A Handmade Gift Basket

Two weeks ago, I was truly lamenting over what to get my Oma for Christmas. As I wandered around the shops getting gifts for others on my list, absolutely nothing caught my eye as the perfect thing for her. I was a little stumped....

But then, as I was making soup on a Saturday afternoon (as one does), I opened my spice cupboard and saw this...

This is one of my favorite gifts that my Oma has ever given me. Last year she grew parsley in her garden, dried it, and put it in an old jam jar for me at Christmas. I love the handwritten label and that when I look at this jar I can see her in my mind, tending her garden and drying the herbs. 

I knew at that moment that her Christmas gift needed to be handmade.

So, to a simple basket, I added this mandala which I made back when I was in the grips of mandala making mania. Oma has many houseplants (real and otherwise) that would look lovely on top of it.

I am going to make her some jam the day before Christmas, which I will put into the mason jar and then add to the basket. I use a recipe from this book to make the most delicious chia seed jam.

But what I am most excited to give her is this photo hanging display that I made using pictures of the girls from our trip to a local garden (I wrote about it here, and made this layout with the pictures).

I know she will love it, as there is a longstanding family connection to this garden. When we look through old photo albums, there are countless photos (no kidding, it seems like there is one on every page) of my Oma and Opa and my Mom and her brother, taken in this garden. I know she will love that the girls had their pictures taken in this familiar spot as well.

This is one gift that I am very excited to give.  

I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas. I will be taking a little blog break over Christmas and New Years and will catch up with you all in January.  

Thank you so much for visiting and reading. Talk soon. 

Three Christmas Things

Three Christmas things that are making me smile this week:

These Playmobil Christmas toys on the kitchen windowsill. I found these on sale at a local toy shop a few months back and I love them. I told the girls that these are Mommy's toys and they were completely okay with that.

Our tree. This Christmas tree was the first thing we bought after we got engaged on December 19, 2002. Realizing that we would be married by the following Christmas and not wanting to have to pay full price for a tree, we hustled to the store to find one on clearance. Not the most romantic thing, but certainly practical; I love that our tree has this memory attached to it.

This nativity was mine when I was a kid, and every year my sister and I would carefully set it up in the living room. I love that I can do this now with my girls and that it will become a part of their childhood Christmas memories.

So, with Christmas only a little more than a week away, what Christmas things are making you smile?

Camping

I took a little bit of a break from making Christmas cards over the weekend, and finished off this layout about our annual summer camping trip.

Oh, the double layout - great for including lots of photos, but so hard to photograph well. Here are some shots of each page....

I used patterned paper from the Happy Camper line by Echo Park, and various random embellishments from my stash for this layout. I kept things simple so that the page did not get too cluttered. 

As winter settles in and the holidays quickly approach, it was really nice to work with these pictures from our summer trip to the woods. So many wonderful memories. 

Have you done any scrapbooking lately? Or is it all about Christmas prep? 

Holiday Wishes and Cheer

It's a happy Monday, made happier by the fact that I have kicked my cold to the curb, and it is sketch challenge time over at The Memory Nest.

Here is the sketch - one that really inspired me to layer lots of patterned papers, which you know is one of my most favorite things to do. 

I decided to make cards this time around as I was on a bit of a roll and having lots of fun after making this card last week.

Patterned papers and sentiment tags are from the 2013 Christmas line by Imaginisce. I love the polka dots and the turquoise color - a little traditional, a little not. 

Have you made any Christmas Cards yet?

Be sure to pop over to The Memory Nest today to see what everyone else on the Design Team created for this challenge.....it is fantastic as always.

Holiday Cheer

Today is a day for tea and nose-blowing....yuck!

On a more cheerful note, I wanted to show you a Christmas card that I made this week.

I based my card design on this sketch from The Memory Nest (I absolutely love its simplicity and it is the same sketch that inspired this layout).

Both the patterned paper and the sentiment tag are from the 2013 Christmas line by Imaginsce. Coordinating supplies sure make card making simple and quick.

I am off now to make myself another cup of tea and get snuggled on the couch for a little crochet time.  Have a happy weekend! 

Me

Good morning and happy Monday! Can you believe it is December already? We spent the weekend doing some Christmas shopping (almost done!!!) and decorating the house. I feel very prepared and organized for Christmas this year, which is a great step in avoiding a mid December panic attack.... always a good thing, wouldn't you say?

Christmas preparations aside, I also spent time on the weekend working on my layout for the latest sketch challenge at The Memory Nest.

Here is the sketch, which I absolutely love:

And here is my layout:

Yes, I did a layout using a picture of me alone.....a very rare occurrence, but a nice addition to my album. I can not remember the last time I did a "me" layout, so it was a lot of fun to create this page.

All the patterned paper is from the Amy Tangerine Sketchbook line. The other embellishments are just random bits from my stash, which I had a great time rummaging through last week, especially when I found this treasure.

As always, you can create your own page based on this sketch and link up over at The Memory Nest. Gotta love all this creative sharing....I love blogs for that.

Have a great day. If all goes well, I should have another layout to show you later this week.