Sweet T and a Honey B
Food, Fitness, and the Adventures That Make Life Sweet

‘Rad’ Christmas Gift Tags

For the last couple of years I have been really in to making my own gift tags for all of my Christmas packages. It’s a cute way to personalize gifts and while it takes a little longer than the sticky kind (don’t get me wrong, I still use those too!), I find that I actually save money and you can easily put something together that looks amazing while using minimal materials.

I used a little help from a company/brand called ‘Rad & Happy‘ for my gift tags this year. A good friend introduced me to this brand created by Tara, an incredibly talented and creative artist and blogger who designs just about the most adorable stationary, gift cards, coloring pages, apparel, and holiday items I’ve ever seen. She even offers a subscription service called ‘Rad Mail’ which allows you to get some of these goodies delivered to your door monthly! This year, Tara created a font called ‘Rad Tidings’ (I know.. I know.. I’m even in love with the name). Ordering,downloading, and installing this font was as easy as 1,2,3. From there all I had to do for my gift tags was type the names of all of my friends and family in a word document. I a PDF of all of the names over to my local OfficeMax to print on white cardstock (less than $1) and within an hour I was able to pick up the sheets!

From there, I carefully cut out all of the names and backed them on Kraft cardstock (A little known fact about me, I LOVE kraft paper/cardstock and use it for just about everything…including last’ year’s tags 😉 ). For gift bags and small cookie boxes, I used a hole punch and some gold or candy striped twine (found for 60% off at Michael’s this time of year) and for large wrapped presents, I found a cute roll of Christmas washi tape (also 60% off at Michael’s) to help me stick the tags on my gifts.  

It’s so simple to make a big statement when giving your loved ones Christmas (or birthday, annivesary, etc.) packages. Taking a few extra minutes to personalize when it comes to the wrapping puts a little extra love in your gift!

5 days left until Christmas y’all! I hope this last week is a merry one and that you enjoy this time with your family and friends!

A Very Special Christmas Tradition

Every year since I was about 15, my mom and I make it a point to take one full day out of the busy and fast-paced weeks leading up to Christmas for our annual ‘Christmas in the City Day’. We take the train downtown, eat lunch at Pizano’s (our favorite pizza in Chicago), finish up some Christmas shopping, and take in all of the lights at the Christkindl Market at Daley Plaza. Our evening ends wrapping presents, cooking a warm dinner, and watching the Bells of St. Mary’s on our old VHS tape that was recorded just shortly after I was born. This is arguably my favorite day every year, especially the last few years after I’ve moved out of the house and gotten married. Now we call it our annual ‘sleepover’. 

This tradition was extra special this year. Almost six months ago to the day, I had more than a few moments where I was unsure Mom was even going to be here, let alone shoveling pizza and dodging hundreds of Christmas shoppers. Back in June, I wrote about mom having a benign brain tumor removed and a couple complications she had afterwards. At that time I wrote about that, little did I know the complications were only beginning. After an infection that left her in a debilitating amount of pain, a stroke on the night of the 4th of July, and two very dangerous allergic reactions to medication, the summer thankfully ended and mom came home for good. I didn’t share a lot of this at the time because our family experienced so many ups and downs-and the downs were very scary. Watching my best friend experience so much pain and depression due to her temporary loss of independence was difficult to say the least. June, July, and August are a complete blur and that time period is still one I get emotional thinking about. A lot of my emotion comes from the pride I have for her and how hard she worked every day to get better. There were many days where even standing up to the use the restroom was a huge feat yet here we are six months and a world of difference later. 

This weekend, we made the decision to change this year’s ‘Christmas in the City’ to ‘Christmas in the Burbs’ as Mom is still finding her balance in large crowds, but I can truthfully say this was the most fun we’ve had to date. I picked her up just before lunch time and we still managed to make a stop at Lou Malnati’s for some deep dish pepperoni pizza. In the last few years, there has been a Christkindl Market location in the suburbs and this year we took full advantage. We did a couple laps while sipping on Hot Cocoa with fresh Bavarian cream and munching on cinnamon roasted pecans (this day never lacks in the snack department). After a little while, we made our way to the outlet mall for a bit of shopping. In full disclosure, we bought more presents for ourselves than others this weekend 😉  

After being out in the cold all day, it was time to head home to wrap some presents and watch our movie. Mom made us some toasted ham sandwiches and coffee while we transformed her living room in to Santa’s workshop for the night. I made it a point to stand back and take in how wonderful the entire day had turned out to be. I ended up being the one that had a hard time keeping up with her and fell asleep on the couch by the tree. 

Our day was nothing less than perfect and watching my mom participate in our normal traditions while enjoying herself fully made my entire Christmas season. I continue to be in awe of how hard she pushes herself to get a little better each day and I hope this tradition is something we carry on for many years-complete with a pepperoni pizza. 

All Wrapped Up

Merry Christmas Eve! This morning begins my two most favorite days of the year and while there is still a lot to be done before I host Christmas Eve for our families and pack up the presents for tomorrow’s festivities, I hope to get a few minutes every now and then to step back from the craziness and enjoy everything I love about Christmas (including helping myself to a large sample of the chocolate covered pretzels I make every year.. 😉 )

While my list of favorites during Christmastime is never ending, picking out my wrapping paper/tissue/ribbons for the year and actually wrapping the presents would be near the top. There’s something about a perfectly wrapped present (or a gazillion) for our family and friends under our little tree that puts me in the mood. I swear I could sit for hours wrapping presents in front of ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ for the 19th time on ABC Family (Refusing the ‘freeform’ name. Is anyone else annoyed by this?). 

This year, I wanted to add a little creativity to my gift tags. It takes a little longer than the sticky tags, but it was totally worth it and added a personal touch to each gift. I was all about brown paper, plaid, twine, and a little gold glitter this time around. I picked out some plain kraft paper gift tags (here) to decorate. I wandered over to the stamp aisle to look at the Christmas stamps and picked one that says “Merry & Bright” (one of my favorite lines during Christmas). I had a black ink pad at home as well Modge Podge and some (Okay, A LOT) of leftover loose gold glitter from DIY’ing my wedding decor. 

I love the look of just a small amount of glitter added to something plain to make it pop. I sponged a very small amount of Modge Podge on to the end of each tag and then dipped it right away in to the glitter. After letting them dry overnight, I used my new stamp. From there, I wrote who the present was for/from with a thin black Sharpie pen. It took just minutes longer than the normal stickies (I still used some of those too! I found ones that matched my plaid paper 🙂 ) and the gifts are all sparkling under the tree. I have a lot of the kraft tags leftover so with a couple different colors of loose glitter these are perfect to save for birthdays or showers too! 

My chocolate is melted and the pretzels are ready for dipping so it’s time for that sampling before the craziness begins. I hope you have a truly wonderful holiday spent with your family and friends. Merry Christmas!

–TB