Homemade Christmas Gifts

This year, Templeton and I had the idea of making a lot of our Christmas gifts for our family. If you have been following my blog at all, screen printing has been a hobby of mine lately. So I decided to screen print some gifts. Other gifts not shown are a photo book of photos from Thanksgiving for my grandmother and parents. A watercolor portrait of my newest nephew for my brother. And a favorite photo I took of my niece and nephew printed on a large canvas for Temp's sister. Maybe you will get some ideas!

Custom stationary. I designed the art for our mom's. Temp did most of the screen printing.

A close up. Floral pattern inspired by the Art Nouveau movement and their initial in an oval. Designed in Photoshop

Custom totes. My parents love their Great Pyrenees, and mom mentioned needing some bags to carry little things. The canvas material didn't take to the ink as much as I had hoped, but it worked.

The letter "o" for O'Connor

My dad adores his dog, so I designed and printed 2 t-shirts for him.

Birthday Present

 Templeton got me a Canon Powershot, I needed a camera to fit into my pocket or pocketbook for those "on the go" shots! We each had a Pentax, but actually wore them out! Templeton also planned for us to go on a horseback riding tour by Williamsburg, but it was canceled due to the weather.
 Anyway, here are the first pictures I took:

Snowstorm Dec. 2010

On my birthday eve, we get a crazy snowstorm...Templeton and I bundled up to go play in it. Saw some cars swerving on Granby Street, one pick-up truck get stuck in the snow. We went to a church playground and went down the slides which was SO much fun. Went to another playground and did the same thing. For artsy pictures, go to flickr

We came home and went to the backyard and discovered one of our favorite cedar trees that had a beautiful canopy above the corner of our deck snapped. We just have bad luck with trees...so we are going to try to let it fall naturally (the branches), in the meantime, we knocked the loose snow off the branches to take off weight of branches that didn't snap.

Temp climbed the tree to even get snow off...

broken tree branches

Deck!! Deck!!!

So the decking is all on! We are so happy! All that is really needed in the spring time is staining of some of the wood (non composite), put in the built-in bench and planter. It looks so beautiful, weeks of hard work!

steps off of porch, side of house

full shot

we're happy!

Temp taking it all in!

fine craftsmanship by Templeton

art not war

My National Art Honor Society kids came up with a new design for the school year for their t-shirts. We have a contest for best design, then burn screens, and spend an afternoon screen printing our t-shirts, hoodies, totes, whatever they want to bring in.
The goal this year is to also sell the shirts to their classmates. I really like this design, simple, direct but a good statement.

 This idea of making t-shirts has gone so well, 2 other clubs in the school want us to do theirs as well! Why pay businesses when we can do them ourselves!?

jasper helping unload tree decorations

Our first fire

Templeton found a fireplace setting (screen and tools) craiglist for $75. We needed one, and we were excited because it was Pottery Barn too! We drove out to VA Beach yesterday, and Temp ended up getting it for $60, it's in great condition and matches our decor!
We got our first fire going, it was very nice. It made us feel like adults, and the kitties really enjoyed it too!