{"id":11902,"date":"2014-12-05T05:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=11902"},"modified":"2014-12-05T07:44:27","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T15:44:27","slug":"happy-friday-advent-randomness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=11902","title":{"rendered":"Happy Friday + Advent Randomness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2014-advent-calendar1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Friday! Even though I’m sharing it today, I did, in fact, finish this Advent Calendar in the nick of time on November 30th, much to my relief. Compared to the last couple of years, it’s a more understated calendar, but I put a lot<\/em> of thought into it. This year, I had some very specific rules for myself:<\/p>\n

1. Construct the advent calendar out of what I already have on hand (the exception was the little gifts that are part of the calendar)<\/p>\n

2. No candy or sweets<\/p>\n

3. Include lots of books, because books are K’s favorite thing in the world<\/p>\n

4. Must have an element of giving and not be just about receiving<\/p>\n

\"2014-advent-calendar2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had all these left over metal tins from a misguided idea to sell magnets many, many years ago and they’ve been sitting in our basement forever. I thought I was being all eco and brilliantly repurposing (and the tins can still be reused!), but M pointed out that it looks like the attack of Altoids.<\/p>\n

\"2014-advent-calendar3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I printed numbers onto some copper paper from my infinite stash of pretty papers and used my circle punch and some twine and voila! Aided by the magic that is mounted foam tabs like these<\/a>, we have a quick and dirty DIY Advent Calendar (okay, some of the tins have been falling off the wall and required reinforcement, but the initial effect was quite lovely). What makes this extra fun is that each tin contains a little note. On odd-numbered days, I included clues that lead K to a hidden little gift — a scavenger hunt! On even-numbered days, K is assigned a “giving” task (e.g. gather clothes to donate to her school’s Uganda program or make a video to send to Grandma and Grandpa), and she gets to choose a book from the “Advent basket”. The books are a combination of thrifted, bargain sales and a few new releases that I know she’ll flip over.<\/p>\n

\"2014-advent-calendar5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Although I spent some serious time thinking up the whole project, the execution took about an hour (mostly because I haven’t wrapped all the little presents yet since I wait until the night before to hide them). The verdict: “Mama, I can tell you worked so<\/em> hard on this. You’re so so awesome!!” She practically squeezed the life out of me and I nearly cried the ugly cry — she said it in such a heartfelt, appreciative way.<\/p>\n

\"2014-advent-calendar4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

***********************************************<\/p>\n

The winner of the Sew Sweet Giveaway<\/a> is Haylee<\/a>, congrats! I always enjoy reading all the giveaway comments and now I’m hankering to learn multiple languages, take up woodworking, try my hand at spinning yarn!<\/p>\n

***********************************************<\/p>\n

Countdown has begun<\/em>
\nbut the anticipation<\/em>
\nis the best part, no?<\/em><\/p>\n

Wishing you all a lovely weekend! K has her first ever piano recital tomorrow – very, very excited!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Friday! Even though I’m sharing it today, I did, in fact, finish this Advent Calendar in the nick of time on November 30th, much to my relief. Compared to the last couple of years, it’s a more understated calendar, but I put a lot of thought into it. This year, I had some very specific rules for myself: 1. Construct the advent calendar out of what I already have on hand (the exception was the little gifts that are part of the calendar) 2. No candy or sweets 3. Include lots of books, because books are K’s favorite thing in the world 4. Must have an element of giving and not be just about receiving I had all these left over metal tins from a misguided idea to sell magnets many, many years ago and they’ve been sitting in our basement forever. I thought I was being all eco and brilliantly repurposing (and the tins can still be reused!), but M pointed out that it looks like the attack of Altoids. I printed numbers onto some copper paper from my infinite stash of pretty papers and used my circle punch and some twine and voila! Aided by the magic that is mounted foam tabs like these, we have a quick and dirty DIY Advent Calendar (okay, some of the tins have been falling off the wall and required reinforcement, but the initial effect was quite lovely). What makes this extra fun is that each tin contains a little note. On odd-numbered days, I included clues that lead K to a hidden little gift — a scavenger hunt! On even-numbered days, K is assigned a “giving” task (e.g. gather clothes to donate to her school’s Uganda program or make a video to send to Grandma and Grandpa), and she gets to choose a book from the “Advent basket”. The books are a combination of thrifted, bargain sales and a few new releases that I know she’ll flip over. Although I spent some serious time thinking up the whole project, the execution took about an hour (mostly because I haven’t wrapped all the little presents yet since I wait until the night before to hide them). The verdict: “Mama, I can tell you worked so hard on this. You’re so so awesome!!” She practically squeezed the life out of me and I nearly cried the ugly cry — she said it in such a heartfelt, appreciative way. *********************************************** The winner of the Sew Sweet Giveaway is Haylee, congrats! I always enjoy reading all the giveaway comments and now I’m hankering to learn multiple languages, take up woodworking, try my hand at spinning yarn! *********************************************** Countdown has begun but the anticipation is the best part, no? Wishing you all a lovely weekend! K has her first ever piano recital tomorrow – very, very excited!    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-crafts","7":"category-life","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11902"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11919,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11902\/revisions\/11919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}