Tree Pickin'

One of my favorite family traditions is picking out a live Christmas tree. As a kid, some years we went to a local tree farm and other years we picked one from our own farm.

Since the latter isn't an option for us up here, we go to a great little tree farm in Goobertown, AR (Yep, that's really the town's name.) There's hot chocolate, lots of trees, and fresh roasted peanuts. And here is Taylor with our tree. She named it Mrs. Clause.

Special Gifts and Giveaways - Oh My!

This week has been very gifty.  On Wednesday, Sew Mama Sew hosted a giveaway day where lots and lots of crafty blogs held giveaways.... and I won one!!!  Oh, and you are gonna be jealous.  I won a box of beautiful fabric from Oh, Fransson one of my favorite blogs.  She is a super crafter and always has the most beautiful and fun projects going!  You must check her out.  But, the really exciting thing for you guys is that I want to keep the giving going so I'm tomorrow I'm going to host my own giveaway!!!  I don't know exactly what the gift will be yet, but I promise it will be worth checking out!

Yesterday, I mailed out my AREtsy secret santa gift.  I really love doing swaps.  I feel like I can really be creative, more so than when I'm creating for my shop.  I just hope she likes them!  I feel pretty safe posting a picture here because she should have it today and the chances of ruining the surprise are pretty slim I think.  So....

My person is getting this crafty little set of goodies.  The tissue holder is made with one of my favorite Japanese import fabrics, the house ornament is embroidered with that cute pattern from vol.25, and the little embroidered button pattern is from pimp stitch.  

Finally, the most special gift this week came from the big man himself - Santa.  I took Taylor to see Santa at the mall yesterday after school and she brought with her a teeny bell to give to Santa to give to Rudolf.  She sat on his lap and gave him the little bell and in return he gave her his bell.  How cool is that?!  The look on her face was absolutely priceless.  

Kids + Christmas Crafts = FUN!

I've never been one to buy tons of decorations and go bananas getting the house all gussied-up for Christmas.  In the pre-Taylor days, we would put up a tree (maybe), but that's about it.  I do a bit more decorating now, but I still just can't seem to make myself buy tons of stuff.  Partly it is because I know that as Taylor goes through school we are going to accumulate lots of the best kinds of decorations..... the kid-made kind!  We really just started to this year. 

 

First, she made the super glittery paper chain above that is the exact right size for our mantle with her Grandma.

Over Thanksgiving, my aunt brought craft supplies for the kids to make these hangings to count down the days till Christmas.  There's a cute little poem at the top and then a little bell at the bottom. You get to take a candy cane everyday and when you get to the bell you know it's Christmas! Kids got to glue on the sequins and decorate the top (Taylor's has a little tree).  The bigger kids and grown-ups got to sew on all the yarn to tie the candy canes.  

And, finally, we have the one that was the most fun to make.  I bought some styrofoam balls and let her cover them with Mod Podge and fabric scraps.  It's super messy (Of course, that's what makes it fun!) so we did one half, let it dry, then did the rest.  After the fabric was dry I gave it an outer coating.  I used a pretty pin to attach a ribbon and there you have it!