There's Nothing Like Handmade...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, ours was lovely.  I wanted to post about the wonderful gift I hinted at the other day.  I was a lucky girl and received some very lovely and generous gifts, but there's just something special about a handmade gift. This year, as Darryl is back in school, we thought we would do a "no-gift" year for each other. In the end we decided on one-gift each. I got Darryl a new jacket that he needed and he made me something I've been drooling over for years.

His stepmom has a lot of wonderful antique items and one that I've always adored is an old mail sorter that she uses to house all of her mugs and cups. I love how it looks and have mentioned a time or two how I would love to have one for all of my teacups.

What makes it even more meaningful is that Darryl used some 93 year old wood from our garage, which makes this a piece of our first house that we can take with us wherever we may move in the future and I love that.

 

 

He used some super long pieces of wood found in the loft part of our garage...

 

Here's the blank wall before hanging it...

And after it was hung...

I was so excited to fill it with pretty teacups.  I love the contrast of the rustic, old wood and the fancy, china teacups...

 

Some other highlights...we got a new ornament for our first married Christmas together which I love and treasure

 

We also got an address stamp (with our new family name!) which I l.o.v.e.  I can't wait for next Christmas just so I can use it in bulk!  Actually, I still have to find some thank you cards for our wedding so that will be the first order of business.

 

A lovely friend also made us an ornament of our wedding invitations which was super sweet as well... 

 

 

I was also spoiled with some lovely clothes, a book, some speakers, a board game and some gift cards.  But more exciting than opening these lovely gifts is always the anticipation of people opening the gifts I got for them.  Especially when you feel like you got something perfect that they will love.  Of those, I was most excited to see my sister open her ticket to see Lady Gaga in February.  She didn't think she would be able to go, but I just could not imagine going without her so a few of us went in on the gift together to make it happen.  We are super pumped, I think it will be an amazing show.

 

I hope whoever is reading enjoyed their Christmas as well!