Easter & Customer Packaging and Thank You Card Ideas

I was really happy when we woke to beautiful clear and sunny skies yesterday for Easter Sunday. Easter is magnificent no matter what, but it just feels so right when the sun is shining. Plus, my hair and Isabelle's often-unruly hair cooperated beautifully, which was an extra special treat since I have to leave before everyone else for choir and Daddy breaks out in a cold sweat at the thought of being on "hair duty."  ;) We had dinner here with my parents - it was such a lovely day.

Today is the 118th Boston Marathon and it looks like another gorgeous day. We'll be cheering on some friends (from home), and praying for everyone's safety. When we visited Boston last weekend, things were already well underway for the big race. We New Englanders are a tough breed. Boston Strong.

Now onto the packaging details for the items I make and sell... several of you have asked me about my packaging and Thank You cards. I wrote up a post about it HERE.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Five Things To Do Now To Get Ready for the Holidays

Here are some practical tips for getting in gear for the busiest time of the year, with less stress and lots more joy.

1. Clean your candle holders, vases and other glass/ crystal

These items gather dust like the Boss, and just about every solid surface in our home displays two or three (or twelve) candles and other glass goodies during the holidays. To make them sparkle again, carefully place them on the top rack in the dishwasher and run them through a gentle cycle. Of course, make sure that they're dishwasher-friendly! Lots are! This is one of the easiest things to tackle ahead of time, and nothing twinkles quite like spot-free glass and crystal accessories. Plus, when you're elbow deep in tangled strings of lights and pine needles have found their way to every crevice, it feels so good to have this part already done.

This is also a great time to take inventory of candles, such as tea lights, tapers and pillars. Many are already on sale, and I've found that if I wait for those After-Holiday sales, it's pretty slim picking. Hot pink nativity candle, anyone? Yeah, me either.

2. Vacuum the corners of your ceilings and above door jambs

Not very glamorous, I know, but the holiday season gets so busy and hectic so quickly- no matter how hard I try to not let it!- and this is one thing I don't want to have to deal with during all that chaos. Dangling cobwebs were fine for Halloween. Not so much for Christmas.

Perfectly cleaned homes aren't necessary for friendly get-togethers and meals. We're human, and we have busy lives! Nobody should be judging you, but cobwebs are, well, gross. If you're a regular ceiling corner-vacuumer, then I suppose you've got this covered already.  But I'm not so much anymore, until the thought of some poor guest looking up to find Charlotte and her family perched on my ceiling gives me just enough incentive to do it.

And once that chore is complete, then I can go make a mess in the kitchen with this cutie!

3. Decide on your recipes now and purchase as many ingredients as possible ahead of time (and stick to that list!)

So many recipes for cookies, tarts & pies, rolls & bread, plus festive main course meals, so little time! Pinterest never fails to tempt me with about 1,2000 new treats to try by the time we sit down to Christmas dinner, but choose I must! I have found it best (and less stressful) to plan meals, parties, and even gifts around our favorite standbys, and limit the newbies. 

Of course I love to try new recipes, but I can't reinvent the cookie sheet every night! One or two new recipes throughout November and December is a good goal. Besides, in our family, Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without our annual Chocolate Spiders or Chocolate-Dipped Mexican Wedding Cakes!

4. Plant your Paperwhites & other blooms

Okay, so technically these should have been planted last week to ensure blooms for Christmas, but I actually plant mine for New Year's, so phew! I'm safe. There are several varieties of plants and flowers on the shelves now- I swoon over Paperwhites so they're always my first choice- and most require at least 5-6 weeks to sprout and bloom. Plant them now, follow the directions given, and enjoy fresh, fragrant flowers throughout the season.

These Paperwhites are from WalMart and cost $5. All in one kits like this are available at home improvement stores, some drug stores, and other discount stores.

 
My little sickie thought that disc of dirt was the neatest thing to watch after adding the warm water!
We scooped out the soil and placed it in prettier pots, divvying up the bulbs as well. Some years I plant a few one day, skip a couple days, then plant the rest, but...this year it got done in one fell swoop. Or I was afraid it wasn't going to get done at all!

5. Decide what's most important to you and your family, make your plans, and mark your calendars

A little chaos at Christmas time can be exciting and fun; too much, and your body, mind and spirit suffer. Nobody wants to feel overwhelmed and overextended during this most Joyous of Seasons!

Decembers are especially crazy for us because we have two birthdays (the 12th and 15th) thrown in there! Good intentions aren't going to make things go smoothly...we need a plan! And I'm not talking just about attending or hosting parties. We mark our calendars for our annual Family Cookie-Decorating Day, special shopping trips with each of our children, and fun outings like ice skating or skiing. There's time for spontaneous things, too, but without a basic plan, I feel frazzled and unproductive, and those things that we enjoy feel more like boxes to be checked rather than memories in the making.

Furthermore, I'm finding that I need to be super specific about the times I devote to sewing for my shop, Rose & Ruffle, during the holiday rush (thank you, by the way!!!) because I just won't stop until every last order is finished. That can mean I'm tempted to pass on something we might do as a family- which is a horrible feeling-, and that I never have enough time to make special things for Isabelle Kate and the boys. Those things are integral to my daily joy, so I need a plan!

In our family, one of our most important and cherished tradition is the Prayer Basket. Each night during December we gather around the tree and take turns pulling out a name from the basket. Then we pray together for that person, family, school, or country, etc. Someone who didn't get to draw a name chooses a song to sing, and that's how we end our family time together, right before the youngest head off to bed. It's my absolute most favorite thing to do each year.

Taking the time to plan and prepare helps me enjoy things so much more. Like when you're a little kid and you're just bursting at the seams with the wonder and excitement of it all.

For additional ideas and inspiration, check out my boards:
My Christmas Pinterest Board 
My Christmas Breakfast & Brunch Board

Other good Christmas-related reads:
Sarah, from Thrifty Decor Chick, wrote a great post about letting go of the guilt and stress and simply enjoying the season.

Sarah, from the Yellow Cape Cod, shared the secret to decorating your Christmas tree like a pro!

Michelle also wrote about preparing from the holidays on her wonderful blog, Iron & Twine.

How to Get a Bird Out of a Garage (Without Ladders, Nets or Trauma)

It's no secret that I adore animals of all kinds, and that love certainly includes songbirds. This weekend, two sparrows got trapped in our garage, and if you've ever witnessed this, it's just horrible. They become so dazed and disoriented - and upset- that they simply cannot manage to get themselves back out the door or window to freedom. It happened once at our old house, and it was an all-day effort involving ladders, nets, and lots of trauma (the bird's too, ha!), but everything we read online recommended the same thing: try to capture the bird one way or another in order to release it back outside.

There's a much better way! 

The first thing to try is opening up all the doors which lead to the outside. It probably won't work, but if the bird hasn't gotten confused and upset yet, it just might. We actually thought this had worked for us, but lo and behold, the next morning when I walked out into the garage, there she was, flitting from one rafter to the next. She would swoop down in fits, soooo close to the open door, but then she'd dart right back up to the rafters, more traumatized than ever.

Birds, like this sweet chickadee, are much better suited for the backyard than for the inside of a garage.

Time for Plan B: Fill a large bowl with water to simulate a bird bath, and place it directly in front of an open door. I put some peanut butter and nuts in a smaller bowl beside the water (because I don't have birdseed yet) to further entice it to the open door. I've read that birds are attracted to the sound of moving water so I spent a few minutes gently splashing the water around inside the bowl- I flicked some onto the garage floor as well, thinking perhaps that it might get her attention faster. Then I went back inside to let her try to figure it out.

I peeked a few minutes later, and she was perched on the side of the bowl, but the darn door squeaked and startled her, so up to the rafter she went. Ten minutes after that, we checked again, and there was no sign of her in the garage. She must have realized that the great outdoors was right there, and thankfully, she flew outside. This was a much better solution than trying to capture the bird to set it free!

As I was about to empty the bowl, this beautiful image caught my attention: nature's mirror

This bird house - built by one of my sons and his grandfather - is a much better, safer place!

linking up here
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A Helpful Hint for Sewing Smooth Hems

I inherited the love of sewing from my Mom. With Easter quickly approaching, I'm reminded of our special mother-daughter tradition of picking out a new dress pattern and fabric for what would become my Easter dress. It's a tradition I'm happily continuing with my little girl!

We haven't finalized things for Easter just yet, but I did make Isabelle a cute little summer dress the other day with some leftover cloth in my stash. My friends are all sweeties and have gushed over the clothes I make, and they really loved this one! (It has a gathered back with a sweet little ruffle.)

 Circular skirts can be a little bit of a pain, though, because they don't fold nice and flat in a narrow edge for the hem- no problem if you use a serger, but I prefer not to, so when I'm ironing up the first fold for the hem, I often get tiny "bubbles." I like the kind of bubbles you blow, not the fabric kind that muss up my hems.

Here is what I do to alleviate the extra fabric so I get a smoother fold, thus smoother hem.

I snip the edges. Then I take my time with the iron, allowing the snips to move and stretch where they need to as I'm ironing in the fold. You'll see little spaces where the fabric pulls apart to fit, and that's exactly what you want.

And if it's a particularly unforgiving fabric (won't stretch or doesn't have any give), I snip it again, forming teeny triangles. None of this will show in the finished hem...unless you're second fold is too narrow, but we'll save that tutorial for another day.  =)

Please note- I do not advise you to try this with fabrics that are prone to fraying. No, that would leave you in a heap of a mess for sure! This works best with cottons, blends, and other non-fraying materials.

{nice & smooth}

There you have it! I still get the occasional "bubble," but since I'm a recovering perfectionist, I'm not going to let it ruin my day. When I'm sewing something for someone, those stitches get a lot of love, and that's what really counts!

linking up on these awesome blogs...
DIY by Design 
Hope Studios 
At the Picket Fence 
Sew Many Ways