Heather Bullard

Wishing You a Very....

Evergreen Gift Tags

By now, most of us are starting (or finished with) our gift wrapping. This year I've decided to use more natural materials and simple wrap mixed with traditional Christmas colors. I made these Evergreen Gift Tags for the holiday issue of Souvenir and thought it would be fun to share them here too!

The supply list is very small: manilla tags, waxed thread, twine or embroidery floss, fresh garden clippings, scissors and hot glue. Please feel free to improvise and use what you have on hand. No need to be running around for materials....scavange your cabinets and drawers. 

Below are a few ideas on ways to wrap and attach your greenery to the tags. 

I used a variety of clippings from my garden such as ivy, fern leaves, seed pods from our ash trees and boxwood (my favorite). I think it would also be nice to use berries, holly leaves, blue spruce, eucalyptus or small pinecones. The greenery will stay fresh looking for about a day or two. There are endless options to try and the gift tags will suit any gender or age.
Happy Wrapping!

PS. Just remembered, I did a 4 part series on Vintage Wrapping a few years ago. Here are the links to: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Craftapalooza & Holiday Happenings

Last week I got together with my friends Pam, Jenny and Amy for our official Christmas Craftapalooza. We met at Jenny's new Studio Crescendoh which was amazing! Each of us picked a holiday craft to make and brought supply kits for the others. It was a great way to keep it simple and stress free for everyone.
Pam's Felt Wreath kits came wrapped in festive burlap bags, so cute! 

My craft was to make simple Acorn Elves (not Elf since we made 6 each) and I packaged the kits in kraft boxes with small cellophane bags of supplies.
In the photo below, Pam's elves are on the left and mine are on the right. Big difference in the artists hand right? Hers look more like actual elves. Don't worry, I'm not embarassed by my amateurish skills. Glitter fixes everything. It's all good. 



Amy won the trophy for Most Generous Overacheiver by bringing two amazing crafts. I know, show-off. She brought antique mesh bags filled with gorgeous beads to make Souvenir Necklaces and holiday inspired ephemera to make Bon Bon Bags...including the chocolates to fill them! See more photos from her post.

And Jenny got us all in touch with our inner doodler with this fun craft! Sorry, I must have stopped taking photos somewhere after 9pm or so. My favorite part was using the Copic markers for the first time ever...specifically the BG-10 Cool Shadow. I heart that color big time. And I used it very liberally on everyones journals. Hope they liked it. :-))

So how about you guys/gals? Have you been making merry and getting your craft on? My freezer is jam packed with cookies waiting to be packaged & delivered this week. And I've made more spiced nuts than I care to admit due to an epic recipe failure (via a famous Barefoot lady) that got multiple thumbs down. Expensive lesson learned...pounds and pounds of nuts are not cheap. I guess they can't all be homeruns can they? In the end, I went back to my old tried and true family favorite. Why try to change things Heather, why?

Hope all is going well in your neck of the snowy, wintery, Christmasy woods!
Feel free to share your fun holiday stories, mishaps and adventures!

Christmas Chickens

I made a Christmas wreath for The Girls front gate from free clippings I picked up at the Home Depot. Did you know they'll give you free tree trimming clippings? Just ask! They're perfect for making simple wreaths or to hang as swags over hutches, cabinets or picture frames.

When I first hung the wreath I got a few funny head turning quizzical looks from my hens....

But they soon realized it wasn't fresh food for them to nibble. And now they just ignore it. In other chicken news...they have all completely stopped laying eggs due to the lack of sunlight. Hens need 14+ hours of light a day to lay eggs. A lot of people install artificial lighting in their coops to keep their hens in production but we're giving ours a break and hope they'll start strong in the spring. Boy do we miss their eggs and I feel like a traitor buying them. At least I purchase organic, cage free eggs. Makes me feel a tiny bit better about the whole thing.

Raspberry & Almond Oatmeal Bars

I've been baking and freezing lots of holiday goodies in anticipation of the "Great Cookie Box Assembly Day". Most cookies and bars freeze quite well and its helpful for me to bake ahead (when time allows) and then box and wrap them right before delivering to friends and family.

Here's one of my recipes that shows up in every Christmas cookie box. It's an easy to make bar cookie that's packed with delicious raspberry jam and hearty oats. Over the years I've noticed that the quality of jam really makes a huge difference in the flavor. I only use Bon Maman Raspberry Preserves or homemade if I have it on hand. And please feel free to adjust the amount of almond extract to your taste.

Raspberry & Almond Oatmeal Bars

1 1/4 c. flour
1 1/4 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. unsalted butter
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 to 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 jar (13oz) best quality raspberry jam 
1/2 c. sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 baking pan.
Mix together flour, oats, sugar, baking soda and salt. Add vanilla and almond extract and mix until blended into dry ingredients. Cut butter into small pieces and using a pastry cutter or fork, mix in with the dry ingredients. Mixture will be very crumbly. 
Reserve 1 cup of crumb mixture and add in 1/2 c. coconut. Set aside.

Press remaining mix into the bottom of the pan. Spread jam evenly over the crust. Then top with remaining coconut crumb mix.
Bake for 23-27 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool. Cut into bars.
Makes 18-24 bars. Enjoy!

Country Living Shoot

Hello friends! I just returned from spending a few days up the coast doing a shoot for Country Living. Thought I'd share a few highlights with you. I ran out of flower buckets so made due with various watering cans. These are the flowers that didn't make the cut but aren't they pretty all lined up? Pretend you don't see the trash can and floating debris in the background.

The homeowner has a beautiful apple orchard and I couldn't help picking a few branches. Now I want an apple orchard. In a real bad way.

When I'm on location, my favorite source for produce would be local farmstands. For this shoot, I was able to get fresh homegrown organic vegetables at this honor system stand. I picked up what I needed and left my money in a barrel (which happened to be heavily guarded by a sleeping cat).

You're going to LOVE this story! It will be in the upcoming March issue and I'll be sure to let you know when it hits newsstands.

For now, I'm off to let Santa Baby know I'd like an apple orchard for Christmas.