2023 50th Anniversary No Show

Excuses, excuses, but it was our 50th Anniversary and there was a lot going on with construction on the Carlson's house and our own kitchen remodel.  I had an idea that failed to pass the test, so I opted for a pass. Instead, I paper wrapped an LED ring box that contained a Turkish Puzzle Ring, a look back at Pat's first engagement ring. 

The box was easy to open, but once she removed the ring the first time it fell apart. Fortunately, there are instructions online for solving this particular puzzle.

I notice she hasn't worn the ring much since Christmas.

2022 - Follow Me

Pat's Gift Wrap for 2022 was a copper pipe taken from 302 Burgess and Osage Orange from the same property.  Inside the pipe was an Italian-made silver bracelet known as a Byzantine design. On the outside of the pipe was stamped the lyrics to John Denver's "Follow Me." A special ink was used that isn't supposed to rub off, although some did when Pat was opening the end with a pipe cutter. Took her about 5 minutes. (Another choice would have been a hack saw or blow torch.)

The holder is a set of three candle holders cut from the same piece of wood, so the grain lines up. The candle holders are intended to be used as candle holders. Pat can decide if she wants to etch the pipe so the lettering stands out, and/or to create a blue or green patina on the pipe as it's own piece of art.

I left the pipe in a raw state and was hoping to etch the copper to reveal permanent, raised letters, then finish it with a green or blue patina. We'll see if that couple's project happens.

2021 - No Tools Needed

The wrap for 2022 is a wooden puzzle box with two hidden locks. I found something similar to this on the Internet and adapted it for the wood and "locks" I was able to find. I had to give Pat a clue: "it's all about how you hold it." The locks are gravity sensitive. 'Nuf said.

Inside the box: A Kailo nano pad for pain relief.

2020--The Year of COVID

 

Plenty of things were wrong with 2020: Trump was presiding by tweeting up a growing insurrection, protests erupted on streets across America in response to police brutality to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other black victims, and COVID shut down most of the world while we were on a cruise in the Southern hemisphere.

With our trip interrupted as we were approaching Tasmania, followed by a hurried flight home in coach, we began months of social distancing, wearing masks when out in public, washing hands, staying safe and railing against a president who treated the pandemic as if it didn't exist. 

Living in Oak Park softened this ordeal some, with our expansive view of the city, shopping nearby, plenty of sidewalks for exercise and online worship services to produce. But it's hard to enjoy life at a distance.

 

The inspiration for this year's wrap was COVID itself. The gift itself needed to be small. A plastic egg that once housed a LEGO-type kit would fit inside a COVID sculpture. We didn't have enough clay on hand or any plaster, so another medium was needed. Used coffee grounds were dried and clay was made by adding salt, flour and water. The online recipe called for way too much water, so the amount of flour and salt had to be doubled. But once the dough was the right consistency the egg with its contents was placed in the middle of a ball of dough and left to dry.

Air drying produced cracks in the clay and trying to maintain the round shape proved impossible. To get this over more quickly, the oven was heated to 200 and the clay ball constantly rotated to avoid getting a flat side. After about three hours, the lopsided ball was removed to cool, along with its contents. Sayings from 2020 were scrawled across the surface: "It is what it is," social distancing, Zoom, "I can't breathe" a litany of the things we were living.  (By the way, the clay was still damp on the inside when Pat cut it open.)

As for the gift itself: a herd of goats and a peep (yes, looked it up) of chicks donated in Pat's name to those who need it. Purchased on Giving Tuesday, the gift was matched, so it really was the equivalent of a dozen goats and who knows how many peeps doing someone good in this world. To remember the gift, inside the egg was nestled a friendship bracelet with a sterling silver ram--and on the tree there appeared a handcrafted goat ornament made of felted sheep's wool.

Little Lending Library (2019)

 Living in Oak Park for our first Christmas, and lacking a workshop or many tools, meant looking for a new type of wrap. The combination of creating miniature boxed ornaments for family and the presence of many Little Lending Libraries dotted around town resulted in an ornament gift wrap.

Originally, the idea was to replicate one of the Little Libraries in Oak Park and take a walk on Christmas Day to locate it and find the matching book that would contain the gift. As it turned out, we celebrated Christmas with Pete, Alyssa and Emelie in Geneva, so I needed to find a Little Library in Geneva instead. Alyssa knew someone with such a box in their front yard, so images were snapped and the resulting ornament is somewhat close to the one at 112 Richards Street in Geneva, IL.

Of course, we don't often walk around Geneva and pass many of these Little Libraries, so the problem was how to find the matching box. On the wallpaper inside the box, there is a map of Geneva that pinpoints the location.

The contents of the ornament included a collection of specially curated mini-books. Some of these had pages cut out of an Ian Fleming James Bond novel. The rest were blank pages.

With only a few keywords to go on, the challenge was to figure which book in the Little Library matched the book in the mini-library. Using Google, entering keywords from the page above (Bond Shy Smile--proper nouns always make excellent search terms) it would be possible to determine that "Diamonds Are Forever" is a match.

So we bundled up and drove to 112 Richards where Pat and Emelie examined the contents--the book that was placed there earlier in day by Pete and Alyssa. This presented some risk, as anyone could check out a book and if they had fancied Diamonds Are Forever, they would have been surprised to find a pair of raw diamond earrings inside. Pat and Em didn't find the paperback immediately and nearly decided Sherlock Holmes was the right choice. They brought back the right book and there inside a compartment made by cutting out pages of the book (that became the clues) were Pat's new earrings.

Another successful wrap with a good ending.

2018--Year of the Acorn

Our oaks trees produced hundreds of pounds of acorns this summer and .... In addition, Carl made acorn flour from some of the best nuts. So far we've enjoyed acorn cookies and pancakes.
It was a "mast year." We felt guilty about letting so many nuts go to waste that we hand-picked them and carted them out to Rustic Road Farm to fatten their pigs. Lost count of the number of bushels.

To commemorate the year, this year's gift was a sterling silver acorn necklace packed inside one of the acorns, mounted in a tiny box ornament, locked inside a carving of an acorn. The wood for the large acorn came from the yard (a limb that came down) and old shelves from the master bedroom, the three top pieces that form the cap.

Once you look closely, you can find clues how to open the top.

The Golden Acorn is a personal myth that somewhere in this vast forest of oaks, a single golden acorn awaits the lucky forager.

Also originating in 2018 was Two Loons in a Snow Globe. This project is still not quite complete (as of 2021). Within a week of filling the globe with distilled water, glycerin and rubbing alcohol, bacteria formed and made a mess. So, the top was removed and parts were scrubbed. Just awaiting the right day to refill it with mineral oil. In the meantime, the loons sit silently on their frozen pond and call out whenever a passerby moves them.

Hey Google, Play NPR (2017)

At some point in the fall of 2017, Pat stated she wished she could walk in the house after work and have NPR playing without the hassle of turning on the radio and dialing it up.

I read that a Google Mini could do that. I ordered one and tried it out. Worked like a charm: "OK Google, play NPR." Like magic.

Now, how to wrap it...

Somehow, I had to get Pat to say that phrase. I designed a rebus and sent it in to make a 204 piece puzzle, put the unassembled puzzle under the tree (without the box) and hid the Google Mini behind a door in the living room. It was one of the easier gifts to make, just took time for things to arrive.

When it came time to open the gift, Pat had to assemble the puzzle, which is mostly red orange with white illustrations. It was a group effort. When enough pieces were in place, the natural thing to do is to solve the rebus. It took a couple of tries to figure out the words with some coaching from Pete, but when Pat said "OK Google play NPR" right on cue, the Mini launched the station stream and we were listening to Public Radio.

Magic.