Give the Gift of Christmas Paper

The holidays are well marked by

THREE WARNING SIGNS. 

They are as follows:

 

1. Seemingly normal people in hideous Christmas sweaters without a gun to their heads.

 

2. Obviously wrapped gifts that blatantly warn you NOT to open them.

Like ever.

As if wrapped will be a permanent condition.

3. The most frightening, however, is waking up in an eggnog induced blur

on the dining room floor wearing an afore mentioned sweater

 with THIS staring at you.

THIS is a sign of Catmas.

Catmas: noun. A holiday marked by the apparitional appearance of an uncooperative,

openly miffed Feline Overlord forced into tiny human attire facsimiles,

usually heralding a quick and easy project that will give the impression of being a nice gift.

Quality and good judgement are implied but never guaranteed.

Catmas officially begins on December 12th and runs for 12 days.

THIS, my friends, is a bonus Early Catmas Project.

You'll know when we start for real.

Paperwhites are another rather pricey yet elegant forcing bulb very popular for Christmas.

 Smaller than the amaryllis bulbe we did, they're a froth of showy white stars.

And while the above project came in at $6.50 and $8.27, we're going to lower your bottom line a bit.

Each $5 box contains 4 bulbs, so right there we're at $1.25 apiece.

First, how about a great centerpiece for a sunny dining room like mine?
I just happen to have one last cylinder vase hanging around, clean and ready to go.

Place a bag of black river rock from the Dollar Tree in the bottom,
smaller stones on the top.

 

Nestle three bulbs in the rocks.
Imagine the shiny black with flurries of white blossoms.
This will be perfect into the new year.

 

Always open the boxes at the store and check to make sure you have
 those nice little healthy plant tips.

 

I like to cheat and see if any of the plants have even more growth.

Add water to just touch the bottoms of the bulbs.

This is just $4.75 without the vessel.
Walmart has a $5 cylinder, which would keep this under $10.
I'm keeping it, period.

 

Giving a bottle of wine, but you're tired of being predictable?
Deals, a subsidiary of The Dollar Tree, had these
stemless wine glasses for just $1.

We'll get a few out of the way.

Dollar General had some cool wired garland on a spool that will make a
perfect embellishment.

 Snowflakes are holiday neutral as well as fitting nearly any decorating theme.

We'll keep the lack of commitment going with 2 sizes of
clear, flat backed glass marbles.

Since our garland is wired, there's no reason to adhere it to the glass.

Simply cut it to fit and bend the ends into hooks.

To transport, a tiny bit of tape will keep it in place.

The rest is a piece of cake.

Mix the marbles in the bottom about 2 inches deep.

 

Nestle in the bulb.

 

Add a little water.
 
Done!
Cost?
About$2.50 each.
How sweet would these look on a coworker's desk?

 

Small Dollar Tree cylinders with a shot of color are the same.

The nice part about assembling all of these gifts ahead of time?

You have to keep them somewhere while they're growing to bloom.

A traditional runner was too large for the table since we use it daily,
so I used two placemats overlapped slightly with the center hidden under the large vase.

(Salt and pepper set, Family Dollar, $2)

Several decorative shakers make passing unnecessary.

We're ready with all of our growing gifts.
Tomorrow will be one more quick makeable to assemble ahead of time,
and we'll show you our presentation for easy giving,
so let's get this out of the way, shall we?

Then we'll have time to kick back and enjoy!