gifts and goodies

A quick break from Christmas cramming to share with you some snapshots of this year's gifts and goodies.

bread pudding with mixed fruits

decorative tape used on kraft paper instead of buying printed giftwrapper

my color theme

hand-designed gift tags

the ultimate organizing challenge

We have begun to acquire a lot of materials and supplies to get us started on the whole crafting and vintage shop we are dreaming up. After the shopping spree there is now that task of organizing every little bit so we can monitor consumption, supply levels, and pricing. When we were finally unpacking things from the shopping bags we realized how challenging it will be to set up and maintain order with so many little pieces and types and colors.

We are on a small investment budget so we bought many things by piece rather than by pack. We bought ribbons and trimmings by yard not by roll. For starters we used empty cardboard tissue rolls to keep our ribbons, ric rac, laces, and other stringed trimmings. We got inexpensive plastic organizers for the buttons and beads. For wrappers and cartolinas and felt papers we got a trash bin to hold everything together. We also have a very small crafting space so we need to consider that as well.

We are not yet done taking stock of what we have so far. Any suggestions on organizing crafting supplies and materials will be most welcome! We have not yet even begun to think about how to store our fabric!