Decorating for Christmas

Slowly but surely it is starting to look like Christmas around here!

Hubby hung the Christmas lights on the house last week & I hung up the wreath on our door.

I had hopes to get three stockings knit up by now but it hasn’t yet.  Maybe next week?  Last night I got around to making this crochet star garland, though, and that is a decoration crossed off the list!

We’re planning to pick out a real Christmas tree this year so EJ has the full holiday experience.  It should be up by this weekend and I’ll update with a photo when we do.

What decorations have you put up?

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Shower Gift & Favor Ideas

If there’s one thing I’ve learned after attending three Bridal Showers in my honor and planning a wedding (& thinking about hosting parties in my own house), it’s trying to come up with cute & creative little gifts without looking like you ran to the Box Store up the street.

The first shower I offered to help the hostess with the game prizes. I made one set of hotmits, like these:

and one dishcloth/hand towel set.

Making these as prizes started my gears turning and I thought about all my friends to whom I’ve eagerly given matching sets (hotmits, dishcloths & a hand towel) as house-warming gifts when they make a big move.

Hand towel
Hotmits Pair

And I wondered, “How cute would these sets also be as bridal shower prizes (or favors in small set-sizes) or even baby shower gifts?”

The hand-towels are also the perfect size for burping cloths and they get washed in the same load.  Not only would they be cuter than the boring white towels, but, instead of handing them down to another new mother, these towels could be repurposed as hand-towels when Baby no longer needs burping.

washcloth/ dishcloth

What else have you discovered in your own projects that you hadn’t thought of before?

PS – check out this one of a kind you-know-who-lives-in-a-pineapple-under-the-sea character I made for a 5-year old boy for Christmas a couple years ago.  I told him he could use it as a bath-toy/ washcloth :]

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Remaining Christmas Gifts

A few last Christmas gifts to share:

I gave my sister my first Granny Afghan.  She kept eyeing it while I stayed with her after her wisdom teeth surgery so I knew it would be a good fit.

And she gave me this beautiful card holder which she engraved herself!  (She engraves at her job and, looking at her handiwork, I’d say she’s getting really good at it)

Now I have to figure out what to give her for her birthday Saturday.  Any suggestions?

Christmas Mittens

I have dubbed this year’s Christmas as “Mitten Christmas” because the majority of the knitted gifts this year have been mittens.Shayne’s mittens

Shane (my youngest model)’s mittens

Nolettes mittens (x2) – pictures to come
 

& out-grown mittens (now hung with love on recipient’s family tree).

I’m nearly mitten-ed out!  I guess it’s time I started working on next year’s “theme.”
Did anyone else notice a “theme” in their gift-giving this year?

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Baby Fever?

Not quite.  More like baby clothes and crafting fever.Patterns at the top of my queue (aka, after all my Christmas-crafting is complete): basic baby socksbaby sweater (or this one) & maybe these for something fun to try.

Plus a Treasury to collect “Cute Boy” ideas:

So if you know anyone pregnant or whom have a new addition in their family, send them my way. 🙂

P.S. dishcloths make great washcloths & hand towels (coming soon) as burp cloths!

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Christmas Crafting

Here are a few knitted gifts I can share:

Mittens – I made an extra pair for this little model to keep.
This was a host gift to a very close friend of my husband’s; made the weekend we stayed.
One of many custom orders for co-worker gifts.  🙂
one of six pairs in progress (will be a post-Christmas gift).
The latest gift: little mittens for my cousin’s daughter.  Made on Christmas Eve.

More to come as we celebrate with other family members.  🙂

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