Saturday, December 27, 2008

Digging Out

I love it when my husband is home.

I ESPECIALLY love it when my husband is home and he feels like helping clean around the house. What could be more romantic? We've dug our way out of the living room aftermath and even put away almost all of the Christmas stuff. We don't normally worry about doing that so early, but we bought a new keyboard/piano for our family and it needed to go where the tree was, so...we put stuff away early this year.

Now I'm helping Sweetheart find places for her new stuff and sort through old stuff. It seems when new toys are around, they have far less trouble chunking some older stuff. When S goes back to work on Monday I hope that the girls' rooms will be all organized.
Then what will I do???

I haven't even thought past Christmas. I was so busy up until the last minute making homemade Christmas gifts that I realize I have no plan for next week. Well, getting ready for school would be nice....

But I wanted to share with you some of the crafty things I gave this year. I was pretty proud to do so much homemade stuff for the grown ups. (The kids got store-bought toys.) I know it saved us some money and hopefully folks could feel the love put into each gift.

My sisters and sisters-in-law all received this (with custom colors of course):

The soup mix is from this site. The dishtowels I got from here but without all that pesky piecing--I just used one piece of fabric. The criss-cross coasters are from here. And the ornament with my girls' on it is from Sycamore Stirrings. I think it made a pretty nice gift.

Here's a closer shot:
And then I discovered freezer paper stencils! Oh my word the fun I'm gonna have! There are many tutorials online for this, and I didn't use just one, so no link for you. Sorry! Here is the shirt we made my dad:

The girls go down to Grandpa's house several times a week to watch Popeye at 2:00. They love watching that show together. I think his shirt came out nicely.

I made shirts for my sisters too. Here is my oldest sister's shirt with the freezer paper stencil still ironed on.

Here I am starting to peel it off. Sorry there's no final shot--it was a mama and baby giraffe.


Trace, cut out (with manicure scissors--I'm not good with an Exacto knife) and iron on. Stencil, let dry and peel. It comes out so sharp and good! And here is a site with lots of free stencils.

And lastly, my dorky sister. How can you walk into Christmas wearing a shirt that matches the presents you brought AND NOT NOTICE????


Obviously, she likes that pattern. Cracked me up!

Hope your Christmas was great!


11 comments:

  1. I love the pic with the girls!

    I love the Popeye shirt! that is amazing!

    I love the gifts you gave! the ornament is especially cute and personal!

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  2. I love a man that helps clean.

    Great gifts you made, I love the stencil shirts. I may have to try that. It looks really fun!

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  3. My husband helps a lot around the house, thank God, especially with vacuuming, which I just hate!

    Nice job on the crafts. I gave jars of homemade wild plum jam grown on my two trees out front. It came out a little too soft-set even with pectin. Next year I will pick the plums a little earlier.

    I love the picture of your sister with the matching shirt! How cool!

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  4. Way to go on being crafty this year! I love the gifts you made!

    I was crafty too and FINALLY finished those 6 scrapbook calendars. I have to say I REALLY surprised my family with this one. Pictures coming soon. :)

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  5. I love your gift ideas! So crafty :) Hope you had a Merry Cristmas and am so jealous that you are already cleaned up and organizing!! I need to do that!

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  6. What nice Christmas gifts. I'll have to try the stencil shirt idea. I think the kids would love to do that.

    I enjoyed the pictures.
    You look a lot like your sister.

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  7. Oh, the gifts turned out GREAT, girl! I love the freezer paper stenciled shirts too! Good idea with the popeye! Maybe I could have you email me that picture, so I can steal the idea and make JD some workout shirts???

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  8. Ok, still not over the Wrapping Paper Shirt(snork, chortle).

    Does this mean her presence was present enough? (Sorry--couldn't resist...)

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  9. I'm using this week to get myself back on track, starting fresh and new on January 5th!

    Great picture of you and the girls - matching shirts and pants!

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  10. Look! A second comment even with the snow! (I know, I'm reading out of order- sorry.)

    Love the gift ideas. Personally not patient enough to do the stencil thing, but do you take orders???

    Aunt Bossy- Don't quit your day job. :0)

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  11. Aw Brenda, they all turned out so great! I love the color you picked! And those shirts...you're amazing! You've got me all inspired to be creative now! You'll have to tell me later how you did those. :) And I have to laugh at T!!!! She is such a hoot!! :) Tell her I love her!

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I don't get to talk to a lot of actual grown-ups during the day, so your comments make me really happy! :)