2010 Holiday Ornament Swap

Because I figured I didn't have enough on my plate this holiday season, I decided to sign up for Freshly Blended's 2010 Holiday Ornament Swap.  I'm always seeing people do these swaps on blogs all over the internets, and this one seemed non-threatening enough, so I thought, "What the heck!  I'll spread the holiday crafting cheer!"

I whipped up 9 little hand-embroidered, hand-sewn, hand-stuffed stocking ornaments while I was home for Thanksgiving.  I even worked on them in the car on the way home...

Don't be mad at me, but I really don't like traditional holiday colors.  That's a lie.  I don't like traditional Christmas colors.  I actually really, really love blue and silver, but anyway, my point here is that I avoided traditional Christmas colors and went with bright, cheerful non-holiday-specific colors.  And nothing says joy like mini pom-pom trim!

My favorite part of this project may have been the wrapping.  I've always loved wrapping, but never invest that much in it because I don't really come from a family that appreciates that sort of thing.  In fact, growing up, we'd joke that my mom "rolled" presents.  Eventually, I just started wrapping my own (I was that kind of kid.).  Yeah, yeah, that sounds sad, but I liked it better that way.  Once I knew the dirty truth about Santa, my mom would just put my gifts in plain white boxes, tape them up, and have me wrap them.  But I digress...

Anyway, there seems to be this new appreciation all over the blogosphere, Etsy, and whatnot for packaging, and I'm all about it.  I live like 5 blocks from a Container Store (for which Michael holds a special disdain because, as he explains, it symbolizes just how badly consumerism has taken hold of America that we need a specialized store for people to buy a bunch of stuff to store all the other stuff they buy), so it's a little dangerous.  $11.99 for a roll of wrapping paper?!  Yeah, I paid it, but I like to think I offset that expense slightly by using super cheap felt pom-poms and embroidery thread that I already had on hand in place of a bow.

I mailed these suckers out yesterday, and now, I sit anxiously awaiting the 9 little gems that I will receive in return.