On Wednesday I had brunch with a friend of mine who flew in to town to meet her first grandbaby and see her son and daughter in law.  Thankfully we were able to find some time to meet up for brunch at Mimi’s Cafe.

I hadn’t seen Aura Lee in nearly 20 years.  I can’t remember how long it’s actually been.  She was one of my Young Women leaders  (female youth group @ church) when we lived in Berlin, Germany.   She befriended me and really touched my heart.  When I was called to work in the Young Women organization as an adult I knew that I wanted to be a leader to my girls like she was to me.   We had such a nice visit (a couple of hours, but not long enough) and talked about a lot of things.  I learned that she also loves to be crafty and that she runs a small (but crazy growing) business called Time Preserved where she writes and publishes people’s life stories.  She spends countless hours interviewing the individual and their family members and collects and edits photos for the book. She brought along a book to show me and it was so awesome!

So I thought it would be fun to bring her a tasty treat and something small that she could take home to her family via airplane.  Remember all that CANNING I’ve been doing?  Some of it is going away as gifties… like this one:

Take a simple jar of homemade deliciousness such as Cranberry Apple Preserves and add a little fabric square to the top (don’t forget to lightly fray the edges), then carefully twist the ring on and tie a little raffia or better yet, some pink tulle around the ring.  I had to help my tulle stick by using a couple of small pieces of that fabulous terrificly tacky tape or whatever the red stuff is called (I always toss the package so I forget…)

Then realize it needs a cute tag, so grab a jewelry tag and ink it up with some Tim Holtz distress ink (those awesome little squares) and stamp Love You on it in a soft pink.

Now package it up cuz you don’t really wanting to be toting a jar around the restaurant…. so rummage through your gift wrap closet (which doubles as the Christmas and Holiday decor closet and is under the stairs so it’s really not a closet/room) and find a cute little brown bag.  Jazz it up with some more pink tulle and a strip of matching fabric from the jar top.

And snuggle that cute little jar of deliciousness into a bundle of tissue paper and then tuck it into the bag and scoot off to meet your friend and enjoy breakfast!

Love You, Aura Lee!!

Inky Smiles!