I realize that it is only the first week of November and I should be thinking about Thanksgiving and then Christmas but I like my Christmas season to last as long as possible...especially when the only thing Christmasy about Hawaii is when it rains. Our leaves do not change colors and no snow falls here (at least not on this island). We do have gorgeous red sunsets and clear blue water (with enormous crashing waves in the winter) as our trade-off. And the warmest we have to dress is in jeans and a sweatshirt (and this is rare). So...I have to make my own Christmas magic and this means decorating my home so it feels like Christmas. Which I have already done. Which makes me slightly crazy. At least this is what my mother and husband tell me.
The reason behind this Christmas in November is because I decided to rearrange my sewing area. So I can see the tv while sewing. Since this is really important and I am planning on making lots of gifts this year (and apparently watching lots of tv while doing it). So...there is a small closet in our bedroom that is actually a staircase that leads upstairs. But it is boarded up at the top and we don't use it. So I store all my Christmas boxes there (I had ten boxes, not to mention about 5 bags and various other small boxes). It's nice to have the extra storage area but if I use it I need to keep the door area free and that takes up too much room so I moved everything out and arranged my sewing area as such so there is no access to the door (unless you move a bunch of stuff around which I don't want to do in 2 months time).
I realize this story is boring and long - sorry!
Since all the Christmas stuff is out now and the new storage area requires going up and down a ladder with boxes (something else I did not want to do twice in just a few weeks), I decorated the house...whew! OK the story is over now!
I did scale down a bit and have boxes to take to the Goodwill (of mostly crap that I don't know why I bought - probably beacuse it was cheap). I'm sticking to handmade Christmas things as much as possible.
I buy things from a local artist every year. She does wonderful work and I have quite a few of her things. She sells them at local craft fairs. These are a few of her items below:
I have done some tole-painting in the past and have a few things I made as well. I'm not sure if I'll make some things this year. I have only signed up for one craft fair and it is at a women's dinner our church has every year. It's small but I usually sell some things. I may sign-up for another one that is close to home. I need to start making things instead of just making lists of what I plan on making.
In school news, we are reading about bats in science and found a couple of fun links (via our science book). This is a cool puzzle link that they loved and it has different puzzles and levels of difficulties. Also this article is pretty interesting.
In blogland, I'm loving the Sew, Mama, Sew blog this month...have you seen it? Lots of great ideas, tips and tutorials!! Great for a handmade Christmas!
And I can't wait for these patterns to come out next year - the whole concept is so adorable!!
I want to scale back this year for Christmas since the kids always get a bunch of plastic crap that finds it's way into the garbage or Goodwill bag too soon. I want to get one or two quality items for each one and that's it. Which is hard since I am definitely a consumer. I've warned them they are only getting a couple of presents since let's face it, they don't NEED anything. We have a home, food, beds and they all have toys. They are living the good life compared to most of the rest of the world. I realize that they are children and it is so fun to get presents (I,for one, love presents, both giving and receiving) but junk is junk and I'm over it. Someone had posted a great list of links to various handmade/unique toys on their blog but I can't remember where I spotted it. I'll search and post it if I find it. Enough on my rant....
Baby Girl is totally into our little nativity scene. I saw this about 3 years ago and thought it was perfect. The kids can't break it and the little people are so cute. She loves carrying around Baby Jesus.
** I found the blog..it was on Angry Chicken's blog back in August - great piece on toys and lots of great links!
