I have no idea what the origin of this idiom is, and Google has failed me so far, but the only way this idiom makes sense is to assume that at some point packages were, in fact, pretty.

And I mean, pretty pretty.  Thoughtful pretty.  Not thrown into a gift bag printed by someone else and tossed in with some tissue paper while in the front seat of the Walgreens parking lot 10 minutes before the occasion pretty.

Ahem.

LIKE YOU HAVEN’T DONE THAT.

To be honest, I think I started really noticing the packaging of things at the same time I started to be more thoughtful about the gifts I was giving.  This isn’t easy, thoughtfulness, but maybe that’s why I like pretty packaging — it’s visual thoughtfulness.

What a lovely idea.

I am by no means the best gift-wrapper-packager, but I just…loveitsomuch.  It’s on my life list (create beautiful things) and it appeals to the design side of my brain.

This was last Christmas for my family, with help from my graphic-designer husband:

I was just about to write “this takes no time at all”, to implore you to get right on your pretty-packaging way…except, it’s not true.  It doesn’t take a crazy amount of time, but truthfully — thoughtfulness in any manner takes time, but for me, this is time well spent.  That’s just what I like.

This was $3 wrapping paper from Walgreens (apparently Walgreens and I have some kind of weird cosmic giftwrap connection) with $1 mini-crayon boxes and a vintage coloring book picture scanned in and printed on cardstock.

Here’s Christmas for the boy last year:

Obviously this was wrapped in newspaper, tied with grey yarn and adorned with number tags that I found somewhere on the internet machine and printed out on cardstock that I bought at Office Depot.

I’m all kinds of fancy, yo.

I forget where I found the template for the tags, but if you google things like “gift tag template” you’ll find some interesting stuff.  If you don’t have time to wade through google-y piles of junk, though, just read blogs like Sally Shim’s and How About Orange, and they’ll hook you up with all sorts of great ideas and templates, respectively.

Here’s this year for the boy (and a little glimpse of our charlie brown tree):

And for the family, some lovely wrapping from the fine folks at Design Army at the Felt & Wire Shop:

with a little embellishment ala a free font that I cut out of other wrapping paper &
some grey yarn from my sister Amy

and turning paper into a little yarn-sewn envelope, which should be very easy
for my 5-year old niece to open

I couldn’t decide between their DoReMi & Wrap In Style collections, so I got both. And poking around that site made me very jealous for more, but I restrained myself.  Of course, I’ll repurpose a lot of the leftover wrapping paper throughout the year, which is the genius part of having Christmas paper that’s not too Christmas-y.

I could go on and on, but I have to go wrap presents now.

Hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving with wonderful food…and solved crimes.

If you’ve known me for approximately 1 day or sat on my green couch in my living room next to the television*, you’ll know that my favorite television show (probably of all time, and that’s saying a lot coming from someone who can’t name her top 5 anything with definitive answers) is the West Wing.

[*because I often use analogies or examples from the West Wing to communicate to people and because I own all 7 seasons which the boy and I watch nearly year-round--and that's not an exaggeration.  the show is that good.]

So, as we do every year, we celebrate thanksgiving with the following:

1. actually giving thanks–which, if we’re being honest, requires me to think about what my life could look like in an alternative universe without divine providence and blessing.  without this imagination of a sadly-ended choose-your-own-adventure-life, i honestly don’t feel thankful for my current life, even if i say/write the words “i’m thankful”.  i find that true thankfulness requires a bit more…meditation on what that actually means.  is that odd?

2. the requisite food/family–your standard thanksgiving fare plus one odd dish called “slimy green stuff” that my husband loves and i revile.  (it involves pistachio pudding, nuts, and other stuff not worth mentioning, because once i heard the first ingredient i was done.)  the family varies, depending on if we go up to craig (which we have the last 3 years out of 4) or stay in town with my family.  i missed my sister’s first hosting of thanksgiving, which was sad, but got to spend time with troy’s family in craig.

3. the west wing episodes about thanksgiving–our favorites include the episodes with the butterball hotline, pardoning the turkeys, and (as you see above) rob lowe’s idea for a new thanksgiving action-adventure series.

I’m curious — what are your traditions, or do you have any?

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, all.

(via lifehacker)

cheap, easy, environmentally conscious, natural, glowy, holiday, warm, fragrant.

any word association i do with this DIY orange rind & clove votive candle holder ends up good.  total winner.
look for this at a table near me very soon, along with good company (you, hopefully .

his holiday list (at the time):  uh, nothing?  maybe my birthday?

he’s used to not celebrating holidays with much festivity, cheer or streamers.  but then he met me

so.  valentine’s day is one of those for me that i like to be recognized, but not noticed.  as in, if the world is going to give us a holiday about love, then let’s celebrate love!  if the world gives us a random tuesday where nothing is happening, let’s celebrate tuesdayness!  BUT.  i’m not a big go out, roses wrapped in plastic, fuzzy-white-bear-holding-a-red-heart-saying-i-love-you, store bought card kind of girl.  i’m a let’s spend time together and be creative and small about things.

always have been.

it makes me cringe when i see things that are embarrassingly over the top.  i’m just not that girl.  it’s fine if you are, really.

so, in the spirit of all of that, this is what i’m posting, for the boy, to make him laugh:

(via someecards.
a warning: this is one of the more benign cards on there,
so i’m totally not recommending that you visit the site,
unless you can handle it,
because some of them are in fact really funny.
you’ve been warned.)

happy day of thanks.