Five Things I Think About As Christmas Approaches

1. Are you buying stuff at Amazon? Do you use smile.amazon.com to donate to your favorite charity?  You should, it doesn't cost you anything.

2. Christmas music. I really love Christmas music. I rely on Trish to tell me when it's ok to start listening.  My favorite song remains "O Holy Night". In fact, as I type this I'm surfing Spotify to finally determine my favorite version. I believe Trish believes the Mariah Carey version to be the best, but I am undecided.  I am a fairly equal opportunity Christmas music lover. I even love Little Drummer Boy!  I do not like Grandma Got Ran Over or anything by the Jackson 5, but beyond that? I like it all.

3. I am 90% done with shopping for the kids, minus stockings. Everyone else tho, still at 0%.

4. I'm steadily working through my year end reading. Mainly by DNF'ing things. I'm ruthless about quitting a book if it's not working for me.

5. I mentioned running in the car yesterday and Noah said, "Mom, do you even run any more?" Ouch.  Followed by Tristan saying "You know, there's this magic thing? In the basement? Called a treadmill?"  Oh you smart ass kid, where did you come from?   (Back at it soon, I promise!)


How's your holiday shaping up? Getting all your shopping done? Reading all the Christmas books? Fall off the healthy wagon?

Christmas Sewing and crafting, a photo essay

Finally I can show you guys a couple things I made! It sure did seem like a lot more while I was actually sewing....

First up, a couple of Reading pillows for my nieces. These are huge pillows, 18" square, with a pocket on the front to tuck your book into and a handle for carrying. I suspect I'll be making three more for my own kids.



I didn't have another pillow form on this one, so it didn't get a formal photo shoot, dang it.



Then for my sister-in-law, this gorgeous pillow, if I do say so myself:



And another for my BFF:



Which is a lot squarer than it looks, but since most of my photo shoots turn out like this, you're lucky to see it at all:



For our other niece, I made another one of the plaid purses:



Totally crappy picture there, but at this point I was lucky to take one at all.

Then for the grandparents, I made photo canvases, using the tutorial found here:



Sorry, I failed to take a picture of them completely dry. They turned out GREAT. Unlike the tutorial, I added another layer of mod podge on top at the end.

We also made salt dough ornaments, but the only picture I took was this one, with Pajama Boy, Spiderman, and the Pantsless Wonder:



They turned out about as well as you'd expect with that crew.

And for the Pirate's Christmas party, some Brownie Trees:




And last, some Christmas sewing NOT by me- a Christmas dress made by my grandmother, at least 30 years ago:



Really, I should try to take a nice formal picture of that one, but who are we kidding?

Happy Holidays from my house to yours!

The Christmas holiday begin in earnest for us today. The Pirate is out of school early and we are zooming off to start a whirlwind tour of people. We'll be home again on Monday to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in quiet with just the five of us, which is how I like it. I'll be offline until then, but will be back in force the week after Christmas with some book reviews, some present reveals (finally!), and some really exciting news. I hope you all have a terrific holiday.

Lisa's Christmas Wishlist

Mike and I aren't going all out on gifts this year. We haven't talked about it, but we have so pretty big monetary challenges coming up, and buying gifts for each other seems like an easy thing to cut out. Regardless, I made a list of what I would want, of course I did. Feel free to send me anything on the list.

• I'd wear the hell out of these slippers. Or really any loafer style slipper, size 8.5, thank you. (yes, I ask for slippers every year. I wear them out!)
• I WILL HAVE one of these Family Tree prints, even if I have to buy it myself. (Thanks, Amanda, for the pointer.)
• I'd really like a new iron. I'm not at all picky about what iron, just an iron that I can put water in without the water running back out. (No, not to iron clothing, are you crazy?)
• This book, that I got via inter-library loan and had to return unread. I feel weird re-requesting an ILL. (The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table ) I think I'd rather have it as a Nook Book tho.
• More fabric for the Princess's hexagon quilt. Pinks and grays and whites, please.
• This fabric too.
• I could not possibly have too many of these pre-cut paper hexagons, 1" size.
• This lovely new scent from Bath & Body Works.
• Wooden spoons. 
• This striped cardigan.
• Smart phone gloves that are not those ugly stretchy ones.
• A salt dip with a lid. This one is cute, but I think that I need a lid in this house. Oh, I could maybe make this work.

What is on your wishlist? Are you anticipating something terrific under your tree? Are you taking it easy this year too?

Virtual Advent Reading Escape (#wwread)

I'm so excited that it's my turn on the Virtual Advent Tour that I'm taking this chance to write one post for both the Advent tour and Where in the World are you Reading?!

For this month's theme on Where in the World are you Reading? we are asking you about your Holiday Reading Escapes.  If my life this month is any indication, everyone is running around like crazy in December. I personally have a thousand balls in the air, as you may have noticed by the dearth of blog posts lately.   This doesn't mean that I don't have a million books sitting here to be read tho. So in between the Christmas sewing:

and replacing the ornaments on the tree, and the mall shop hours, and the kid shuttling and the biopsy waiting and the secret stuff I can't tell you, I've been eyeing a few Christmas books.  Last year the lovely and beautiful Christine sent me these Christmas e-book novellas, which I am totally going to finish this year. (I read a couple last winter, but didn't get to them all.)

Holiday Kisses: A Rare Gift\Mistletoe and Margaritas\It's Not Christmas Without You\This Time Next Year

I picked up this one at the library, and what a cute cover and plot it has!

Together for Christmas

Then on the day we left town for the Bug's biopsy (no word yet!) the UPS man stopped me as we were literally climbing in the car to deliver a package from Grand Central Publishing containing two more Christmas romances and two more e-book novels, one of which is this one that I am super excited about (you know I'm a total Shalvis fan girl):

Under the Mistletoe



The two print books are:
Last Chance Christmas
Hunk for the Holidays

With all these great choices, one day soon I'm determined to crash out on the couch with a couple of these and ignore all the rest of my obligations. I'd love to spend a couple hours thinking of nothing else. If you have any interest in the Grand Central Publishing titles, be sure to check back on Saturday, when I'll be hosting a giveaway! (I'll put a link here too.)

Meanwhile, what does your Christmas Reading Escape look like? Do you enjoy Christmas themed books? Are you already sick of the Christmas spirit? (If you are, you probably haven't read this far down this post!)  Do you enjoy a nice glass of spiked egg nog with your books? Post about it, and then link up here!

I made a castle out of a card table.

And apparently I'm never going to take better pictures, so you get these.

A month or two before Christmas I saw this play castle on Etsy. The kids are (were) forever asking me to make a tent out of ours by throwing a blanket over it, so I just knew they would love it. I had SO much fun making this. It really started an addiction to making things with felt.

I started with the door side, since it seems obvious that they will need a door.



The purple bit to the left is a little mailbox, complete with a flap so you can actually put mail in it. I didn't know who would be King or Queen at any given time, so it has a crown on it for identification. The door has velcro to hold it closed. And the porch light, of course.



This side is the castle proper. I left the canvas behind the felt window to give it a bit of body. It's very sturdy, but the canvas is unraveling a bit. Might do that differently were I to make another.
 The orange things inside are from the Nerf guns. The castle makes a good target.


This side has a tower (obv) that makes me think of Repunzel. The flowers and leaves are only stitched on through the middles, so the petals are 3D.



The last side was really challenging for me. The inspiration castle had a dragon and a knight on it, but I knew I wasn't up to making a dragon and since I wanted the girls to enjoy it as well I didn't want to do a knight. I ended up with this Sword in the Stone, and the knight's abandoned helm. You can actually see through the helm (please ignore the fact that you'd have to lie on the floor to do so) and I sewed a little pocket in front of the felt sword so that they could slide a toy sword inside and pull it out trimuphantly.

I had a few issues with it fitting properly, that would have been easily corrected if I'd been able to set it up during the making process. While I was able to make all four panels right in front of my kids ("Mom, why are you making so many flowers?"), I didn't want to set the entire shebang up while they were watching. And since I worked every single night until midnight, I wasn't about to do it at 1 am! So there are a few baggy spots. I was unable to take it in more without getting into the designs.

Do they love it? Sadly, no. They barely even noticed it. Regardless, it was a lot of fun to make and I think once the Princess is better at interactive play it might get more use.

Handmade Felt Christmas Ornaments

One of the things I made for Christmas was a collection of felt ornaments for my sister-in-law. After making the castle* and the kitchen I found myself loving making things of felt, and ornaments were the natural progression. I ended up giving her 7 ornaments, as shown, except the lights were "strung" on floral wire.



The nativity scene and the lights are both from free ornament tutorials at Wild Olive, which I highly recommend for this sort of thing. She did an entire month of ornaments, I wish I'd done them all.

Another ornament I found (just after Christmas, of course) was this adorable baby's first Christmas one. So I made one for a friend, who had her first baby just a week before Christmas. It's hard to tell, but it's about 4.5" tall from the top of the hanger to the bottom.



I see many of these in my future. I'm also trying to think of some variations on it so I don't feel quite so much like a copycat.

Then last night I found this one, and know someone who really needs one.

Source: spabettie.com via Lisa on Pinterest

(note, I didn't make this one. yet.)

I found myself starting an entire board on Pinterest, just for felt. Once I'm done with ornaments, I'm thinking I'll make some play food. And I'm sure someone else will show up before I'm done with that.

*Pictures soon, I swear.

Year end reading plans, a list.

A few nights ago Mike and I were looking at our respective books read in 2011 lists (links go to said lists.) We're currently running neck and neck at about 34 books each for the year, which is cool, since we don't keep up with each other in an competitive way (until about this time of year.)  This got me to thinking about what books I'd like to wrap up before the end of 2011. In all likelihood, I'll only finish one or two more. I'm about to embark on a little Christmas sewing, and I'm working 4 or 5 nights a week, but in an ideal world here's what I'd finish, and why:

• Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I read half last night. I'm off tonight so it's likely that I'll sit down and finish it up today.
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I am enjoying it, really. It's just so BIG to lug around! And I kinda have to pay attention.
• Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley. I am not very far into this one. I have it on my phone as a .pdf and it's so tiny. I want to read it and enjoy it, but the setting has to be just right and and I can't read it in bed or I fall asleep from the effort of the tiny print.
• Salvation in Death by JD Robb. I haven't started this, but lately I'm in the mood for a little Eve and Roarke.
• Only Mine by Susan Mallery. This is the only one of the series I haven't read yet. It's not looking likely that I'll get it any time soon either- it was due back at the library on September 16th.
• Sweet Talk by Susan Mallery. I started this one while I was waiting for the next in the previous series. I'm only 4 chapters or so in, but so far everyone in the book is just so mean. I understand the need for conflict, but if it doesn't break soon I'll be returning this one unread, and happily.
• Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning. I'm about half done, which is where I've been for months. I don't see any chance of finishing the series before next year, but I hate leaving unfinished books.

I'm sure there are more. I have a good 30 books checked out from the library. These are just the unfinished ones that I'd like to see wrapped up. 7 books in 4 weeks? Seems completely doable...

Sending out Christmas cards (and giveaway)

Every year I have the best of intentions to send out Christmas cards. Most years I manage to squeak in just under the wire, when I remember my cards once those of my friends start coming in the mail. If you get my card on December 27th, it still counts, right? But last year something happened and I didn't send cards out at all. Perhaps you remember- I had a baby, then my husband moved out of town and I lived alone with three kids, and then we moved right before Christmas? Needless to say, I didn't send out birth announcements, let alone Christmas cards. This year I was contacted by the nice folks at Shutterfly and given the opportunity to try out their Christmas cards and to give away a few batches of my own. SWEET!

I'd love to say that in my more organized years I've always ordered cards from Shutterfly, but that would not be true. I have, however, ordered a couple of little photo books (these are terrific gifts, I try to do one annually for the grandparents. I missed that last year too.)  And I'd spent an inordinate amount of time looking at all the fun gifts (I am especially drawn to the notebooks.) For the Pirate's second birthday I ordered pirate invitations from Shutterfly, which I'd love to show you as they were adorable, but I don't have a clue where to find one. I see they have a Star Wars one now, my boys would DIE. I'll have to remember that for next year.

I'm not sure which design we're going to go with this year, a lot of it will depend on the picture I eventually use. (The one we haven't taken yet, better get on that!) I tend to lean towards fun cards, as opposed to elegant, but you can certainly get either from Shutterfly.  I'll probably start out looking for a card  that allows four photos. I'd fill in one of each child and one of the whole family. (This assumes, of course, that we get a good picture of the family!) 

I'm going to give away three sets of 25 cards to my lovely readers. To enter all you have to do is tell me your favorite gift ever*.  If you don't tell me your favorite, you will be disqualified.  The first winner will be chosen subjectively, by the answer I like best. The other two will be drawn using the Random Number generator. Giveaway ends on November 10th.

*edited: I orginally meant that you ever received, but I guess you could go the other way too.