Handmade Christmas Part 2

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's post filled with wonderfully creative handmade Christmas gift ideas. Over the coming days, I will share with you even more of the fabulous projects I have discovered...

I am always on the look out for neat and unique gifts for teachers and My Insanity has one with these scrabble tile charms.


Goody Goody Gumdrops shared these terrific Christmas cards, handmade by kids. I tried them with my 7 year old and her best friend. They loved them and they were so easy!


The Custom Monogrammed Burlap Pillows shared by We Are That Family are so cool!



More tomorrow...

Handmade Christmas

I have been really inspired recently to create some handmade Christmas and holiday gifts. I am constantly amazed by the incredible creativity, talent, and generosity of the blogosphere. There are ideas, pictorials, and tutorials of just about any craft you can think of and THOUSANDS of ideas you haven't even thought of yet!!
I am going to take a few days to share some of my favorites... I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

Roots & Wings Co shared how to etch glass bakeware. I LOVE the idea of giving a casserole dish to someone with their name etched on it. But take that one step further, the next time you take a casserole to someone's home, how about etching their name on it and leaving a little note taped to the underside that the casserole dish is their hostess gift! I know if I were the hostess, I would think that was pretty darn cool!


Reinvented shared how to create the same look as Pottery Barn with a Peace pillow



The Thrifty Chick shared the family yahtzee game. I think this is absolutely fabulous!!! I was so terribly saddened to read that she is no longer with us. What a wonderful creative person she was.



More tomorrow...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2009

My girls were the 3 little pigs again this year. Georgia wanted to be a tiger, but we couldn't find a tiger costume anywhere that would fit a child over the age of 2.
So, going with the animal theme, I pulled out the pig costumes from two years ago and asked if they wanted to do that again, and they did. My wallet thanks them!
Georgia

Olivia

Sophia


So, Chris and I were the big, bad wolf and little red riding hood.

We interrupt this blog...

We interrupt this blog to show you a 7 year old - yes, she is 7 years old today. Holy Toledo Batman. How did that happen?
Just yesterday she looked like this...

her Daddy would carry her around in the diaper bag when he had to change a particularly foul stinky diaper...

what a smile...

her first bikini...

she was a vision in pig tails...

modeling for Mommy...

and she climbed across the monkey bars for the first time...

preschool...

first day of kindergarten...

becoming a daisy scout...

her first date (shouldn't every girl's first date be with her Daddy?)...

and now she is in the first grade and turning seven years old!


Oh, how I love that Georgia Grace Marie... a wonderful, delightful child and a terrific big sister! :)

Ballet!

Or as Sophia calls it, "Baall-yay"!

I don't know if there is anything much cuter than a 2 year old in a tutu!
\

except maybe a two year old in a tutu and tap shoes!

We give Thanks!

First of all, let me start off this post by thanking you, our customers, our readers, our family, our friends. We thank God for you!

I am not going to be with my family for Thanksgiving this year. The first year in many years that I will not be. I am sad about that. But, I am very blessed that I have such wonderful friends and neighbors here in California. And, as it turns out, none of our close friends and neighbors will be with their families on Thanksgiving either. So, we are having a neighborhood family Thanksgiving this year. And that delights me! So, I have been surfing the web for some Thanksgiving traditions and ideas to incorporate into our Thanksgiving this year and I wanted to share them with you as well.

Here is an activity we plan to do with the kids... We will be making a Thanksgiving Blessings Snack Mix.

And the girls over at Blonde Designs Blog have provided a printable pdf file of the poem - thanks, Ladies!


In with the invitation you see above, I included these placecards (I added each person's name) with instructions for them to write down something they are thankful for and we will all share (even the kids) before dinner.


I love these napkin rings created by Jeanne Winters - stitched paper - totally simple and easy!


I am not sure that I am going to get around to creating these Cornucopias for the chair backs, but I do love them....

They totally don't look like they are made with paper plates covered with burlap, do they???


Wherever you are, whoever you are with, and how ever you choose to celebrate, I hope that you have a lovely Thanksgiving!