We both used different methods. I wrote lists and price checked and planned things out just so (although I changed the order of things a million times and still went over budget after all that planning!). Ben spent pretty much all of his budget right away on my Day One gift, which I completely approve of :) From there, we had to figure out the right number of things. Ben did a really good job of giving me the specific number of one thing. Twelve bath bombs for Day 12. Eight mechanical pencils (for my kiddos at school to use!) for Day 8. I mostly put a random assortment of different things together to get the right number. Day 10, for example, was a combination of scratch-its, little bags of coffee, a cereal bowl, and candy. I think. Maybe that was Day 9! See, confusing :/
Anyway, we had a lot of fun figuring things out! But as we spent our money, we realized we were going to have to be creative to fill all the numbers and not spend a million dollars. So we planned some DIY projects a la Pinterest. Ben even got in on the Pinterest-ing! Here are some of the things we made:
To start with, I made us some stockings out of leftover wedding burlap. It was kind of hard to figure out how to make them with the stupid burlap, it is so hard to work with! I first made them the normal way, sewing right sides together then flipping it inside out. But the burlap just doesn't do well that way since it is so bulky and frays so easily. Besides the fact that the stockings turned out tiny. So I tried again, this time sewing wrong sides together and leaving the edges unfinished. I bought some pinking shears and used some clear Tacky glue to hopefully prevent too much fraying! I used a fun Christmas-y fabric for lining and for a "cuff" at the top. Then used another wedding leftover, wooden letters, to trace our first initial onto our stocking. I then used some thick twine (again, from the wedding!) to add a little loop at the top to hang it with. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out! We didn't actually fill them with anything, but they still looked cute :)
I made Ben some magnets for the fridge for Day 9 using pictures from the wedding. I ordered a couple of "collage" 4x6 photos from Snapfish for only $0.15 per collage! You can choose as many photos as you want and it will create a collage for you so the pictures are small enough. All I needed from there was some flat glass gems (from the Dollar Tree), magnets and glue (from Michael's, both super cheap after a coupon). I ended up using E6000 glue because I was afraid anything else I used wouldn't stick to the glass well. I just traced the shape of the gem onto the picture, cut it out and glued everything together! You just have to make sure to press hard on the photo so the glue really spreads evenly and sticks everywhere with no air bubbles. A couple of mine have bubbles, but it's not too noticeable!
The E6000 glue also came in handy for another fun project, I made a desk calendar for Ben's desk at work! I just used the back of a dollar store picture frame (the cardboard part with the stand on it) and made a Calendar in Word by inserting a table and typing in the right dates. I just glued on some photos to each month's page and then came the fun part! I had tried this out with some regular paper first to make sure it would work, getting the idea from here. But all I did was use paper clamps to hold the paper together tightly, and run some E6000 glue along the top edge. The glue is perfect because it is flexible but really strong, and when it dries it looks just like a regular notepad-kind of rubbery but flat. This way he can just tear off the page for a new month!
Now, for Ben's projects! :) He was very creative! Besides the fact that he was clever with the numbers (Day 11, for example was a box of candy with "11" servings!), he came up with some super cute ideas for me! For Day 6, I received a box of 6 lovely homemade Christmas ornaments. To go on our nonexistant tree....now I know why he kept trying to get me to get a tree!!! They still looked pretty on the hooks with our stockings :) One of the ornaments says "First Married Christmas." Which is perfect! If we had bought a tree, I would have wanted to get an ornament that represented our first Christmas as a married couple. But since we didn't buy a tree, I didn't think about getting an ornament like that. But now we have one, and a very pretty hand made one at that!
This next gift was one of my favorites! It was so cute and sweet and creative! I got a "First of the Month Massage Jar." Since we were married on the 1st (of September), every month on the anniversary of our wedding I get to draw a massage from the jar! They are different themes. The one I drew on Day 9, for example, was a "Spanish" massage. Ben practiced his Spanish and played me Spanish music while I got a back rub :) And every month I will get a special treat-the gift that keeps on giving! Genius, people! This should be a new Pinterest sensation, I say! :)
His idea was so good, that I stole it from him for Day 8 :) I rearranged some things and re-wrapped multiple days, but I put some little surprise "coupons" for him in a jar of my own. So for Day 8, he got a game (Zombie Fluxx) and "Seven Weeks of Joy," where he gets to draw a coupon each week for the next seven weeks. I can't tell you what the coupons are good for since he hasn't seen them all yet :)
Anyway, Christmas was fun this year! Besides having fun coming up with ideas for and making gifts for each other, we had lots of family time! We got to spend a few nights in Philomath with my family, then spent Christmas Eve night and all of Christmas Day with Ben's family. So much joy and laughter and good food :) Thank you baby Jesus for being born! And Merry (late) Christmas to everyone!
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