My Sister's Gift

I put a few things that my sister has been wanting into her Christmas box this year. But, the items I made specifically for her for Christmas were these:

Got a guess? Boot socks!

I bought some for myself as well, but haven't had a chance to doll them up yet. Can't imagine why not.

She so sweetly told me that she saved my gift for last to open. Talk about pressure!

I hope she wasn't disappointed like I hear my mom was that she didn't get new slippers this year.

And they say I am hard to please!

Merry Christmas sweet sister of mine!

My Christmas Tree Pizza

I know there are Christmas tree pizzas all over the web. I thought I would show you the one that I made the other night.

I used Grand's biscuits, super yummy. I left them as is for the tree, and spread on the greenery, pesto. Mmmm

I rolled out the extra biscuits and went with tomato sauce for them, for those under four feet tall whose tastes are somewhat opposed to what is expected.

Added cheese, which gives it a snowy feel doesn't it?

Decorations and of course a star.

I do want to share with you a way to cut a pepper that I found in a cookbook from a high school teacher that I think is brilliant. This way you cut off the four main sections without having to worry about dealing with the stem, seeds or membranes. Watch...

Isn't that incredible? Thank you, Brooke!

Anyway, here are the finished pizzas, all merry and bright, and very tasty too.

Such a Special Gift Set

These two little lovelies are special in so many ways. For one thing, they were made for my best friend. You know, the friend you have that knows all of your warts and short comings and loves you anyway? The one who you were able to be a roommate with and still loved when you moved on? The one who cheerleads the loudest for you, and is a soft place to fall when things aren't very happy? That friend asked me to make a pair of little shoes for her niece, Tiny Pants, and a little something to go with them.

Aren't they sweet? But, here's what makes them even more special...They were made from her mother's old formal dresses. Not a bad use for an old bridesmaid's dress, right? And the something extra is a sweet little skirt. Something girly and frilly and fun.

My friend is so excited to give them to Tiny Pants, and I must admit, I am just as excited...

I am hope that she will be thrilled in her girly little heart, and that her mother will love seeing something that she once wore being enjoyed in a whole new way by her daughter and that these items will be treasured for years and years...

Christmas for Little Hands

Do you like my angel?

He's kind of cute, but he has a secret...

Actually, he has four of them.

Yay! A nativity set that the little ones can play with, and that cost me nothing (except a little patience and sanity) to make!

It's actually a very easy project. The patience and sanity payments came into play when I thought that I could do my crafting (for the kids) while they crafted quietly right by me. I know, sleep deprivation can really make you delusional.

The seed for this idea can be found here. And Joel provides wonderful step by step instructions. I didn't follow them. It's how I cook too. But, I think they turned out fairly well anyway.  I free handed my images on paper, then traced them with regular markers onto fabric. (I don't expect these to be keepsakes.) If you would like my humble little images, I will gladly provide them, just ask in a comment on this post.

They can put on puppet shows with them depicting the Christmas story of course. They're totally easy to pack and take with you too. I'm kind of excited by this, can you tell? And the funny thing is, that out of my kids, I am betting my 8 year old oldest will be the most excited about them with me. What do you think?

For My Grandmother

I think I have mentioned before that I love my grandma. She's one of the reasons why I love all things vintage and one of my best examples of a life of faith. My memories of the long vacations we would spend at my grandparent's home shaped so much of who I am.

She's over 90, and I feel so blessed to still have her with us, to be able to see her when I visit my folks and to share my kids with her. So this Christmas I wanted to make her something special.

She loves birds, and robins and cardinals always make me think of her. For the last few years I have bought her little bird figurines. This year I went a different route, and made her some slippers that were inspired by a robin.

They're a little different design from any of my others. Brown tweed with tiny flecks of color in it, and red binding on top with a simple little bow. My grandma isn't flashy. These just seem so her. I hope that they fit, and are cozy and comforting for her, and that when she sees them she will know how much I love her.

Home Made Snow Globes

Well of course they've been all over Pinterest. And I never can bear to throw out glass jars or containers for some strange reason. So, I was pretty excited to try these with the kids.

So I picked up some glitter from JoAnn's, some glycerin from Meijer and some items to go into the snow globe from Goodwill's holiday section for a buck a piece. You can follow Martha's directions found here if you want to make some of your own.

My favorites are the snowman and the star. I didn't seal the lids, so I glued my items to the bottoms of the jars.

Unfortunately, the snowman wasn't glued well, and he didn't last the night. The other's are holding fast though. I did get a super heavy duty waterproof expanding type glue, so I think that may have just been user error.

All in all it was a fun little project. Now to find a place to put them!

Meet Mini Murph

Oh my gosh. Do you ever make something for someone and then, not want to give it away? I suppose it makes the giving even more an act of love right? Man, it's a good thing I love my youngest nephew. Because, I really want to keep the softie that I just made for him.

Meet Mini Murph. Isn't he adorable? He's the very first 3-D softie that I have made with four legs and two ears and everything. I altered the pattern generously offered by Allsorts found here and sewed him inside out, then turned him out, as opposed to binding him like she does her dog.

His name is Mini Murph because my sister's dog's name is Murphy.

He's a black labradoodle and he wears a blue collar. My littlest nephew is crazy for dogs. (You should have seen the adorable dog birthday they had for him, complete with eating desert from dog bowls! Genius runs in the family.) So this little fella is destined to be loved.

And since I love my littlest nephew because he's adorable and tough and sweet and all, I will give away Mini Murph with a happy heart.

But, I am betting he's going to have a little of brothers and sisters soon enough...

A Gift to Give

I am pretty excited about this Christmas present. I am not making nearly as many handmade gifts this year as I did last year. (Though, I am buying many handmade gifts from other fabulously talented people.) But, the guys in the family are always hard to buy for aren't they? Especially little ones. And my nephew Jack has always been tricky to buy for because he's had a human growth hormone deficiency that took a long time to be diagnosed. (I'm not sure if I have mentioned before, but my sister is a killer mom. Seriously, no one fights harder for her kids. She's awesome.)

Anyway, he's doing really well right now. He gets shots almost every day, and he's growing like a weed. He gets therapy and he's making incredible leaps and bounds developmentally. We're all so proud of him! So, when I asked my sister if this idea that I found at Ruffles and stuff would work for any of the boys, and she told me it would be perfect for Jack, I was totally stoked. (Yeah, I'm a nerd like that.)

Basically, it's a cross between a flannel board and a Mr. Potato Head. All of the face pieces can be stored in a pocket on the back. I made the front of mine with fleece and the back with some black woven cotton. She has a great tutorial on her site if you want to make one.

I used some of her templates and some of my own. And I also made some of them reversible to add to the choices but not the number of pieces. Smart, no? I hope he really enjoys it. I know my kids were dying to play with it. I already promised to make them one after the holidays.

Variations on a Theme

I am not sure how many of you know this, but the fabrics I use to make my shoes are re-purposed, or thrifted. So, that means that it's difficult for me to exactly duplicate a design.

About a month ago, I received three orders for the same shoe design. They were after this design:

Well, I only had enough of that fabric for one other pair. I searched my stash and discussed alternative options with my customers. So, here is this one design four different ways. They each have their own personality, don't they?

Taking Better Tree Pics

Total disclaimer here, I am not a photographer. I do not have a fancy DSLR camera, even though I desperately want one. I have only a point and shoot Elph, basic little digital camera. So, I am not about to tell you how to take fabulously professional photos of your gorgeous tree. I am going to tell you how I figured out how to take marginally better pictures of my tree, so maybe you can have the guts to fiddle around with your camera and get a good pic or two of yours too.

Okay, it started here on PInterest, of course. She has a DSLR. So I knew I was going to have to do things differently. I can't fiddle with my shutter speed. I did crank my ISO way up as high as it could go. (I have no idea what ISO stands for.) And then I started fiddling with other settings, and the one that made a difference was my exposure setting. I didn't even know I could do that. I set mine to +1. Any higher than that, and it was just too much.

There you have it, the before and after. And for good measure, here's a little behind the scenes of the tree decorating.

These two are striking their, "I am so innocent and not at all touching things I shouldn't" poses. Especially the littlest one. She's fast.

This guy was pretty excited to be able to hang the breakable ornaments. He also complained a good deal of the time that the tree was in no way superior to our usual fake tree. But, in his defense, the tree was very pokey. And he loves tradition.

Speaking of tradition, every year while decorating the tree, we watch White Christmas. Oh, how we love that movie.

So there you have it, our first real Christmas tree, and a tip or two for taking good pics of your own tree.

Handprint Santas

Over Thanksgiving, I traced my three year old's hand and turned it into a turkey. He was totally taken with it, and asked me to do it, again and again. Today, he asked me to trace his hand, urging me once more to turn it into a turkey.

Since we're moving on to Christmas, I wondered to myself what Christmas symbol I could turn his little hand into  this time. It was obvious...

That was the first one we made. He of course asked for me to do it again. So this one was a little different. Can you tell what is different?

More Christmas Decorations

Isn't that a creative title? You'll have to excuse me. I am kind of a walking zombie. With a couple of sick kidlettes, and so much to do, sleep is just not happening for me.

Anyway, I am a little farther along on my decorating. This is something new this year, inspired by Emily Henderson's idea here. My husband loves old maps, so we have a couple of those antique map calendars hanging around.

And our walls in the dining room happen to be a bare mess right now because I just stripped off the wall paper and am waiting on new paint. So, I was easily able to do a large something here.

My oldest hung the ornaments on the nails, and I happened to really love that little touch. The letters came from Martha Stewart. A free download found here.

I bought these ornaments, (two packs of Martha Stewart shatterproof ornaments) at an antique place for a buck a pack. I love the colors and the sparkle.

So there we are. A little farther along. And still so much more to come!