You Can Call Me Gwen: December 2011

I always feel a little bit excited at the beginning of a new year.

I like to spend the week between Christmas and New Years Day thinking and praying about the coming year...kind of holding it before God and asking Him to talk to me about what kind of changes would be good for me to make, where my creative energy should be spent, what home projects I should schedule in, where I need to be more thoughtful in my relationships, and many other such things.

I feel my sense of anticipation and hope growing this time of year, which may be why New Year's Day has long been one of my favorite holidays.

But, this year...

This year I have a really intense sense of anticipation and hope.

I mean, it's palpable.

Know why?

That's why.

I. Can. Hardly. Wait.

I gave myself the best Christmas gift ever this year.

I made "Advent Calendars" (for two different people) and loaded them with little gifts.

And every day for 25 days I recieved two text messages and photos first thing in the morning from two happy people, showing me what they'd unwrapped and telling me how they felt about it.

Seriously; best gift I ever gave myself.

One of the calendars was given to my three-year-old grandshoot.

They are so easy to delight at that age; he was as thrilled with a candy cane as he was with a play helicopter.

Alas, all the photos are on my iPhone, and I have misplaced the cord which would let me upload them to this here computer.

The other recipient was my Beeg Seester.

I dropped hers off while she was out, and Bro helped me hang it on her studio wall.

I got this lovely idea from KatieBrownBlog.com. (Sorry I'm having issues with inserting links!)

I painted some of my clothespins white and covered their fronts with various red and white decorative papers, and the others I just painted with red spray paint.

I told my Seester that hers is a "pass-along" Advent calendar, and next year she has to fill it for someone else.

As for her gifts, they were simple little things, but I did stick with a color theme she loves: turquoise and red.

That made it more challenging, but it was still a lot of fun filling it up.

I made many of the things I included.

The little felt Scotty dog, whose pattern I found on the wonderful Allsorts blog (allsorts.typepad.com).

The hand-cut cardinal gift tags.

The stuffed bird pincushion.

The little felt stars (also from a pattern found on the lovely Allsorts blog).

The glittered ornaments made from seashells I collected while we were vacationing together in North Carolina.

The little mini-pincushion.

The pinecone elf.

The tiny notecards in coin envelopes.

The container full of paper beads in all the right colors.

The little photo holders made from spools of thread and French paper clips (complete with old school pictures of various family members).

The tiny paper birds, whose photos I forgot to take, hiding in this paper tube.

I included a few little art supplies, because Seester is making some pretty kewl collages these days.

(Oh, how I love me some Sharpies! Sharpies are our friends.)

Her first roll of Washi tape; I think she was excited.

Turquoise duct tape; I know she was excited about this!

The red binder clips, some of which I covered in fabric, were included just because we love office supplies of any kind, and if they're in our favorite colors, so much the better!