favorite Things... christmas fun

CHRISTMAS SPOILDER!!!! NOTE:  IF YOU ARE ONE OF MY FAMILY OR FRIENDS, THIS WILL SPOIL YOUR CHRISTMAS SO DO NOT READ!!  :) xoxox

So.. I thought it would be fun to take a break from art and online classes and share with you some of my favorite holiday gifts.  Nothing fancy, Just some fun personalized gifts I am giving this year for Christmas. ALL of which I have found On Etsy.  I love etsy!!.. mainly because for one, I LOVE supporting artist! It's such a unique and awesome thing that we can access art from all over the world in one little spot. Crazy huh? I love supporting them, but I also love giving handmade or personalized things. And really you can't do that with store bought items.

So here are just a few.. truly not very many.. but a few of the things I have got for friends or family for Christmas this year..

AND just so you know.. NO.. none of these etsy stores have asked me to promote them. Infact they don't even know that I am.. so this is just TRULY things that I found that I like.. or fun projects I found on pinterest I wanted to try. :)

 

heart States embriodery hoops.

So another bonus of etsy.. is that you can usually contact the seller and have something personalized even more so than what they offer. I loved this cute little idea.. but thought it would be fun to give them to my friends based on the place they were married to their spouse. I also   thought it would mean even more if the initials of them and their spouce were on either side of the heart. So I contacted her and of course she was awesome and said yes! I LOVE how they turned out!

 

 

These were only $14.00! and yes i know I could have made them, but I had so many other projects I was making, I decided for the price, these were well worth the money spent. OH SO CUTE! And she even finished the backs..

 

 

Ceramic Ring Tray.

So again.. I LOVED the idea of this, so adorable, but I wanted to get Ben a gift that was more personalized to us. I actually ended up getting two of them (putting one under the tree for me too). I contacted the seller and asked her if she would do initials? See ben has done this cute little thing for me since we have been married. He has made me all sorts of things that say b+c  with a heart around it,  on them. Key-chains, carved wood pieces, bracelets, etc. He will go out and write it in my frosted windows in the morning, or on the beach on vacations, or even made out of stones when we are camping. Just to let me know he loves me without saying it. He never tells me he has done it either. He has also been so crafty and in each of our homes we have moved into (all of them we have had to redo or build).. he has put the words walls, on the ceilings, floors, tiles, etc.. all carved into the sheetrock or wood. And USUALLY he doesn't tell me about THOSE either.  and over the months or years after we move in I eventually find them. BUT not always. I guess there are still some here in THIS house that i haven't found.. and we have lived here since 2007! And he is such a stinker, he won't tell me where they are at! I told him.. he better tell me before we move out of this house.. that is for sure. He's such a dork. lol

It was funny because our last house they were a little more obvious (one was on the ceiling of the main bathroom right above the tub, so when you are taking a bath, you can see it. I didn't find that one for about a year, because i never take a bath in that one, but my son was one day and starting yelling.. I FOUND ONE! Another one he put right by the light switch in our bedroom and he had carved it right into the sheetrock. So when we sold the house to some neighbors, they called me about a week or so after they moved in and commented on them. I was like.. oh yea sorry. Just pretend they are magical parts of the houses history! Lol. Or cover them up :).

I remember the first one he did was about a month before we got married. He was painting this little old studio, that we were going to move into when we got married. And one day I was driving around to the other side (the side you don't see from the driveway) to park and bring some stuff in and I saw this HUGE heart with b+c on it in green.. over the cream siding. I mean HUGE! It covered the entire side of the house. He kept it there until we moved. What a guy huh? I mean WHO does that kind of stuff? The funny thing is..that is about as far as his romantic side goes. He's not the mushy type at all, that writes mushy notes all the time, or talks about his "feelings". lol. So it's kinda fun that he has this "thing" he does that let's me know he loves me.

Okay.. so TOTALLY sidetracked on the gift giving thing.. but I just had to write about the meaning behind that. SO for me, personalized gifts truly mean a lot. And giving him this tray for christmas will mean a lot too. :)

So this is how it turned out!

 

and again for $14.00.. for a handmade personalized ceramic plate.. for a christmas gift? Pretty darn cheap! This would make a great gift for parents! Put their initials on it and maybe the date they were married? how fun!

 

The next to last gift item I got.. okay I have to admit.. was for myself. A hand-stamped Ring.   I really wanted a new ring for my right hand and this year has been a hard one for Ben and I.. but we have ended up coming out of it even BETTER than we have ever been! We have been married for almost 19 years! ANd I am sure every marriage goes through bumps along the way. I know we have.. and this year was especially hard for us.. but over the last several months. I have grown SO close to this man. I can't even explain the gratitude and love and charity I feel for him. It hasn't always been like this. I mean I have always loved him, but I don't think I have EVER truly TRULY appreciated him or the love he has for me. He isn't perfect either and we are kinda both pig headed, people.. but over the last year I think we have learned to respect each others ideas, to look at each other from a different perspective. I use to be a "all about me" person when it came to our marriage. I have never been one to "serve" my husband. I haven't ever been the one to leave fun little notes in his lunch, or clean up something for him when I know he is having a bad day, or whatever. you know what i mean. He always does it for, but me.. never really for him. But now, I have this HUGE sense of service and charity towards him.  I am often times now finding ways to show HIM I love him. Getting him little gifts. SHowing up at the warehouse with a packed "picnic for lunch. Making our bed or turning down his side of the bed before he comes to bed. Cleaning our bedroom with from MY mess, so he can walk in and find it a relaxing place to be (i am pretty messy.. if you can believe that .. and I am sure you can! Lol)  Just stupid silly things that I have HONESTLY ever done before.  So I wanted to get a ring to wear that would show him how i felt about him. That he knows even though I have a set of "trues" i always go to for everything (my closest girlfriends).. he is my TRUEST of trues.  So I found this ring on etsy..

OH so cute! It was exactly what he had been doing for me for years! Hand-carving b+c in so many random things. This ring was just perfect.. handcarved and looks like a tree.. in LOVE! it was $35.00 which for a RING period.. is an amazing price.. but a personalized one?? holy cow how could i not! So while this gift was to show him I loved him.. it was TRULY a gift for me. To remind me of what a forgiving, amazing man he is. It came in the mail a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't wait until christmas to wear it lol..

So I am (you can see I already have paint on it.. as most of my bracelets and jewelry do! lol)

I think this would be a SUPER fun gift to give your best girlfriends. Or your mom, or sisters! It's not something for everyone, but I love it!

Another Gift I found.. well two shops had them, were personalized mugs. I am a mug lover. If you ever come visit me in my studio (which I HOPE YOU DO!!) you will see I have a thing for mugs. I collect them. Which I guess is a good thing to collect because then my guests always have something to drink out of! lol. But no seriously even at home, all we drink out of is mugs. We collect them where-ever we go. ALL over the world. But the ones in my art studio I either made myself, or have collected from other artist or on etsy.

I saw this mug.. and oh my gosh.. seriously? How could you not fall in love!

I emailed the girl and asked if she did custom words.. because I LOVE the word courage right now. But alas.. she said no. So I just ordered 2 of the hope ones. WHich I love the word HOPE as well! They came last week.. and OH MY .. even MORE beautiful in person!

Maybe when you come, you can use it!  SO.. after I found out she didnt do custom, I HAD to go find something that was, because I wanted to give Ben a mug for christmas too.. one that say "b+c" on it and a heart around it. I finally found THIS awesome etsy store.. and fell in love with these mugs!

They actually do a lot more mugs too, ones that look similar to the Hope mug I bought and you can personalize your own words.. HOWEVER I really wanted one with the heart and initials. SO I contacted the artist and asked if it was possible to get the TOP mug.. in that color, but with a heart around it like in the bottom mug AND THEN also add a handcarved b+c in the middle! AND he said YES! for sure! at no extra cost! My mugs arrived a couple of days ago, and they are totally cute and packed (i did open the top and take a peek) but I didn't want to take them out of the boxes to take a picture.. but as you can imagine.. they turned out adorable!

 

The last gift I got this year for christmas for friends.. isn't a personalized gift per say, but it is an AMAZING book by an amazing artist, Rachel Awes.. All I Did was Listen

"all i did was listen" is a 232-page, full-color, illustrated gift-book, filled with inspiring quotes from rachel's psychotherapy clients, that strung together, tell a story about how healing can happen for all of us. rachel accompanies each quote with a colorful illustration + written reflection"

I don't know Rachel.. but oh MAN I want to meet her someday! Not only is her art beautiful in this book, but the words that are shared or TRULY inspiring! I bought this book sight unseen. I found about about it on one of my facebook group pages. When I visited her etsy store and some some of her art and some of the inside pages I KNEW it would be perfect for all the women in my life this year. This is one of my favorite gifts ever. I am just hoping some of my artist friends who also know her don't always have it! lol. They will just get two.. :) I also got them for some my sisters and other friends who are NOT artist. I know they will truly enjoy it.

So.. those are just a few of my "favorites! I have SO many more.. oh you don't even know.. but I better stop.. or this will be a SUPER SUPER long post.. it's already long enough lol.
Anyhow.. I'd love to have yous share any awesome finds you have found on etsy this year! post a link in the comments section if you do! It will be fun!

Happy Thursday!

xoxox

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Floagolve]

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[Aida]

Reading your post brought home some tips for
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[janet kemper]

These are fantastic, thanks for sharing! They are just the type of gifts I like to give! I think I may have even found a gift for myself. I like the B+C story, too....I actually ordered a Christmas ornament this year with mine and my husbands initials on it!

[Michele]

Great gift ideas. I loved the book "all i did was listen", I loved it so much I bought 6, one for me and 5 for my friends and a couple of prints for my new sewing/office/studio room. I love all the inspiration and need it.

[Leanne]

LOVE the gift ideas . . . I would be absolutely THRILLED to receive any (or ALL) of these! Sure hope your loved ones enjoy them - I'm sure they will!

[rockmelon recycled]

lovely post, i enjoyed reading it! We have a thing too, ours is SHMILY (stands for: See How Much I Love You!) We scribble it on walls and mirrors and carve it too. Fun and meaningful for us.

[Christine]

Christy I hope I meet YOU someday.

[Chantille]

Such thoughtful gifts Christy. Ben sounds like a diamond, you're one lucky girl. You two sound so well matched and after 19 years together still doing little romantic things is rare indeed. Those little romantic gestures don't normally last long. You have such a strong relationship, I'm sure you'll be together forever.

[rachel awes]

TreasureOfChristy,

you have been introduced into my life from a place that only treasures come from. maybe it's a ship banked on a caribbean island. maybe it's from a mysterious wall of rubies in aruba. maybe it's from the purity of a childs first words in a little town in italy.
your friendship to me is born from a place like these. + i thank you for it. for you.
i too hope to meet you someday.
a big hug will await you.
ooxxoxo rachel

[Katie(@ASouthernLadysR)]

these are so cute. I love these.

[Toni Terzaghi]

you are so sweet....love the b + c story...thanks for sharing...Toni

[dawn]

How sweet this was, loved reading about you and hubby. How AWESOME that he displays his love for you this way. So happy for you both and that life is good for you two!!

These are all great ideas, I love the ring and the bowl idea. I'm sure your friends and family are going to enjoy their gifts too.

What a fun post the one below is too, how cool that your daughter made these and surprised you with an owl. SO SWEET!

Thanks so much for sharing!

[Laura@Ms Smartie Pants]

what lovely and very thoughtful gifts, your friends and family are blessed!

[Romaine]

I heart Etsy!!! Love your gift choices- I had personalized mugs made for my kidlets when they were small. They are teens and a tween now and the mugs are too tiny for them and the local artist that made them no longer does so. Funny, never thought to look on Etsy though I look for so many other items!

[LeAnn]

very sweet gifts for your family and besties...they will love them i'm sure! your post always make me smile and girl you crack me up. Your a sweet spirit and you emulate such kindness in everything you do lady! Be very proud! Have an amazing day!