Sweet Greens

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is picking out the perfect gift for each special person on my list. Equally, I enjoy spending an evening sipping egg nog, listening to holiday music and wrapping those gifts – getting them ready for Christmas morning! I use to gather up my entire gift wrapping arsenal and head to the living room floor. However, I would run into challenges – where was the tape and scissors or did we have any ribbon, gift tags or tissue paper. I decided to find a space in our living room where I could house the gift wrap year round – that way when a birthday popped up or the holidays rolled around, I could find all of the supplies quickly. We had an extra shelf on our bookcase that was being underutilized and directly below is a set of drawers – I decided this would be the perfect place for my gift wrapping station.

I simply gathered up all of the wrapping paper and laid it side-by-side on the bottom shelf, then gathered my favorite gift wrapping pens and placed those in a jar. Another jar holds several rolls of tape and a couple of pairs of scissors. The drawers below house all of reusable gift bags, tissue paper, holiday and birthday cards, gift tags, twine, ribbons, and embellishments. You could even add a few packages of batteries or several gift cards in the drawers for that last minute gift or those that require batteries.

I can easily grab a roll of paper, tape and twine – then choose from a selection of gift tags and cards and the gift is wrapped and ready to go in the matter of a few minutes. This gift wrapping system has even encouraged my family to start wrapping their own gifts for each other. They know exactly where to find all of the supplies and really enjoy picking out their own wrapping for those special gifts.

I hope this simple gift wrapping station inspires you to create one on a shelf or in a drawer in your home, especially for the holidays. I was really excited when Cascadian Farm asked me to share it, I have found that it really cuts down on the stress of getting a gift wrapped and ready, and will make you smile every time you see all of those fun colors!

Last weekend we pulled all of our holiday decorations out of storage and spent a weekend afternoon decking the halls. It is always so much fun to get those boxes out, as they are full of so many happy memories. One of my favorite things about the holidays is opening the box that houses all of the special ornaments that my son has made over the years. It’s fun to see handmade snowmen, photo ornaments with a toothless grin smiling back at me and countless others.

This year, like every year before we spend many afternoons crafting ornaments together. I have collected some of my favorites to share with you this holiday season. My hope is that these 6 simple recycled ornament projects that you can make with your children will inspire you to bond over crafting with your little ones – jump over to Inhabitots to check them all out. Make a pot of hot cocoa, put your favorite holiday music on and hit the recycling bin and craft closet to gather your supplies and start making some holiday memories this weekend!

Image credit Curbly via Inhabitots