Organizing Christmas Plans
If you follow me on Twitter, you probably already saw that I started on my Christmas plans last night. Now, before you think I’ve lost my mind, I’m not the only one, as I’ll show you in a minute. AND, because this is “the year of the homemade gift” in our home (and I don’t want those to be thoughtless or rushed gifts), I need to start early. My girls have 3 sets of grandparents and 6 sets of great-grandparents. That alone is enough to keep us busy for the next 3 months, not to mention friends, neighbors, other family members or Operation Christmas Child.
I’ve started by making a list of what I want to make and for whom (whom? who?). Then, I started transferring that information to a supplies/ingredients list. Part of the reason for this is because we’re doing a frugal Christmas this year, I want to be able to start buying now to take full advantage of the 40%/50% off one item coupons for Michael’s and JoAnn’s. That means I will be buying just one or two things a week for the projects I’ll be doing that week.
Finally, my next step is to make a calendar of projects (which I’m sure I won’t stick to despite my best intentions!) so that I’m not left in December trying to fit in all of this crafting plus baking and celebrating advent. My first stop for planning tools is always OrganizedChristmas.com.
A friend of mine freezes hundreds (if not thousands…literally!) of cookies during the fall for Christmas. To be honest, that scares me, and I’ve never done it, but I am considering it this year. Anyone have any tips or experience to offer?
Okay, sorry for being so long-winded. Here are some links!
Yarn Octopus for the girls’ stockings (and a shout out to Oh Amanda, who shared her attempt at this one at her cool new blog, Impress Your Kids, but the link at the left is much easier than the one she tried to do)
Sugar & Spice Nuts (I don’t think I’ll be adding these to my list this year, but I love the containers!)
And for those of you with much more skill than I have, be sure to check out Sally’s projects over at Polliwog’s Cakewalk.
Have you started Christmas preparations yet? Is it even on your radar yet? Does the idea of starting now make you excited for the Christmas season or stress you out?
we are doing our first official hand made Christmas too!!! And I’m starting now. With a huge list of recipients, I’m panicking a little!
I#39;ve thought about Christmas ideas but nothing is started. BR/BR/Yesterday I saw a very cute table topper that I#39;d love to make for my mom amp; MIL. We#39;ll see. BR/BR/I#39;ll have to throw out the idea of all handmade gifts to dh. I#39;m thinking he won#39;t be too keen on it.
I forgot! I already have made a set of embroidered pillowcases for MIL amp; FIL! Yeah!! (They won 1st at the fair.
)
Great ideas! I am thinking of making magnets or ornaments out of milk jug lids, esp the red and green ones. My plan is to put a pic of the girls on the inside and then glue glittery pipecleaners around the inside outer rim and ribbon on the outside. Hopefully they will turn out cute. BR/BR/My other magnet idea is saving the metal soda pop lids and putting the girls pic on the inside. Tracing around a quarter gives the perfect size. I then fill it with Diamong Glaze resin. It dries clear and seals the pic inside. It has to dry overnight though. BR/BR/The octopus craft is the cutest thing. I might try that one.
Thanks for adding my link!BR/BR/I wish I were ready for Christmas, although I’ve been thinking about it…mostly whether or not we’re going to get a tree with a 9 month old in the house.BR/BR/I am saving jars and glass bottles for gift making. I tend to make homemade gift baskets (last year I made pancake mixes, hot cocoa, and other stuff) but this year I’m going to do a basket of green cleaning products that I make myself. We’ll see what happens. I’m going to do a post on it when the time comes.