Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Christmas Tree Shopping, Sans Car

After deciding to buy a giant Christmas tree this year, then walking to the location where we wanted to buy the tree only to find an empty lot, and then taking the bus to a lot quite far from the house, we finally found the tree.

Of course, the tree was at least 20 blocks from our apartment, it was rather heavy, and all we brought with us to help move the tree was a laundry cart. And, as fate would have it, once the stand was nailed into the bottom of the tree it would no longer fit in the laundry cart standing upright.

So how do you walk a Christmas tree home in San Francisco? Lay it across the shopping cart, and have one person push while two people guide the front of the tree. Rotate spots every so often so nobody gets too tired, and be sure to take lots of pictures along the way.

Even though it was the most trying, this is probably the most fun I have had getting a Christmas tree in years.

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posted by Sara at 11:36 AM 2 Comments

Friday, December 07, 2007

More Reasons to Love Etsy

My friend Christina turned me on to Etsy last year, and this year when I started my Christmas shopping I started surfing Etsy again. I forgot how awesome this website is! The items are homemade (most of them), they are sold directly by the people who make them (most of the time), and they are funky and fantastic (all of the time!). But, this year, I found a few more reasons to love Etsy.

1. Toy recalls got your Christmas panties in a bunch? Etsy has great gifts for children that are lead-free. Check out this adorable doll, this awesome logging truck, or this great robot craft kit. (Is a robot craft kit gender neutral? That's what I was going for. Personally, I really want that logging truck!)

2. If your family is anything like mine, the post-present-opening paper carnage takes over the living room. Not only is wrapping paper expensive, it's not exactly the best solution for the environment. But the funnies from the Sunday paper (my stand-by solution to a lack of wrapping paper) don't exactly put me in the holiday spirit. So this year I am wrapping all my gifts in cloth gift bags. The OleBagLady has a bunch of great cloth gift bags on Etsy, and plenty of bags with Christmas prints. Save these bags and reuse them year, after year, after year.

3. Everybody loves unique gifts, and on Etsy you are sure to find something unique. But what if you don't find something your gift-receiver will absolutely love? Send somebody on Etsy a message and ask him/her to make something for you. This isn't The Gap, people! You can go straight to the top and make special requests. OleBagLady and I (Tami is her name) tossed around ideas and she is making me gift bags in a custom size for the gifts I am making in my pottery class.

Ok, enough procrastination. Time to go finish out this semester, so it can finally be Christmas!

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posted by Sara at 6:43 PM 1 Comments