I Enjoy Videos | Introduction

"...where everything was discovered, and everything was possible. 

A stick could be a sword, a pebble could be a diamond, a tree, a castle.

They made up a thousand games.

She was queen and he was king.

They collected the world in small handfuls, 

and when the sky grew dark, and they parted with leaves in their hair."

nicole krauss

This beautiful quote written by Nicole Krauss has captured my "special attention" (any Pride and Prej fans out there?).  The segment that starts this post is only a portion of her brief paragraph describing the love story between a little boy and a little girl.  Her one sentence is my new tagline for this blog.  A blog designed to collect the world in small handfuls.  Consider each day, each post, each new paragraph, image and thought, a little clump of dirt in your hands, an especially smooth stone, an antsy inch worm or a bottle cap.  Think of all the things you can do or try or imagine. Consider it fun, child-like, creative and happy.  May you part with leaves in your hair.

While at Alt Summit, during one of the sessions, I had a mad-wild-furious-scribbling-beads-of-sweat moment of clarity.  It all came together.  And my blog changed in an instant.  Within an hour I had taken new header photos, recorded the following video and made a blog calendar for the next month.  Within 12 hours I had nearly all the content ready and formatted for this next month of blog posts.

I joyfully present to you: The Enjoy Project

Don't worry, I can't even stay focused on this video to watch it all the way through. I won't be offended if you don't. It's almost seven minutes long. WAY TOO LONG. If you want to skip ahead to the end I tell a pretty funny story about meeting Anya from Project Runway.

Here's a re-cap of what I said in the video. New blog schedule. All based on the "things" in life I most enjoy. Blog posts every single day. (EVERY DAY!)

> > SCHEDULE < <
[I Enjoy...]
.Videos (On Sunday > These might be videos of myself + my life, they might be an awesome movie trailer I'm looking forward to seeing, perhaps a fun music video, inspiring vimeo find, slideshow or funny youtube clip. Videos.)

.People (On Monday > Here you will find new portraits or new friends. Either images of people or a guest blogger.)

.Making Things (On Tuesday > My love for all things "hands-on." Whether it be making food, paper crafts, home decor or Christmas ornaments ;) you will find how-to's from my world of making things.)


.Weddings (On Wednesday > I am committing to posting one full wedding a week! I have more then enough to show you lovely friends for ages.)

.Pinterest (On Thursday >  I'm so exciting about this one! I'll explain in more detail this coming Thursday, but we're going to have fun searching, pinning and sharing as a group.)

.Writing (On Friday > I love to write. I have seemingly endless little unrelated blurbs from minutes of "ah-ha!" where I wrote and then did nothing with it. I've never had a consistent place to share these thoughts. So now they have a home named Friday.)

.Instagram (On Saturday > A re-cap of my week + maybe some suggestions of people for you to follow!)

Hello. I'm Kristen. Welcome to The Enjoy Project, "where everything can be discovered, and anything is possible."

Christmas Activities | Personal

there's a quaint little town
not a clock has been wound
for over a century

buon natale | nat king cole

It turns out my 8mm app addiction lasted longer then a week.  As I was working on this little diddy last night, He suggested I make a "Sunday Series." "With a new episode each week!" He's smart, the Christmas Angel of mine.  You can watch this now oooor watch it after you read the whole post.  It might be a touch more amusing if you come back and watch after you read ;)

It's been about 10 days and our Christmas Activity Checklist is going strong!  I just can't bring myself to miss a day when he gets such a kick out of it.  It doesn't matter what we do - his little toes jingle all the way and his eyes sparkle like a silent night.  

We made a classic garland for his tree.  All we used was popcorn, cranberries, needle and thread!  

We also bought His first real Christmas tree.  He sat the tree in his lap and embraced it the whole way home.  What a green, tree-hugger ;) ba-da-ching.

We turned on some tunes, and gave the little tree a merry makeover.  It needed some bling.

When all was said and done, the decorations up, the stockings hung, He serenaded me with my favorite holiday carols.  Precious Angel.

The only part of this experience that was really sad was the next day.  He told me He had some "sad news." Uh-oh.  "My Christmas tree fell down.  I went in and it had crashed.  Balls were on the floor.  One ball broke.  Someone ransacked Christmas."  I tried not to laugh ;)

On a cheerier note!  We went to a local Starbucks one night where some friends from church spent two hours singing carols!  It was a happy memory to eat our chili and coffee-cake and watch the kiddos dance around.

Next up was the annual Remsnyder Christmas party with the ever intriguing Gift Exchange.

Christmas Angel took this very seriously.

He spent some time on his gift and ended up taking the present he brought home with him.

If you want to see what his gifts were check out the video

(one is cheap and weird, the other is expensive and... weird? ;) haha not weird. They are both fun!)

This morning I finished up last nights' craft: snow forest! This was another lovely Pinterest find.  

SO stinking easy: bleach bottlebrush trees in a tub for 30 minutes, let dry over night, stick in glass jars and dump as much or as little sugar/salt over them as you'd like!  I can't wait to see how these look with candles behind them :D

Only twenty days left and the fun has only just begun!

Christmas Crafts {Personal}

he puzzled and puzzed till his puzzler was sore. 

then the grinch thought of something he hadn't before. 

maybe Christmas, he thought, 

doesn't come from a store. 

maybe Christmas, perhaps,

means a little bit more! 

how the grinch stole christmas | narrator

--


He is an Angel.  Or at least that's His nickname around here.  All my friends love to tease Him for His super conservative personality, over-the-top honest and kind ways, and His naive precious demeanor.  They joke "don't taint the Angel's wings!"  Sometimes when we are all hanging out and He's sleepy everyone calls Him "Baby Angel."  Ladies and Gentlemen, we have entered a new season of nickname-ness: The Christmas Angel.  This handsome mister I am dating is obsessed with Christmas.


And since this is his first Christmas away from his homeland, I want it to be super-definitley-marvelously wonderful for him.  Beginning the day after Thanksgiving I've planned one Christmas activity per day.  We'll see if I can actually pull it off.  Since this blog has been a bit on the lonely side since He came along, I decided to show you some of our Christmas fun!


The 8mm Video App and ReelDirector App changed my life.  At least my video shooting and editing life.  We've been driving nearly every other Sunday to spend the day with some of our favorites, the Shorey/Baxter clan.  Elizabeth (Shorey) Baxter had her first baby a few days ago.  We spent the day driving, singing Christmas carols, talking, eating, watching football, holding a little guy, Muppet-ing and enjoying each other.

Then we got into craft mode.  I saw these yarn-wrapped letters on Pinterest a while ago.  I had the blessed idea to do this with a short holiday word.  Good idea, huh?

No. These letters were Christmas Purgatory - temporary and unusual punishment.  Word to those who think this looks fun: Use sans serif wooden letters.  Those horrible, terrible, curvy serifs really make your  throat tighten and pits warm up.  He saved the day with His newfound crafting skills - but it even took Him over two hours to complete just the N.  Boo to serifs. Booooo.
(This lady, however, took a different approach to serifs.  Might be worth a shot?)

Thankfully neither of us were ruined for yarn-wrapping crafts. These yarn wreaths have been all over the inter-webs and homes the past few years.  I decided to go ahead and make my first one.  SO easy.  So great.  Love it.

What could be better then a big wreath? Mini wreaths! Made out of shower curtain rings! These are actually fast to make, the options are endless, they are darn-tootin' adorable, and they make great Christmas ornaments!  We just had a ball working on them.

When you buy yarn and you can't knit, you must do something with it.  I spotted some cute yarn trees made from styrofoam cones a while back.  Even a gorilla could make these.  By far the easiest and fastest craft yet.

Happily I did experiement with a different textile: feathers! This photo caught my attention and I loved the little white, fluffy tree on the right side of the table.  I just hot-glued white feathers to the tree, sprayed some adhesive onto the feathers and shook glitter all over it! Eets maaaagical.

  On the fluffier side of things, I modified a pom wreath to make my own version!  I probably would have chosen to use the same size ball-puffs, but my local craft store only had bags with many sizes.  I still how it turned out, though I would like to try to copy the "original" again sometime.  This was also easy: hot glue, styrofoam wreath and fuzzy balls! (Restraining my inner Michael Scott...)Aaaaaand now we come to the best part.  We are only at the very beginning of this "doing something Christmas everyday" event and I've already used my Hail Mary.  We both got home on the later side of an evening because I had a basketball game (I coach in the winter).  My mind was buzzing with all things time-out, full-court press, foul trouble and winning.  When we got back to my house He said "What Christmas thing are we doing tonight?!" with His adorable, cheerful, eager voice.  Oh snap.  I forgot to prepare for the craft tonight. Shoot. "Let me run upstairs and change! Then I'll show you the special, exciting, um, awesome craft for tonight."  In my room I grabbed a bag of popsicle sticks, hoping for success though I knew the chances were small.  Popsicle sticks.  Jeez.  What a holiday wizard I am.  Poor boy.  He's used to multiple Christmas trees, home baked goods almost nightly, cozying up around the fire place and pretty ornaments.  Not popsicle sticks (plus a few scattered clothespins).  But it's all I had and I needed this for the win.  
"Okay.  SooOoooo.  We are going to make ornaments for your tree out of these!" I hoped I was selling him.  "We can make snowflakes! And letters! And we can paint them!" He looked at me.  He took the bags from my hands.  He asked "Can we put glitter on them too?" Touuuuuchdooooown!!!

But wait for it.
We spread out our sticks.  We start gluing away.  I'm all "Hey! Look, these could also be Stars of David!" like a first-grader making props for the Nativity Production where I have to wear a bathrobe and pillow case on my head.  I was making snowflakes and "J's" like a boss.

I look over and see Him in a trance.  Sawdust is everywhere.  Sticks are broken.  He has the hot glue gun in his lap, pencil behind his ear, tongue over his top lip.  Christmas Angel was assembling a to-scale North Pole Wonderland Fleet.

His Saint Nicholas Sleigh of Delight is not only aerodynamic, it has a roomy seat for a big tushie with safety rails for the long, busy flight.

We haven't painted the Yuletide Caribou Squadron quite yet.  But I'm sure Rudolph will have an actual red blinking nose and they will really be able to fly.

Psh. Popsicle stick snowflakes my foot.

I wish I could send you to a blog with a cute tutorial on how to make this Holiday Troupe for yourself, but, alas, I cannot.  It's all in His Christmas Angel head.  In a matter of minutes he can whip up the most sturdy, perfect, lovely crafts.  And I'm over there burning myself on the glue gun.

Oh well.

What would this world be if everyone was really good at crafts?
All I know is that I'm having the time of my life making memories this cheerful season.

Like the Grinch realized: 

Maybe Christmas, he thought,  doesn't come from a store. 

Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more! 

How have YOU been making Christmas time be "a little bit more"?

:D