Christmas Craft Time

So, it's Christmas time again! Very excited! This year we're keeping it bare bones, but that does not mean boring nor does it mean no decking the halls! This year, I'm creating Christmas from scratch. Between nursing school, planning the regional Christmas party for my husband's company, making Christmas crafts/decorations/gifts has been strategically planned out and penciled into my calendar. So far, so good!

To hold my growing collection of favorite recipes (mostly scribbled on the back of receipts, mail, etc), I made this:

It's fairly simple and took about twenty minutes. I saw something very similar in a StampingUp! catalog and decided to make my own version.

If you want to know how to make it, let me know. Otherwise, just copy it from the picture and use whatever accessories you have to make the apron fit you and your kitchen! I'll be giving a few of these away to some friends with some of my favorite holiday recipes tucked inside. Just an idea!

Beautreeful

I love trees. Not enough to hug them routinely. But staring up at their branches as the sun or moonlight peak through the branches, especially those large, extensive trees that seem to branch off smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller before finally reaching the end.

Sometimes, if you squint, the darkened leaves become the blurry background to the starry constellations of light peering through. Try it.

I love napping under trees. One afternoon, after napping under a tree, I noticed how playful trees are.

All you need is a little wind tickling through the branches to make them dance and rustle, swayinjg from side to side. I love it! The sound and sight are soothing and entrancing like staring into fire.

Strong sturdy trees, as playful as they are, are secured by the trunk and anchored by the roots. Playful, fun-loving, firmly founded, and secure. A lot like a respectable person. Firmly founded but not rigid. Fun-loving but secure. A tree well-watered, sun-bathed, and nurished in rich, firm soil.

Cut and paste.

Life before cut and paste? I can't remember it. Typing, re-typing, or...writing and RE-WRITING? Wow. What a chore.

I'm amazed at how our minds function and the capacity we have to learn, think, remember, forget, communicate, and feel. And the ability we have to create "commands" such as Cut and Paste, Undo, Copy...and then create shortcuts for these already ingenius short-cuts (Control X, Control V, Control Z, Control C).

Ever wonder if we will ever discover a way to short-cut ourselves out of life? I mean, I can express a thought on paper, then with a few clicks, save, upload, email, post, and reproduce copies around the world in under a minute.

Write a letter with a pen and paper once in awhile, read an article printed on paper, call a friend for directions instead of mapquesting! Life is a process. Love, joy, relationships, it all takes time, and with all our short-cuts, let's not forget to endure the process so we don't cut ourselves short on life, on living.