Our Awesome Ribbon Christmas Tree

~ Posted on Monday, December 19, 2011 at 8:12 AM ~

Every year in December, hubby and I will be cracking our heads to think of what to make and give his clients for Christmas celebration. You can read this post to see our previous gifts to his clients.

  • In 2008, we got this 3 feet tall fake Christmas trees and hung treats and goodies as ornaments and filled up the base with sweets and snacks too.

  • In 2009, we bought this glass cookie jars and filled them up with Famous Amos cookies and sweets and treats and tied a red ribbon over the glass jar.

  • In 2010, we bought 2 biscuit tins of fifferent sizes (2 for each client), small tin filled up with butter cookies which I baked myself sealed in decorated plastic bags and the big tin is filled up with treats and snacks.

What we did for 2011? Ta-daaaaaaaaa...

Ribbon Christmas Tree

Ribbon Christmas Tree

For 2011, we made ribbon Christmas tree with treats and snacks in a basket decorated with fake pine leaves.

The ribbon tree is my idea after searching the Internet for inspiration and the basket with treats is hubby's idea. I've posted some pictures of our ribbon Christmas trees on my personal Facebook page and a couple of friends asked me how to make it, so here it is:

#1 : Making the Ribbon 'Leaves'

Ribbon Christmas Tree

#1 - These are the items you need to make the ribbon 'leaves': scissors, double-sided tape, ribbons!

#2 - Start cutting ribbons! I cut mine about 7 inches long. Make sure the length are all same. Gently fold the ribbon in half.

#3 - Cut 2 small tabs of double-sided tape. I cut mine about half centimetres in size for each tab. Stick 1 of the tab to one end on the inside of the ribbon (you want the nicer looking surface to be outside). Peel out the protective layer and stick the ends together.

#4 - Stick the 2nd tab to 1 side of the ribbon where you just double-taped earlier.

#5 - If you do not want your tree to look fuller or bouncier, you can press the ribbon where it's folded in half.

#6 -Repeat step 1 - 5.

#2 : Creating the Ribbon Christmas Tree

Ribbon Christmas Tree

What you need is party hats, some ornaments to put at the tip of your tree and your ribbons made from earlier steps. Take 1 ribbon, peel open the protective layer of the double-sided tape and stick the ribbon onto the party hat. I make sure my ribbons touched the edge of the party hat. Repeat until you reached full circle. I also try to overlap the ribbons by a few milimetres to make it compact.

To do the next ribbon circle, I will repeat the above and ensure my ribbons covered about 1 inch of the ribbons below. Keep on until you reach the top.I actually cut and prepared tons of ribbons, put them into a paper bag and when my girl is napping on my legs, I just start sticking the ribbons onto the party hat.

I got this cute little star ornament which I poke a hole big enough to cover the tip of the party hat. I also tape the star ornament for added protection.

#3 : Making the decorative basket

Now what you need for the decorative basket (hubby's idea!) are basket (big enough for your party hat), fake pine leaves, ornaments, cable twist tie and scissors.

Hubby cut and wrapped the fake pine leaves all around the basket and securing it with twist tie. We actually got some nice cookie tins and mini Pringles can to hide inside the party hat and then we filled the basket with goodies and treats.

I also printed the greetings and double-tape it to a card before punching holes to both ends of the card. I then use some recycled ribbon to tie the greeting card to each basket.

#4 : Final results to oogle on!

Ribbon Christmas Tree

I love this year's gifts!

I hope you enjoy this tutorial! 

The Joy of LOVE - When You Love Them The Most

~ Posted on Friday, February 25, 2011 at 12:20 PM ~

Today's prompt is: "What really makes you tick about your loved one? What do they do to go out of their way to make sure you are happy and that you have a great day?"

I love it when my dear hubby spends his time with Ben, despite his busy, busy, and very busy schedule and that he had to go sleep later than usual to finish up his work so that Ben get to spend some quality time with him. And I get to have some time off to relax and rest (especially now that I'm expecting) and I really appreciate these sweet gestures from hubby.

So here's my submissions for the day:

Picture below showing Ben wearing this gift box (he thinks it's his helmet and always called it 'helm') while riding on his pretend motorbike made out of Mega Bloks toy by daddy who had been forced to wear the mini size cap (meant for Ben) cos Ben thinks daddy deserves to wear a 'helm' too since he's wearing one!

Picture below showing hubby teaching Ben how to press the water spray and how excited and curious Ben was at the sight of the water jetting out from the spray. I get about an hour of 'me' time just relaxing and sitting there watching them play at the balcony.

And why I love these moments the most?

Just look at Ben's happy face when he gets to play with daddy!

The Joy of LOVE - Wedding Band

~ Posted on Monday, February 14, 2011 at 3:36 PM ~

Today's prompt is: "Capture that wedding band on his finger today."

Now, this is the closest picture I can find that shows my hubby's hand (with his wedding ring) and my then 2 weeks old dear Benjamin.

So here's my submission for the day:

Hubby wiping 2 weeks old Ben after his sponge bath...

A bit of story about this picture:

As Chinese, most of us expecting parents will rush to hire a confinement lady (kinda like a doula but they only work after the child's birth and normally for a month duration) and with Ben, we wanted everything to be in place too. We hired our confinement lady (CL) when I was 7th month pregnant and was all ready and counting down to the few months left before Ben's arrival.

Unfortunately, our CL broke her leg during a holiday trip 2 weeks before I was due to deliver and at the last minute, we were not able to find any replacement and we decided maybe this is God's way of telling us to trust onto Him when all things fail (and also that we shouldn't really plan everything too far ahead and not trust on Him!)  So, hubby took a month off work to be my confinement lady (CL) after I delivered Ben. And yeah, we ended up doing our own confinement and as a result, we bonded closer with each other and with Ben too and not to mention, we save quite a bit of money from not needing to hire the CL.

And so, for the first month, hubby practically took care of caring for Ben (other than feeding cos I direct breastfeed Ben since we brought him home from the hospital). Hubby bathed Ben, changed his diapers, clothes, everything.

So this picture really brings back lots of sweet memories and I'm glad to have this awesome man as my hubby! (And yeah, he's going to be my confinement lady again when our second child comes along heheheh..)

Oh, and did I tell you that this ring was worn since we first started going out as a couple? That was like back in 1999!