Crafty Christmas
I have been blessed by the friendship gods with a core group of amazing friends. Throughout my life I’ve always been a one-crazy-close-friend-group kind of person, and although some of those friendships have gone their separate ways, I truly believe that the bond I have with my best friends of different life stages is everlasting. College was when I found my people for life. During my last year in college I was lucky enough to live with some of my best friends and that bff-roomie bond is one of my greatest treasures in life.
Now, this rambling spew of cheesy friendship feels is my typical end of year appreciation for good friends and to celebrate, every year my old roommates and I have a Christmas gift exchange. It’s one of my favorite parts of the holiday season and shopping for a unique gift for each of them reminds me to take time to appreciate and cherish what makes each of them special and an amazing friend.
Ex-Roomie Gift Exchange
This year Zelenny, our resident graphic designer and all-around artistic queen, suggested that we handmake our gifts to each other. I have always loved the idea of handmade gifts. I think they’re so innately personal and thoughtful and I feel so special receiving them but I’ve rarely been confident enough in any of my abilities to gift them myself. However, the whole reason I started Pam Good Life and one of my goals for the year was to explore different hobbies and develop my creativity. I think I’ve achieved that to some extent throughout this year and what better way to show that than through personalized gifts for my closest friends?
So we all agreed to take on this task and although I was nervous to commit to making something that may end up being a disaster, I was excited at the idea of doing something that I already do for fun and turning it into a special thing for someone else. I have been dabbling in watercolor lately and I’ve fallen in love with this medium of painting. I’ve always been artistically inclined but my Type A personality dominates my brain and most mediums frustrate me at the sight of any imperfection. I’ve taken classes and loved them but I’ve never fully committed to any art form 100%. What I’ve found about water coloring that I love is that it’s extremely forgiving. It lends itself to experimenting, making mistakes, coloring outside the lines, and the imperfectness of it all just adds to the character of a piece.
Watercolors are forgiving, subtle, and beautiful.
I decided to try a different approach to the style of watercolors for each of my friends. I’m such a beginner right now, that I definitely want to explore as much as possible before I dive into one particular style. The first painting I started was for my dear friend Sam. Sam moved out of Austin after graduation. She lived in San Francisco for over a year and she recently moved to DC. She’s out there doing big things, living her best life, and I wanted to give her something to remind her of her Texas home.
A little piece of home for state-traveling Sam.
While some friend groups are attending each other’s weddings and meeting each other’s babies, our friend group’s babies are our pets. I took some inspiration in our animal companions for the next pieces. I made a sleeping portrait of Madam Lena for Zelenny’s gift and a blep cutie Leela the Lizard for Kat.
For Sofi, I was inspired by an adorable picture she posted on Instagram of her and her partner Matt visiting his home state of Michigan over Thanksgiving. I had seen this style of portraits before and I loved how it captured the essence and emotion of the moment. Also, I definitely would’ve ruined the painting by adding faces.
Little Lovebirds - isn’t it great to see your friends so happy?
I may or may not have some remaining pieces in the works, but those have not yet been gifted. I may update this post when their recipients have seen them.
Overall, I’m so happy with the results of my rookie watercolors. It was so great to watch my friends look at their gift for the first time and handmaking our Christmas exchange presents this year was so rewarding.
The holidays are definitely my favorite time of year and memory-making is in full gear this year. Cheers to a crafty Christmas!