Random Christmas Cheer

Coordinating pjs

These two are adorable

Absorbed in a Christmas story at the church Christmas dinner (even Charlotte was engrossed).

Talk about engrossed, the kids were loving what happens when you put dry ice in a cup of water

Fun little vignette at Jonathan’s work party

Both wanted a chance to pose with the snowman’s nose

And finally, the only handmade gifts of the year (and one of those was for us to keep). I decided to take a break from sewing things this past year; not because I don’t enjoy it, but because it is just a hobby that takes more time than I feel that I can spare during this season of my life. It’s been fun to find new things to make.

A Very Austen Baby Gift

My brother and his wife welcomed Isabella Cecelia into their family this summer. I finally sent them their gift.

A Pride and Prejudice board book (it ends with 10,000 pounds a year…it’s so funny) and an Austen onesie. One of my favorite gifts to make ever.

Giveaway Baskets and a New Blog

This weekend, another MOPS Discussion Group Leader is hosting fundraiser. She has some pretty amazing door prizes lined up…like photography sessions, Gator Homecoming tickets, and gift certificates for local restaurants. I wanted to help out somehow so I put together a couple gift baskets. Not nearly as exciting as football tickets, but I had fun making them!

Here’s the info card for each of the items in the baskets:

Getting these together inspired me to finally get my act together and start a blog just for craft items that I’ve made extras of and am offering for sale. So…if you’re interested, you can check out Honeysuckle Sundries to see a few things that I have up for now.

I still plan on primarily crafting just for fun and as gifts, but it will be nice to have a place to share the ‘extras.’

Baby gifts

Another Harvest baby is on its way so that meant it was time to make another baby gift. Tried a painted onesie this time. I made one for Charlotte too…in orange and blue.

Sewing Night

When you live in a relatively small house and all the bedrooms are actually used as bedrooms, you have to be a bit creative when it comes to how you use the space. For instance, my sewing cabinet is also my nightstand and I keep almost all of my crafting and sewing supplies under the bed. That means, whenever I sew or really do anything crafty, it makes a huge mess in our bedroom.

Case in point.

I did get it all put away by the time we went to bed. But goodness, it would be nice to have a craft room where I could just finish a project and not have another half hour clean up ahead of me.

Despite the mess though, the swim/bath wraps for Rosemary’s friends ended up super cute.

And so did the hooded towel for a MOPS give-away. Although, initially it looked a little too much like a hooded white sheet when I had Ben try it out, so I made the top a little less pointy. That helped. :-)

Christmas Gifts 2009

It felt a little bit like Santa's workshop exploded in our house the month before Christmas. I'd had grand plans to get all the gifts that I was making for Christmas done over the summer, however, painting the exterior of our house made other projects seem less important at the time so I just kept putting them off. As a result, I stayed pretty busy in December finishing up gifts.

Ezekiel and Ian's travel pillows.

Ezekiel and Ian's crayon rolls.

Rosemary helped me make hot/cold neck wraps for her preschool and ballet teachers.

A Minnie Mouse apron to go with Nikki's Disney cookbook.

Baby Catherine's initial shirt.

Bibs for Catherine.

Emma's photo frame.

Mom's trifle bowl.

Olivia, Breanna, and Sarah's bath wraps.

Mom's burlap table runner.

Etched Glass Playdate

You may remember the etched glass from a craft night a couple months ago. Well, a few friends couldn't make it so we did a make-up craft day and had lunch and the kids got to play.

Michelle did three vases and they looked AMAZING. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the finished product. Krystle's and Vernine's looked awesome too. I kept thinking, what else is glass in my house that I can etch.

The kids played while we crafted. Here are Ben, Josh, and Landon.

And more of Ben and Landon playing in Rosemary's room.

I didn't make this that same day, but I did do a trifle bowl for Janey's bridal shower gift. If anyone is even slightly crafty, this is a great project because it's pretty quick and easy. The directions we used are here.

The ones below are from Pottery Barn. After seeing how easy these are to make, it would be tough to pay the $40 for the ones below.

Photo from Pottery Barn.

Craft Night

Last night, Jen and Susan came over for a bit of crafting. None of us had ever done glass etching before and as it turns out, it was pretty easy and the end result looked pretty good. It was a good craft if you want to talk because you really spend most of your time waiting on the etching cream to 'etch.'

Crafts for Christmas

I like crafty-type stuff. Below are a few Christmas crafts and gifts that I had time to make.

Brownie mix.

This was made at the last MOPS group of the semester. I'd never made homemade brownies before and Rosemary was very excited to help. The only thing, when we went to make them, the middle layer of brown sugar had hardened together so I had to stab it repeatedly with a knife just to get the mix out of the jar. The brownies were good, but I'm still a big fan of the triple chocolate chunk where I just have to add some water, oil, and few eggs.

Niece totes and t's

I potato stamped shirts and totes for our nieces on the Peine side. They turned out so girly. We did tractors for the Harris nephews.

Finally, I've been looking at ways to be "greener" around our house and one of the things that I'd read about was using homemade cleaners. First I tried homemade soft scrub. I really like it. It cleans my stainless steel sink better than anything else I've used. Then for fun, I made some laundry soap. It makes a ton (to be exact) so I took some down with me to give to Janice, Michelle, and Elizabeth. It was pretty fun to make.