Handmade Christmas 2010

Remember, just like last year, if you are one of my sisters-in-law, don't read any farther!

OK, for the rest of you, I'll share what I'm planning to make for Christmas presents. If you're doing handmade this year, I'd love to see what you're working on in the comments!

Last year, I picked up a bunch of Christmas fabric and ribbon on clearance in anticipation of making fabric bags to use for wrapping this year. I made several bags then realized how tedious it is and ended up wrapping most of the gifts in a piece of fabric not really unlike how I wrap with paper. The exception is that I didn't use tape, I just used ribbon and a bow (or bows...) to hold things together. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out, and surprised that I have quite a bit of fabric left over! I also would like to mention that I made tags from last year's Christmas cards. I cut out any pretty picture and even some of the wording, punched a hole in them, and added a reinforcement sticker just in case I want to use them next year, too.

Let's start with my nieces. The oldest is 11, and she isn't getting much in the way of handmade. Right now, she's into all things peace sign and her favorite color is green. I found some big signs at Hobby Lobby, one that says Peace and one that is a peace sign, that were in every color *except* green. So I bought a can of spray paint and painted them! She is also getting an electronic Phase 10 game that I picked up for a few bucks on an Amazon.com sale last year.

Next niece is 7. She'll be getting a Husker sweatshirt (thrifted, 'cause I'm like that and her mom is OK with it), a Geoboard (No Time For Flash Cards), and a tiny fairy doll, including the "fairy catcher necklace" as seen here (both Treasures for Tots).




Niece #3 is 6. She'll also get a geoboard, tiny fairy doll (maybe something like the fairy house that is linked from the doll post above), and velcro catch ball. (Craftzine)



My fourth niece is 3. She'll be getting some lacing beads, a preschool sewing kit (The Adventures of Bear) or like this one at Frugal Family Fun Blog, and a toss & catch toy. (Chasing Cheerios). Her birthday just passed, and one of her gifts for that was a beauty shop in a box (see mine at that link). (Chasing Cheerios - see the one that inspired me at this link.)

We usually give my brother and sister-in-law meat from our cattle. My brother will also be getting some lego cards (Filth Wizardry) which will be used by my nieces with his enormous set of legos that still reside at our parents' house. I also made him some poppers out of a pool noodle (clearanced!). We had something similar when we were kids, and I got a kick out of making them. I also made a simple drawstring bag to store them in. There are 88 poppers, which means each of my nieces will have to pick up 22 after the mayhem is over...

All mothers and sisters-in-law will be getting homemade vanilla (Heavenly Homemakers), though I am making mine a bit differently. I read in the comments that bourbon makes a better vanilla than vodka, so I bought that instead. It is more expensive, and I haven't ran the numbers yet but I think it's still cheaper than buying vanilla at the store. I got a late start on the vanilla, but I think things are going to work out fine - I ended up with more beans than I needed, plus the bottle I am using doesn't hold quite a gallon. I'm hoping that by using extra beans and less booze, it'll be extra strong and will cancel out the shortened brew time. Plus, since it won't be "steeping" for as long, I plan to add more bourbon and let it keep on keeping on.

We got family pictures taken as Hubs's parents' gift.

Hubs' two sisters will get vanilla, of course. One is getting an initial kind of like this one from Flamingo Toes for one of them, perhaps stealing an idea from the fabric wrapped initial at goody-goody. Luckily, said sister-in-law painted her room based on something I made her and I have leftover supplies from it, so that helps! I found most of the letters of the other SIL's last name in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. I'll paint them and fashion the missing letter similarly enough to pass muster. (Update, I broke my craft knife blade, but I turned a g into an s!)

I attempted to recreate something like this necklace from Catherines. As usual, my theory is great but my process is not so much. My flowers are not looking like flowers... Instead, I'm looking at something like this fabric bead necklace from froo*gal.

It floors me that my nephew is a year and a half old. Where does time go?? He will be getting a couple of toys that I got during a huge Amazon sale, a button snake (Counting Coconuts) and a tie rattlesnake (Skip to My Lou).


Last but not least, Goose is actually getting more store-bought presents than homemade ones. I found some Lincoln Logs (well, Frontier Logs, but same thing) on clearance, a pair of kitty slippers from Target's dollar aisle, a thrifted Snow White dress up dress, a thrifted book about kitties (it's in brand new condition, though), and a toss & catch toy like her cousin above. Though I have ideas to make her a fabric "book" of sorts with different scenes for her Care Bears, along with some elastic loops to store said Care Bears. We'll see how that turns out.

I don't have much for Hubs yet, though we have discussed pooling our resources and getting an elliptical as our gift to each other. Thanks to hubs's genius, we'll be getting some college hockey tickets for our brother-in-law, and he's getting a set of poppers as seen above as well. Men are much more difficult to stitch for! (My parents get meat from our cattle, too, by the way.) As I said above, I'd love to know what you're doing if you're making Christmas presents - let me know in the comments. You can see what I made for Christmas last year at this post.

For tons of frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom, where Jessica is also talking about gifts!

Build a Couch - Guest Post

My apologies for going MIA again. There has been some family ... stuff ... going on (for lack of a better word) and if you'd like to join us in prayer, please e-mail me at nettacow at gmail dot com. I have lots of links to put together in a roundup, just need to take the time to do it. Hubs, Goose, and I also visited the Nebraska State Fair today and had a super time, even with the wind gusting to 40 MPH. (OK, maybe not quite that high but it sure felt like it.)

Good news, though - I have another guest post from Christy of Zimms Zoo! Read on to see how they built a couch to fit their needs! [Interestingly, I unfortunately sat on this post for long enough that the Knock Off Wood website changed to Ana White! Oops, my bad...]
-----------------------------------
Have you ever wanted new furniture but your room is a funky shape or maybe the money is just not there or maybe you are like me and would be happy to have nothing in the room but cushions? Maybe you want something that doesn't take up a lot of premium floor space but could still seat a LOT of people? That is exactly what happened to me.

Our living room/dining room is a long narrow room and all the hand-me-down couches we have had just took up too much room and/or didn't fit the room right. So I went on a quest to find something else. While I was looking, my husband started bring home crating from his work that he thought we could re-use. It was full of staples and screws, but otherwise in good shape.

Then the most wonderful thing happened. I found Knock Off Wood, now Ana White. I LOVE that site. She has plans for the most wonderful furniture that I drool over. Like this Build a Storage Bed and these floating shelves. Then I found these Armless Sectional Piece Plans and it started the wheels in my head turning. I had all this crating that was exactly the right size and the screws that were in it were perfect too. It was meant for outdoor seating, but who cares? It would seat a lot of people, fit in the corner by the window, not take up too much space AND I could store toys under it.

After looking over the plans thoroughly, I decided that I would have my 13yo attempt to make these. He was excited because he could use power tools (imagine Tim the Toolman Taylor and his manly grunting). It took us about 3 days to cut the wood, remove the screws, and and yank out the staples (I now have the strongest forearms in the world!). We spent the next 2 days putting it together. Brown Bear (his manly alias) really did do most of the work. He cut, he sawed, he screwed, he conquered. The other kids (12,10,8 and 5) painted it. I merely supervised (which is harder than you may think with an 18 month old also wandering around the paint).

After we had it painted and moved in, I happily took the old couch to the curb! But it was kinda hard to sit on. So I started scouring garage sales for cushions. I found several at a local home decor store that were on clearance. Then I found 15 cushions at garage sale for about $5. I used the home decor ones for the seats and the other cushions for the backs. I bought a sheet and cut it apart to make pillow covers. I used this pillow slip covers tutorial from Make It and Love It for the covers. I still have a couple to finish. I ran out of steam. The boxes under the couch were made using the tutorial from this Craft Room post, also at Make It and Love It, as inspiration. My mom brought me several apple and orange boxes from her work and they fit underneath the sections perfectly. I just modpodged the paper on the front.

In short, if you are looking to update your house or look be sure to check out Ana White or other similar sites and then see what you might have lying around that could be used in place of what she calls for. She encourages the use of re-claimed wood. In fact the next project for my boy is picnic tables made from pallets. We plan on making 3 of them for Christmas presents.
-----------------------------------
Way to go, Christy - and a big high five for Brown Bear! Thanks so much for sharing with us!

I'll be linking up to Made By You Mondays at Skip to My Lou and Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom.

Keeping My Cool

Hubs will be the first to tell you that I'm a big weenie when it comes to heat. I honestly think there's a little glitch in my system somewhere that makes me that way, but I guess I won't know for sure until I get a chance to ask the Big Guy that made me, and once I get to that point, I'm not sure I'll care anyway.

But I digress.

This summer, Goose has wanted to spend more time outside than at any other time in her little life. I am just starting to wrap my mind around the fact that means tons of bug spray and baths, let alone the HEAT. (Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite bug repelling methods, by the way - I'm still looking for one that works besides greasy DEET.)

Today, I whipped up some neck coolers and sponge balls. I looked at a few tutorials for neck coolers (including Salihan Crafts, Heather Lessiter, and Aquadiamonds) but they're all more or less the same: make a long, skinny tube of fabric, stitch across the width of it several inches in on one end, add the crystals, stitch several inches in on the other end, fold in your edges and sew. You soak the cooler in water to activate the crystals, tie it around your neck, and do your thing.

[Edited to add: I made four more for my nieces, and I loosely followed the Aquadiamonds pattern which instructs you to sew several inches in (which makes your tie on one end), add 1/4 teaspoon or so of crystals, sew a few inches up to make a pocket or channel for those crystals, add more crystals, stitch across again, etc. I didn't follow the measurements in the instructions; rather I put pins to mark where I wanted the ties to end/cooler to begin on each end, then I pinned to mark the middle, then I pinned to mark the quarter-way points. So, I ended up with four pockets for the crystals.

Since one of the coolers was for my two-year-old niece, I made hers shorter than the others. I didn't change the amount of crystals I used (1/4 teaspoon per pocket or channel) and hers got pretty tight after soaking the same amount of time as the others that were larger. I plan to re-do mine and Goose's to add the pockets, and I will decrease the amount of crystals in hers.

Also, I discovered that after two days of soaking (in a bowl - not in a cooler!), the crystals that started out smaller than the "bead" on the non-business end of my sewing pins became a bit bigger than a marble. So these things really expand - be aware.]

I made one for me and a smaller one for Goose. Here they are before and after soaking:

(Should you happen to click on the above pic to make it larger, you'll notice that the fabric has kitties on it. :>))


Yup, that's my cluttered countertop, in all its glory. I didn't bother to measure the crystals and I wish that I would have... I was trying to get that part of the project done before the 3 year old got interested in what I was doing. Her smaller cooler could probably have used more crystals, I think.

My biggest obstacle in getting these made was finding the polymer crystals. I didn't want to buy them online and have to wait for them to arrive, but I couldn't get them locally via Wal-Mart or the regional garden store chain. This morning, in a burst of creative genius, I stopped at the local flower shop - success! I ended up with about 2/3 of a cup, which is way, way more than I need, and paid $5, which I thought was too much. But it was the best I could do, and it worked!

The other thing I made was Sponge Balls. I stopped at the dollar store after hitting the flower shop and picked up two bags of sponges for $1 each. Turns out they were miscellaneous and random rejects in varying sizes, shapes and types. I just cut them into strips and went with it, though. The results are kinda cute, I thought:

I'm really looking forward to smacking my brother in the back of the head with these--- I mean, tossing them around with Goose and my nieces.

If there's a Frugal Friday this week, I'll be submitting this post, so if you want more frugal tips, check out Life As Mom.

Replacing Fabric Softener

I have finally done it! I quit using fabric softener. And it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be, either.

I made a set of wool dryer balls using wool yarn purchased with a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby. (You can see what the current coupon is here and print it if you don't get one in the newspaper.) I followed the instructions in the above Tipnut link, and it worked like a charm! One skein of yarn was enough to make the four balls shown, plus a tiny ball that my cats have seriously enjoyed batting around. In fact, I had to pick it up because they were tearing it apart. They enjoy the large balls, too (as does the three year old!) but I try to keep them safely out of reach of little paws and little hands.

Per a post that I linked to a couple of months ago, 12 Surprising Ways to Reuse Aluminum Foil at Wise Bread, I tried tossing a (clean!) ball of foil in the dryer along with the dryer balls. While static wasn't eliminated completely - especially depending on what was in that particular load - I thought it was greatly reduced. The clothespin is in the picture to represent my clothesline (you can see what a nerd I am about it in that post - lots of tips and tricks) which I use faithfully when the weather permits. I have reused the foil ball many times, and while it has gotten smaller and more compacted, it is still working just fine. I'll wait until it's falling apart to replace it, recycling the old ball, of course.

My clothesline went down for a bit this summer, though, and I had to use the dryer. I was pleased with the outcome using the wool and foil. As noted in my clothesline post, I also toss my line dried items in the dryer for a few minutes using low heat or air only, and the balls help soften them up, too.

For more frugal ideas, visit Life as Mom.

Date Night In - Guest Post

I am so excited about today's post! As noted below, Christy is on a break from blogging, and I've missed hearing about her projects. I asked her if she'd like to share them over here, and here's the first one. I seriously think Christy has done more things on my crafty to-do list than I have. This project would be perfect for Father's Day, I think - enjoy!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hi! I am Christy from the Zimms Zoo. Lenetta has very kindly allowed me to guest post over here once in awhile because I am not currently blogging regularly at mine (life kinda got in the way). I am very excited to do this. Lenetta always has some great info on eating healthy, cleaning naturally and my personal favorite (the reason I stumbled upon her blog) links to fabulous handmade projects.

With Father's Day coming up, I thought that I would share with you a project that I just made for my husband: a date calendar.

A friend of mine said she had seen a calendar that you could buy that had pre-planned dates on it. However after she started looking at them, the dates were very expensive. I don't know about you, but with 6 kids and a great-grandma living with us, I don't have a lot of extra time or resources for those kind of dates. This got the wheels in my head turning. Why couldn't I make something like this, but with cheaper or free dates?

I started searching the internet to see what I could come up with. The first place I landed was Love, Actually. She has fantastic ideas on dates at home and dates out. I browsed the website, but still some of them required a babysitter. This isn't always easy for us. Then my friend suggested Dating Divas. Another wonderful site full of date ideas. Between these 2 I was able to get several good ideas that I could modify to use.

But then I hit the jack-pot with Project 52! Hosted by Simply Modern Mom, it is a commitment to date your husband at least once a week; most of these dates should be at home, and without the kids (meaning after their bedtime for us). I think the angels were singing when I found this one. It was exactly what I was looking for! Cheap or free, could work with our crazy schedule, and lots of inspiration. What was not to like? She even had a weekly linky party with other people's ideas right there for me to see.

That did it! I was going to make this calendar with pre-planned date nights and themes and have it professionally printed (I know I said I was cheap, but I wanted it to look really nice) so that he could hang it in his office and be reminded of when the date nights were coming. Just a little sidenote: Be sure and see how long it takes to get it printed. I used Sam's, which is like Costco for some of you, and I thought it was printed in-house. Wrong! His birthday was yesterday and it won't be arriving for another 2 weeks. Bummer!

I also made a Date Night Idea tin, with simple ideas that we could do if we found some un-expected time. After browsing all those ideas, I started coming up with some on my own. I tried to put at least 12 more in there so we could do at least another one a month. But I know I will be adding to this as the year goes on and things pop into my mind.

Here are some pre-planned date night ideas that I came up with and some that I borrowed (and modified) to get you going:

1. Fondue night- different fondue dips and things to dip in them.
2. Drive-in movie night- taking the laptop outside and setting up our canopy to use as a stall.
3. Light drawing- you need to check out the post to see all the details
4. Bookstore date- does involve leaving the house. Just hanging out at the bookstore, browsing books, and having something from the cafe.

Date Night idea can:
1. Scrabble and strawberries (chocolate-dipped!)
2. Would you rather....- This came from Simply Modern Mom.
3. Who can make the best story or sentence out of magnetic words. Someone gave us a HUGE set of magnetic words for the kids. Give each of us a handful, set the timer, and see who wins.
4. Chopped- This as an idea I saw on Project 52, based on the TV show. Looks like fun!
5. Massages~Need I say more?
6. Photo Booth- Gather a handful of props and snap away! I found this link for mustaches that I thought looked like fun too.

I hope this inspires you to start dating your husband again. Don't let the busy-ness of life crowd in and make you forget why you married him in the first place. Our husbands have a very stressful responsibility of providing for the family and we have the stressful job (which is also a privilege) of raising that family. So take some time and laugh together!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Christy, thank you SO MUCH for this post and all these ideas! (I haven't seen the show Chopped but after reading that post, I want to!) What a fabulous way to keep some fun in your relationship - I love it!

Anybody else have any good ideas for Father's Day, or seen anything you'd like to do? Between you and me and the fencepost, Hubs already got most of his gift - a chimney starter for the charcoal grill he got for Christmas. I gave it to him early so he could get to using it. I also have a little bug catching kit and butterfly net squirreled away that I bought on clearance last year... it's more for Goose, but since bugs aren't my favorite thing, he'll be the one searching with her, I think.

Thanks again, Christy - can't wait to have you back!

This post will be submitted to Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom, and also to Amy's Finer Things, because really, what is finer than dating the man you love?!?

Birthday Crafting

[Please see my post for the Spring Cleaning Carnival on Getting the Food Additives Out! for a giveaway with a chance to win one of two copies of the Feingold Association of America's "What are all these funny things in food...and should I eat them?"]

April is a big month of birthdays in my family. My mom, two of my nieces, and me! I had a couple of things tucked in the gift closet for the girls, but I wanted to add in something homemade. The girls turned 11 and 7, so they're getting to ages where they like what they like and their auntie doesn't hardly know what whippersnappers are liking these days.

For the 11-year-old, she loves the color green and peace signs. Although "Lenetta at 11" is a bit hazy, I seem to remember being a bit broody, hanging out a lot in my room listening to music, and contemplating the world and how I was going to make it better. (Or something... like I said, it's hazy.)

To help her set the mood for her musical brooding, I wanted to come up with some lighting. And, within the next couple of months, they'll be moving into a new house and she'll have her own room! I was inspired by Ruffles and Stuff's Pom-Pom Lamp, but in my typical fashion, I did not plan ahead. :>) Our dollar store doesn't carry the plate covers, but after poking around, I found a four-pack of paper plate holders for $1.50 in green.

The only short strands of Christmas lights that I had on hand were multi-colored lights. Thank goodness for my mom! She brought me a few strands from her stash, and I ended up using a strand of 50 lights in each, leaving a "tail" from the bottom set to plug in.

I set two plate holders "face up" (like you would normally use for a plate) and tried to evenly distribute each string of lights within the holders. I then put another holder "face down" on top, which created a pocket between the two for the lights. There were three holes in each holder where the plate tucked in, and I threaded ribbon through those and tied it in bows to hold everything together. I threaded a ribbon through the top as a hanging loop, and another to hold the two lights together.

Since the plate holders weren't solid like the plate covers in the original project, the lights poked out and it would have been more difficult to glue on the tulle. Instead, I just stitched around the holders with embroidery floss using a running stitch then I trimmed the tulle. I included the light bulb that makes the strand blink so my niece can use it if she wishes. I didn't like it myself because it made the whole strand blink off then blink back on, rather than twinkling. (And we didn't think to try it until after I stitched it all shut anyway...)


For my seven-year-old niece, I made a fishing game with a math twist. I combined two fishing games for this, one from Shiso Mama and the other from Counting Coconuts.

I used fabric instead of felt because I had it on hand. I ended up purchasing two sets of buttons for some variety, one set of kitty buttons (she loves Nappies, too!) and a set of flower buttons, which were about $2.30 each. I used all white buttons for the eyes and perhaps I should have gone more colorful...but simple seemed like a good idea at the time.

To make my patterns, I used fish clip art. The yellow fish is actually a whale because I discovered my fish weren't really big enough for the buttons. I was a bit torn as to whether to stitch them right sides together and turn them or to stitch wrong sides together. With all the buttons and embellishments, I didn't think it would work to turn them, so I zigzagged around the fish, leaving the tail open, then used pinking shears to trim around the fish. I stuffed them with poly-fill, zigzagged the tail shut, and pinked the tail.

Some of the fabrics were sheer and/or prone to fraying. I used a total of four layers on the sheer ones so they weren't so see-through. I used fray check on the cut edges of the fabrics that wanted to fray to keep them intact. To make the fish "catchable" I stitched washers about where their mouths would be, then applied fray check to keep the washers from tearing out.

My sweet dad made the fishing poles using dowels. He put duct tape on the handles, and drilled holes in the ends, threading string through for the fishing line. I had planned to tape magnets to the line, but he was able to drill holes in the magnets, so I tied them on. (We tested the magnets with the washers and found that three magnets was enough to really grab a fish, and even two fish at a time, but three at a time was a challenge.)

For the bag, I considered trying to make the sides velcro or snap or button so it would open all the way up to be a good-sized "puddle" for the fish. That quickly got too complicated. I just stitched up the sides, and the top ended up being the selvage ends, so I just folded them down and stitched to make a channel for the drawstring, which is a rainbow ribbon.

To set up the math game, I penciled out a template and then made a similar-sized table in Microsoft Word. I then penciled out all the different problems that I wanted to use. I checked with my mom to see what kind of math she was working on, which is single digit addition and subtraction. I didn't double any up (i.e. 2+3 and 3+2), so that cut down on the number of cards I had to make. In the template I made, the math problem was on the front and then you unfolded the card to find the answer inside.

For double digit answers such as 9+9=18, we thought she could either pick up the 1 and the 8, or the 10 and the 8. As an added bonus, we thought she could also start teaching her two-year-old sister numbers. We put the cards in a box, and everything went inside the bag.

I was blessed to get a phone call tonight from the girls squealing over their gifts, so I think they liked them! This post is going to be linked up to Made By You Mondays at Skip to My Lou, Thursday's Treasures at Treasurers for Tots, and Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom.

Using "Buy It Now" to Sell on eBay

I'll admit I'm no professional when it comes to selling on eBay. I think I have somewhere around 50 pieces of feedback, and that includes BOTH buying and selling. So, this may be a bit anecdotal, but I can tell you that it has paid off for me in spades recently!

eBay is actually going to be changing their structure as of March 30, so the costs are going to be a little bit different. Even under the new fee structure, it will still cost only 50 cents to list an item with a "Buy It Now" option.

My experience using the "Buy It Now" option is pretty limited, no doubt about it. The first time I used it was a few months ago, when selling an old robotic arm toy that belonged to Hubs. We'd done some looking at other ones listed on eBay, and set our starting bid at $9.99, and just for fun, I put $19.99 on as the BIN price. It sold within a few days!

So, when I listed items from my 40 Bags Decluttering Challenge, I thought "what the heck" and put BIN options on many of them, ranging from $4.99 to $9.99. Out of 11 items, five sold using BIN. Another three have bids, which typically removes the BIN option, and three don't have bids any yet. I've made almost $30 by spending an extra quarter under the current fee system!

Another thing I try to keep in mind when determining at what price I list items is what I would pay for the item. If it really isn't worth that much, I list it low, usually 99 cents, or even 49 or 25 cents, and a time or two I've even listed at a penny, just to garner interest. I figure I can donate it, but it takes time and gas money to get it there, and this way it's going to someone who actually wants it. This time around, I even listed a DVD with free shipping. I looked at the other copies of the movie and noticed that there were several bids on one with free shipping, while several others had no bids at all. So far, I think I'm about even to where I'd have been listing it at 99 cents plus shipping, so I actually consider that to be ahead.

Do you have any tips for selling on eBay? Have you had much luck doing it? For more frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom.

40 Bags Update, Bags 2-8

Since I'm plenty ahead on my decluttering challenge, I've been kind of sitting on my laurels, and that just won't do! I need to find my groove again and get rid of some stuff... But in the meanwhile, let me tell you about some things that are either gone, or in the process of finding their way to a new home.

You may remember that bag #1 is some scraps left over from making baby leg warmers. I will be featuring a link in this week's roundup for a pin cushion that can be stuffed with many things including "t-shirt scraps" so I'm thinking I might save a few and try that - especially since I have needed a cute pincushion for a while. So maybe I won't toss them just yet.

Bag 2 - a paper grocery sack of movies and some DVDs. Most of these went via Freecycle. I created an account on Swap A DVD and listed some DVDs that I thought might be of interest to someone but I haven't gotten any requests for them. I'm thinking I'll pull them and perhaps list them on eBay, and if that doesn't work, they'll get Freecycled.

Hubs and I both went through our collection and I'd say we're getting rid of around half of what we had. The funny thing is, we did that so we could get rid of our old entertainment center (a "bag" coming up) and our old TV (another "bag" coming up), as we got a new TV handed down from my parents that is too big for much of anything except a table.

Bags 3 & 4 - The movies we opted to keep were moved to a dresser in the spare bedroom. From that dresser, I cleaned out two garbage sacks full of towels, bath sheets, hand towels, and wash cloths. (What's a bath sheet, you may ask? It's an enormous towel. I kept two, as I used them while I was pregnant and couldn't get a regular towel wrapped around my belly. Hope springs eternal that I'll need them again.)

I actually haven't gotten rid of these bags yet. The Altar Society at my parish is collecting towels and wash cloths for "hygiene kits" at our next meeting, so I'm thinking I'll give them away there, and any left overs will be donated elsewhere. I think I mentioned before that I'd like to give them to the local humane society in honor of my sweet calico, Camilla, who was adopted from the society in Colorado Springs.

"Bag" 5 - This is a small "bag" but it's meaningful! I took the Christmas cards we received a few years ago and cut out the pictures to make gift tags. I didn't do this with this year's cards, since I lost my Christmas card address list, I had to use last year's to recreate it. So, I'll hang onto this year's cards until next year and THEN I'll do the same thing.

I'm actually kind of hoping to reuse some of them (we give gifts to the same people pretty much every year) so I reinforced the holes with those stick-on . . . reinforcer thingies. (hey, it's getting late.) This was actually a pretty fun project.

Bag 6 - Hubs bought me a porch swing for my birthday a few years ago, which I LOVE. One of the many things I love about it is the way Hubs would take a tiny cranky, crying Goose out there and swing until they were both calm - and giggling. When we got it, I was convinced that I needed a cushion for it so I could spend a couple of lazy hours at a time out there, swinging and reading and relaxing.

HAHAHAHAHA!

That hasn't happened, and the short time we do spend out there doesn't require any padding. So, this is going to my sweet cousin.

Bags 7 & 8 - I love shoping our local semi-annual kids' consignment sale for Goose's clothes, but since just about everything MUST be on a hanger, I have ended up with lots of hangers. I'm not ready to sell anything back yet so I don't need them, but I sure am tired of storing them. So I e-mailed the lady that runs the sale and asked her if she knew of anyone in my area that needed hangers. Within 24 hours, I'd made arrangements for someone to pick them up. It helped her, it helped me - that's what I'm really trying to do here!

If you're decluttering for Lent, how's it going? You can see the rest of my Lenten resolutions here, and for more frugal ideas, visit Life as Mom.

Baby Gifts From Your Stash

One of my sweet cousins had a baby about 7 months after Goose was born, and between the financial pinch of me quitting work and the time pinch of the stores where she was registered being too far from Goose's crib where she required naps at frequent intervals, I had to come up with something . . . inventive, shall we say. Some of the things were pulled out of my own "supply" closet, while others were purchased, and my mom split the cost with me. I felt we were able to shower my dear cousin with items that I had found to be very helpful as I transitioned to being a new mom.

Free:
Baby Sling - one that I had been given that didn't work for us.

Ear Plugs - I bought a multi-pack when it became clear that the tiniest noise over the monitor would rouse me from sleep. (Yes, I needed a monitor. Our bedroom and the nursery are on different floors. We slept in the spare room for a while but had to keep the doors closed to keep the cats out.) So I put a pair in a small plastic bag and gave them to her that way.

Safety Pin - I attached it over my bar strap to indicate which side Goose was due to nurse on the next time. (note, 1. that typo is my way of not really typing the actual word for all the weirdos out there searching such things to find, and 2. I didn't actually stick it through the fabric, but I put the strap inside the pin. Otherwise the straps would have been shot in short order!)

Soothies - Goose had some trouble latching on, so these gel pads were, well, soothing. I see that Medela has a cheaper version though either way, I'd look for them locally to avoid shipping charges. I had a package left over.

Incontinence Pads - Though I did not need them for their intended purpose, I had some on hand to put underneath Goose and me when I nursed her in the side-lying position. (Scroll down to see links for nursing while laying down.) I hadn't thought about it at the time, but I have since bought at a consignment sale a washable, reusable pad for Goose's crib that would work well, and would pull double duty!

Heavy-Flow Maxi Pads - I had some left over that I passed along to her.

Mother's Milk Tea - a friend had given me a few boxes, so I passed one along.

Nursing Pads - though now I might be tempted to try to make some...

Safety Q Tips - for some reason, I seemed to have trouble finding these in stores. I don't think I was looking in the right places. :>)

Disposable Changing Pads - Especially at first, I hated the thought of laying my baby down on a nasty changing table in a public restroom. I bought a package of these pads, and I think I only actually threw one away, so they certainly last. (They are also good for diaper blowouts - which we thankfully didn't experience very often.) Since I had so many left over, I just gave her a loose one.

Things I bought:
Medela Micro-Steam Bags - We battled thrush forever, and I since my cousin intended to nurse and keep working, I knew she'd have to pump, and these are a quick and easy way to make sure things are sanitized.

Aquaphor - I didn't realize this had a "following" as a diaper rash treatment, but it sure worked for us. Don't bother with the more expensive baby version, I'm pretty sure it's the same thing.

Pacifiers - I don't remember the brand we used, but we got them at Target and they were very round, which seemed most like mama.

Links - we used these to attach everything to everything else.

Mesh Laundry Delicates Bags - I love these bags for washing socks! They're intended to keep your unmentionables safe in the wash, but they work wonders for keeping tiny socks from getting lost. I also found myself much less stressed when I went to fold, for some random reason. I buy them at the Dollar Store.

Milk Freezer Storage Bags - I wanted to support her decision to nurse as much as I could! She tried the ice cube-type trays for a while but found them more difficult to thaw when the baby needed milk at daycare, so she switched to the bags.

Cute Zipper Pull - for the diaper bag! I seemed to be all thumbs when it came time to try to unzip my diaper bag in a hurry, so I found a cute zipper pull to be very helpful.

Journal - I was able to find a few of these on sale. When Goose was tiny, I journaled everything - diapers, sleeping, nursing - to try and figure out why she cried so much. I also made a brief foray into elimination communication (also known as infant potty training) and wanted to track her diapers for that, as well. When she started on solid foods, I tracked them in the journal, as well as new teeth. I still make a brief entry for each day noting sleep (because we still struggle), and I also keep track of certain potty issues she may or may not have. And, of course, anything cute she happens to do or say. :>) You think you'll remember, but you never do.

Rum - it was a small bottle. Just in case.

The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD - I cannot say enough good things about this! You can read an article from Parenting magazine that gives a summary here. I think all new parents should see it!

Anybody have any other tried-and-true things that you might add to the list?

For more frugal ideas, visit Life as Mom.

Saving Searches on eBay

We all know that being frugal involves being patient, waiting to get what you want until you can find it at the best price. But how does that work on eBay, where it's totally random as to what items are listed and when? Allow me to introduce you to saved searches!

Go to eBay as normal, and enter the item for which you wish to search in the search box. You may want to play around with the terms you use, trying to be more or less specific. Since my Goose is at Grandma's right now where it's ALL CARE BEARS ALL THE TIME, I searched for Care Bears. Here's what comes up with the search results:

The arrow is pointing at a link to Save This Search. Click on it, and you may be asked to log in with your eBay information - go ahead and do that. It will then bring up the following box:

You can change the name of the search if you wish, and you can click on the arrow of the drop down box to adjust the length of time that you will receive e-mails regarding that search.

I currently have around two dozen searches saved for various things. I receive e-mails daily regarding listings on books by a couple of my favorite authors, for example. Other searches might only yield e-mails once a month, or less. At any time, you can click on a link at the bottom of the e-mail to refine the search (useful if you need to adjust the search terms - especially when they are too broad and you're getting e-mailed on stuff you don't want), view all your saved searches, renew the subscription for that search, or unsubscribe.

If there is more than one listing that day that matches your search, all of them will be included in a single e-mail. There is a brief description and a photo (if provided) for each, and there is a link you can click to view the listing.

This method is helpful because I don't have to visit eBay frequently to see if items of interest have been listed, and if there's something I'm interested in but don't find, I can save the search and forget about it! I have found this method to be very handy.

For more frugal ideas, visit Life as Mom.

Also, today has been a great day for decluttering and organizing at my house, in preparation for the 40 Bags in 40 Days decluttering challenge for Lent. (I'd never make it without a head start!) I'd love it if you'd join me!

Homemade Citrus Vinegar

I've been collecting recipes for homemade cleaners for a while now. My favorite post on homemade (EASY!) cleaners is What's Under My Sink by Katie at Kitchen Stewardship - she uses baking soda, vinegar and peroxide. Click over to read about how spraying vinegar followed by peroxide (or vice versa) and letting it dry is as effective as using bleach!

My mom loves the smell of vinegar. I think she once told me that it smells clean to her. (Is that right, Mom? Or does it smell yummy as in salad dressing? :>)) Anyway, I don't quite agree, though vinegar is growing on me a bit as I've been using it more for cleaning. One of my favorite smells is citrus - you can read how I even use it to combat motion sickness here.

I found an article at Tipnut quite a while back on making citrus vinegar for cleaning, and gave it a whirl. We don't eat a lot of citrus, so in the wintertime when we enjoy clementines, I save the peels and let them dry. I begin by washing the fruit with a dab of dish soap; Tipnut has a link to a fruit and veggie cleaner on the vinegar post, or you can read Katie's experiment with several different methods of cleaning at 8 Ways To Wash An Apple: How Well Does Produce Wash Work?.

Last year, I laid the peels on the counter until they were dry and then tossed them in a bowl; then when we'd worked our way through the clementines, I put them in the vinegar. This year, I tossed them in the bowl without letting them dry and there were a few that I thought might have been moldy (I threw those away). Live and learn. I suppose it also wouldn't hurt to put them in the vinegar as you accumulate them, but I'd add some time to the four weeks of "brewing", still making sure to shake it every day.

Once the four weeks it up, you strain it a time or two, and your citrus vinegar is ready to use! If you hate the smell of vinegar, this might be enough that you can use it in your green cleaning routine. I have come to enjoy the smell of the citrus stuff, at least.

For more frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom.

Flannel Burp Cloths

Burp cloths, burp rags, swipers - whatever you call them, they're pretty handy when you have a little one that is an urper, and they all tend to urp for a while at least. I used the heck out of plain prefold diapers for burp cloths and they work well. But I found some fun flannel printed ones that I used as my "goin' to town" burp cloths. (For those of you who aren't country folk, you save your nice stuff for trips to town.)

Thanks to this tutorial at Paper Dolly Girl, I was inspired to make some flannel burp rags and I was very pleased with how they turned out. As I noted in my post on how to make your own taggie blankets and embellished burp rags, I cruise the reminant bins at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby pretty much every time I go and pick up anything that catches my eye. Because of this habit, I tend to let the piece of fabric dictate the size of my final project. That is, I'd rather have a some bigger and smaller burp rags than have them all uniformly sized and a big pile of scraps. (Not that there's anything wrong with scraps!)

My method also differed in that I used flannel on both sides, and I stitched down the flannel in the middle. Some of my scraps were a bit short, and I didn't want them migrating around in the wash. I also sewed some scraps together for the middle piece. Initially I was concerned that the seam might feel lumpy between a sleeping baby's face and a loving adult's shoulder but I could barely feel the seam.

I was so pleased with how these turned out! I will be giving them as gifts for sure, and I also listed some in my Etsy shop (with more to come) if you'd like to give a special tiny one the gift of handmade flannel burp cloths but don't have the time or sewing skills.

For more frugal ideas, visit Life as Mom. You can also check out my handmade gifts section and see what I'm making for Christmas if you'd like!

I-Spy Bags

Yet another of my gifts for this year's Handmade Christmas is I-Spy Bags. I tucked away the link from Peculiar Momma on how she constructed hers, and I was heavily inspired by Pondered in My Heart on the items she included in her I-spy bottles, and especially the drawings that Kimberlee's daughters did of the items!

Here are some things that I considered when thinking about bags versus bottles:

Using bottles would certainly be easier than constructing bags! We don't use bottles like Kimberlee's though (I'm guessing they're from sports drinks . . . though I'm realizing that a glass jar would work fine - doh!). With bottles, I think it's more of a shaking action, and with bags, you do more manipulation with your hands - plus you can feel around for things that you can't see. With bottles, the entire thing is a "window" and with bags, you only have the little spot to peek inside.

Because my four nieces range in ages from 10 to 5, I made the bags more difficult for the older one and easier for the younger one. Some ways that they differ from oldest to youngest:

* Window size - smaller windows for the older niece, bigger windows for the younger
* Size of bag - bigger bag for the older, smaller for the younger
* Shape of bag - the youngest got round bags so nothing could get lost in a corner, and the olders got rectangles, I even made one long, skinny one for the oldest with the window on one side, so there's a lot of real estate that she can't see
* Amount of filler - I tried to put less rice in the youngest's bag so it would be easier to manipulate and more rice in the older's bag
* Size of items - the older the child, the smaller the items
* Color of items - I tried to have several different brightly colored items for the youngest, but the oldest got nearly all green items (different shades) but that makes it more difficult because it's not like you see a glimpse of red and know it's the pony tail holder, you see green and don't know if it's the button you already saw or the bead you're trying to find
* Similar items - the youngest got all very different things, but the oldest got a few things doubled up, like paper clips in different shades of green
* As I was finishing the post below, I realized that it would be more difficult with different colors of filler items. Colors pop more when you see something orange in the all-white rice, but if you had white rice, red beans, green lentils, yellow corn (etc.) things aren't going to be as noticable. I mixed together a bag of bean soup mix, a bag of red beans, pinto beans, black beans, lentils, split peas, popcorn, and maybe field corn. (remember that I have a LOT of bags - and I still had extra mix left over.) I then opened up the I-Spy bags, emptied them, removed some rice, added the beans, mixed it up, refilled them, and stitched them back shut. Whew!
* Kimberlee's children also made it more difficult by finding the items in the order of the list - i.e. if you see the wheel but are looking for the flat purple bead, the wheel doesn't count yet

To make the bags, as usual I based a lot of things on the size of my fabric scraps. :>) (You can see here how I pick up fabric on the cheap.) If possible, I tried to make one edge the fold so I would only have to sew three sides, but that's just me.

I'll admit, sewing in the windows gave me some fits. What finally worked for me, was to carefully cut the vinyl (which is sold on the big rolls by tablecloth kind of stuff and pretty inexpensive, even without a coupon) and make it a good inch larger on all sides than I wanted the window to actually be. Then I carefully cut a corresponding shape out of the fabric. First I traced the vinyl, then I took a ruler and measured an inch and an eighth (just for extra security, I guess :>)) to the inside of the window tracing. You should be able to click on the picture to make it larger. I ended up with a home plate shaped window because it first was a triangle and I didn't like that at all.

Next, I cut out the mini window out of the fabric on the lines I made. I then carefully made a 1/2" snip with scissors toward the corners, and folded the pieces back then pressed them down. (that's my ironing board cover you see peeking through. A new one is on my Christmas list as it has some major issues - not the least of which is some navy fabric left an enormous stain when I pressed it with some steam. It's cute, though - it has pictures of different clothing items scattered about. You can see the socks peeking through the window.)

To stitch the vinyl on, I found I HAD to use a piece of paper to get it to feed through my machine, otherwise it stuck and made a huge mess. I also found that I had to make sure it was well-sewn onto the fabric. The first one I did was a circle shaped window on the round orange bag, and I was so proud to have one all completed . . . until the first thirty seconds I field-tested it. The vinyl pulled loose and I had rice everywhere. I'll tell you that one of my nieces is likely to find the cure for cancer someday, but until that day comes, she's going to take apart everything in her path. So they needed to be K-proof, and that definitely didn't pass. It was then that I figured out (with a bit of help from Shalet at Peculiar Momma!) to cut the window out of the fabric smaller than the vinyl and fold the pieces of fabric back so the vinyl really had something to hold onto when stitched down.

So, after cutting the window from the fabric and pressing the little flaps back, I then laid the vinyl over the opening in the fabric, and put a piece of paper over the vinyl. I found it impossible to line them up with the right side out so I could pin them. So I left the right side of the fabric down (so the order from bottom to top is table, fabric right side down, vinyl, paper) and put two or so pins in from the "inside" or wrong side to hold it while I flipped it over. I then pinned everything together with the pins on the right side of the fabric and removed the two pins on the wrong side after it was anchored from the top. (Clear as mud?)

To make sure that it caught, I zig-zagged around the window three times and then did kind of a wandering zig-zag over all that a fourth time. The needle holes make a nice perforation in the fabric, so it's easy to tear away the paper. I did the outside first, then bent along a seam and picked a bit at the paper over the actual window and it tore quite easily as well. I didn't worry one bit about the bits of paper left underneath the stitches - I don't think there's a good way to get it out anyway.

Before I stitched the bag shut, I made up the list of included items and sewed it on. Because I ran out of plain fabric, I used some yellow print that I just turned over and wrote on the back. To start, I used a ruler and pencil to make faint lines, then I used a fine-point sharpie to write the names of the items and draw the little pictures. I know art is NOT my strong suit, but I thought I did well enough that the non-readers and new readers would be able to figure out what they were looking for without too much difficulty. I also used markers to color in bits that I could to help even more, though some of them worked better than others. :>) And, I didn't have a pink marker, which would have gone a long way with these items, so I just left those blank.

Please note that you should stitch the list on BEFORE you sew the sides of the bag. Go ahead, ask me how I know . . . I can also tell you that if you forget, you can get away with hand stitching it on carefully using the opening you left for pouring in the filling, but it takes a while and isn't nearly as pretty. So stitch your list on (I just pinked the edges and didn't worry about folding under and pressing then stitching, but I guess you could), and then stitch your bag *making sure to leave an opening into which you can pour your filling stuff*! (again, ask how I know . . . I try to remember to use a sideways pin - or six - to remind me to stop.) I found it much easier to leave enough room to use my canning funnel as rice doesn't move well through a regular funnel. When turning your bag inside out, use the point of a closed pair of scissors, a choptick, or something along those lines to poke your corners out well. I didn't bother with pressing my seams because it didn't seem to matter since they get filled with stuff.

Finding items wasn't as hard as I feared it might be. I kept an eye out at the thrift shop, and found a surprising number of items in my own house:

From the thrift shop:
* Small owl salt shaker (which I stuffed tight with a piece of fabric since it didn't have a stopper to keep other items from getting lost in there)
* Miniature tea cup
* Pumpkins and gourd from fall “spray”

From my craft stash:
* Beads of larger various sizes and shapes
* Small corks
* Buttons of various sizes
* Googly eye
* Jewel beads
* Jingle bells
* Mini clothes pins
* Metal bobbins that fit my sewing machine but don’t work very well

From toys:
* Marbles
* Bouncy balls
* Wheels from a toy motorcycle something or other (from a rummage sale, actually)
* Pats of fake butter, plastic bacon, small carrot
* Small Garfield the cat
* Small plastic triangle
* Small action figures
* Small plastic key

From the bathroom:
* Small terry pony tail holders
* Flower off cheap barrettes that fell off the first time I tried them
* Cheap barrettes (alligator clip/poing style)
* Safety pins (various sizes)
* Bobby pins
* Plastic barrettes

Other:
Pieces of field corn (could also use different types of bigger dried beans)
Paper clips, various sizes and colors (and I thought about mini binder clips but didn't need them)
Dime/penny/nickel
Large nut, smaller bolts

I was thought about some sort of pom-pom, but I didn't want to use a homemade one (reference above K-proofing). Same with silk flowers. I didn't look for any, but I think a multi-pack of small erasers in different shapes would be excellent. Some things were included in each bag, some were one-of-a-kind.

So. Window is firmly stitched, list is stitched on, and bag is sewn except for a hole. To make seven bags, I used approximately 23 pounds of rice. My bags are MUCH bigger than Peculiar Momma's - she used about 6x6" bags and 10-20 items depending on size. The size of my bags varied greatly - the round ones are the size of a big dinner plate, the square ones are perhaps 10x10. I used probably 14-16 items per bag. There are a number of different things you could use as filler - Kimberlee used bird seed, I thought about using field corn kernels, dried beans or lentils would be good - just go with something cheap and plentiful! I'd caution that you try to avoid using items for them to find that are too similar in color to the filler . . . unless you're trying to make it more difficult, that is! Actually, I think that multi-colored stuff like bird seed, or perhaps a variety of filler materials would make it more difficult to find things. If you see a peek of yellow among the white rice, for example, it really stands out. But if you have white rice, yellow corn, red and black beans, green lentils, etc - colors aren't going to stand out as much. Hmm . . . I might be opening some of these back up . . . :>)

Peculiar Momma (I think?) used a creamer pitcher to fill her bags, but I really liked using the canning funnel. To keep things spread out, I tried to put in a few scoops of rice, then a couple of items, then a few scoops of rice, couple of items, etc. With the bags, make sure you don't fill it TOO full - I finished filling then pinned the opening (using several pins so it didn't leak!) and then gave it a try and nearly every time, I took out the pins and removed some rice. Hand stitch the opening shut (I used a blanket stitch on a few, since it seems to be the year of the blanket stitch!) and try it out yourself.

If you'd like to see what else I'm making for Christmas, please visit my Handmade Christmas post (provided you're not on my Christmas list!), and for more frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom. This is also linked to Proverbs 31 Living's Handmade Christmas.

Soft Blocks for Baby

With apologies to my sister-in-law who gets my posts via e-mail, this post is about how I made blocks for her little boy for Christmas. (Delete this e-mail now, sister!) (The rest of you can scroll down to see the pictures.)

I bought a piece of 4" thick foam at Hobby Lobby and found a post at eHow.com on how to cut foam. I'll tell you, my hands and wrists were sore from pulling my electric knife through the foam, and I certainly should have put it up on the table instead of the floor because my bunner muscles and thighs were SORE from kneeling, squatting, and otherwise dancing around while cutting. Mercy. Oh, and I put one of my cheap, large cutting boards under the spot where I was cutting with the knife - you will ding it up, and badly.

The foam was about $22 and I used a 40% off coupon - you should be able to see the current one being offered here. It was 22"x22", so I'm thinking of making extra blocks (or two) and selling them in my Etsy shop. Maybe a set for a baby girl?

On my shopping trip to Hobby Lobby, I found the fabric you see - it coincidentally was a print with 4.25" square blocks! I cut it apart so that four blocks were together, and I stitched on a top and a bottom, so to speak. On the advice of both my mother and MIL, I'm using a zig zag stitch for strength. I left two sides open for stuffing the foam in, as I found leaving just one side open made for a very tight squeeze.

Then I hand stitched the remaining two sides shut using more or less a basic whipstitch. I tended to space my stitches too closely together, which I thought was better than too far apart. My mom had encouraged me to try to space them about the same distance as the zig zag stitches from the machine, but my brain kept over-riding that. :>)

I found that even using only the width of my presser foot as my seam allowance, some of the blocks are pretty tight - plus it comes as no surprise that none of my blocks are completely square (nor are my fabric cuts). Were I to do this again with non-block-printed fabric, I'd probably cut at least 4.5" squares and possibly 4.75" squares to make sure there is enough room. On the one hand, you don't want the fabric too loose and the foam sliding around inside, but on the other hand, too tight isn't very pretty.

To make the bag, I figured three rows of three blocks each, which would be 12" by 12", plus 4" on the sides, and I wanted plenty of room for a drawstring at the top. I ended up cutting my fabric 17" across by about 37" long (partly influenced by the size of my piece of fabric). I was completely winging it without a pattern (which seems to be my favorite way to sew!) so I'll just explain what I did.

First, I made the patch with [nephew name]'S BLOCKS. I tried embroidering it and didn't care for the way it turned out. So I pulled that out. I had a number of scraps left over from the blocks, so I made stencil letters on the computer (see how to do that at my ABC Book post) and cut them out. I used two-sided fusible interfacing attached to the print first, then traced the letters on the back side - make sure you trace the letters BACKWARDS so they'll end up the right way - and cut them out, then fused them to the navy piece of fabric. I cut around the edge with pinking shears and stitched it to the light blue fabric for the sack. Note that my webbing is thick, so I did NOT stitch around the outside. I used some of this on my ABC Book referenced above, and ended up breaking my thread several times. Had I used the Wonder Under that I finally found in the storage room this morning, I'd have used a zig zag stitch around the letters.

Looking at it now, I think I should have scooted it down a few inches when I stitched it on, but without the bag sewn and the blocks in it, it looked centered at the time. So, if you try this at home, learn from my mistakes . . .

To make the bag, I folded the fabric at the bottom of the bagand pinned one side. I stitched that side shut and pressed the seam open. I trimmed the corner a bit, snipping off the diagonal, so it would be neater when turned right side out. I think at this point I had intended to fold the top down and sew the slot for the drawstring, but I forgot. I stitched the other side, also all the way up to the top, which kind of came back to bite me later, but I persevered! I then turned the top down and stitched the drawstring slot, but if you're following along in your mind, you'll realize I don't have anywhere for the drawstring to go into or out of - it's completely stitched shut!

Luckily, I thrive on this type of challenge. :>) I stitched back and forth a few times about 3/4" down from the top of the bag along one side seam, and then used a seam ripper to open the side seam stitches between that and the seam that made the bottom of the drawstring slot. Success! For the string, I braided six strands of navy yarn with different colored flecks and knotted each end. I fastened a barrette on one end, and used that to feed the yarn through the slot. (Slot isn't the right word, but I can't think of what the right word would be! Feel free to leave me a comment on that!) I also pressed the fold at the top so it would lay neatly.

Then I stuffed the blocks in and tied the yarn, sat back, and admired my work. :>) You can see more of what I'm doing for Christmas at my Handmade Christmas post, which I'm updating as I make more things. (Unless you're going to be a recipient of said gifts. Then no peeking, you Scrooge!) You can also see more handmade Christmas ideas at Proverbs 31 Living.

For more frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom.