Christmas Gifting: Receiving

This Christmas was definitely the best in a long time. My top gifts (in no particular order):

31 Bits Necklace: Camellia in sky blue. It's beautiful!

TOMS shoes in red. I've been wanting these for FOREVER. I've been wearing them since I got them on Tuesday night...and would have worn them to bed if Jeff hadn't told me this was unacceptable behavior for a 28-year old.

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an iPad!!!

Totally did not see this one coming.

Jeff figured it was a good investment for my business endeavors,

and I'd say...YES.

Played around with it all morning, and Jeff helped me decide on my next

DIY project:

an iPad cover :)

My mom was great and individually wrapped a bunch of gifts for Jeff and I (with the help of my cousins), including some truly awesome socks for Jeff--I'm not being facetious, Jeff LOVES cool socks and these are really cool--and some great ornaments for next years Christmas tree.

I can't thank everyone enough for making this year the best one we've had in a while, and not just because of the gifts, but because you are all amazing.

Love, love.

Christmas Gifting: Giving

This year I thought I would try to be a more conscientious consumer. So instead of buying a bunch of products made in China, I decided to make them (with products that are probably made in China anyway...I tried).

So I decided to bake goodies for my aunts, uncles, and their families. I made magic cookie bars (minus the coconut--gross), oatmeal chocolate cookies, and I did a few of the jars with ingredients to make your own cookies (because the jars looked really cool, and minus the pecans, because they didn't fit!).

The cupcakes were my contribution for Christmas Eve dinner. I put all the baked goods in mason jars, then Sarah helped me decorate the mason jars with holiday fabric, twine, ribbon, shiny paper, and anything else we could get our hands on.

For the male cousins, I made them each a friendship bracelet with their favorite cousin (it was more of a token gift than a "real" gift...), and went to Powell's candy store and bought all sorts of goodies to put in their gift bags with their bracelets (I'm talking pop rocks, air heads, now & laters, etc.). For my cousin in Colorado I crocheted some fingerless gloves (I do see the irony in fingerless gloves for someone living in Colorado...but they still have to come in handy, right?), and for the rest of the girl cousins I made them some yarn bracelets using a broomstick stitch .

Although I love the idea of having spent time on each gift, I will admit it was crazy stressful (Jeff can tell you all about this), although this is mainly because I love to procrastinate. All in all, I'd say it was a great Christmas for hand made gifting :)

P.S.: How cool is this photo feature?? Completely unrelated, but check out this 4 in 1 picture of the ingredients we used to make our tamales for Christmas:

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Holiday Gift Guide, 2011

I had grandiose plans since last year: compiling a massive gift guide the likes of which have never been seen before. But, 1) they pretty much already exist online (not exactly as I had envisioned it, but still, it's been done), and 2) December 2011 came around much quicker than December-2010-me imagined it would.

I also started to realize that a lot of people/organizations have similar gift guides, so I'm going to do a combination here...I'm going to re-post other people's guides that I find useful, and that list some of the organizations I already had in mind, and I'll post my "supplemental" gift guide with other ideas for you. I hope it's helpful :)

Rage Against the Minivan's Gift Guide includes:

• Ever/After Clothing
• Slow Color Scarves (I want!)
• Krochet Kids (future Charity of the Month, for suresies)
• 31 Bits (I think you all know my obsession with them already)
• Not For Sale
• Haitian Creations (this blogger is a woman after my own heart)
• Heart of Haiti at Macy's (beautiful home decor)
• International Rescue Committee
• Leakey Collection Jewelry
• World Vision (HUGE gift catalog...from goats to wells to business loans)
• Whipped body/hair butter (helping raise money for family's adoption)
• Give Prints (looks pretty cool!)
• Compassion International (draught survival kits, playgrounds, soccer balls, etc.)
• Collaborative World (great clothing company--they actually have a gift guide below!)
• Punjamies

Collaborative World's Gift Guide includes:

• Chains for Chains
• 50 Back (it's a beer!)
• Give Prints (link above)
• One Hope Wine
• Project 7
• 31 Bits (link above)
• Unite Clothing

Nicholas Kristoff's Annual Column on "Gifts that Say You Care" includes:

• International Rescue Committee (link above)
• Care (help buy school uniforms for girls)
• Heifer International (great org, prior Charity of the Month)
• Mercy Corps (great user interface! let's you shop by picking who you're shopping for and/or what that person is interested in)
• Helen Keller International
• Against Malaria
• Reading is Fundamental
• The Citizens Foundation
• GEMS

Yahoo Gifts that Give Back include:

• Same Sky Bracelets
• Dannijo jewelry
• Jeans that help kids stay in school
• RxArt coloring book
• Tory Burch gives that give back

My "supplemental gift guide":

(um, I was hoping to link to it but it seems like this will have to do until I switch over to Wordpress and can actually upload PDF documents. sigh).

Holiday Gift Guide

Happy Shopping!

Letter to Santa Claus, circa 1991

So when I wrote that I didn't really have an issue with not having a dad, I must have been lying to my 8-year old self.

My mom recently found a letter I wrote to Santa Clause when I was 8. Warning: it starts funny, and then I make you feel like an a-hole for laughing at my letter. Ha.

I'm leaving in all original grammar mistakes, which are embarrassing, but really make the letter pretty amazing.

11-21-91 (Please pay attention to the date: as of 8-years of age, I was not yet a procrastinator)

Dear Santa I'v made a list of the things I want for Christmas. Ther are some big things I want. (I kinda love how I give Santa a heads up)

1. The icecream maker (not just any ice cream maker...THE ice cream maker)

2. A new bike. (I got the bike when I was in Guatemala...hilarious story to be told someday about how some drunkard tried to steal it from me)

3. Some papper (reguler with lines. Coler, tiping papper) (translation: paper, color, typing. Slightly pathetic)

4. A new book

5. The movie "home Alon (this one is crossed out. I must've realized I was asking for too much, and this is what I thought I could live without)

6. The book "Bingo"

7. A blak hat to go out (first of all, I couldn't spell black? REALLY?! Secondly, where exactly was I "going out" that I needed a hat?)

8. A cook book for kids

9. Monoply for kids

10. A new suite (I would reiterate my second comment from #7)

11. A diyerie with a lock (Diary. A diary. And a lock to make sure my mom stayed out of my shit)

12. Jinga (I think I still own my Jenga. It's currently in storage)

13. encyclopedia (1) how many 8-year old's ask for this? 2) I couldn't spell "black" or "diary," but I could spell encyclopedia. Interesting)

back ----> (Yes, I let Santa know there was more in the back of the page)

Baby (crossed out)

maybe (crossed out)

Maybe (with arrow pointing back up to the first line) if you can my dad

(you know, no big deal, but maybe, perhaps, if you have time, you could kidnap my dad and bring him to me)

Have a verey nice Christmas.

Love Alexandra Maria Hannson Beltran (I couldn't even spell my last name right)

My mom told me she felt guilty about never sending the letter out. All I have to say is, THAT'S WHY I NEVER GOT MY DAD FOR CHRISTMAS!