10 November 2009
Are you ready for A Homemade Christmas? Last year I started a meme for others to post about what gifts they were making for Christmas. This year will be a little bit different. There will be four two week periods, and they begin next Tuesday, November 17th. This time you can post about gifts and recipes, decorations, and any thing that has to do with giving to others and making the home special for Christmas. Stay tuned for more information!
My aunt Lou made the quilt above for my aunt Glenna. Lou has been making quilts for quite a while, and she made the beautiful quilt here for my momma. Lately she has been working on several knitting projects (as well as her daughter), and has inspired my sister and I to start knitting again.
In the past I have knitted, but after finding out that I was had been doing it wrong (actually backwards) I retired to crocheting (the good ol’ standby). Now that I have picked knitting back up—and am doing it the correct way—I am thoroughly enjoying it! I have began working on a pair of green fingerless gloves.
If you have any left-over home-directed magazines, you might wish to cut the pictures out and make note cards! I received this dear card and envelope from Monica at The Homespun Heart, which gave me an idea as to what to do with the pages I have collected of inspirations from magazines. You may also like decoupaging something special.
And now that Christmas is only forty days away, you can start preparing to have a homemade Christmas . . . and don’t forget to enter your posts in the meme (starting Nov. 17th)!
1 January 2009
This is the last A Homemade Christmas post of the year (though today is the first of 2009) — AHC in review.
I received this darling notebook from my dear sister, Breezy.
It has a lovely composition of cut out scrapbook papers, what a feminine design!
Along the bottom of the front are old portraits of ladies in hats. I thought this quite sweet since hats are one of my favorite little (sometimes not so little) items from the past.
Breezy also decoupaged the inside. In the bottom left corner she added a little surprise. How I enjoy the appearance of a good vintage post card!
Every Thursday I posted about homemade Christmas gifts and decorations, what fun it was to have so many others post along with me! Thank you to all you joined me, what a blessing it has been to do this! Lord willing I might do it again next year! If you would like to post another homemade Christmas post, feel free to sign Mr. Linky below. I thought it would be nice to get to see the gifts that you had to keep secret until after Christmas, and maybe even the ones you received! Have a wonderfully blessed new year!
| 1. Carrie (Picture) 2. Carrie (Cupcake Kit) 3. Carrie (I Spy Bottle) |
4. Carrie (Handprint Christmas Ornaments) 5. Robin 6. BreezyTulip |
7. Trisch 8. Auntie Lou-Homemade Pasta 9. Molly (vintage photo art) |
25 December 2008
Welcome to the tenth A Homemade Christmas! This is week Ten of Ten (you don’t have to enter in each one). I hope you’ll join us in sharing about homemade gifts that you have received or made — past, present, and future!
You can click here for the Introductory post.
It is a tradition in our family to make these cookies every year at Christmas time. Oh, these are so delicious! Every year Momma sought out to find the best sugar cookie recipe, and this is where her search ended.
Vanilla-Butter Sugar Cookies
PREHEAT: 350° | BAKE: 10-12 minutes | YIELD: 7 dozen
Cookies:
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups butter, softened
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Frosting:
1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
Food coloring, optional
Colored sugar
In a mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter; beat until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Stir together dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture until completely blended. Chill for 30 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with holiday cutters dipped in flour. Using a floured spatula, transfer cookies to ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
For frosting, combine sugar, butter, vanilla and milk; beat until creamy. Thin with additional milk to desired spreading consistency if necessary. Add a few drops of food coloring if desired. Spread frosting over cookies and decorate with colored sugar.
We have so much fun decorating these as a family around our dinner table! Some turn out pretty, while others are so ugly that we have to eat them right away before anyone else sees them. Ha!
I hope you have a wonderfully happy Christmas as you celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Announcement: There will be one extra week of A Homemade Christmas. On January 1st I will post a wrap-up AHC where you can post about the homemade gifts you received and the ones you were keeping secret until Christmas. I’m looking forward to it and I hope you’ll tune in and post about yours, too!
Have you made or received any homemade gifts? If you’d like to make a post about your homemade gifts, you can sign Mr. Linky below. You can add one of my Homemade Christmas icons to your blog by clicking here. Each Thursday (until the end of December) there will be A Homemade Christmas post! Hope you’ll join in the fun as we learn, inspire, and encourage one another!
| 1. Robin 2. Morgan |
3. Jennifer on the Frugal Front Porch (KaRaisin Cookies w/custom tin) 4. Molly |
23 December 2008
There are things we do every year, and there are things that we do only once in our lifetimes. I, personally, really like tradition — the things that happen the same way every year — year after year. I thought it would be fun to share about a few of the things we do each year.
A few of the things we do every year:
String popcorn and cranberries — This is kind of like a sewing project for the whole family. Pop popcorn, grab a bowl of cranberries, have lots of thread and a needle, and we’re set! Oh, and sometimes a nice Christmas movie helps. Wrap these garlands around the tree, and instantly the tree has extra beauty!
Listen to Christmas music — To hear the carols adds so much, I’m not sure what this time of year would be like without it.
Decorate the stairway — Simple, yet sweet. We hang garlands on our banister, with white twinkle lights. It is so cozy to walk down a softy lit stairway early in the morning.
Go to grandparents’ — A week or two before Christmas we go to Grandpa and Grandma’s and on Christmas day we go to Granny’s house.
Sugar cookies — Momma found the perfect recipe many years ago, and they are delicious! We cut them out in different shapes (bells, trees, little people, stars, hearts, etc.) and then we sit down at the table with wax paper all around, decorating them with a most delicious homemade frosting.
Christmas Eve — That is when we celebrate Christmas here at home. We eat a lovely dinner. Daddy reads aloud Luke 2. We praise God. Presents are opened. In the past our presents have been numbered, but this year they are labeled with literary names. What is fun about this is that we never know which present is for whom until we are ready to open them.
A few of the new things that we are doing this year:
Getting a real tree — This year we bought a real tree for the first time (at least for Bre and I). It is so sweet to have a real tree, and what a happy one it is! We mainly put homemade ornaments on our tree, since many of the others were too heavy for the real little branches to hold.
Set up a card tree — This is the perfect place to display all of this years incoming Christmas Cards. In the past, we have set the cards up on bookshelves, but they were continually falling over. With the card tree we have been able to hang them by ribbon on branches set up in a vase, and it looks quite artsy.
What are some of your traditions? Are you doing anything new this year?
19 December 2008
This little pouch I created is simple to make and easy to fill. It is the perfect size to hold little treasures found on adventures, such as pebbles, fossils, pine cones, berries, leaves, buried treasure, or any other little thing found while exploring. It is also the perfect place to store goodies (candies, cars, doll clothes, ribbons, toys, sewing supplies, etc.).
Supplies:
• Burlap or Course Muslin – material for pouch (I cut a folded piece of muslin, with the cut dimensions 6.5 inches wide, and 7.5 inches tall)
• Needles – small for sewing, large (very large) for pulling twine through material
• Twine – for draw-string (I used two that where each about 20 inches long)
• Thread – embroidery floss will work well (I used 3-ply)
Directions:
1. Fold about an inch of the top edge inward. Knot and sew (with the straight stitch) across, making a nice hem. This will be seen from the outside when the pouch is finished, so make the stitches the way you would like them to look.
2. Sew the straight stitch about a quarter of an inch from the raw edge. Knot and and cut thread.
3. Hem both ends in this way, making sure to fold them down on the same side of the material – what will be the inside of the pouch.
4. Fold them together, front pieces facing together. Sew about 3/8-inch from the edge all the way down to the bottom.
5. When you come to the bottom where the material is folded, knot securely.
6. This type of finish will make the bottom corners of bag to appear like this when folded right-side-out.
7. For different corners that give more room at the bottom of the pouch, here is a variation. Sew just like before, but add another step. Flatten the inside corner of the pouch to make a triangle, and fold the seam to one side.
8. Sew straight across triangle about 3/4-inch from the tip.
9. When turned right-side-out, the corner should look something like this.
10. The inside of the pouch should look like this.
11. Turn pouch right-side-out. For the draw-string, take a very large needle and thread the twine through it. Poke needle through the first layer of the material at the top of pouch, but not through the second piece. Poke the needle back out through the other side at the edge. Now, this is a little stressful, but if you have strong material it should be alright. Pull the needle through the first hole that was made, dragging the twine through the hole with it. Pull the needle through the second hole on the other side as well.
12. It should look something like this.
13. Do the same on the other side of the hem to where you have something that looks like this on one side,
14. and two pieces of twine on the other.
15. Do this again, just on the other side. When you are finished, each side should have a small line, and a set of twine ends.
16. To keep the twine in good condition and from sliding through the casing, tie knots in the ends of both sets.
If this pouch is for a little lady, you can embroider any type of decoration you would like (e.g. flowers, verses, etc.) for extra beauty.
I keep my sewing supplies – needles, thread, etc – inside of my pouch, and have found it quite handy. I hope you enjoy yours!
18 December 2008
Welcome to the ninth A Homemade Christmas! This is week Nine of Ten (you don’t have to enter in each one). I hope you’ll join us in sharing about homemade gifts that you have received or made — past, present, and future!
You can click here for the Introductory post.
An adventure pouch is the perfect thing to take on a walk or while searching for little treasures. The size is just right to hold special small things that don’t want to get lost.
As a gift you can place some tasty little treats inside, or even another homemade gift.
Early tomorrow morning I will post a step-by-step tutorial on how to make one.
Announcement: There will be one extra week of A Homemade Christmas. On January 1st I will post a wrap-up AHC where you can post about the homemade gifts you received and the ones you were keeping secret until Christmas. I’m looking forward to it and I hope you’ll tune in and post about yours, too!
Have you made or received any homemade gifts? If you’d like to make a post about your homemade gifts, you can sign Mr. Linky below. You can add one of my Homemade Christmas icons to your blog by clicking here. Each Thursday (until the end of December) there will be A Homemade Christmas post! Hope you’ll join in the fun as we learn, inspire, and encourage one another!
| 1. Trisch–Homemade Doll Clothes 2. Robin 3. Bonnie |
4. Elastigirl 5. Lillie–Clove studded oranges 6. Becca |
7. Amy – Home made dollhouse for polly pockets |
11 December 2008
Welcome to the eighth A Homemade Christmas! This is week Eight of Ten (you don’t have to enter in each one). I hope you’ll join us in sharing about homemade gifts that you have received or made — past, present, and future!
You can click here for the Introductory post.
Pincushions are practical and the perfect place to store any stray pins.
This pillow pincushion is simple, yet quite lighthearted and cheery. This is the front, with a patchwork of four colorful fabrics.
The back of the cushion with a pink button for extra beauty.
The finished size of the cushion is 4.25″ x 3.75″. A pretty pincushion would be such a nice treat for anyone!
Have you made or received any homemade gifts? If you’d like to make a post about your homemade gifts, you can sign Mr. Linky below. You can add one of my Homemade Christmas icons to your blog by clicking here. Each Thursday (until the end of December) there will be A Homemade Christmas post! Hope you’ll join in the fun as we learn, inspire, and encourage one another!
4 December 2008
Welcome to the seventh A Homemade Christmas! This is week Seven of Ten (you don’t have to enter in each one). I hope you’ll join us in sharing about homemade gifts that you have received or made — past, present, and future!
You can click here for the Introductory post.
One of our favorite decorations for our home are the popcorn and cranberry garlands. They are simple to make, and add such a festive look! We started them several years ago, and now it is tradition to deck our tree with the strands.
Usually when we make them we sit around watching a Christmas movie or listening to Christmas music. All that is needed is thread, a needle, a bowl of popcorn, and a bowl of cranberries.
These garlands can be wrapped around the tree, lain on a bookshelf for extra beauty, or just hang on a doorknob. I see these lovely decorations as a gift to the home, making it an even cheerier place to be!
Have you made or received any homemade gifts? If you’d like to make a post about your homemade gifts, you can sign Mr. Linky below. You can add one of my Homemade Christmas icons to your blog by clicking here. Each Thursday (until the end of December) there will be A Homemade Christmas post! Hope you’ll join in the fun as we learn, inspire, and encourage one another!
3 December 2008
This giveaway was for the green corduroy purse that I made.
This purse is simplistic and a lovely accent to any lady’s wardrobe. The interior is a cotton fabric with light blue, green, and mauve whimsical flowers in straight rows on top of a solid tan background. The handle stays inside these (one on each side at the top). The bow is added for extra beauty. For a little more information about the bag, you can click here.
The rules for entering were as follows.
To enter ONCE:
Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite thing about Christmas is.
or
To enter TWICE:
Email at least three friends, telling them about this giveaway and linking to my blog. Come back and tell me you did so, and tell me what your favorite thing about Christmas is.
This give away began on December 3rd and ended on Friday, December 5 at noon EST.
**What a huge response! Thank you all for entering,
it was fun reading your responses!**
