Wrapping paper bows

Oh my, Thanksgiving is just 2 days away and Christmas will be here before we know it! I admit that I've been antsy to get my tree up but the big guy nixed me at every turn. He insisted we had to wait until after Thanksgiving before any Christmas decorations could make an appearance and I grudgingly admit he's right lol. But, next week my tree will be up and in anticipation of that, I decided to get a head start on wrapping some of the gifts I've gotten already. I actually bought my first gift in September and I've been getting a couple here and there ever since. It just made sense to me to start early to avoid the stress I've endured in the past by waiting until the week before Christmas. YES, that's been me more times that I'd like to admit. But no more! When the holiday became so stressful that it was no longer enjoyable I knew it was time to make a change. It's also much more cost effective to do it this way, rather than trying to come up with hundreds of dollars in a week or two.

But that's not really what this blog post is about....As I was wrapping today and making some paper ribbon bows to adorn my wrapped packages, I thought it would be a good time to share with others who maybe hadn't thought of it or had seen it before but had forgotten to try it.  I like to decorate my packages so that they look attractive underneath the tree and we all know that buying pre-made bows can be expensive if you buy the prettier ones. So, what I've been doing for the last few years is taking my wrapping paper and cutting it into strips of about 6-8 inches long and maybe a quarter inch in width. I then use my scissors to curl it just like you would do for strips of ribbon. Usually, I add just a small amount of ribbon as well to enhance the way it looks but it's certainly not necessary. I take all the strips and layer them the way I want them and I use a stapler and staple them together before attaching them to my package with a small piece of clear tape.  THE best thing about doing this is that you always have the perfect "ribbon" for your gift!

*NOTE: I'm not sure how well this would work with cheaper wrapping paper, but it works perfectly with the heavy duty paper I use. I get most all my wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby...on sale you get 100 sq. ft for about $4 and it literally lasts for at least 2-3 years so it's well worth the price.

Here are a couple of examples from some gifts I wrapped today.

I hope you can understand what I'm talking about
and this serves as a decent example. 

Your strips absolutely do not need to be completely uniform in size
either as it's virtually impossible to tell once they're curled and
on your gift!

ETA: Here are a couple more examples of wrapping paper bows I made this year. And really and truly the photos do not do justice to these bows. Give it a try and see for yourself!

For these I cut the strips about 12 inches or more in length and also more of them. You can really be as extravagant as you want with these...the more the better!
As always, thank you so much for stopping by and be sure and check back next week to see what's new!
Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!

Rhonda

Sorry for the glare...I used some thin silver ribbon on this one
and the flash got it. I know it's hard to see much of the detail but
hopefully you get the general idea. And I only used a few strips on this gift ...just
enough to make a small "bow". 

Craigslist SCORE for me!

Sometimes I just peruse Craigslist with no idea of what I'm looking for, just seeing if anything jumps out at me. I've picked up several things that way and I've been happy with all of them. So on Sunday before last I was doing just that, looking through the ads figuring I wouldn't really find anything when an ad came up for a shelf that was almost identical to one I had been looking at when we bought our couch. I immediately sent a text message to the number listed and we drove straight to Knoxville to pick it up. I was thrilled with it even before I saw it. I knew it was a black shelf and I had wanted a white shelf but hey, I have a lot of experience painting haha. So here is the shelf sitting in our yard after we got it home.

 How awesome is that bad boy? And did I mention that it was an absolute STEAL at the incredibly amazing price of $20???? Yes, I said twenty dollars!!

I wanted to get regular paint and use a roller and paintbrush but my husband who is usually pretty smart about this stuff insisted that spray paint would give the cleanest look so we picked up a total of 8 cans of paint and he did all the painting. Unfortunately, the spray paint wasn't the greatest idea for this particular project and we actually wound up getting regular paint to finish it up. I absolutely love how it turned out!
The only downfall with the entire project is that the shelf doesn't even come close to fitting into the spot I had designated for it. So after moving it a couple of times I decided on this placement and although it took me a couple of days to get use to it, I actually really like it here. I've always wanted some sort of divider between the living room and kitchen and now I have just that. I still need to get more "shelf stuff" to fill it but here is the finished product!!

This is no lightweight shelf --it is very heavy and well made. I am thrilled with my latest Craigslist find! Even with the paint we spent considerably less than what we would have paid for this shelf new in the store. This may be my favorite find to date. What have YOU found that you love on Craigslist?

Thanks for stopping by and come again soon!

Rhonda

Halloween at our house :)

We use to live in a small subdivision that was the hub of all trick or treating in our town. I'm talking--if you went trick or treating then our neighborhood was *the* place to be. The kids would start coming at around 4:00 p.m. and would continue coming until at least 9:00 p.m. To say I loved it would be an understatement of great proportions lol. Unfortunately, we now live on a little side road in the country (3 miles from town) and we have lived here for right at 6 years. And in all those years we've gotten ONE trick or treater and that was because I begged on Facebook haha. And yet, every year I buy loads of candy "just in case" with the knowledge that there has always been enough people here to devour the leftovers. And of course, this year was no exception. I got out the cackling witch hand candy bowl (bought on clearance from CVS a couple years back) and filled it to overflowing with candy.

It was a cold, ugly, rainy Halloween this year so I knew this wouldn't be the year of the sudden influx of trick or treaters but that was A-OK because THIS year I knew the grandkids would be here :) And let me just say they WIPED US OUT of candy hahaha.
Here are a few of my favorite photos from Halloween 2014.

This is the first year that I have dressed up since Tim and I went to a Halloween party several years ago. I think I did a pretty bang up job on my witch face lol

Our grandson...the spooooky skeleton lol

2 of my *daughter-in-laws* and our step granddaughter
I LOVE all these girls <3

Our second son, Brandon. He had to change a
flat tire in the cold and rain which is why
his pants aren't too clean looking lol. He was a
trooper though and still went with the kids trick or treating :)

Danielle is taking her turn wearing my witch hat

This little girl may have only been in our lives
for a year but we love her so much and consider
her our granddaughter. And didn't her mom
do an awesome job on her makeup???

Nothing scary about this little cutie pie <3
She was the cutest Lambie in the whole wide world :)

Had to toss in this picture of Chris showing Cadence
a video. He is so amazing with these kids and it makes
a mama's heart happy :)

And there you have our Halloween--Perhaps next year will be the year
that we get bombarded with trick or treaters, but if not, I think we are perfectly
content with our little entourage of spooky spooks :)

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Rhonda