It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I think we finally have all of our decorations up this year. I love this snowflake that I made after seeing it here.

The Joy my mom gave to me the first year I had my own place. I think it is absolutely beautiful.

My mom made this Santa and originally my aunt had him, but she gave it to me two years ago. Love it.

I made the angel in 3rd grade, but looking at it closer, I don't think the wings are mine. The initials do not match. My mom gave me the Pere Noel when I was in high school and studying french.

This year our tree is a mix of old and new ornaments, purchased and homemade.

We have beautiful ornaments, such as Lovey's school bus below

and ornaments that Lovey made in religious ed.

Last year I found the pipe cleaner and yarn ornament on the tree and it went back up this year.

Littlebit and I made this ornament this year. I took some inexpensive ornaments I bought last year and with a littel glue and glitter we have a customized ornament.

And even this little guy found a spot on the tree. I may have to take care of him later.

The kids and I made these little candle holders when our advent envelope said it was craft day.

And now the house is decorated, cookies are baked, presents are wrapped and shipped, and glitter is everywhere. I have one last present that the kids and I made. If you are a grandparent or godparent to my kids - look away.

Littlebit and Lovey made these notepads as gifts. Super easy with a little help from Kinkos (apparently my copier does not reduce). After cutting the paper I paper clipped it together and rubbed a glue stick along the top. We even made one for Lovey's teacher that says: From the desk of....

Felt Christmas Tree

Littlebit and Lovey love to decorate the Christmas tree, but we end up with a lot of ornaments just in the front. This year I think we came up with a compromise. I let them each put a few ornaments on the tree and then that night put up their own trees in their room to decorate.

I saw this idea on Ruffles And Stuff and decided to adapt it. I made felt trees and hung them from a hook on the wall of their room. I hot glued ribbon to the tree and made a button hole at the top for a ribbon to hang the tree. Then I cut out a variety of ornaments to put on the tree.

Littlebit and Lovey enjoy rearranging the ornaments on their trees and this gives us some Christmas decorations upstairs.

Angel ornament

Glue gun, acrylic paint, four year old.

I think I might be slightly insane.

I thought Lovey should make the gifts for his godparents, grandparents, and teachers. So instead of doing what I originally planned with the many baby food jars under my sink, I thought of doing a project that I used to do when I taught fourth grade. That should have been my first clue that I was going crazy.

Now even with fourth graders I was slightly crazy to do it and maybe with the present I should have included the following note:
Merry Christmas - Hope you enjoy the angel ornament. You might need to shop at the uniform store over vacation because we got acrylic paint on your child's shirt/jumper/sweater. Oops, sorry. Oh and the burned fingers should heal before we return to school, so your child will still be able to hold a pencil and do their work. Again Merry Christmas!

Actually I used the glue gun, so there were not any burned fingers and miraculously no one painted their uniforms.

Lovey did really well too. He painted the ornaments and I did all of the gluing. Now he can't wait to give them.

Ouch... Where has the time gone?

So it has been almost 2 months since my last post and in that time we were told:
-The computer would be a good boat anchor, need to buy a new one. Recycled old PC and should get a Costco card for it.
-The car needs new brakes and still does. Merry Christmas to me?
-We won the dirtiest washer of the year, despite that I clean it weekly. It seems Calypso washers have issues, a class action lawsuit, and are no longer made. Aaaarrggghhh.
-The dishwasher stopped draining completely and the little $15 part that took 2 minutes for the repairman to install cost $200 in labor. Excuse me?
-Noticed I had a flat tire (in my new tires) while getting everyone in the car to take Lovey to school. Learned how to use the air compressor quickly to fill it to drive to school and then to Les Schwaab. ($15 well spent.)
-The kitchen sink leaked, was fixed and leaked again.
Most of these things happened in a 2 week period.

Now I'm back and I have been busy sewing and getting ready for Christmas.


This is a picture Lovey drew of himself. Here is the "dolly" I made for him based on his picture.


And a few things I have made for Christmas:

Christmas pillowcases for Littlebit and Lovey

Pajama pants for Lovey. I'm still working on Littlebit's nightgown.

A taggie blanket for my nephew due in March.

Fabric boxes

and beaded letter ornaments.