Gift Wrapping in Layers and Judging by Appearances

I'm old enough now to have heard the little adages . . . “Don't judge a book by its cover” . . . “Appearances are often deceiving” . . . and certainly, I know better than to judge people or circumstances by mere appearance . . . but when it comes to gift wrapping . . . well, I get such a huge kick from a beautifully wrapped package!

Today I wrapped a present for my brother, Al, and my sister-in-law, Kathy. They are celebrating their silver anniversary and their children are throwing them a party. I can't wait for them to open it!

I was so tickled when the writing on the paper matched up so that the letters flowed seemlessly! This is the bottom of the box, of course, but, as Emerson said, “Beauty is its own excuse for being.” There's satisfaction in doing a job well, even if no one will know about it. Well, I guess now everyone in blogland will . . .

The latest trend in gift wrapping, as well, it seems, as in every other area of life is . . . layering . . . Yes, one single type of paper for multiple packages simply won't do . . . How boring! How conventional! We simply must not do matchy-matchy . . . the package should look as though we saved scraps of paper from previous wrapping jobs and mixed them together because we want them, above all, to be unique and show depth and complexity . . .

Let me tell you . . . it takes a lot of extra effort to show depth and complexity while seeming casual, hip and unique . . . and I'm not just talking about gift wrapping!

I love how the wrapping turned out . . . but it would be mere paper without the deeper beauty of Al and Kathy's 25-year commitment to each other . . . their marriage, like most successful marriages I have seen, is far from “matchy-matchy” but reflects their individual personalities, somehow blended together into a lovely whole . . . I am so into layering . . .