Christmas Wishes

Hello friends! Merry Christmas! Did you enjoy your Christmas? I hope so.

Mine was lovely -- my brother and sister-in-law are in town, my granddad and his wife drove over to our place Christmas morning, and I got to ride a horse on Christmas Eve! It was a treat.

I know I'm technically a couple days late with the Christmas wishes, but I didn't think anyone would mind a little break between finals week and blogging about Christmas, right? Plus, I was busy as a bee sewing and crocheting Christmas presents. My mother had my nose to the grindstone. (Love her though!)

As great and fun as my Christmas was, it's not 24/7 peaches and cream and puppy dogs, if you know what I mean. I think everyone experiences this. When you get a lot of people with pasts (relatives) and put them in a pretty small place (your house) and then make them all stay in that place and interact (Christmas Eve, Christmas, parties -- you name it), eventually, even the sweetest group is gonna have some scuffles.

In light of that, I hope that you can find the patience and peace that you need in loving and understanding your family members. I only have one brother, and though sometimes I'd like to wring his (not so scrawny anymore) little neck, I love him and my sister-in-law to pieces. They really are some of the most important people in my life.

So here's to finishing out this fantastic season with both your brain and your families intact and thriving. Cheers!

Final-ly

Yes, that may be the laziest title to a blog post in the history of this blog, but you know what?
FINALS ARE OVER!

(gilmore girls from pinterest)

Finally, it's time to kick back and enjoy this wonderful holiday season. Of course, for me, that means a lot a crafting and baking and hanging out with friends. I'll be busy, but the best kind of busy.

Anything you've been putting off until the holidays? Good book on your radar? Fill me in!

Kimbra, Settle Down

Once in a while, I stumble upon a new (I use that loosely) artist that I just really fall in love with. Right now, that artist is Kimbra. Her song "Settle Down" was the free video on iTunes a few weeks ago, and I downloaded, and then forgot.

Then a friend posted this video (thank you, arthur) of Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye, and I remembered that she was really interesting! So I watched everything she's got on youtube, and let me tell you -- not only is she really pretty, her songs are smart and beautiful. Plus, we kind of dance the same, so that's encouraging. Watch this, it's fun:

How great, huh? You should watch the video for "Settle Down" as well, its very intriguing and evocative.

Are you hooked? Her EP, also titled Settle Down, is available. It's totally on my Christmas list.

(PS: She's Australian. Cool, right?)

Photo of the Week: Christmas Cheer

Here's a quick recap of what I enjoyed on Christmas day:

Definitely not an exhaustive list. Hope yours was just as lovely.

Conviction: A Gift

Merry Christmas!

Today, we celebrate the greatest gift ever given.

I hope it inspires you to give in the same selfless way.


Stephanie

Photo of the Week: Roast Beast

I think he is much scarier when you look up from your desk to see him glowering.

I have a video of his creation: coming soon!

Conviction: 31 Days to Serve the World

As I write this post, there are 6,887,790,073 people in the world, and the number keeps growing.(1)

In the United States alone, there are 310,823,879 people.(1)

That's all well and good, right? But here's what gets me:

This year, 4,617,263 have already died from water-related diseases, and since there are 1,452,739,846 people without access to clean water, the deaths will continue.(1)

This year, 1,867,113 people have died from HIV/AIDS, and another 32,885,805 people are infected.(1)

Today, in Africa, 2000 children under the age of 5 years old will die from Malaria. Hundreds upon hundreds of other children are affected by dirty water, lack of food, their parents' deaths and the deaths of their guardians.(2)

And though these statistics are just that -- numbers that tell you that tragedy is widespread -- these statistics are not only numbers. They are actual flesh and blood people. People that you and I should care about.

Here at Real Fine Place, December 2010 is the month of conviction. After having quite a few experiences that have showed me God's love, and how it should be extended to the world, I'm convicted that I have to love people the way Jesus would have -- people here and people a million miles away -- and that extends into telling other people about it. For the 31 days that make up December, each will have a post that I hope will provide you with a little insight, hope or inspiration to love the world the way Jesus does.

Each weekday, I'll post a little bit about one of four issues that I've chosen for the month: HIV/AIDS, Poverty in the US, Hunger, and Malaria. Then, on the weekends, posts will be about why helping others even matters, and what to do about it. Of course, regular posts will be peppered in too, so I hope you can keep up!

Here's to the world!
(The statistics at the top of the post come from 1. Worldometers and 2. World Vision)

I DIY: Christmas Cards

This year, I really wanted to make some cool and crafty things to give out to my friends and family. Though most of my gifts were handmade, there were still some people that I wanted to have a card, but didn't have a gift for them.

After perusing all sorts of blogs and crafty websites, I conglomerated what was in my head to make these!

It got a little messy... I broke a NEEDLE!

The initial idea of a card made with fabric came from seeing these valentines, from the Purl Bee. I just warped it and added some of my own touches to make it the perfect christmas card.

To make your own, gather the following:

• your choice of cardstock
• a scrap of festive fabric (my pieces were probably only 3 inches square each)
• thread that coordinates with your fabric
• seed beads of assorted colors
• scissors and good lighting!

First decide how large you want your cards to be. I had cardstock that was meant to be folded into a greeting card size, so I just cut each one in half to make two cards.

Next, cut your fabric into little tree shapes. I decided how big I wanted mine to be and then cut a long strip of fabric and marked little triangles onto it.

Now, here's the only hard part. Before you even think about trying your first card, TEST your sewing machine. I sewed a whole bunch of scraps onto paper until I decided how tight I wanted the stitches, where I would start on the trees and how many times I would stitch them. So make sure you are happy with what you do on those cards before you start the first one!

Sew each tree to a card, and don't worry if you mess up, the fabric can be reused and the paper, well, you can punch it full of holes and use it as anger management.

Once all of your trees are sewn on, you can add the little zig-zag down the side, like I did. Again, test your stitch width and length on a scrap of paper before your cards.

Now you are ready for the seed beads. (It's really difficult not to type seed beeds. Weird.) Easy one here, just thread a needle (with dark colored thread, preferably) and knot the end before putting each bead on with one stitch. Tie on the back and snip off excess thread. Oh, and occasionally I found a bead that wouldn't fit over my needle. No big deal, toss it back and use another!

I will say that the back of these cards are not especially pretty, but I liked the homemade feel that you got from feeling the stitching.

There you have it! I hope this comes in handy for you!

Merry Christmas!

Here's to hoping that your day is as wonderful as can be!

Holiday Henna

For the last week of school, the roommate and I decided that having a henna party would be a fun way to draw the year to a close and get to see all of our friends before the end of the year. So, after making the obligatory facebook event and turning it into an open house of sorts (and cleaning like maniacs!) we had our henna and mingling for three or four hours!

Here's some photos from the evening. I wish I would have thought to have some holiday decorations or something! What is wrong with me!?

---

I love Christmas.

(By the way, these pictures are from my new camera! It takes great macro.)

Dorm Decor: Christmas Edition

Ah, dorm life... It has it's ups and downs, it has it's cupboard sized years and it's suite-style eras.

This year we (the roommate, Nicole and I, that is) happen to live in a suite style dorm. It's pretty nice, but those white walls can get old after a while! Most of all, it's just a shame to walk down the hall and see so much of the same boring wooden door. Like a sad little sub-division of houses, all the same.

---

So in some cheery Christmas spirit, I got a cheap roll of wrapping paper from the local drugstore and decked the hall! (Haha - ah, terrible pun.)

I also jumped on the bandwagon and threw some paper-cut silhouettes on there to replace the name pieces that our residence assistant usually sticks on. Nice, eh? I'm telling you, once you get a silver pen, you final all kinds of uses for it. I got mine at Michael's, and it's a fine tip.

---

But really, it's pretty simple. Cut the paper to size (I needed Nicole's help for that) and then stick it up with tape. The cutout for the peephole was a a little ragged. Exacto knives are nice, but if you are just cutting with a hope that it's accurate, that's less helpful!

I'm back at home now, and helping my mom decorate around our house. The inside is mostly finished, but the outside still needs some light.

Do you have any favorite semi-crafty decorating ideas?