This weekend’s project was creating a gift wrapping station. I read about it in the November 2007 issue of Real Simple and just had to do it, especially since the last time I had to wrap a gift, for my cousin Sara’s 13th birthday a few weeks back, I had to use a department store bag and hand-me-down tissue paper. It was a sad sight.
Here’s a basic clear plastic shoe organizer I got at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Don’t forget your coupons! I put scraps of ribbons, tape, a wrapping paper cutter and little baggies in the pockets. I attached it to the back part of my shelf so that it didn’t take up space on my curtain rod. It sits behind everything. It’s a bit long for this purpose but the extra pockets are hurting anything at this point.
On a multitiered pant hanger, I put spools of ribbon. The bottom two are ribbons I bought at Ikea.
I hung different sheets of tissue paper that I found at Factory Card Outlet on a second pant hanger. Packing tissue is on the bottom, then only white above that. The other three tiers hold different colors to match any colored bag.
On a skirt hanger, a bunch of gift bags hang on the clasps. The baby bags I bought at Target from the dollar bin. They each have a matching card and stickers inside.
I recently bought a chair at Ikea which came in this slender box. I cut the edges off and turned it into a nifty wrapping paper holder. A few bigger bags are tucked into the box as well.
For more details on how to make your own gift wrapping station, pick up Real Simple. I adapted the instructions to the items I had on hand. As geeky as it seems, I’m totally excited about my gift wrapping station!
Be inspired.
One of the best things I've ever done in my career is work with Kate Hamilton. Her enthusiasm for all things editorial, not to mention her energy and passion for any project she's involved with, is contagious. In addition to being a natural born leader, she's also a creative type, a thinker, a stickler for details, and someone with incredible vision and the drive to get things done. I always marvel at how she is constantly teaching herself new things. She always seems to be ahead of the curve on anything related to social media, and she also has an eye for design. This lady rocks! And she continues to be a mentor to me and others in journalism and communications.
I met Kate through the Association of Women Journalists (AWJ) and immediately was impressed (and inspired) by her creativity, drive, work ethic and use of social media. Her passion for journalism, digital media and communications overall is evident in the projects she takes on, including LoganSquarist, an online news outlet that she founded that uses social media to socialize the neighborhood. What I admire about Kate is her vitality as well as her desire to keep learning and growing personally and professionally. Kate is a modern-day renaissance woman who is multitalented (ask about her travel, knitting and marathon exploits!) and who brings instant value to any team or organization.
Kate has been a fantastic resource for all things digital, whether redesigning my website on Wordpress, fine tuning my social media profiles, or understanding Google Analytics. She's an excellent communicator, and I will absolutely hire her again in the future.
I worked with Kate during my time as a community manager at Lightspan Digital while Kate was my direct manager. Kate’s communication practices really taught me how to navigate the sometimes complicated agency world. As an account manger, Kate smoothly orchestrated 10+ accounts at one time as well as help me manage and prioritize tasks in my role. Kate was a role model during my first few years in the professional world and continues to be so to this day.
Kate did and excellent job with our website. We have received several compliments on how nice it looks and how easy it is to navigate. She also went above and beyond to make sure that we were able to update and the website ourselves through Wordpress. I cannot gush about how awesome she is and how happy we are with the site and her dedication to the project.
Kate is a wealth of knowledge who served as a tremendous mentor for all of our team members while constantly improving processes and workflows. She’s a tremendous project manager, pays great attention to detail, and is able to demand results from her team with respect. At LoganSquarist she has built and led a team of dozens of volunteer contributors committed to her vision of a community resource. I would happily work with Kate again anytime!
Kate is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. She is a great communicator and always put her client's (my company) interest first. She is tremendously personal and had a great understanding of our business and how she could help it. She is great and is a tremendous asset to any company.
Kate has an incredible amount of drive when it comes to LoganSquarist. In the six months that I’ve been involved, I’ve watched the site grow from a pet project to a respected community publication. This success can be attributed to Kate’s technical and leadership skills. From building out the site to off-hours community management and a consistent flow of content, the site improves by leaps and bounds on a weekly basis. When it comes to team management, Kate delegates tasks in an organized and efficient manner, making her an all around great and inspiring person to work with.