Remaining Christmas Gifts

A few last Christmas gifts to share:


I gave my sister my first Granny Afghan.  She kept eyeing it while I stayed with her after her wisdom teeth surgery so I knew it would be a good fit.

And she gave me this beautiful card holder which she engraved herself!  (She engraves at her job, but I think she is really good at it, looking at her handiwork)


Now I have to figure out what to give her for her birthday Saturday.  Any suggestions?

Newest Cowl

I'm so excited about this new cowl.  Not only is it my favorite style to wear, but I was also able to get my beautiful cousin to model it for me while we visited her family for Christmas!  :)


I have to admit I'm not normally much of a color-red fan, but this variegated skein was calling out to me in the store and I couldn't wait to get it on my needles.

Long enough to wrap around twice for extra neck coverage.

I was hoping to have enough to make two double-wrap cowls but I guess I didn't realize how much I truly needed.  So this time I have one long (above) and one shorter (below).


How do you think they turned out? 

Merry Christmas!

I promise I'll be back soon with pictures of all those knitted gifts I've been hinting at.  I hope everyone had a very fun & heart-warming holiday with new memories to reflect on.  :)

messy christmas living room

Homemade Christmas

I've never been that excited for Christmas the last couple of years because it's always snuck up on me and I was always too busy to really get prepared for the holiday.  I didn't have time to decorate or go shopping for all my loved ones & made me irritated for holiday season (which I hated, and made me even more upset).  And then working in retail where Christmas comes before Halloween, I *really* hated the holiday season.

So imagine my surprise when I find myself starting to think about what I want to bake for Christmas Eve dinner at my grandfather's house.  Or how I want to decorate the mantel (because we have a house now!).  Maybe it's a combination of our first Christmas married, and our first Christmas in our new house & my not working in retail anymore.  I even find myself thinking about Christmas decorating and it's not even Thanksgiving yet!  Yikes!  I used to hate when people would do that before Thanksgiving and now I'm one of them! haha.

So in the spirit of preparing & getting excited for the holidays this year, I thought it'd be fun to dream a little about what a homemade Christmas would look like in our new home this year.

This year I want to focus on making some Garlands...

             
The paper garlands would be fun projects to do when babysitting.

lots of Ornaments...
(both made by my husband and I if we can organize an afternoon to do some crafting :) and I'm sure the kids I babysit would love to make some ornaments with me)



     
 Painted ornaments (Local Craftstores have these ornaments kits)

   

Can you believe these are crocheted?
Where do I find a pattern to do this.  These make awesome Christmas gifts, too.

   
Ornaments made from origami.
Now I have another reason to hang out with my dad. 
I don't know how I could replicate these, but I just
LOVE the colors!  If I went with tradition ornaments, this is what I'd get.


Wreaths...
This would go well with that silver tree skirt (below).




My favorite, traditional & simple wreath.


Stockings...
(I've been wanting to knit our own but with all the gifts I still have to make, I doubt I'll have enough time to get them completed for this Christmas.  Maybe next year)

    
I'm a sucker for the traditional with only a touch of new.

and since both my husband and I are really excited to have a real Christmas tree, we'll need a tree skirt of course!

This tradition red & white skirt is what I had envisioned.


I didn't even think about knitting or crocheting one.

This one would be very sophisticated
for those holiday parties.
What are you planning for the holidays?  Or are you too busy like I used to be in the past years?

Homemade Snowflake Wrapping Paper


I don't remember where I found this picture (probably on etsy), but what a great idea for the holidays!  I have so many paper bags from the grocery store, I wonder if I could cut them flat and stamp them with sponge snowflakes?  Or I'd have to get a roll of craft paper so it'd be more pliable...

Are you making your own wrapping paper this holiday?