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?

Christmas DIY ideas

I love decorating and baking for Christmas. 

These were all in the running for my list of DIY projects and gift making this year.

 

Martha Stewart Body Scrub

Peppermint bark

Holiday cookie mailing tubes

Mom's sugar cookie recipe

Pecan clusters

Map coasters

Cinnamon stick candles

What have you made this Holiday Season? 

What's still on your to-do list?

5 more...

21. Really, Hollywood? You are the only city that has TWO DMV's, that of which neither are full functioning? Really? I have to go to this one for vehicle registration, and that one for obtaining a driver's license? And they are a 5 minute drive apart? Couldn't you just have saved time, money, and land mass and been in ONE FREAKING PLACE? And really, California DMV website? Why don't you inform people of this fact? Even better, you brag about a "Make an Appointment" function, in which you misled me by scheduling me an appointment for a Driver's License at the Registration place. Real cool, website. Real cool.

22. When it's windy here, watch out. Trees fall over. It is noon, and I have already heard of 3 falling into roadways near me on the news. Good thing we park in a garage! But even beyond that, while driving, you get pelted with shards of palm tree crap. That stuff is huge, and hard, and scratchy. Every time it hit my car today, it scared me half to death.

23. Panorama City's Home Depot sources their Christmas trees from Salem, Oregon. That is rad. :] I'm sorry if that is the 15th time you heard that, I am just really excited about it. That made my Christmas!

24. So we got a GPS... and I am learning that it can't be fully trusted. Nor can it pronounce half of the street or freeway names around here. (Son Tomon Eeka? Oh... Santa Monica)

25. No one recycles here. It is sad. I still can't figure out where you take pop cans to recycle. There are no nifty machines outside every grocery store. But I still see bums with huge garbage sacks full of them... so we must be able to take them SOMEWHERE. The other day, Matt was asked "Paper or plastic?" at the store. He replied "Paper, please." The clerk looked at Matt like he was absolutely retarded and said "You knoooowww they don't have handles, right?"

More blog posts to come, I promise. I have hair news to share, as promised! (Hint: it's good news. Phew!)

.why my husband rocks.

{ me and husband that rocks }

Yesterday, my husband woke up at 6:30am with me to go get a Christmas tree. He didn't get very much sleep Wednesday night, and still woke up for something that he wasn't nearly as excited as I was about (see picture). But he fulfilled his promise to me that we would "get a tree on Thursday" despite some changes in plans to his schedule. Those changes are what sparked the need to go at 7am when Home Depot opened. I was stoked. He was sleepy. But I could tell that he was a little stoked... just to see me so stoked :]

Love him.

little letters.

Dear LA weather,

Thanks for the sunshine, and not allowing the air here to get down to 15 degrees, like it is in Salem. And, despite what everyone else is saying... I really didn't mind that rain.

Dear Dryer,

You make our apartment smell so good and feel so warm. You really know how to work those dryer sheets. But why do you insist on taking at least two full cycles to get anything dry?

Dear God,

Thank you for eggnog and the smell of Christmas trees.

Dear Home Depot in Panorama City,

Thank you for outsourcing your Christmas tree supply from Salem, Oregon. And thank you for only charging $24.88 for a 6' Douglas Fir, rather than $60, like that lot in Toluca Lake. You made me really happy today.

Dear Pandora radio,

You nailed it with this one: Pandora's "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey radio

Dear Day Off from Work,

I love you.

--

This post was inspired by this post on Taza's rockstar diaries blog. I give credit where it is due.

my favorite time of year

It's official. Holiday jolliness kicks off tomorrow with the highly anticipated (what? you didn't highly anticipate this? it's just me?) release of the red cups at Starbucks. And gingerbread. And eggnog.

Yummmmmmmm. I might be too excited to sleep. ...Might be.

I count down the days until Gingerbread comes. It's on my calendar. It is slightly embarrassing, but 100% true. I love it that much.

It is SO delicious. It tastes like liquid Christmas. And I love Christmas.

And those red cups are just plain joy-inducing. You can't deny it!

{ random photo that looked pretty that I found here }

Grande gingerbread white chocolate mocha, how I love you so. It has been 10 long months since my lips parted from your plastic lid, but tomorrow we will reunite!