I’m 30. I work in marketing in a shopping centre in Perth. I’m a professional creative who has learned strategy and gets along quite well in my career. This blog is my outlet for all things non- work related
I saw a stag decanter at Pottery Barn and it would have been a perfect gift for my brother, except I wasn’t willing to pay $60 for a fancy glass bottle. Sorry bro.
What I did have at home were some fancy glass bottles that were former homes to the whiskey everyone’s been drinking in front of me while I’m pregnant. Jerks.
A lot of my crafts tend to involve me decapitating a plastic animal, so it was no great step to the decision to purchase a Christmas stag to complete my gift.
I’ve seen Love Actually a million times, but never as a DIY blogger. So when I recently watched Rowan Atkinson as the shop assistant wrapping the Christmas gift in the store for Alan Rickman, instead of laughing I was thinking, ‘Would that gift wrap look any good?’.
You never see the finished product in the movie, but as a DIY video, the instructions are pretty comprehensive. So, with materials sourced from CleverPatch, I set about making my own Love Actually inspired Valentine’s Day gift wrap.
Under 10 minutes, or “Ready in the flashes of flashes”.
Ask yourself, “Would you like it gift wrapped?” and the answer is of course yes.
Pop it in a box, wrap it and put a ribbon around it.
Put the present in the bag, but remember, “It’s so much more than a bag”.
Take your scoop; I used a spoon, and sprinkle liberal lashing of rose and lavender into the package. Grind a little bit in your hands to release the smell, remembering to give yourself a good sniff and not let the scent go to waste.
In goes the cinnamon stick.
Seal the bag up and give it a shake so the flower petals scatter over the package in an inviting way.
I can’t quite remember the exact point where I lost my Christmas innocence. One Christmas I was happily opening presents and sitting down to a whole table full of food spread out for me to eat. The next, I had RESPONSIBILITIES.
Cooking, decorating, cleaning, and making sure everything was perfect became a part of my December. Like I said, I’m not sure the exact date it started, but my internal self feels a visceral increase in stress levels when the clock ticks over to December 1 and the ‘fun’ all begins.
This year was different, however. This year I learned about mindfulness and my whole world changed. They could teach a whole class around how to be mindful around Christmas, both for your wallets and your peace of mind.
So, here are my Top 3 Tips on Christmas Mindfulness, and I’ve managed to alliterate them. My inner Grammar Nerd is happy.
It’s important to manage your expectations around the day itself. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to be the person on whose shoulders it rests for the day to be perfect.
The day will sail by too fast if you’re concentrating on what Aunt Ethel could have possibly meant by her sneer at the gravy. Aunt Ethel probably just has a bad case of Resting Bitch Face and looks at herself like that in the mirror every morning and your gravy is fine.
And even if it isn’t, don’t stress. A bad gravy does not a bad day make.
Take three minutes, or three sighs, or 30 minutes. If you’re feeling stressed, take time for you to remove yourself from the situation and find your centre. It will help you and everyone around you.
That way you won’t snap at Grandpa and tell him to get off his arse and get his own f@ck!ng beer, but instead tell him politely that you are stuffing the innards into a turkey and he knows where the fridge is (the old twat).
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Happy people don’t consume. Moderate your gift giving to something meaningful that your giftee will like.
I’ve been guilty of the attitude that spending more money means you care more. It doesn’t. More often it means that the giftee will have an even larger present that they don’t like and have no use for to get rid of.
Don’t be the bad gift giver, be the thoughtful gift giver. You don’t want to be the topic of a talk back radio show one day.
While we’re on the subject of stories you’d call into a radio station on ‘Bad Christmas Gifts’…
I once received six cans of deodorant from someone who shall remain nameless. While the gift itself had negative connotations (I immediately sniffed my armpits), and was very obviously a snatch and wrap from The Reject Shop, I used every one of those cans of deodorant.
I didn’t have to buy any more deodorant for almost a whole year, but to this day I still sniff my armpits before opening a present.
When you’re thinking of party favors for a Halloween party, you want something that’s sweet, but also creepy.
What’s creepier than having to break open a spider’s egg sac to get to the sweet treats inside?
Nothing!
These spider favors are easy to make, cost effective, and they definitely bring the gore-factor into your Halloween Party!
*This post is a part of a series of party favor themed blogs that I'm doing for The Party People. Check them out here.
3 bird nests, 12 black pipe cleaners, black acrylic paint and brush, hot glue gun, scissors, glad wrap and some lollies. I used popcorn because they looked more egg-like.
2 hours.
Paint the bird nests black and leave to dry. I gave them two coats.
Make the spider legs by folding 4 pipe cleaners in half and winding them through each other so they make a platform for the glue and the nest to sit on.
Glue the nest to the legs with a liberal amount of hot glue and press down firmly. Once the glue is dry, fold up the end of the legs to make feet.
Take the popcorn and the glad wrap. Measure out the popcorn into a square of wrap and then bring the edges together, twisting until the edge is firmly together.
This is the part that makes it the goriest. Glue the bottom of the egg sac into the bottom of the nest. That way people will have to pull open the glad wrap to get to their treats!
If you’re feeling creative, why not paint a red stripe on the back of the spider and turn it into a redback? Or you can use white mints as the sweet filling to make them look more egg like!
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