on the season. Maybe these prompts will inspire a few blog posts as well.

Dec. 1 - What is one food or tradition that kicks off your holiday season or that really makes it feel like the holidays?

For me, Christmas arrives when the Christmas tree is up and the lights are lit. This year (and last year as well) our tree is standing in the corner of the living room near the fireplace. We set the tree up before we left for Thanksgiving but saved the ornaments and other decorating until after we returned.

As I look at our little tree from a distance, I'm thinking it might not make it another year. It's really too short for the space, and after seven Christmases, most of the pre-lit branches are dark and bent in odd directions. There are also some gaping holes that an ornament can't simply fill.

However, when we turn off the overhead lights, the Christmas tree lights cast this awesome glow on the wall behind, and I know that the magic of Christmas has arrived.

Project Life... in good times and in bad

“The darker the night, the brighter the stars,

The deeper the grief, the closer is God!”
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky

We have had more than our fair share of both joys and heartaches during the last two months... and I struggled with how to document this roller coaster ride in my Project Life scrapbook. My desire to stay authentic and to really embrace real life won out.

As much I wish to erase these sorrows, these stories are now a part of my story. Years from now I will want to remember who I am and where I've come from... the good, the bad, and the downright heart-breaking.

After I learned that we had lost our baby (I thought I was eight weeks along), it was tricky to go back and journal about the happy weeks before. But it was therapeutic to write these stories and to build these pages. Recording these memories both validated the joy that we felt during the early weeks knowing we were pregnant and also became part of the legacy which our baby leaves behind.

Life sucks sometimes. I hate that. I hope that these pages reflect both the elation and the pain. As much I wish we could just skip forward a few months, these pages remind me what a crazy ride this thing called life really is...

October 7-October 13, 2013. We're pregnant! Fall for Greenville festival.

October 13-October 21, 2013. Rob's annual beach ride. Weekend in Charleston.

October 22-27, 2013. White Coat ceremony.

October 28-November 3, 2013. Halloween.

November 4-10, 2013. VCOM Olympics. We learned that we had lost the baby.

November 11-24, 2013. Two weeks in one spread. Football game. Momentum gets us through.

What about you? Have you experienced a heartbreak that was made a little bit more bearable by embracing the memories through journalling or scrapbooking?

Project Life... August through September

"I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine."
-Neil Armstrong

The momentum continues... I'm still cranking away with my digital Project Life scrapbook for the year... I had a few busy weekends where I got behind, but knock on something... I think I'm now caught up to last week. It seems like in the last couple of weeks I have really found my rhythm.

Life continues offline, even when I'm not posting here regularly. These are the stories of our life over the last few months...

Week 7: July 30-August 4, 2013. Back to school. Mike and Amy come for the weekend.

August 5-August 11, 2013. A week of firsts. Marie's birthday party.

August 12-August 18, 2013. A morning in my life. Friday date night.

August 19-25, 2013. Softball continues. Sunday at St. James.

August 25-September 1, 2013. Mama's in town!!

September 2-September 8, 2013. Christmas in July Crafternoon.

September 9-September 15, 2013. Rob's beach ride scouting trip. Fall Festival at church.

September 16-September 22, 2013. New iPhones. Working from home. Singin' in the Rain.

September 23-September 29, 2013. Meal plan. Happy Fall!

September 30-October 6, 2013. New car. Lesa's birthday. Tibetan monks. International Festival. Our 6th wedding anniversary.

Crafternoon Project #5: Confetti Gift Tags

"I craft so hard I sweat glitter."
-Dina Hafez-Suggs, deliciouslydarlingevents.com

This final Crafternoon project was these Confetti Gift Tags. Because the other projects took so long, some of the guests collected the supplies for this project to take home with them.

My original idea for this project was to use paper hole punches as the confetti, but when I found this shiny confetti with Christmas-themed shapes at Hobby Lobby, I knew it was meant to be.

Confetti Gift Tags
What you need:

• Cardstock or kraft paper
• 1.5" circle punch
• Transparent page projectors cut into 2" squares
• Double-sided tape
• Scissors
• Confetti
• Stamps/stamp pad
• Hole punch
• Twine

What you do:

1. Trace gift tag pattern onto kraft paper or white cardstock and cut out.  
2. Punch 1.5” circles in both ends of the tag, as shown in pattern. 
3. On one end, apply adhesive around the hole, and press transparency pocket on top.
4. Open the transparency pocket, and pile confetti on top of the hole. 
5. Use adhesive around the edges of the transparency, and fold shut, sealing the confetti inside. 
6. Apply adhesive to the other end of the tag, and fold in half, adhering the two sides together.  
7. Use stamps to decorate with holiday message. 
8. Punch hole in the top, and tie ribbon on.