Today I had a little last minute fun wrapping these gifts. One old piece of canvas, a couple of cuts, a fold, two seams on my sewing machine, a rubber stamp, some acrylic paint, and a jaunty red bow later and you have eco, cheapo, super cute wrapping. I don't know why but these little guys make me inordinately happy. I had a really hard time boxing them up and taking them to the post office because they looked so cute on my mantel. They are so happy looking.

Then there was this last minute gift wrapping...

My brother-in-law traditionally gives all of his gifts wrapped in newspaper. He's done this for as long as I've known him, long before it was cool. So in honor of his traditional wrap, I thought I'd make a newspaper gift bag for his present this year. It turned out pretty cute, I think...

Then there was this...

Okay, before I incur any outrage let me say, that I am absolutely opposed to defiling books, but these two poor souls are an exception—one was the victim of an untimely eggnog incident and the other is a battered and bruised copy that I rescued from a friend's garbage can {please tell me that I'm not the only one ready to raid a friend's trash for the sake of future crafting possibilities—it was a good move too, as this book has lent its worn and torn pages to lampshades and all sorts of collage projects}. Even so, on the few occasions when I do take scissors to the pages of one of these two books, I cringe, but I put guilt aside, and look what my old book's tired pages gave me...

...I kind of love it, and it's just right for a certain gift for a sweet somebody!

Of course now I'm thinking of all of those little pieces of discarded gift-wrap that I have collected over the years—you know the ones that are too pretty to throw away—and then there are all of those papers that collect throughout the school year {not the precious ones that have to go into a drawer for safe-keeping, but all of those math assignments and spelling tests that come home and never quite make it to the recycling bin} wouldn't they make cute end of the school year gift bags? Now I've got patchwork paper gift bags on the brain, and I can tell I'm going to have to dig all of that paper out of the cupboard and raid the pile of papers growing on my desk to make some little patchwork gift bags.

For those of you who are wondering about this weekend's cake....Yesterday...yes, it was yesterday, though it seems like it had to be several yesterdays ago {time somehow seems to get a little blurry during the holidays*does that happen to you too?} I finished and delivered this...

This one was a real squeaker...a last, last minute order and it got done just under the wire—literally not a second to spare...not at all the way I like to do things—way too much drama for this girl, but in the end, the cake got baked, decorated and delivered, and the bride was happy and that's all that really matters.

I'm off for now...still more shopping and wrapping and baking and even some decorating still to do...busy, busy, but so good!

Happy Monday, friends!

~~sos~~
too funny!...I just typed sos instead of xoxo—do you think that means anything?
...xoxo—Alison