Merry Christmas

Yay we finished our Christmas cards. I know, I know... it's late, but EARLY for us!!

Here are a few more gifts.

Puppy. Tutorial by Martha. Yes, we're on a first name basis. M loves "Frankie" so much that I might have to make another one for the little one this puppy was intended.

Eye pillows. These smell so wonderful.

Play food. There were so many cute ideas out there that I wanted to make them all. I settled on cookies, eggs, bacon, pancakes with syrup and butter, and a sandwich. I also made a reversible apron to go with it.

Some pillows.

Lost

I've been swallowed up or buried in all of my projects. Here's a drive by post with a few completed projects. More to come, I just haven't taken pictures.


Here is A testing out some fleece pants I made her.



Christmas pajamas. Here's a tutorial on how to do the reverse applique on the shirts and here's a tutorial on how to make the pants.



We usually don't get snow in our side of the world so I thought these would be cute gifts for the toddlers and babies. These are hand felted balls with a golf ball size wiffle ball and a bell inside. Here's the tutorial I used.

** Sorry Wendy I should have given the blog that inpired these. ***

Advent

Day 7 - To see Santa

Day 8 - Make ornaments for the tree with friends. We made THESE (I know it's too simple, who needs a recipe, but I like to read the comments) cinnamon ornaments. Super easy and they make the whole house smell yummy for YEARS!!

Day 9 - Write letters to Santa. I helped M with his shapes and A's list says: 1. House 2. Lipstick 3. Doll

Ok ladies, get ready. I have a few projects I've been working on and I'll post them tomorrow. How is your handmade Christmas coming along?

To be a hypocrite is to be human...

What do you think?

I just recently heard someone say this and I've been rolling it around in my head. The last time I was called a hypocrite, which was just a week or so ago, I wasn't offended, and that's very different from the other million few times I've had that word slung at me. This time I just thought, "Well yeah, I am." I think that the idea of who I want to be, the goals I have set for myself and I'm constantly striving to meet, haven't been reached yet. I'm a hypocrite. I say as a mother that my kids come first, but sometimes they don't. Marriage should be about respecting each other, but sometimes that gets thrown out the window on the tail of my harsh words. Quality time... "Right after this email, baby girl." I should just put a "live green" sticker on my SUV, huh?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not embracing the idea of striving to be a hypocrite, but let's not kid ourselves, we all are. I think the important part for me is that I WANT to be a better person and I am striving to be but sometimes, well a lot of the times, I fail.


Here's a striving-to-be-Earth-friendly hypocrite's artificial tree.

I was going to try and take pictures of every Advent event, but um... yeah, that didn't happen. Here are the days that I had enough sanity to remember the camera.

Ok, so it's been a rough week. We did decorate the house last night though. woooohooo Oh, and our house really isn't on fire, it's just my crappy photo-taking skillz.

And A is loving the nativity scene; All of our dolls are now named "baby Jesus" including the one in my tummy AND her's.

And so it begins

Our Advent calendar is up and I've we've really enjoyed our first two activities. I really am hoping that this will help me slow down and teach my babies about the whole season of Christmas. I don't want them to pass the years thinking that if they are good for three weeks out of the year they'll be loaded down with elaborate and ridiculously expensive gifts. I love the season of Christmas and I mean everything from the jolly fat guy and snowmen to the feeling I get when I see a Christmas candle light flicker and know what that means in my heart. I want my babies to know the sharing, hope, faith and love that is Christmas. I've never done this before, you know, seeing how I only get one go 'round at the mom thing. So, my plans are to emphasize family, love, giving and the history of Christmas through our Advent calendar AND to make this a handmade Christmas. I really, really want my kids to see that the act of giving has gotten too expensive and money is tight is an act of love and that when we invest our time and creativity into our gifts we are putting our love into them for our friends and family. I hope that this lesson will carry over into the receiving part of this tradition too, so we're not bombarding them with tons of toys. When they receive a gift that has been carefully chosen just for them, I want them to cherish it and know that it was given with love. I'm thinking that this would be hard to do if they have gobs of presents thrown at them in one day, so this year we're going to try out the "less is more" idea. Now, I'm not going lie; Last year both of them had a pile of gifts that Santa would be proud to show off, but it was disheartening when they ripped off the paper, showed a glimpse of joy, said their thank you's and cast the carefully chosen toy off to the side to play with the paper or move on to the next box. NOT what I was imagining the night before; And that my friends has been my motivation to change this gift giving/receiving process in our house. So without further ado, lets get started on our challenge this month. I'll be posting what's going on over here project-wise and please let me know what you've got going on. Remember, even if you just make ONE gift, I would LOVE for you to share it with us!

Our Advent Calendar

Day one: Decorating the tree. Check out the "socks" A has on.

Day two: Setting up and acting out the nativity scene.

Wrapping it up

Well, I really enjoyed my challenge last month. It took a lot of preparing and was a pain in the ass hard for the first week or so, but I walked away from it with a new appreciation for perseverance of small business owners. With stores like Target, Walmart and ToysRus out there, who in their right mind would want to operate a small business??? People who care about quality and tradition, that's who. I loved that this journey led me into conversations with people who have contributed to our city, buildings that are older than my parents, and the realization that THIS ::imagine me waving my hands in the air in a circular motion:: is what I want to be about. Hard work, hope, family, and meaning.