A Christmas Story
“A Christmas Story” is a bit of an obsession for my step-father and me. For us, it’s not Christmas without Ralphie, Flick, Scut and the gang. Thank God TBS plays it 24 hours straight. But if they ever fail, we have our DVDs so we can make sure it’s always running in the background around Christmas. Right now there’s a leg lamp glowing in my window, licensed ornaments on our tree, a growing collection of Department 56 light up buildings and accessories on display and thanks to this week’s Iron Craft challenge, presents wrapped in “A Christmas Story” wrapping paper with matching labels! The only way I can outdo this next year is to find the box that contains my “A Christmas Story” apron and cookie cutters so that there is a plate of cookies shaped like the leg lamp next to the wrapped presents.
The labels.
The wrapped and labeled presents in front of the Christmas Story village (sitting on top of the Christmas table runner I made a few weeks ago).
A close-up of the wrapping paper and labels.
What is your favorite “A Christmas Story” moment?
Fall Leaf Place Setting Napkin Rings
Many of us want to add a little something to our place settings without breaking the bank on getting coordinating tableware and decorations for every holiday. This Thanksgiving I needed a quick way to spruce up paper napkins for Thanksgiving dinner, so here’s what I did: (click the image if it’s small)
I folded the paper napkins into quarters, wrapped gold ribbon around them, and secured the ribbon ends together with half of a glue dot (the kind you peel off paper). I used the other half of the glue dot to attach a fabric leaf that I had written that person’s name on with metallic Sharpie. If you don’t have glue dots, you can use hot glue - just make sure you don’t glue the decoration to the napkin! That’s it - it took me less than 5 minutes to make enough for my whole family!
Project Estimate:
- Paper napkins, two cents each
- Gold ribbon, on hand or $1 a roll at Dollar Tree
- Glue dots or hot glue, on hand
- Fabric leaves, $1.50 at local craft store
- Metallic Sharpie, on hand
Total: $2.52 and up
You forget about how important the simple things in life are until you don’t have them. Like a toilet paper roll holder that is so wide the bar keeps falling out, taking your roll with it. This greatly impedes your routine. Then by removing the problem holder, you have no paper to use at all!
But then you feel a great sense of accomishment after replacing the broken item that is usually taken for granted, allowing you to go back to your daily routine, never having to think about it again.
Hooray for fixing the forgotten, everyday items that are normally overlooked. Hooray for toilet paper.
The walls in our rental home are finally done being painted! Now we just have to remove the blue tape. My arms still hurt, but it was definitely worth it! The colors are “Swiss Coffee” and “Caramel Sauce.” Kind of makes you want to lick the walls, doesn’t it?!
