{a long winter's nap}

I am out of time.

Packing, children, and general get-ready-to-fly-home-for-Christmas chaos is ruling my world right now.

And it's crazy, and it's madness, and it's magic!

So while I certainly won't be napping, I will be off the radar.  If you've quietly been following me, I wish you a Merry Christmas!

I leave you with visions of sugarplums to dance through your heads!

{christmas can-do, too}

The Christmas crafting continues.  Just when I think I'm getting to the bottom of my list, I'll remember I'd like to give something to the teachers...or, I'll be perusing the internet, and run across another fun, cute tutorial! What I really need to do is to stay off my favorite websites altogether, until I'm all done with what's on my crafting plate.

(and pack.)

((and clean.))

Anyway...I have been able to put together some more quick, easy, and cute projects using some great tutorials! Check them out...you could easily do this, too!

First of all, those teacher gifts. Using these quick directions from "made", I put together a couple sets of notecards for my little girl's preschool teachers. A set of five, tied with a little bow, and topped with a mini cookie cutter, which my bluebird helped me paint with craft glue, and shake it up in a bag of glitter. Cute. And just as important: fast and simple!

I've been making messenger bags/purses for my nieces this year. For the younger girls, I used this tutorial from Diary of a Quilter. My daughter had fun helping me pick out the fat quarters, and it was great to get two bags out of each quarter!

Each bag will have little trinkets stuffed inside upon Christmas delivery, such as these:

or these:

And, of course, I didn't forget my nephews!  In keeping with my messenger bag theme, I was so happy to stumble across this tutorial from Ambrosia Girl. I love how she described this as a Semi-Homemade craft, similar to Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Cooking! The bags were a great price, and the fabric painting was fun! 

Finally, I had to use the fleece hat tutorial one more time for one last boy's gift.  

And the crafting will continue!  I'm all about personal homemade gifts this year.

And I'm really all about easy-to-pack gifts! 

(If you give these a shot, don't forget to show me what you've got!)

  

{christmas can-do}

I've been busy putting together gifts for the family--we leave for our Christmas vacation in 2 weeks.

(deep breath, fight panic here)

Anyway, I can't post too many of the gifts I'm creating, because the few readers I do have I want to remain surprised! (Hi, Mom!)

But in between gift crafting and making lists of to-do, I've pulled together a couple cute, easy projects for our family.  With these great tutorials, you can easily do them, too!!

First of all, I used this tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff to make my girl an adorable, winter season dress.  Take a look:

It was a bit warmer out when we snapped
these shots! 

I repurposed some old leggings that no longer fit for her scarf.  I love how it wraps around the back and shoulders! So cute!

"No, honey, you can't eat the berries."

I was inspired by many tutorials out there to make a new Christmas wreath for our home.  Especially after discovering that ours was somehow misplaced in our move earlier this year.  So, after gathering tips here and there, I purchased a wire wreath frame, some ornaments and flowers from the Dollar Tree, got out my hot glue gun, and put together this:

I love the neutral colors. I hope it keeps
this wreath elegant and classic.

There is no organization to ornament or
flower placement. Just scatter about at will!

Finally, using this tutorial by Made by Rae, I used some fleece remnants on hand to whip up a new winter hat for our bluebird.  I hear it's cold where we're headed, so I'm thinking an extra hat will come in handy! (Plus, it matches her new snow coat...so there's that, too!)

I love the flower detailing. This hat is
so feminine...perfect for my girl!

Petals! Brilliant! 

So, there you have it!  If this inspires you to create your own variations, I'd love to see them! 

{stockings were hung -part two}

create.

Here it is!  My daughter's finished stocking, as well as a brief review of how I went about constructing it.

Grace's stocking is based on my childhood stocking, which my mother made for me.  I love it, still hang it...I never want a new one.  I'm kinda nostalgic like that!

the charm of this stocking is rivaled only
by the charm of the stockings she also
 made for my brother and sister

So when I set about making one for my own daughter, I knew I wanted to use mine as the pattern.  So I traced my stocking onto white felt, using those two pieces as the stocking base.  I kept the color palate simple and bright: reds, pinks, blues.

I cut out my trees using two different basic shape patterns, but freehanded all of them, so that they wouldn't be totally uniform.  Then I attached them with a simple embroidery stitch using contrasting floss colors. Button tree toppers in two different sizes and blue ric rac up the sides added a simple touch while also mimicking my stocking.

Finally, I used chalk to trace out her name and to act as a guide as I embroidered her name on the top piece.  I used a blanket stitch to hold the nameplate in place top and bottom, again in the contrasting thread color.

A bell on the toe, and it's ready to go!

I hope this simple stocking will come to be something she still treasures from her mom...even 33 years down the road!