Cut and Paste or Why I loved Kindergarten

This week I have to admit I had not really thought about Christmas much until this morning when I was looking through Pinterest. ( Hi, my name is Anne and I do Pinterest). Like the other addicts, I am afraid to look less than about 4 times a day because the landscape changes with alarming frequency and what if I miss something!

Perfect example was this morning. One of the people I follow is a kindergarten teacher and her posts mainly reflect ideas for her classroom. This morning she posted a link to templates for various paper chain cutouts. I followed her link through a few more links and found precious templates for Christmas theme paper chains. I now have them cut and places in my Christmas template file for later. I was thinking of what I would use them for. A line of dancing reindeer might look really cute at the bottom of a craft paper wrapped present, or a string of Santa's might find their way to the edge of a basket of cookies. Who knows? I just thought they were cute so I have 7 different templates to use for something . If I have any additional brilliant ideas I will post them so I won't forget them later.

Thats a wrap!

This week I was cleaning out my fabric cabinet and found several yards of interesting material. They are not necessarily Christmas prints but with a red or green bow and a little ornamentation could be very festive. I got my trusty scissors and threaded the machine with dark thread ( trying to keep the color non specific yet neutral) and cut several rectangles of different sizes from each fabric. I turned the tops of each piece twice then top stitched that edge, put 2 pieces together wrong sides out and sewed the 3 remaining raw edges together. The result is about 20 bags form some small enough to hold a pair of hoop earrings to one large enough to hold a this folded sweater. Cool beans! I am sure I will use some of them during the year for random presents ( white ribbon will work on each fabric and it will look nothing like the holidays) but when Christmas comes I will have a bunch of "green" bags to wrap and hopefully reuse for years to come. Woo hoo and yay me. I think I will have to go to the thrift store soon and see if I can find some really cheap satin or velvet old dresses to cut apart and use as yardage for more bags with some real Christmas zing.

Enough for this week but will write anything else I do ( Not really looking to post anything else this week though)

Continuing on my quest to recycle bottles and jars I can use to package some homemade gifts for next year.

Also going to try a few new recipes that might make the cut next year. Will review anything good here and will remind myself not to do anything that doesn't work.

Christmas greetings

Flipping Through the Past

This week I am going through all of my old Christmas magazines and deciding what to keep and what to toss ( My December 1980 Ladies Home Journal need not worry. You are safe from the toss decision. It has the single best cookie insert I have ever seen. My kids grew up eating those each Christmas and still talk about a couple that are family favorites) Actually that is the only truly old magazine I have. The rest are from the past 5 years, and I am looking logically though them. I am doing an old fashioned cut and file of things that I will possibly do. Anything that is just attractive but is nothing really useful is heading to recycling. From these cuttings I am making a master list with the following subcategories. 1. Ornaments 2. Decorations for the Living and Dining Room 3. Decorations for the Den 4. Wrapping and Packaging Ideas 5. Hand Made Gift Ideas 6.Outdoor Decorations 7. Christmas Meals 8. Christmas Goodies.

Obviously I will do nothing with the food items until very near Christmas 2012, but I will start on the ornaments and gift ideas almost immediately. Most of the things I filed require no Christmas specific supplies and I should be able to find everything easily throughout the year. Will try and post pictures of things as they are made. I am very lucky to have a dresser in the guest room that holds nothing but gifts, so I will have good storage for anything I make.

Wish me luck as I finish out the week with new ideas and about 15 fewer magazines!

Merry Christmas Y'all

So shoot me, I am lame

This past week was a virtual waste of my time getting ready for Christmas 2012. I was busy in New Orleans getting all the planets aligned so Alabama could win another National Championship. Now one would think that being in New Orleans this close to Christmas would be a smorgasbord of holiday gleaning. It could well have been had we not had such and interesting trip that left little if any time for holiday prep. We left for the Big Easy Friday late afternoon. About an hour into the trip Son3 started barfing. Now we are talking an 18 year old man/child size barf. We had to stop in Tuscaloosa and buy some supplies ( barf bowl, plastic bags, towel, flannel throws, pepto... you know the usual I have a sick person in the car stuff.) About an hour later we had to stop again, this time at my brother in law's home for Son3 to shower and us to wash his clothes and clean the car. Our 5 hour trip turned into well over nine hours with all the stops but we made it and he felt much better the next day. Sadly he shared it with me Saturday and his Dad on Sunday. All shopping and perusing the Quarters was pretty much a done deal. Everyone did get well enough to go to the game though and it all turned out well.

The only thing I did remotely Christmasy the whole week was to buy the 2 fleece throws that were Christmasy. I doubt we will ever want to use them again but we do have them if ever needed/wanted. I guess I will have to do double duty this week to make up for what I didn't do this year.

where do I begin again

It is officially just 52 weeks till Christmas again and once again I am declaring again that I will do everything in my power to have a delightful Christmas next year. ( Well, unless the Mayans were correct, in which case this is a totally moot point.) I hope I will do better this year and will at least do one little Christmasy thing each week until the after Halloween get really serious thing starts.

So here goes my personal diary again of what I am accomplishing on a week by week basis.

Immediately after Christmas, I bought wrapping paper and ribbons, so I should be well stocked for next year, plus my little neighbor will be around in September selling wrapping paper and I always buy a couple of rolls from her.

My favorite gift shop was having its annual Christmas sale and I picked up a few things I had been eyeing. It is almost sad to find beautiful things only to pack them away immediately, but next November when I unpack I will be most delighted. ( Actually I will probably have forgotten all about them) In the next couple of weeks I will check out Christmas clearance wherever I go. ( Including New Orleans next week) Maybe I will find something or maybe not, but I won't quit looking just in case something is out there.

When I was packing Christmas I went through each box and put anything I will never use again in the Goodwill box. I am tired of sorting through the same stuff each year and not using it to decorate. It is all very nice cast offs, but things that don't reflect my way of decorating or phase of life anymore. Since Son3 will be leaving for college in the fall I am sure we don't have any need for the juvenile Christmas decorations anymore.

This week I am mostly making lists for next year.

I have a list of things I want to collect throughout the coming year.

Tropicana Juice plastic bottles. ( Individual serving size)...homemade sugar scrub

Starbucks coffee bottles ( Individual serving size from the multi pack container)...serving

container for neighborhood cookie party

Steaz beverage bottles...great size for homemade liqueurs

Bright pieces of wool ( Can be reclaimed from old clothes or can be purchased)...wool flower pins

Inexpensive plain clutch bags ( 2 dollars or under)...altered clutches

Pretty ribbon and colored tulle...just because

Altoid tins...altered container with ear buds inside

Tic Tac containers... Grinch pills/ Cheer pills

Pretty soft fabrics...Possible scarfs

Old bright colored Tee shirts...grocery produce bags

I am sure I will add to this as I think of things or as I see ideas on Pinterest.

Party Idea List

Neighborhood Cookie/ Coffee/Milk evening

Pre Christmas Soup Dinner Party

Cousins Party/ Both Families

Christmas Goodies list

Praline Fudge

Peanut Butter Fudge

Cracker Toffee

Brandy Wreath Cookies

Spiced Cookies

Chex Mix

Spiced Peanuts

Nutmeg Noel Cookies

Nanaimos

Will add to the lists as I think of things.

Merry Christmas!