a tip, DIY ornaments & more wrapping

 

I found this while getting out the ornaments to decorate to let the kids go hog wild adorning our already strange-looking redwood tree with every single ornament I own and no strategy whatsoever…

I had forgotten completely about my idea to get Susie an ornament every christmas till she was 18 and give her a little head start to decorating her first tree when she’s 30 and we let her move out (well, that is more “I” than “we”… =)

When I found it I decided to be nostalgic and take a picture of her with it, knowing that she would adore the teeny little “bi-di”…

And actually, I have two tips to share with you…

Tip #1.  This will be TMI for those of you not interested in photography…  One of my top photography tips for you is to avoid multiple types or colors of light.  Fluorescent, incandescent (most household light bulbs), direct sun, shade, overcast… all these situations of light are different temperatures and different colors.  In the above picture, my white balance was set for “incandescent” light – thus the background looks pretty normal for inside a house.  Susie, on the other hand, is neon blue because she is standing in front of the sliding glass door – light is coming in but it is actually “shade” outside that door, which is very blue.  Moral of the story: avoid mixed lighting because the camera can’t adjust for more than one type at a time.  Solution:  I should have turned off the house lights and just used the natural light with my WB set for “shade”, or taken her away from the sliding glass door into the house (bumping up my ISO because it is darker) to avoid the blue light at the window.  “Auto WB” will do a good job usually, but still can’t handle two different colors of light in one image.

Tip #2.  Please don’t be naïve like me and try to photograph your almost two year old with a tiny, extremely fragile and sentimental ornament.  She broke it.  I then gave up getting a good picture, and hung it and her 2 year old ornament safely at the tip top of the tree.  From now on, I will put them away for her until later.  =/

I made some ornaments, inspired by these vintage-looking DIY ones I caught on Pinterest. 

They were easy and I think they turned out lovely!

I wrapped some more packages…

There is another look at the balls.  I love them.  They look so smooth and soft.  I spray-painted the tops antique bronze.  It is a little better than the shiny silver.  I probably won’t get around to it this year, but I would like to add in even more vintage colors, like in the link above.

I love seeing the gifts pile up.  Not only is it plain fun to give gifts (and for me, to wrap them because I’m crazy!), but just think… Jesus Christ Himself has the most special gift, His salvation, wrapped up especially for every single person in the world.  It has their name on it.  If you are a believer, it is your job to tell others there is a gift under the tree they didn’t know about, it has their name on it.  If you aren’t a believer, I’m telling you right now!  There is a heaven, but you can’t get in unless you are blameless.  Are you?  Me neither, but Jesus paid for every one of our sins.  Just go under the tree and pick up your gift.  It says, “To: [your name here], From: God the Father & Jesus Christ”.