A Very Merry Pinterest Holiday 2014, pt 2

Saturday there is a bake sale for the school at 5 Below. I Pinterested up my favorite gingerbread cookie recipe (spicy molasses cookies) to sell. Whatcha think??

More ideas here: http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/holiday-seasons/christmas/gingerbread-reindeer/

Crafting for the Holidays

The exciting craft season really starts at the beginning of October with Halloween Costumes. I usually spend the entire month planning, creating, scraping and starting over on frivolous but fun crafts (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all at once!) that make me feel warm and fuzzy about the holidays! I just couldn't get into the spirit of Halloween this year for the longest time! But my husband more than made up for it! He spent the entire month of October working on a MOVING magical eye to be Allister Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter! (I have a video but have no idea how to post it - I'll have to get Chris to set that up for you to see!)

The kids were easy this year -

A was a cat (black leggings, a leotard that's still too big for her sister, a length of craft marabou, a cheap flexible mask and velvet over-elbow gloves handed down from an older dancer friend),









E was the Greek Goddess, Artemis, from Percy Jackson (It was her vision too - we had the bow, Goodwill for the tunic, Chris made the bracers and leg guards out of foam sheets and I made the cape)





and M was Luke from Percy Jackson (jeans, tee, foam sword painted bronze on one side and "steel" on the other for BackBiter and a foam chest plate also made my Chris).



















I jumped in at the last minute with a "What Does the Fox Say" costume (why do I love that song so much?) - Most of it was already in my closet and I made the mask with glitter and craft feathers the night before the annual party we attend. I actually spent more money on make-up than I did on my costume since I wear so little of it to begin with!

Finally, I got into the mood and made The Pumpkin Hat by Crochet by Jennifer and listed it in my Etsy shop. Turkey clippies and Santa hat are already there so I'm all ready for the next 2 holidays!!

Let's hope that the crafting spirit stays for a while! I have a lot to get done!

Handmade Holiday for the Religious Ed class

I volunteer-teach for one of my kid's Catholic religious education class (used to be called CCD but this is a politically progressive - although dogmatically conservative - church - Hippy Catholics if you will - so they renamed it to be more on target with what they do - and there are no tests or grades!). Anyway, back to what I was focused on - the Winter Holiday or since we're now in the religious ed zone Advent and CHRISTMAS!  We're celebrating by having a party in our classroom where the kids each bring something (including our kids) and watching a Veggie Tales Christmas movie. My co-teacher, assistant and I decided to give our students a couple of things in a gift bag like we did last year. My co-teacher picked up a couple of things from Oriental Trading (great, although not always accurate, selection of church crafts) and a Holy Card from the Catholic Shop, our assistant is bringing some candy and I'm bringing something fun and secular!

Snowman Melt and Reindeer Noses!!

I'm obsessed with Pinterest (<-- you can follow me here) these days and found the reindeer noses on there repinned by my friend Missy who always pins cool kid stuff! All they are is Whoppers and a red gum ball.

Snowman melt was the invention of another RE co-teacher although that's not what she called it - it's hot chocolate, marshmallows and a hershey's kiss in an adorable baggie I found at Dollar Tree by my house.

I've also added the little candy canes to use to stir as well in previous years although, not this time (true is that I couldn't find them at the one store I went to).  I found chocolate mint marshmallows to add this year!

My kids gave mixed reviews on the marshmallows but that's about what I expected from them and all kids in general. It at least give the kids some color in the package and a medium sized marshmallow to make a snowman with if they play with their food!

What else am I up to? Booties! I now have baby booties in my shop:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/86575889/crochet-baby-beanie-skull-cap-hat-and

The Count down begins... Handmade Holidays

Updates on my Handmade Holiday:
Thanksgiving cooking: I made twice baked potatoes (only one out of 13 exploded in the oven!) but forgot the sour cream at home (note to self: must find something to do with sour cream that I don't ever use) and homemade scalloped potatoes for Thanksgiving as well as the birthday cakes for the November Birthday Girls.

Advent calendar: ACK! I haven't done the advent calendar and there are TWO days until Dec 1 and technically, Advent has already begun!! Gotta get going on that!

Scarf for mom: I've ordered a cashmere silk blend that I'm going to dye to make my mom's scarf

Tree Skirt: This is totally from last year but I need to work on it. I just pulled it out - I have Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus stitched on and the angel tacked on but no shepherds or wisemen... I did redo my patterns and make a new felt board (the roll-up, stiffened felt version got smushed and now the characters don't stick so I backed some felt with the left-over peg-board instead). Here's the new felt board nativity:

Handmade Holiday con't, con't...

So the whole family is getting into a handmade holiday which is great!
A (age 9) is making scarves for her friends -

E (age 6 1/2) has just learned to sew and made this neck pillow cover (I made the muslin bag inside - no way was I trusting a 6 year old with sewing a bag that will be holding 5 cups of rice) -


M (age 3 3/4) is making paper diapers for his sister's stuffed animals (so that's where the spare roll of paper towels and bag of safety pins that I had set aside for pinning dance costumes went!)

I finished and delivered the chalkboard placemats for E's teacher and rice neck wraps and Coconut Body Scrub (Aunt Katie's Body Scrub recipe with coconut oil instead of honey) for A's teacher and both girl's RE teachers and my book club/knitting night friends. And I was cold so I made a neck pillow for our family as well and added flax filled eye pillows too! On both, one side is fleece and the other side is VSSS (shh! Victoria's Secret stretch satin - that's right, underwear!) that I purchased as a group buy from Kathy's Lace and Elastic Outlet



Hubby C, well, he was out of character this weekend and got all of our butts in gear as we, the unwilling, led by he, the uncharacteristicly tidy, did the impossible and now have an unmessy (although not yet clean, ie vacuumed, scrubbed and disinfected - well, except for the laundry room where I was...) that is nearly ready for Christmas! And tomorrow, 2 out of 3 kids go to school for several hours and C is home with me to continue the trend!

Nutcracker on Tuesday night and then the non-stressful holiday festivities can begin!