Lame gift givers, no more.

For those of you who didn't know me in my childhood and teenage years...let's just say, I wasn't known for giving the best gifts. One year I found rocks, painted yellow smiley faces on them and gave them as prayer rocks. That same year I found a round, flat log, painted a rainbow on it and gave it as a gift to my family (this was when I had a fetish for smiley faces and rainbows!). What did I expect them to do with it?! Who really knows :0)

Bryan's and my first Christmas together we realized that we had BOTH been notorious for lame gifts. Oh great! We decided to take on the challenge of becoming better gift givers (I think it's an art.). In any case, this year I decided to put a little more thought, time and energy into my gifts.

My sister-in-law, Julie, had the great idea of making calendars for Dad and Julia's offices. She helped me collect pictures and then my good pal Photoshop and I put the calendar together. Here's the picture for January...


With the Gradens, each person has one sibling for Christmas. It's fun and simplifies things! This year I had Jon. I wasn't sure what to do for his present, but after attending his Hapkido 2nd black belt test I decided it'd be fun to do a few things to honor such an important happening. In any case, I put together a little 12 page book and then made this 11x14 collage...

(I've posted a few other pictures on my photo blog.
You can check them out here.)

A few other "homemade" gifts were for my Aunt Elaine. She asked if I'd come and take pictures of her Christmas decorations and some of her gift wrapping...she is VERY gifted at making things look BEAUTIFUL! Anyway, I of course was happy to take a few pictures and decided to group them into mini "collages" and print them off for a photo album.

A little peek at a few of her Christmas decorations.
Their home is especially festive and beautiful at this time of year!

Lastly, Elaine is the Queen of Thank you cards...sending them, that is. She has always been thoughtful that way. In any case, thank you cards were on her wish list, but instead of buying premade cards (they can be so expensive and all look the same), I decided to make some. It was a lot of fun! Here are a few of them...

Anyway, it was fun making more of the gifts this year. And plus, I may not have a lot of money, but I do have some skills and some time. Yay for homemade gifts!