Family fun

Still working through some planning for Mostly Homemade Christmas 2012, I keep looking over the ideas on Pinterest.  Yes, I'm a Pinterest junkie.  I already admitted that in an early post! =)


Found an idea that I've already done and I was rather proud.  I am not a painter by ANY stretch of the imagination.  But I bought six large wine glasses at the dollar store and two bottles of Folk Art Enamel paint which is specially designed for painting on glass.  It was VERY easy to prep the painting surface and I made sure to get the special cleaner to get the paint out of the brushes!  Two of my girls asked if they could participate.  I was actually relieved!  I was pretty sure I would not be able to duplicate the pattern I had painted well enough for the glasses to be symmetrical.  So the three glasses that have been painted do not match.  Not even a little bit.  But they all three have the same paint colors on them so they are connected by color scheme if not by design!  


When I posted pictures on my Facebook, one of my sisters commented that she wanted a set for herself.   Hmmmm. . . .


These are the glasses my daughters and I painted.  The middle one was my design.  The one on the left is my youngest daughter's handiwork and the one on the right came from my oldest daughter's creativity!

Problem

I love to cross-stitch!  No, that's not the problem but it does lead up to it.  Thanks to websites like yardsellr.com and freepatterns.com I can support my love of cross-stitch fairly inexpensively.  And I keep finding these FANTASTIC ideas for my family members.  But many of the patterns I'm finding take serious time and I don't know that I'll be able to do them all in time for Christmas.  So I'm trying to use other web resources - especially Pinterest - to find other crafty, handmade gift ideas for this Christmas. I've found some possible ideas but haven't made any definite decisions yet.  Need to get on that quick so I can get to work!

Planning again!

It seems that everywhere I look I see gift ideas!  And my newest web find is not helping my recent drive to create handmade gifts for family members!  Now it seem my ideas are drifting from Christmas to other gift giving events - birthdays, anniversaries, etc. - and I'm still not sure I'll use up all the ideas I have!


What was that?  You want me to explain my new web find that I mentioned earlier.  Okay.  Here goes.  Hi, my name is Mary Jo and I'm a Pinterest addict!  Yes, I'm one of the hundreds of thousands who have found the pull of Pinterest to be irresistible.  If you don't know what Pinterest is, it's basically an online way to keep track of any websites you want to revisit.  It's especially popular with those who are looking for recipe ideas, home decorating ideas, crafting ideas, teaching ideas, tattoo inspirations, color palettes, you name it!  I have actually tried a couple of the recipes I found there and I've got some other projects in the works so we'll see just what I'm capable of pulling off in the next few weeks (months?!).

Confession time

I know that Christmas is supposed to be about giving to others.  But I have to admit that I REALLY enjoyed seeing people get the homemade gifts that Hubby and I made for them this year!!  So much so, that I've already started on gifts for Christmas 2012!!

Actually, I've started gifts for some birthday/anniversary events as well.  And I have a daughter who got engaged over Christmas break so you KNOW there is a cross-stitch something-or-other in the works for her future wedding!

In all seriousness, I found myself spending numerous hours thinking of and praying for those who were going to receive whatever craft item I happened to be working on at the time.  Maybe that's what is really drawing me back in - the time spent focused on praying for those I lvoe!

The Home Stretch

I have had an absolute blast this year, handcrafting so many of the gifts I'm giving away!!  And it's been almost more fun to watch hubby join in!! My two oldest girls were commenting that they both had filled the bookshelves they had and would each love a new set.  Yep, you guessed it.  Set number 1 is painted and just waiting to move into my oldest daughter's bedroom.  Set number two will be ready by Christmas (or so I've heard!).


My own beautiful gift of trestle style dining table and matching chairs (six of them) is just one chair away from being done.  Not gonna lie - I love it!  


As for my own progress, I have one last caddy to finish up for the kids in my life and then those are done (all 8 of them!!).  There is just one cross-stitch gift that I will not be able to get done but there was already talk about a group gift for that particular person so they are still getting something!  And this just gives me a head start on next year!  


Did I just say that?!  Okay - confession time.  I've had so much fun putting my own personal touch on gifts this year that I intend to do much the same next year!  


May you and your have a wonderfully blessed holiday this weekend!

Watching What I Say!

Over Thanksgiving weekend, hubby and I were at the mall.  While I am attempting to hand make most of the Christmas gifts we give this year, there are a few things that must be purchased!  After all, I don't know how to make fragrances, teddy bears, etc.  so we found ourselves braving the crowds on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year. Much to my delighted surprise, hubby suggested we just "wander the mall" once our purchases were made.  It gave us some much needed time to hang out and catch up during what will inevitably a busy season for us since he's a Pastor and I'm a music teacher and Advent has officially started!!

We were wandering through a Hallmark store when I saw a recipe box that had a recipe card rest on the lid.  It was sort of an insert that popped up for the cook to rest a recipe card on.  Since my girls and I had done some baking together over the holiday weekend, we discovered that the one cookbook I have with all the family favorite recipes in it really isn't convenient when more than one of us is baking so a recipe card box seemed like a great way to have a second set of recipes.  And the card rest was pretty clever!  I pointed it out to hubby and said, "That's cute!"  Apparently, he heard "I really like that and want to own one but would prefer that it be made out of wood and not the heavy duty cardboard that was used to make the one I pointed out to you."  How do I know that's what he heard?!  Because I now own a handmade original recipe box with a piece that slides out of the lid so you can prop up a recipe card!  Guess I have to be careful when I say "That's cute" about items that I see because he may take that as a personal challenge to make them himself!

I've included pictures of his handiwork.  The first shows the box closed.  The second is the card rest set up and ready for action (it simply slides in and out of the lid!) and the third is the box itself open.  It's been stained a beautiful golden oak and has gold hardware (hinges and latch).  Now I just have to fill it!

So close!

It's hard for me to comprehend that today is November 1st!!  Thanksgiving is just around the corner and then Christmas!!  My favorite holiday season of the year - Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year's - is nearly upon us!  I feel pretty good about where I am with the homemade gifts for the extended family (siblings, parents, etc) but there are a few things I'm feeling pressured to make progress on for my kids!  Hubby is in the process of getting some projects made for them that I am SUPER excited about.  Mostly because they are items I was going to buy and decorate but he wants to make them himself!!  I love that he has gotten into the whole Homemade thing!!

In the course of shopping around for cross-stitch ideas and projects, I found a MUCH better option for my dad's gift than what I had originally chosen.  So excited to see the final product there!  Now to get busy on some homemade jewelry items for my girls and come up with something comparable for my son.  Oh!  And the crayon totes that were mentioned in one of my first posts are nearly done!  Yay!