Procrastination in packing

After awhile, packing is tedious. I say "after awhile" because for the most part, I really enjoy packing. I love the mindlessness of it. The organization, the paring down, the simplifying. There is something so interesting about dividing up your entire life into boxes. It makes you learn a lot about yourself. I, for example, have learned two very important things about myself: 1) for someone who doesn't cook, I own an astronomical number of cook books -- an entire TUB of them, and 2) I have too many clothes. How many pairs of yoga pants does a woman really need?

I decided I needed a distraction. I was tired of clearing out cupboards and drawers and not being able to part with something because it reminds me of that one time I did that thing and it was fun. I remembered I had lunch planned with a friend and it was her birthday so I decided to wrap her present. Oh! I had also bought my sister-in-law a house warming gift (well, it is also my brother's house, but we all know who the presents are really for) and I figured I should wrap those as well.

The gift I bought for my sister in law was a weird shaped item that could not be wrapped easily. And, of course, there was no box that would work for it. So, I improvised. I made the present into a party hat. Voila.

You will never guess what this really is.
If you do, and you ruin the surprise for Mel, I will hunt you down.

Then I moved on to the gift for crazybarefeet. I had gotten her a ginormous tub of honey for what should have been her Christmas present. I had no room in the house for it, put it in the garage (why? I have NO idea) and promptly forgot it existed. When I was cleaning I found it. Perfect timing!!!

The conundrum was, how to wrap such a gift. I figured it couldn't be done properly, so I would just include the container as part of the wrapping. I cut out a circle for the top and used old double sided window tape to attach it. Then I cut 3 strips of paper to wrap around the body of the container. It was not perfectly cylindrical, so there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. And cursing. Then, I cut the left over paper into thin strips and made curly things to attach individually to the top.

I think it turned out rather nicely. For a pail of liquid bee vomit.

I will leave you with the artsy picture of the decorated pail.
I am just like Martha that way.

I told you I was tired of packing.