Doily Bags...

I made these doily bags for our Fast Christmas gathering. They turned out really great (despite their imperfections) and are definitely on my "make again soon" list. Very fast, easy, and fun!

Henry's Car Cozy...

We are celebrating Christmas with my mom's side of the family this weekend in Fresno. The adults are all participating in a "dirty bingo" style of gift exchanging (i.e...you draw numbers, pick a gift, unwrap it, if someone else wants it they steal it, etc, etc.) This game will be fun for the adults, but it's not exactly good for the kids. So, parents were asked to bring their own kids a wrapped gift and place it under the tree for them. I made Henry a car cozy and stuffed it with matchbox cars. I love it, and I hope he will too! (I used this pattern & last year I made one for Ryan for Christmas)






I still may use freezer paper stencils to number the car pockets, but that may come after I give it to Henry.

A sock monkey & my new gift-giving philosphy...

My friend, Betsy, and I decided to make sock monkeys for our boys for Christmas. These were a pretty fun project and I'm proud of us for finishing them in 2 sittings! We bought kits at Michael's and Beverly's for only $10 and they included everything we needed (minus the stuffing), which was great. I'd like to make Henry's some clothes at some point, but for now, I think the monkey is just fine as is.


This will be one of Henry's 3 gifts from us this Christmas. I've been thinking long and hard about how we should do gifts at Christmastime. I definitely want my family to give and receive gifts, but I don't want our kids to expect excessive amounts of stuff. Since I enjoy structure, I've been trying to find a somewhat loose structure for our gift-giving, and I think I've found it! And don't worry, John likes the idea too :)

Our pastor often talks about gift-giving with the idea that we can give gifts of our time, talents, and treasures (He uses this model year-round...not just at Christmastime). This has always really resonated with me for some reason, so I thought it might provide a nice structure for our family gift-giving.

So for example, this year Henry will get 3 gifts, with each gift falling into one of the 3 categories:

• time- John is going to assemble a tricycle that I received as a baby shower gift from my Grandma Net while pregnant with Henry. We aren't spending any money on this gift, but John will be giving of his (very precious) free time during the busy month of December to prepare this gift for Henry.
• talents- I made Henry the sock monkey using my sewing talent.
• Treasures- Henry will be receiving 2 books from us that John and I picked out together. We used our treasures (money) to purchase these gifts.

We'll see if this is something we stick with for years to come, but I think we should definitely give it our best shot. I think it honors both gift giver and receiver and helps deepen our relationships. I think it will also give our kids a sense of what is to come, and help them prepare themselves for the gifts they will receive at Christmas. We'll see how it goes.

Other ideas I have for these 3 categories:

• time- Individual outings for each individual child with one or both parents, either selected by the parent or planned by the child, or a family trip or vacation.
• talents- I have endless ideas for this category. Quilts, videos made my John, photo books, the list can go on and on.
• treasures- Here is the category where we can purchase gifts that our kids ask for.
  

So anyways, that's my gift-giving vision for the moment. I thought I'd write it down so I would remember it next year :)

My advent calendar...

I kept this calendar because it was the last one I made and required some extra piecing due to the fact that I was only planning on making 3 calendars, not 4. Pocket #'s 5 & 19 were pieced so that I could use a dark green print in the calendar and the binding used every last inch of my red polka dot fabric. Because of these things, I decided it was best to keep this one for myself. I think it still looks pretty cute though.

A few additional notes on the calendars:

• Instead of using applique or embroidery to make numbers for the pockets, I took the easy route and printed them off on fabric printer paper and then ironed them onto the pockets. If I was only making 1 calendar I would have used embroidery, but for 4, I knew the printer was my best option.
• I machine quilted each calendar by stitching around each pocket. I really like the way it turned out.
• Each calendar is held up with a dowel on the back and then hung using a piece of ribbon.
  

A very fun project...but I'm glad that they are now in the hands of their new owners and not draped over my sewing machine.

Gifts for our siblings...

I worked until the wee hours of the morning (well, at least until after 10pm, which is super late for me), but I finished the advent calendars I was making for our siblings! I bought the fabric last January, started working on them in July, and finally finished them this last week of November! In my defense, if Henry wouldn't have gone and swallowed those 2 pennies back in October (thus wreaking havoc on his already very fragile nap & nighttime sleeping schedule) I could have easily finished them much earlier. Oh well, they are done, and they are fantastic!

So fantastic, in fact, that after I completed the first calendar, I knew I had to make one for myself too. I loved it that much :) The tutorial can be found here.

Notes on the calendars:

• I made 2 calendars using random number placement, and 2 calendars in number order. I had intended to make all of them using the random placement (because I thought it seemed kind of fun and different) but after making the first 2 that way, I realized that my brain just doesn't think randomly! I had to double and triple check all of my pockets before I was able to sew them together because I was never confident that everything would come together right. Keeping things in number order allowed me to work a little faster.
• I used a white ikea sheet for all of the white sashing. I used 2 sheets for the 4 calendars. At $5 a piece it was a big money saver. (Not that you aren't worth the extra expense siblings...I just had to pinch a few pennies where I could :)
• Grandma Net sewed down ALL of my binding for me. She said she liked having handwork to do in the evenings...who was I to stand in the way of her evening entertainment?
  
• This year the advent calendar came empty, but I think our siblings have agreed that from here on out I can stuff the calendars with goodies (like crafts, family activities, scripture, etc.) as a family Christmas gift. (At least I think everyone agreed to this :) I'm really excited about the idea of stuffing these calendars in the future. I hope they become a fun and memorable part of our siblings' families Christmas traditions. I know I'm looking forward to filling ours!
  

Enough talk...here are the pictures:

Denise & Andrew's calendar:





Jay & Jill's calendar:




I don't have pictures of Ben & Kelly's calendar or mine, but I'll try and post those later.

Do you need an Advent Calendar?

My friend, Christa, approached me with a business idea about a month and a half ago. She has an etsy shop where she primarily sells her scrapbooking services, but this year, like she did last year, she is selling Christian advent calendar kits...which are really amazing. She wanted to offer some advent calendars to go with her kits, so she asked if I would like to partner with her and make the calendars. I agreed. I think they turned out nicely and even bought enough material to make myself one (eventually). If you need an advent calendar and are interested, pop on over to Christa's etsy shop and take a look. If you have a calendar, and are looking for a unique way to fill it, check out Christa's advent calendar kits. You won't be disappointed!