Merry Christmas

While I am still considering a return I'll take just a second to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  While life has changed much since my last blog post (nearly a year and a half ago) celebrating the birth of Jesus is a great reminder of the things that remain constant.  So, I'm looking forward to snuggling up with my little  (and still quirky) guys, listening to some holiday tunes and maybe just maybe starting up the good old blog again.

Christmas Gifts - Handmade

Here are some awesome handmade Christmas gifts that I received.

Fabric from Morocco that perfectly matches our orange living room walls and green couch. I'm thinking new pillows for the couch.

A bird feeder made by Daniel at Bittersweet Farms. Apparently when my Mom told him she was giving it to me as a Christmas gift he got very excited. I haven't decided where I want to hang it yet.

A book written by my brother and illustrated by my sister in law! It follows Manny the rubber duck as he travels the world and features, "Sam's Pizza" and "Ray's Reggae Bar". It is an amazing tribute to Manny, their little one they lost from a miscarriage, and their little one that is running around with her cousins.

Well Spent Holidays

We are back from our two week trip to Northwest Ohio where we spent lots of time with my family doing all sorts of fun things like...

Playing in the snow


and cuddling
and looking cute

and having lion sit on Santa's lap first to make sure it was okay

and wearing Ralphie inspired PJ's on Christmas morning

and singing, "Happy Birthday" to Jesus

and reading, "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas day

and spending the night at Great Wolf Lodge

and ringing in the New Year with MULTIPLE game of Hi Ho Cherry Oh!

and welcoming baby Mary in to the world (our new niece/cousin)!

Homemade Christmas Gifts - Part 3 - Baby Stuff

For my two littlest nieces (one will be born any day now!) and the little one I babysit for I made taggies type blankets.* I showed these on my blog a while back as well.

For my stepsister (who is expecting the niece that is due any day now!) I made a nursing cover. I made one of these for my other stepsister a few months ago just before my niece was born and word on the street is that it worked out great this week while they were traveling.

* I had a blog reader inform me that her child or a child she knows or something was sleeping with a taggie blanket and the loop wrapped around the babies finger cutting off circulation. Use taggie type blankets and toys under supervision. :)

Homemade Christmas Gifts - part 2 - BAGS

I made LOTS of totes for Christmas gifts.

I showed some totes in this post and another in this post and yet another in this post!

I made totes for all the little cousins ages 3-6ish with their names on them - 7 total I believe. They worked out great to put all their Christmas loot in!


ABC totes for (2) one years old girls that have fabric letters in them. The fabric letter idea came from this blog. (I kept the magnets out of the letters since the girls are a bit young for them.)

A black and white tote for my step-mother.
A tote for my sister in law (I used a charm pack for this one).

Homemade Christmas Gifts - part 1 - Moms Gift

My Mom requested a crazy quilt for Christmas to which I responded, "You're crazy!". I've never made a crazy quilt let alone a block for a crazy quilt, I'm new to quilting, etc. etc.

I decided upon a crazy quilt wall hanging in black and white and found this tutorial extremely helpful since I had no idea what I was doing!

More (handmade) Christmas Gifts

Since we celebrated Christmas early with Mike's family, I can show you a few more gifts that I made.


A tote for my Mother-in-law. Her favorite colors are purple and green.
A tote for my niece who likes all things blue, teal and brown. This was a big hit with her.

And a tote for my Brother-in-laws girlfriend who's favorite color is blue. I do not like this bag at all and I told her when I find some blue fabric that I like I am making her a new bag!

Lights, Cookies and Parade - all Christmas!

The past few days we have done lots of pre-Christmas things!

Friday night, we went to the Zoo lights with my husbands family. They really stepped it up a notch this year compared to previous years. Sam was a little disappointed the animals were "sleeping" but Ray was completely in awe of the lights!

Saturday night, the boys (Mike, Sam and Ray) made chocolate chip (pancake) cookies. I made oatmeal raisin.

Sunday morning, we finished up our Christmas shopping. Mike referred to it as our heathen shopping since we skipped church to finish up. We stopped off at Mike's parents on the way home to let the boys play with their Christmas train. On the way home, we noticed that people were starting to sit roadside for the holiday parade so, Sam and I dropped off Mike and Ray (who was sleeping) and had an impromptu date at the Holiday Parade. I love the rare times when I get to give one of the kids my full attention - we had a blast!
The kids have also taken to watching the movie Elf (click for a great scene) and we've been rocking out to Sufjan Steven's Christmas albums (click link for one of my favorites of his).

Happy (pre) Christmas!

Packages, Boxes and Bags!

For the last several years I have had all my Christmas shopping done and everything wrapped by Thanksgiving.  I don't think I'm going to make it this year since a lot of my gifts are handmade and I have a shopping day planned with my Mom and Aunt after Thanksgiving but, I did get a jump start on my wrapping yesterday. 

To Answer your questions (before you ask them):

This cute paper is from the Target $1 section.  It is the perfect size roll for wrapping boxes and I am impressed by how many things I have been able to wrap (there is still more dog paper left!). 

Yes, the boxes are nicely stacked according to their destination. 

Yes, I have a list of things that are already bought, wrapped and what I have left to buy/make. 

Yes, I am disgustingly organized. 

Yes, if you want to buy me yellow steno pads (these are what my Granmda always made her lists on) that would be fine with me.  I'd probably even make one of these cute steno pad covers for it.

Tilt your head to the left...

Do Not Open Until Christmas (Here is Zoe's bag if you want to see it!)

I've always been a peaker as long as I can remember.  I would sneak in to the attic while my parents were out of the house, search their room, etc.  I think it started the year my parents didn't get the Christmas gifts under the tree before they fell asleep (we were always out super late at grandparents house on Christmas Eve).  My brother and I woke up in the morning and my parents promptly freaked and told us to go back to bed.  Of course we heard the scramble and the attic stairs being pulled down...

Are you a peaker?

So with out further ado I bring you Zoe's bag for Christmas.  Zoe is my cousin's stepdaughter.  I just refer to all of my cousin's kids as my nieces and nephews; it's much easier that way.  I was telling my cousin how much I love this bag and she is an avid peaker too so, I'm letting her peak if she wants to. :)

This is my favorite bag I've made.  Zoe's favorite colors are pink and black.

Sew, Sew, Sew and Sew some more

In case you were wondering, yes, I have been sewing - LOTS in fact.  But most of it is Christmas gifts for people who happen to read my blog.  I'll have to post pics after Christmas.

I'll tease you with this cute little Taggies type blanket I made for my new baby niece.  I got the idea here.