What I ACTUALLY diy'ed...

Unfortunately, I work in retail. 

(I just decided mid-sentence that that made for a good sentence by itself.)

Okay, but really... Unfortunately, I work in retail management, which means that Christmastime is the BUSIEST time of year. So my dream life of being at home baking and crafting and making a personalized handmade gift for everyone and their dog is not a reality ...(yet? maybe one day?)

This year I discovered Feels-Like-DIY.  Feels-Like-DIY still satisfies my crafting urge, still has the element of homemade feel, but doesn't require nearly as much time as making something completely from scratch. 

Still impressive to gift-receivers, but not as strenuous on the gift-giver. Perfect!

So on the weeks that I wasn't working 85 hours (oh, you think I am joking?), this is what I did to get my holiday cheer squeezed in.

1. Baked mom's sugar cookie recipe

{ Okay, so these are cookies I made last Christmas... 

The cookies I made this year may or may not have been devoured too quickly for a photo shoot.}

2. Assembled feels-like-DIY Christmas cards (I used a fabulous little PDF template to print via Gifted Magazine (see below).) In addition to the required cutting and folding, I added some extra awesome-ness by stamping the address labels with our monogram in gold ink (leftover wedding thank you materials!)

3. Made 8 batches of peppermint bark (whew!)

4. Assembled feels-like-DIY gift boxes for the peppermint bark 

5. Waited 45 minutes in line at the post office to mail off these little babies.*

*I ran into my uber-friendly neighbor in line at the post office, so it made the wait time much more enjoyable. I love our new apartment building. I've run into this guy at Starbucks and now at the post office. It feels so small town! And the other day I came home to a little bag of Christmas cookies on our welcome mat with a tag that said: "Happy Holidays! From Apartment #6" How adorable?!

I still have a couple more things to pick up, but I feel very accomplished so far. The first person on my list is proving to be most difficult--my husband! Eek!

Are you done Christmas shopping/creating?