Enjoying the holidays

Good morning all!

I thought I'd share a recap of how our Christmas went :)

I am happy to report my kids couldn't have cared less about the unfinished Santa sacks! If anything, they just really enjoyed this new tradition!! I am planning on not only finishing the sacks before next Christmas, but I'm thinking of adding some felt appliqué to them. Maybe a snowman or something like that.

The kids just thought it was fun to reach into the bag and pull out their presents. Something else that was great about it... they appreciated that it was better for the environment. I think this mama is doing a pretty good job teaching them about caring for our earth ;)

The rest of the day was filled with play. Lots and lots of creative play. Though the kids got some beautiful wooden and natural toys, their favourites that day was the Lego boat for my son (plastic yes, but very good for creativity and imagination, so I'm ok with Lego's), and this set of wood beads for my daughter. At the rate she's going, she will run out of beads by next week! LOL.

And of course, Christmas wouldn't be complete without a hot chocolate (almond milk) treat. I never buy mini marshmallows for the kids, I'm just not a fan of gelatin, and my son can't do too much sugar, but I thought once a year is not too big a deal ;)

And they were so excited! I think it made their Christmas hot chocolate extra special, don't you think?

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve madness

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse....

Well, I'm not going to write the entire poem, because my reality here is not exactly reminiscent of a Christmas poem. Yes, the kids are sound asleep in their beds, and they are probably dreaming of Lego's would be my guess, lol.

But it's been a busy, busy few days here and I am happy to report that we are no longer sick (Thanks for all the lovely wishes of health!). It's been so busy, that I didn't even have time to bake cookies with the kids today. I didn't even think of putting out some pre-made ones we already had, out for Santa. I wanted to make some Santa sacks for the kids, along with some other fabric gift bags, and didn't get to do that until this evening after they went to bed.

I've also been meaning to make the kids some play sets that would be their presents from us(and have them finished last month!), but time was escaping me, and I had to let go of that perfect ideal I had in my mind. It just was not going to happen in time for Christmas.

I made Arianne's fairy set, but the box still need touch ups and the finish to be put on to protect the paint.

It's still adorable though (or so I like to think, lol)

I did manage to make Ashton's rocket ship set and put the finish on it...

And then realized that I forgot to make him a set of 3 small aliens like I had planned on.

This Christmas Eve, I have learned that sometimes we need to let go of that picture perfect day or moment or gift we had in our minds. In the grand scheme of things, none of it really matters. As long as we make some time for our loved ones, it's all that counts.

So now it's past 11pm as I write this, and there is my tree. Santa sacks undone because I didn't take the time to add the draw string to them. The presents are peaking out, and that's fine with me. I don't even think my kids are going to care in the morning. Now that gives me a year to finish them anyways, lol.

So if you only remember one thing from this post, is to try to not let yourself get caught up in your ideal of how everything should be. Christmas should not rhyme with stress or madness, but happiness!

Merry Christmas!

{this moment}

Crystal play

{this moment} - (inspired by Soule Mama) A Friday ritual. A single photo - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

More recent creations...

We've been hit by the flu bug again (about the 10Th time since fall). So other than trying to keep up with normal everyday life, and trying to get some Christmas presents done (trying is the key word here), not much else has been going on. So I thought I'd share with you a couple projects that I was able to complete.

Remember the Star Wars peg doll set I made for my friend? Well, this is the last set I made for her. This one is for her daughter. Her hubby is super talented made their little girl a wooden peg sized doll house for Christmas and these dolls are for it :)

Sometimes when I craft, I get ADD. I sometimes get bored of doing the same thing over and over, or I get simply distracted (darn you Pinterest! lol) So one night, after hours of painting little peg people, I needed to do something else, that didn't involve painting.

So I made this little winter playscape!

I didn't come up with it. You can find the full tutorial and pattern HERE. The only thing I changed, is that I turned it into a winter scene to represent the season we are having here.

Now, once I'm done making all my Christmas presents, I'll have to add a little penguin and/or polar bear I think :) Maybe try my hand at needle felting them perhaps?

Well, that's all for now. I'm going to get some rest now since I've been up sick since 4am.

I think I should write a letter to Santa today and ask for health for my family and I for Christmas and ship the letter express to make sure he gets it on time!

Linking to:

What I've been working on...

For the past few weeks, I've been concentrating on making these Star Wars pegs. It's a special order for a friend of mine. There is also a peg doll family of 5 I've been making, but I'll share the pictures when I'm done. I still have the dad left to finish tonight, and then I'm completely done of the order.

I must confess, I have never watched Star Wars in my entire life, so making these did not come easy to me. Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers were not to bad, but these little guys below were a heck of a lot harder. Thankfully, my friend provided me with some pictures of pegs she had already seen online, so I basically copied them. But copy or not, it was still a huge challenge for me.

I am still very happy with how they turned out though. Just disregard the robot's weird eyes, the picture was before touch up ;)

So this evening, I can finally put the final touch on the last peg of the entire batch and then I'll be able to work on my own kids stuff.

Because yes, I am also making some wooden play sets for my kids, and I'm not even close to being done of them.

Sleep might become overrated until Christmas I think, lol.

Linking this post to:

Pine cone Christmas tree

The kids had friends over for a sleepover last night, and we are about to head out to a birthday party in a few minutes. So lets just say, my kids are plenty excited and hyper today. I was trying to think of something to calm them down, that would also be fun to do. With only an hour to spare/waste before the party, I decided making pine cone Christmas tree's would be perfect! This could also be a great rainy (or snowy) day activity.

For this, you need the nice large pine cones. They are almost impossible to find here, but luckily enough, a friend of mine brought some back for me when she went to B.C. last summer :)

The kids sat at the table with their white glue, large pine cones, and tiny pompoms from the dollar store and started decorating away.

They had fun doing it, and are very excited that once it's dry, they can put them in their own rooms. Why not let them decorate their rooms for Christmas!

And I couldn't resist making one myself ;)

Sometimes, it's just plain fun being a kid too!

Linking this post to:

Yarn along

I decided to join Ginny in her Wednesday Yarn Along. Knitting is more my thing. Well, I should say, knitting scarves, as I don't know how to knit anything else at all. But last spring, a friend of mine showed me how to crochet, and I've been enjoying a bit of that as well. While I find making scarves much easier by knitting them, when you need to make something very narrow, I find knitting annoying. You barely get started, and you have to change your needles around.

For this holiday season, I was super lucky to score a beautiful Waldorf doll for my daughter. A super talented mama that lives close to me started making some and I bought one from her. So I decided that Orchid (that's the doll's name) would need a rainbow scarf. While it's not a super long project to make, it's about all I have time to crochet right now. I still have so many projects on the go for this season, some for my own children, some for friends and some for family. The yarn I used is an acrylic variegated yarn, and the scarf is not going to end up with any of the green or blues, since it's not wide and won't be very long. But I think it's going to work out just perfect, as the doll's hair is purple. The orange and reddish tones will suit her perfectly!

And somewhere in between all this crafting and normal everyday life stuff, I'm trying to carve out time to study. I have quite a few books I'd love to read and am quite behind on reading "the other stuff", but school has to come first when it comes to books right now. I'm still struggling to find a balance between studying and crafting at the moment, but I suspect that once Christmas is over and the present making will be done, that I'll be able to catch up on school reading just fine and find a balance again.

The last chapter I read was about nutrition labelling and I'm glad it's over. It was boring! LOL. This new chapter I just started is called Nutrition, attitudes and behaviour and it's so interesting! I love it!!

So there you have it. I am finally talking a little bit about my schooling ;) And sharing my teeny tiny project to go with it. Go check out Ginny's yarn along post to see some beautiful creations others have been up to along with some interesting reads :)

Handmade ornaments

When I took my tree out this year, I realized that I was no longer in love with how it looked. Does this happen to you every now and then? I think we all go through this at some point, we feel the need to change the "look" of our tree, change the decorations.

I decided I want more nature elements, like a woodland theme, and I also want to add some handmade felt ornaments. Making them is SO much cheaper than buying enough to cover the whole tree, AND much more rewarding!

I decided to make a felt bird, and kept it very simple and elegant looking. I am quite pleased with how it looks... now if only I can find time to make more and actually fill the tree, lol.

And since I had been finishing my friend's mitten garland, my son had been begging me to cut some extra mittens so he could make an ornament for the tree.

I keep thinking my kids are too small to sew, yet, time after time, they prove me wrong. I think he did such a good job!

I will try to put a tutorial together for you this week and show you different ways you can do the bird ornament. Now, I better go get busy! I still have lots of elving to do!