My Name is Kenzie, and I’m a Gift Wrap Addict

I have a confession to make. I’ve kept it hidden for a long, long time, but I must bring it out into the open.

I have an addiction to gift wrap and ribbons. It started innocently enough, one day at Papyrus. I discovered thick gift wrap. It was luxurious, it lent a crisp fold and it looked stunning when carefully wrapped around a gift.

I bought a roll of paper, figuring I’d wrap a gift with it. I used some of the paper while wrapping a birthday gift for a dear friend, and received a simple compliment, “Oh wow, this gift is almost too pretty to unwrap.”

Soon thereafter, I began to buy nicer ribbon, grosgrain, satin, even double-sided satin, in an attempt to make my lovingly purchased gifts show the care I put into them, before they were even opened.

Not long after I started investing in quality ribbons, did I notice that people really DO notice. They’d comment at birthday parties, weddings and baby showers, “Oh, that gift must be from Kenzie, it’s beautiful.”

Now, I cannot stop.

I realized today that I have a problem. In the last month, I ordered 6 sheets from a high-end store, purchased 2 more on Wednesday and then acquired another 5 rolls today. My collection is made of Snow and Graham, Wooster and Prince, Paper Source and others like them. On top of that, I’ve purchased 6 rolls of satin ribbon.

The GTB just rolled his eyes and laughingly told me that he wouldn’t have gotten serious with me if he’d known about my “sickness.”

The top photo is my rolls of gift wrap (and our cute Frenchies — Louis and Lola) — the sad thing is that 4 of those rolls are made of multiple sheets of different patterns — to save space. The bottom photo is my “collection” of ribbons, to be used on future gifts.

At least I haven’t color-coordinated them… yet.

The Cupcake Incident

miel_y_leche_limoncello_cupcake

Originally uploaded by KikiLaRae

The GTB and I headed into Letterbox stationary shop to see if they had a certain flavor of cupcake.

(backstory: we’re catering our cake — or cupcakes to be exact — for our wedding with Miel y Leche. We adore Sheela, she’s funny and kind and innovative and willing to go the extra mile to make sure our wedding cupcakes — and display — are nothing short of amazing. We had decided on three flavors, but there’s one left to choose. We just HAVE to try that flavor before we sign on the dotted line. Of course it wasn’t one of the flavors available, so we decided to try 3 other flavors, for fun. The chocolate raspberry is AMAZING. Strawberry coconut is light and delicious. Cherry almond is, as we expected tasty.)

As we stood in line to pay, 2 women in their mid-to-late 60s (clearly from one of the more affluent suburbs, based on the amount of jewelry, designer duds and perfectly coifed hair) were commenting on the cupcakes. One of the women reached her hand out and actually touched one of the cupcakes. If she didn’t walk away with frosting on her finger, I’d be shocked.

This is when the woman working (I’m going to assume it was the owner, Kimberley, though I’ve never actually met her) was like, “Hey, lady, come back here. I can’t sell that cupcake now that you’ve paid for it.”

Older woman #1 (I’ll refrain from the word lady) – “I’ll pay for 1/2 of it and we can share.”

Older woman #2 – glances back and walks away.

Older woman #1 – follows her

Kimberley (I think) – chases them out of the store – “Lady – get back here! You just ruined this cupcake.”

It escalated. I was thinking (hoping) that that stupid older lady would have a cupcake thrown at her head, but it never happened.

Moral of the story: Letterbox is not only awesome, but people who mess with them don’t escape unscathed. This is a business at which I actually want to spend my money!

(image from Cupcake Takes The Cake