Christmas projects

We had some fun Christmas projects this year. I hope the people who received them enjoyed them as much as we enjoyed putting them together.

First up was the Super hero aprons. I first saw these on Pinterest and loved them, but couldn't really afford the price tag. I looked up the Etsy shop and saw that she had patterns for sale that looked incredibly similar to the super hero aprons and thought I could make the necessary changes, so I bought the pattern from Modern Vintage Designs and tweaked away. I love how they turned out. Although time consuming, the details definitely made the aprons.

 

(Don't you love my apron model? He can be bribed.)

We also made some other little things. I made boo-boo bags out of wheat, flannel and essential oils. Meg helped me fill them up and choose the fabric for them. Meg got an 18 inch doll for Christmas, to replace the porcelain doll with the shattered face. Along with the doll came clothes from Grandma Cozy, a bed made by dad and a quilt, mattress and pillow made by me. If you want to know how to make the mattress, try here. I also made Fort Kits.  I first saw them about this time last year and knew I had to make them for my nieces and nephews. Find the tutorial and printables at Saltwater-Kids. Adam and I worked on the quilt for Grandma Cleo for some time. It was first featured in this blog post. I am glad to be able to say I finished it all the way and did get it sent off in time.

Last of all Justin worked long and hard on a gift for Adam. It started a couple of months ago when he mentioned that what he really wanted for Christmas was bigger maps. He has just about worn is Atlas out. He's into geography lately. Justin found a discarded train table on a walk one morning and magically transformed it into a command central table complete with storage area, white board, removable plastic top and all the maps the kiddo would need for the foreseeable future. It's really very cool.

I do love doing handmade Christmas gifts. I think it adds something to the spirit of Christmas for me. Maybe it's the service oriented part of me, but I love making gifts with love and thinking about those who will receive them. I hope you all had a great Christmas this year. I know we did.

Monster Fun

We had a 5 year old birthday party to attend last week for a couple of twin friends. I usually make a black apple doll for the little girl birthday parties we attend, but that go-to gift wasn't going to work out this time. I searched Pinterest and found these adorable bags from a fun blog called Hideous!Dreadful!Stinky! I loved the idea and more importantly, had all of the supplies on hand. (I love the Etsy shop from that blog too. Made me laugh.)
   Meg helped me pick out colors and details and this is what we came up with:

 

I put a couple holiday coloring books inside and made some cute tags to go with them. Notice the girl bag has a bow? Meg was trying hard to get me to use a button, but I wasn't sure how well that would hold up. These kids spend a lot of travel time in the back of Mom's van and I thought this might be something fun to do while traveling that doesn't involve electronic devices. My kids liked them so much they put in requests for monsters with certain features. Bug wants freckles and Meg wants a Princess crown. We will see if all of that works out for them. I need to finish up the Christmas sewing so that I can get things shipped off this week. It's the shipping that gets to me every time.

  By the way, my Pinterest is freaking out. It only updates about 3 of my friends and takes a couple of days at a time to update anymore. Anyone know what's up with that? Do I have a setting wonky or something? It just changed all of the sudden and I don't like it. On the plus side, I am not spending anywhere near the time on there that I was, so maybe I shouldn't complain about it. 

   Good luck with your Christmas stuff. I can't wait to post about all of my projects. Some of them are really fun.

Gifts of Christmas

I admit I am a crafter. I like to create, I like to make messes and I like to see the reaction people have to my creations, good or bad. I love to learn new things and in the crafting world it's easy to learn things one step at a time. I also have a dark side. {no comment from my family, please...} I am a procrastinator extraordinaire. I have the best of intentions and worst follow through ever. I started making Christmas gifts in July. Really. I finished the last one Dec 23. Ugh. My other real problem is that while I am amazing at taking an idea and making it my own, I am lousy at coming up with my own unique idea. So thanks to all of the wonderful crafters out there in blogland. Your ideas helped make a great Christmas for my family!

Christmas gifts I give have criteria to meet. I don't just give any old thing. First, it has to be fit for a variety of age groups. Nieces and Nephews range from 2 months to 12 years old. Some of the parents are bigger kids than the kids. It has to be a family strengthening gift. Toys don't last, memories do. Also, some aspect has to be handmade. It's better if I can come up with a plan and make it for each family (9 in all + grandparents), but I am happy to do different things for each family too. Lastly, it has to be affordable. Lots of people, we don't draw names and we have to afford Christmas for our own kiddos too.

This year was the year of games. I loved this idea from a blog I read. I have posted about it before and the same warning still applies. Every family got Yahtzee games with a hand made drawstring bag with their name on it.  The idea was to be able to add personalized games to them throughout the year. I have cousin memory coming up by Easter I hope. I also saw a version of Family Go Fish I liked a lot too. We shall see what actually gets done.

I borrowed an embroidery machine from a friend of mine. (It's actually for sale. Contact me and I will fill you in on the details.) I forgot to take a picture of this,although hopefully Dad and Annie will send me one to add.(Thanks Annie.) It was a bird tablecloth with matching gold napkins. Each corner of the tablecloth had a bird from a different season on it.

 It was really pretty when I was done and quite a learning experience. It fit the criteria in that it's only them living there, she loves to cook and entertain so it brings them closer together.

I also did a couple of quilts. For my FIL and his sweet wife I did this fun quilt.

I got the idea from Crazy Mom Quilts. Good for cuddling on the couch after a long day of horses and chores on the ranch. I decided that one quilt per year for was going to be my limit, but then this one fell into my lap. The same friend who had the machine I borrowed also had a rough outline of this cute quilt done.

 It didn't take long to finish it up, since it was all cut out and had all the pieces together. A lap quilt was perfect for this Grandpa.

For my grandmothers I made tater bags. They both loved them. Good for re-heating rolls, heating tortillas, baking potatoes or apples, these are fun and easy. Both of them have everything they want and love something new and different, so this was the perfect gift for them. No photo of that either. Think bright lined flannel with a bright yellow lining. Cute and functional.

No Christmas cards were sent out this year, I just didn't get to it. Maybe for Valentine's Day. Lots of cooking, lots of sewing {and with a brand new sewing machine, who could resist?} and lots of errands. We helped two friends move away in December, which was sad, but we know they are on to new adventures. I participated in a Christmas Choir, we had illness visit our house and Meg started Pre-school. I did 3 family photo shoots and 2 sweet babies but didn't manage to get our own family photos done. We also celebrated two birthdays and made lots of cookies.

 I traveled to WA for the funeral of my Grandfather

and returned to the biggest storms So Cal has seen in many many years. Here's our unofficial rain gauge for the 5 days of rain. There should be another almost 2 inches but my son emptied it out. Crazy, isn't it?

Still reading? Wow. That was long and involved. There were other gifts this year too. Gifts to me personally that made a difference in my life. Gifts of mercy, when I needed it most, gifts of patience, gifts of self reliance, endurance, music, creativity, hope, family and testimony. Without those gifts, where would I be? We hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and feel ready to take on the New Year with joy and energy. 2011, here we come...