gifts created with love.

I wanted to share a couple of fun projects that have kept us busy around here lately.

Photo Memory Books 

I FINALLY finished my annual photo-book and will be giving it to Dave for Christmas instead of our anniversary like I normally would {I'm only 8 1/2 months late this year...but who's counting?!}.

I love how this book turned out. It's such a beautiful recap of our year...

the title is always the same...this is our 7th year of marriage... 

I also made a couple of extra books to serve as Christmas gifts for my parents and grandmother. They capture the memories from our recent trip to the beach.

I adore the boxes the books arrive in! SO cute. 

I use MyPublisher to print the books each year and I've always been impressed with the quality and ease of use of the design software.

I keep all of our books in this basket right in the entryway of our home. 

This is one of my favorites of our collection: Ben & Nathan's 1st year. 

Stovetop Potpourri 

We traditionally make a big batch of Christmas candy each year to be delivered to friends & neighbors. This year, I decided that my "paper pregnancy weight gain" is off the charts {and I'm not carrying twins to blame the extra pounds on} so I changed things up.

Instead of homemade candy deliveries, we created homemade "Stovetop Potpourri" to share with our neighbors. This is such a fun gift because it really does make your home smell incredible. We keep ours in the kettle on the fireplace and just keep refilling it with water throughout the season. It smells like all things winter-y and Christmas-y. Pure goodness.

I've tried several recipes and I found my favorite one here.  It's incredibly simple to make and creates a unique and heartfelt gift.

Holiday Stove Top Potpourri Mix

• one whole orange or just the orange peel
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 1 Tbsp. whole cloves
• 3 sticks of cinnamon or a small handful of small pieces of cinnamon
• a bit of grated nutmeg if desired

Quarter the orange.  Put all the ingredients into a saucepan.  Fill pan with water.  Place on the stove on the smallest burner, on the lowest setting.  Refill water as needed.

We packaged ours in reusable ball jars {they are truly one of my most favorite things}, tied instructions to the jar and hand-delivered to the neighbors this morning.

What are your favorite heart-felt gifts?