10 Gift Wrapping Ideas for Christmas

I love wrapping Christmas gifts with kraft or recycled paper.  It may be cheap, simple and to some extent, even ugly, but  using kraft paper is the best way to exercise one’s  creativity.  To make something so plain standout is a challenge I always like to take on.  If you’re interested, here are some ideas to get you started.

1.  Add a touch of holiday green to your gift-wrap with a fresh leaf from your backyard.

2.  Use red and white ribbons plus really cute gift tags if you want something more traditional.

3.  Substituting butcher’s string for ribbons is also a very charming idea.

4. You can also add embellishments to make your gift extra special.  This pretty bird and the tiny branch it’s perching on is just so adorable!

5.  A simple sticker can be the perfect seal!

6.  You can also add a little humor to your gift.

7.  If you have a sewing machine, why not do a little stitching?

8. You can also reuse some discarded household items as Christmas ornaments like these light bulbs.  Now that’s what I call a bright idea! 🙂

9.  If you’re the artistic type, why not draw your own design onto the kraft paper using metallic markers?

10.  And finally, if you’re tired of too many colors, you can always try the white on white approach.

Food for Thought

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

-William Arthur Ward

Rustic Christmas

The “most wonderful time of the year” is almost here but I have not even started to  put up my Christmas decors yet.  For this year, I don’t want to spend money on new decors.  I’d rather use our old ones or  make my own (if I ever have the time, that is).  I’m almost in panic mode.  Good thing there’s a lot of inspiration around.  Here’s a few I found over the weekend.

Food for Thought

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.

-Mary Ellen Chase

Back from a Quick Slumber

Sorry for being quiet for  the past couple of weeks. I was away for work.  Can you guess where I’ve been?

 

 

 

Food for Thought

…the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar.

-George Eliot

Coat Rack and Roll

1.  Creative way to deal with a surplus of wooden hangers  2. Branches for your coat to perch on 3. Yardstick Coat Rack made from recycled yardsticks  4. Scribble Coat Rack patterned after a scribble mark drawn with a calligraphy pen.

Food for Thought:

“…the [coat] rack above his head like a javelin.

On the other side of the door was Jace. He blinked. “Is that a coatrack?”

Jordan slammed the coatrack down on the ground and sighed. “If you’d been a vampire, this would have been a lot more useful.”

“Yes,” said Jace. “Or, you know, just someone with a lot of coats.”

― Cassandra Clare, City of Fallen Angels

Pinoy Comfort Food: Ginisang Sardinas

Ginisang sardinas (sauteed sardines) reminds me so much of my childhood.  We didn’t have much when I was growing up.  And since a can of sardines was cheap, we would have ginisang sardinas often.  I used to tease my mother just how much sardines I needed to eat before I grew scales.  “Bakit?  Ayaw mo bang maging sirena?” (Why? Don’t you want to become a mermaid?) she would ask me.  Then we would laugh. In those days, we couldn’t afford fancy meals, but we laughed a lot and things didn’t seem so bad.

Ginisang Sardinas

Ingredients:

2 cans sardines in tomato sauce

2-3 semi-ripe (manibalang) tomatoes, quartered

1 small red onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tsbs cooking oil

Directions:

1.  Heat the oil in a pan.  Sautee garlic, onion and tomatoes.

2. Add the sardines.

3. Let simmer for 5-6 minutes.

4.  Serve over hot rice and with a cup of coffee.