Live from Tormville!: A tisket a tasket, hey look I made a basket

I've been putting off posting about our family's gift exchange this year simply because there's a lack of things to post. I was hoping if I waited a bit - I'd have more to share. But alas. Not so. Four male members of the exchange, who shall remain nameless, have not quite finished yet. There's some serious rethinking of the exchange going on. It was decided (by one of the four males) that Easter would be a great time to regroup and finish the exchange.

But for this year I had my sister-in-law's name. I made her this basket - I got the directions here (Shannon - you don't need to click that link - you might be sorely disappointed by the comparison) I told her to let me know how it holds up because I'm thinking I might want to add brads along the top edge for the next one. I have the pieces to make another one, and it was way fun to make. I coated it with three coats of a spray polyurethane when I was done. Okay - hubby did that part. I don't do smelly sprays in the winter. It measures 9 inches square and 4 1/2 inches tall.

I also made her a notebook. A nice big fat long paged notebook. She and my brother are newlywed's, you see, and I thought this was very appropriate. Don't you? If you want to read more about the tool I used (and reviewed) to make this journal, you can read that over here.

I also included some cards in her basket.

Coincidentally, Shannon had my name as well.

And for me, she made these adorable snowmen made from mittens. I'm very partial to snowmen, making this the perfect gift for me. I love them.

I'll share more on the exchange when I have more photos to share. What does your family do for Christmas exhanges? We're up for suggestions. My mom's idea was that we still do the exchange like this, but if you don't have your gift done - then you have to buy your person a $50 gift complete with a gift receipt. I think I like that idea.

Anyway.

Besides baskets, I've been making some more layouts and cards (Surprise!!)

One of my new favorites - a mix of Jenni Bowlin and Technique Tuesday's January Studio AE set.

And some more of the same, but put into a layout. My babies are growing far too quickly.

Speaking of babies - the second one is home from school today. I was so hoping this bug would pass us by.

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Other stuffs

Mark and I both went to the ENT yesterday. He'll get tubes again and his adenoids removed. I could get tubes again too, but opted to wait six months. This house is loud enough as it is in the winter - I don't need to hear more until summer.
I've biked every day so far, but didn't bike this morning. I'm on sick kid watch and staying by the phone in case the high schooler calls. Hard to take a shower break when that's the case.
After over five years of blogging, I've finally learned how to link images in my sidebar. I'm NOT very computer savvy. Anyway, I've been busy the past couple days. My favorite new section - that one on the lower left. Kids books that I've gotten (or renewed the maximum amount of times at the library) just for the art. In relation to yesterday's blog post - these books also inspire me.
If I told you that I've been interrupted 236 times while trying to type this blog post, that would be an understatement.

Over and out....

Comments

this year for the bimberg exchange everyone bought some type of game to play, then we played a game to exchange them. I thought it worked well, since everyone likes to play games when family gets together.

Posted by: Ann Bimberg | January 07, 2011 at 06:26 PM

Sharyn, I LOVE the newspaper basket....might have to make these for Easter baskets this year! I like your mom's idea for enforcing the on time completion of the gift exchange. That would motivate me for sure!

Posted by: Heather H. | January 09, 2011 at 11:05 PM