Happy Owl-idays to You

So yeah, if you know me well then you know I have a slight obsession with owls. A few months ago I stumbled upon an owl-infused blog (see my Blog Report below) and was inspired to integrate my favorite feathery creatures into my Christmas gifts this year.

Owls seem to be everywhere lately – which is both a good and a bad thing for obsessed people like me – so it was easy to find the basics like wrapping paper (mine is from Target). It was a lot of work, but I created 20 of these cute little owl gift tags for the holidays.

I started by drawing the owl outline and the owl belly. Once I was happy with the shape and size, I created a template out of cardstock and proceeded to trace and cut out the shapes. I went with a red and green theme for Christmas, of course!

I bought a set of Martha Stewart holiday paper to make up the feathers of the owl. I tried to stick to my color scheme of red and green and chose sections of the papers that had plenty of color and Christmasy designs.

I bought a Martha Stewart leaf stamp cutter and I’m SO glad I did because it made cutting out all those little “feathers” so easy. I created a peanut-shaped stencil and cut out a bunch of those for the eyes section of the owl’s face.

After I stamped out all the feathers I took an assortment of them and arranged them in four rows of six. I made guidelines on the belly-shaped paper to keep my feathers in line. Then I glued the feathers on row by row starting at the bottom left.

I continued to layer on the feathers one row at a time until I reached the top of the tummy. After all the feathers were glued firmly in place, I turned the belly over and trimmed the top along the wavy edge I created with the template.

I glued the tummy onto the red owl shape, leaving enough room at the top for the eye mask (peanut-shaped) part. The final steps (which I didn’t take pictures of) were to cut out a small yellow diamond shape for the beak and two white circles for eyes.

I drew pupils in the eyes with a black marker and then cut a slit toward the top of the owl’s head to weave ribbon through. Then I wrapped my gifts in my owl-iday wrapping paper and attached the gift tags with curly, complementary ribbons.

I was very happy with the finished product and enjoyed the look of our Christmas tree with all the owl-themed presents stacked up underneath it! And I still have plenty of owl wrapping paper for next year (and maybe even the year after that!)

Like I said, these tags turned out to be a lot of work, but I love the way they came out and I got a lot of compliments on them when everyone received their presents. Now I need to start planning on my holiday gift wrapping plans for next year!

Hope you had a great holiday season … I’ll see you in 2012!

---

Blog Report: My Owl Barn (MyOwlBarn.com)

Through one of my other favorite blogs, How About Orange (HowAboutOrange.blogspot.com), I found a great DIY tutorial on how to make adorable little owl tags! Once I looked through the tutorial, I started browsing through the other projects and products featured on the site … and I was hooked.

My Owl Barn is an owl lover’s dream. It has tons of craft ideas, printable owl designs and nifty finds from all over. I could seriously browse through the posts for hours.

I love the gift tags that I made this year and hope to get more ideas from this blog for future owl projects. If you’re an owl lover, like me, or simply a lover of crafts, this site is one you should definitely check out!

Finley’s First Birthday!

Surprised to see a new post from me so soon? Yeah, you and me both! I just happen to have a bunch of seriously adorable photos of our niece Finley celebrating her first birthday!

Brandon’s brother, sister-in-law and little niece moved back to Orlando a couple months ago (in fact, they live right down the street from us). It has been a blast being so close to them, especially because Finley is at an age where she changes pretty much daily – and we are lucky enough to be nearby to watch her grow!

Finley’s first birthday party had a fun pink and green theme. She turned 1 on December 20, but we celebrated a couple days early on the 17th. Brandon’s dad, Rowland, and step mom, Cheryl, drove down from Raleigh for the celebration!

Finley’s mom, Ann, really wanted to bake a cake for the party but gave in and got a cute little smash cake from Publix so that Finley could properly celebrate by destroying her first birthday cake. The adults ate the cake Ann made, it was yummy.

At first I don’t think Finley knew what to do with her pretty little cake. We all sang her “Happy Birthday” and had two iPads set up with FaceTime so that Ann’s family in Dallas and Brandon’s sister in Raleigh could all sing to her as well!

After she figured out what the bright green thing in front of her was, Finley started making a mess all over the table, her dress and her face! When her mom and dad joined her for some photos, she made sure they got plenty of cake on them also!

One of Finley’s presents was a Radio Flyer red wagon from Grandpa Rowland and Grandma Cheryl. Uncle Brandon decided to take it out for a test drive … I don’t think it was made for big kids like Brandon though.

One of Finley’s friends, Lily Kate (a.k.a. LK), was there to celebrate with her. LK is the daughter of one of Wesley’s (Finley’s dad’s) high school friends. The two girls are only a couple months apart and live just a couple doors down from each other.

Finally it was time for Finley to open her present from Uncle Brandon and Auntie Anna! She was very excited (as you can see from the photo). Can you guess from the box what we got her?

That’s right, we got her a tiny pair of Toms! If you aren’t familiar with the brand, whenever you buy a pair of Toms, they give a pair of shoes to a child in need. So, not only did Finley get a cute pair of shoes, she gave back!

The shoes complemented her purple and orange ensemble (can you tell her parents are Clemson fans?) perfectly. They are still a little big, but that only means she has plenty of time to grow into and wear them!

I’m pretty sure Finley had a great time at her first birthday party. I know we enjoyed it! After all the sugar she consumed and  the playing with new toys, the birthday girl took a little nap and the adults continued on with the celebration. Can’t wait to see what her second birthday party will bring! 😉

It’s That Time of Year

The busy fray of the Christmas season is definitely here! I have been overloaded and overwhelmed with everything from work, wrapping presents and attending holiday get-togethers, leaving me little time to post new content on my poor lonely blog.

No worries though, I have some free time coming up and plenty of ideas to keep you busy through the New Year. Let’s start with getting in the spirit of the season – one of my favorite things about the holidays is going to all the events and parties. Here’s a few of the ways I got into the Christmas spirit this year …

Lina and I started off the Christmas season by taking Rory and Millie to Pet-a-palooza in early December. The two doggies were very excited to get out of the house and spend some time together!

Pet-a-palooza was great. There were tons of dogs, free treats and even pictures with Santa! After walking around for a while we found a spot on the lawn and settled in for a live performance by Hanson!

A couple weeks ago I had a jam-packed week with three different holiday parties back to back! It all started with my Chi Omega advisor gift exchange which was held at a fellow advisor’s, Suzanne’s, house.

My “Secret Santa” was Monica – the same girl who got me last year, go figure – and she did a great job! I got lotion in my favorite scent and dark chocolate covered strawberries! The super cuter owl purse was from Shanna.

The next day I had a holiday get-together at a small bar in the Dr. Phillips area. This one was for RCI, a company we work closely with at Wyndham. A few of the other Corporate Communications girls were there, too!

I was invited to the RCI party by the same people that took us out to dinner at the Space Needle in Seattle. But, the best part of this party was seeing my good friend, Teresa, who used to work with me at my last job!

The culmination of my holiday festivities week was the Wyndham Vacation Ownership holiday party which was held at the Amway Center. And guess who was there to greet us during cocktail hour … my favorite mascot, Stuff!

The majority of the Communications team made it out to the party and a good time was had by all! The food was great, we all hit the dance floor and I won a $50 American Express card … which has already been used up.

We really enjoyed the Christmas festivities that we’ve participated in so far! We got a late start on decorating at home as well as finishing up our Christmas shopping (I still have  one or two more things I need to run out and get) but it was well worth it. I hope all of you have a fabulous holiday season, too!

Happy Hanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year! We’re thankful for new additions to our family – our new niece Finley and of course our furry little Millie. I’m also thankful for my new job and a new set of wonderful work friends. But probably most of all we are thankful for being so close to family and friends!

This Thanksgiving we spent the day at my mom’s house. Lina had to work but was able to hang with the fam for a few hours.

The Reinerts enjoyed the day and especially the food! And of course Millie had a great time hanging out with her “aunt,” Rory.

A couple days after Thanksgiving we celebrated my aunt’s birthday and got to hang out with the Graefes: Noe, Elena and Maxi!

My youngest niece, Elena, is such a ham! She kept asking to have her picture taken – and then smiled so hard that her eyes closed.

Brandon got to spend some time with my brother-in-law Nicolas, who’s apparently joining in on the beard craze that’s going on.

Elena always comes out of her shell when Uncle Brandon is around – and she was happy to give him a quick bump before we left.

Later on in the day we headed to our friends Brianna and Jimmy’s (Brimmy’s) house to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families.

For both of our Thanksgiving celebrations we made macaroni and cheese muffins (get the recipe here), they were pretty good!

We had a jam-packed, but very fun Thanksgiving this year, I can’t believe the holidays are here already! I was hoping the season would slow things down a bit but it seems it has only given us more to add to our December calendar. Hoping you all had a great Thanksgiving and are gearing up for a fabulous holiday season!

---

Book Report: “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins

If you loved the Twilight Saga, get ready for your newest obsession: “The Hunger Games” series. We decided to read this in my book club, even though the books are geared mainly at young adults – but hey, so was “Twilight,” right?

Right from the beginning, I couldn’t put it down and I read the entire first book in just a couple of days (I broke down and bought the other two books and am currently reading the third). It is suspenseful and full of surprises with a sweet love story woven in.

The end of the first book leaves a lot of questions unanswered – which I why I needed to get my hands on the others pronto. I recommend just going ahead and buying (or borrowing) the whole series at the get-go, because you won’t want to wait once you’ve finished this one.

The Hunger Games has already been made into a movie which comes out this March, here’s hoping they make the other two books into movies as well! Watch the trailer … I’m so excited!