Christmas Cards and Gift Wrap

Christmas is going to be here before we know it!  I've been busy for months working on handmade presents for family and close friends. For details on the gifts we are giving this year, see my handmade holiday posts.  My goal is to get all of the presents done by the end of November so that I can focus on decorating, baking, celebrating, honoring old family traditions and starting some new ones as well.  Most of my knitting is completed. During December I may work on knitting a few gift items, but for the most part they are little things to supplement larger gifts.  If I get some of them done great, if not, they won't be missed all that much.  What I do need to get really busy with this week is sewing.  I have plans to sew several items for Daddy and W.

I'm thinking that means one of this week's tasks is going to be starting to draft this year's Christmas letter and and get our card address list updated.  Maybe I'll have Daddy start printing out some address labels this week too.  We always try to do a photo card.  The last two years have been of all three of us, but I'm thinking this year we should probably just feature the young man of the house.  His Grammy has purchased several nice holiday outfits for him, so once I have all of them, we will choose one and start taking some pictures.  Last year we used our Christmas tree as a backdrop, but I'd like to get the pictures done this year before it's time to put the tree up so, I'm debating what would make a good setting for his holiday pictures.  Also, last year we got a great deal on our photo cards from SeeHere.  I think we paid something like $2.00 for 50 cards (including shipping).  It was a fantastic deal.  I'm hoping there is a similar deal from them this year since I have already designed the card and just need to insert the picture of W.  I'm also including a picture of the winter scene needle felting I made this fall on the card.

By the way this 12x12 needle felted wall hanging is currently for sale in my etsy shop.

As for gift wrapping, we have decided to try to make reusable cloth gift bags for as many things as possible this year.  I have a few styles that I have collected over the years already.  My aunt always sends gifts to W in cotton drawstring bags with Christmas prints on them so I have quite a few of those at this point.  I also have one that I bought at a craft sale last year that has a contrasting piece of fabric at the top and an attached ribbon.  The benefit of this design is that it can be used to wrap a box similarly to how you would wrap with paper.  Over the past 6 months or so I've been trying to give gifts in cloth bags when possible and have usually just made a mitered bag with a very wide hem at the top and done with a decorative stitch.  I then have put in the present and tied a pretty bow around the bag.  My mom and I have been collecting some Christmas fabrics for a while now, so we need to start sewing on some of these bags pretty soon.  I anticipate still needing to use some boxes and wrapping paper this year to supplement the bags, but hopefully much less than we have in the past.  I figure we can add a few bags each year form now on and buy the fabrics we want to use on clearance after Christmas from now on.

Edit 11/18/10-

I ordered our Christmas cards from SeeHere  three days ago and they arrived today.  I used the best deal I could find this year which was 25 free cards ($4.95 s&h) and then ordered 10 more at regular price.  With tax our 35 cards came to just over $10.00 which isn't too bad.  Our Christmas letter is written and I am waiting for my mom to send me some extra pretty paper she has to print it on.  My hubby and I have also compiled our card list and are working on gathering up addresses.  We need to get stamps this week and print out our address labels (these are are the hubster's responsibility too) and we will be ready to send out our cards by sometime  in early December.

Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to share a quick post with you all about our Halloween last night.

We had a great time but everything felt very last minute and  I wasn't nearly as organized as I would have preferred.  I usually try to carve pumpkins on the 30th, but didn't get it done.  I also had to spend a couple hours finishing the head for my husband's longhorn cow costume on Halloween itself.  My mom made the costume, but didn't quite get it finished before she had to send it (I received it on the 30th)!  That left me to finish it in a panic.

W's costume was pretty easy.  He was a cowboy (a very cute little cowboy if I say so myself).  My mom lives out west and had purchased the chaps, vest and boots for him from a western wear store before he was even born, and sent him his (3rd maybe?...we seem to go through them) cowboy hat  a couple of months ago.

After I finished the cow head I had to carve pumpkins.  I frantically carved three of the four jack o' lanterns in the hour and a half before trick or treating began.  They may not be my best jack o'lantern's ever, but I'm pretty happy with how the turned out.

I also very quickly made these cute little luminaries to put on our walk.  They were inspired by these from Moment to Moment.

And  I just have to share one last picture of my guys...the cowboy and his longhorn cow back from a long walk trick or treating!

BTW the Great Pumpkin came to visit W last night and left him a couple of lovely Halloween books, some pretzels, once piece of candy and some play dough that W got trick or treating.  For folks out there who give out play dough, pretzels and other non-candy items, this mama thanks you!  It's really nice for the Great Pumpkin to be able to give these items back for a child to enjoy without causing havoc in our home and sleep schedules with sugary treats!

Also, be sure to check out our family's November gratitude tree on my Counting Our Blessings page.

Handmade Holiday Monday...or..um...Saturday...

Okay, so I've not posted about our handmade holiday efforts in a while, but I do have some projects done and ready to share.

Again, the disclaimer, if you are a member of my family, please stop reading this blog till Christmas gifts are exchanged!

First a warm wool hat for my husband's cousin who lives in upstate New York.  It was my first Beanie #212 watch cap knitted flat and seamed together.

I then thought that my BIL who works out on a boat for a couple weeks at a time could also use some warm wool on his head and I used the same pattern but knitted in the round and added some cables.  I love how this hat turned out!

Remember my favorite scarf pattern for women?  Well, I made two more of them  A solid rosy color for MIL and a pretty pink and brown colorway for DH's aunt.

When I saw the wool handle cover at Moment to Moment, I knew I had to make my mom one to use with her cast iron skillet.  I ended up following the instructions to knit one from A Hand Made Life and felted some flowers on it.  I want a couple of these too.  Maybe if I get all the other projects finished, I'll find some in my stocking...

Except for a pair of socks that I started for my b-day and am not allowed to work on till all my Christmas gifts are complete, that is everything that I had cast on my needles finished.  I need to go get some more yarn so that I can cast on some slippers for W, and three more beanie # 212's for my hubby, father and FIL.  I also need to get busy on a few cat toys for the pets in our lives but those are super quick kits.

This week I felted down another sweater, unsure of what I was planning to do with it.  Later that evening, I remembered that I had wanted to make little tissue holder pouches for my mom and MIL from felt.  I decided to use this felted sweater instead.  I also needle felted designs on them and stitched up the sides with a blanket stitch.  I loosely based the idea on these.  The needle felting was a great way to add a little "red hat" to the gifts for MIL.

Over the summer, after receiving a batch of pictures of my son, my mom stated that she wanted to "wear a picture of W around her neck".  That became the inspiration for a Christmas gift of course!  I made one for my mom and one for MIL.  I found these little charm frames at Michaels several months ago for 75% off and printed out tiny little pictures of W to put in them.  I need to put the charms on jump rings and then  make them into necklaces, but the hard part of the project (selecting the picture, shrinking it and putting it in the little frame charms) is done.

Speaking of photo gifts, I also found pictures of FIL, DH and W all taken when they were between the ages of 18 months and 2 years old.  I've edited them to make them look fairly similar and will be framing them together as gifts for my hubby and FIL.  I was moved to tears when I put the three pictures together into a collage to see how they sit together.  I think the family resemblances between these three little boys is amazing!  I hope they like this gift as much as I do.

In our house we also allow a few purchased handmade items.  I mostly have used this get a few things for W's stocking so far.

At our Waldorf School Fest of Fall, I purchased these beautiful shooting stars from my table-mate L of Blue Iris Handcrafts.

On Etsy I purchased this cute little tub turtle for W from MamaMadeThem.  I also have purchased him one of her bathtub boats for him as we are trying to transition him away from plastic bath toys.

The other thing I bought for him on Etsy is this set of  creative wood play clips  from Creative Wood Toys.  I am sure that W and A are both going to enjoy these since they have been asking me to make them playsilk tents for the past week.  My plan is to dye a big playsilk to go with these clips as one of W's gifts.

Also at the Waldorf School Fest of Fall, I purchased this beautiful bar of lavender soap from Sweet Cheeks.  Her things are beautiful and I'm thinking there are a couple stocking-stuffers I need to order from her for the hubby!  This soap is going to go to my mom who has always loved all things lavender.

I have a couple more projects in the works here including more photo coasters, and some felted soaps which hopefully will be done for my next handmade holiday post.

A Family Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This past week we made a trip to Gallmeyer Farms to visit the pumpkin patch.  We had a great time and W and I really enjoyed having Daddy come with us this year!   We told W he needed to wear a hat so he insisted on wearing his fabulous gnome hat made by by very talented friend over at Blue Iris Hand Crafts (she is the friend I have shared a booth with at our Waldorf School's Holiday Bizarre/Fest of Fall for the past two years and her things are beautiful)!  I love this hat and I think W chose the perfect hat for the pumpkin patch!   Daddy of course picked out a huge pumpkin which our little gnome had quite a time trying to push in the wheelbarrow!

W also picked out his own smaller pumpkin which he tried to carry around himself...but it was really heavy!

So we put it in the wheelbarrow with Daddy's and let him try to push both pumpkins.

We also took a family trip through the hay maze.

And ended our trip with hayride.  W especially loved riding behind the tractor and getting to see the turkeys they keep at the farm.

We are eagerly awaiting carving our pumpkins for Halloween but enjoying them while they grace our front steps!