~favorite things swapping action~

 Remember that holiday swap I was telling you about?

I sent a lovely little box out to my swap buddy.

(sounds like I should be on Santa's naughty list

with that sentence, doesn't it?)   

She should get it on Wednesday.....

after she gets it I'll show you the goodies 

I sent her. You'll be amazed what I did for 

twenty bucks!   

~personalized book for kids-gift idea~

 Back in September I discovered a free photo book

offer at Shutterfly again. GREAT!

Problem was, it ended that night.

I couldn't let a free photo book offer go to waste

so I decided to throw a book together that

I'd been wanting to do for awhile.

I took pictures of my son's favorite toy

"doing things" throughout the day while

he was at school and made it a story.

It was actually a lot of fun coming

up with ideas for the pages.   

Once I got the pictures, I plugged them into the 

book and the story just took off.

 Disclaimer: the pics are NOT the greatest quality.

   

 My son LOVED it! 
I gave it to him for his birthday.

The next day when I took him to school he said,

"I told MACK to do a few things while I'm at school."

Seriously? This is definitely my kid......

Total time it took to make this book,

including taking the pictures, was only 1.5 hours.

For those of you looking for a fun, personalized

gift for that kid on your Christmas list, 

this is your GOLDMINE!

Easy, affordable (even if it's not free)

and something they'll remember forever......

because COME ON-

when you were a little kid

didn't you think your toys played and did

things when you were gone?

I sure did.

~christmas wreaths for graves~

 To some of you it may sound morbid but I love making

pretty things to put on the graves of my loved ones.

Makes it feel like it's still something I can do for them.

Grandma and I headed over to the cemetery a couple

days ago to decorate Grandpa and my Mother-in-law's

graves. I've never been able to take anything to her

for Christmas before...either because there was too 

much snow or just because I didn't think of it in time.

I made her a pretty little wreath with supplies I got 

at the Dollar Store. In total it cost me $4. 

Here's what a $4 Christmas wreath looks like:

       wreath-$1

angel ornament-$1

silver poinsetta flowers-$1

silver tipped pine foliage-$1  

 As you can see up close....it's not necessarily

the best of quality but it's going to be outside,

in the winter cold, wind and elements so I

didn't want to spend an insane amount of $$$ on it.   

 I printed up a family picture of us, covered it with

a taped Ziploc baggie and stuck it in the pine cone.

I stuck it thru a wooden dowel and stuck 

the dowel into the ground.   

 Look at those beautiful mountains in the background.

What a majestic view for a "resting place".

Grandma told me she made 

"an arrangement with some old, ratty decorations"

she found in her basement. This is not what

I was expecting when I picked her up:

Isn't it beautiful?

I told her it made mine look ratty. 

I have a couple more to make today.

Tune in for some pics of those.

Have a great weekend. 

      

~daily Christmas advent activities with books~

Two years ago my Mom put together the 

cutest advent activities and gifts for each of

us kids and our families.

She put so much time and money into it and 

it was something I was hoping to do each year.

I wasn't on the ball enough to do it last year.

This year, I thought about it in time but didn't

want to buy things to add to our already

insane amount of Christmas decorations

or kids toys. I saw an idea on the blog

MADE last year and decided to give it a go

for my family this Christmas;

a book to read each day until Christmas.

I didn't want to go buy any so I just 

gathered up all the Christmas books we

already had here at the house.

  

 I was a few shy of having enough for each day

so I added in a coloring book for the kids, 

a Christmas game, some mugs and a couple 

activities (like looking at the lights down-town,

cookie making and ornament making) to the gifts.

I had all these at home.

I wrapped them up and put numbers on them

to correspond with the days we will open them.

         When my kid opened the first day's he said,

"Hey! This book isn't new! I already have this!"

I think he was a bit disappointed initially but it

passed as soon as we sat down to read the book.

Now it's the first thing he wants to do when

he gets out of bed each morning.     

            

~wire wrapped ring~

 I love organic, primitive looking jewelry.

This ring was totally made by accident while

I was trying to make another ring, getting

directions from my Mom on how to do it.

I learned that my Mom is really not good

at directing me thru a project. She told me I needed

36 inches of wire to start with.......for one ring! 

Once we realized it was waaaayyyyyy

too much wire, I snipped off the excess and

just started bending and wrapping it around the

ring mandrel. This is what I ended up with:

           I've been wearing it everyday since.....

I love it. 

(Pretend my hands don't look so old and dry in this picture.)

The "real" ring we were trying to make........

.........HIDEOUS!

It stands about an inch off my finger.

I am NOT exaggerating either.

I don't know why I don't have a picture of it.  

I've got lots of wire projects in the works.

Well.....not actually "in the works".

It's more accurate to say that I have lots of

wire projects in my head and on my list.

We'll see how many of them I actually get to.

I'm not busting my ass this year to get things done.

I'm tired.       

~gift for the writer or journaler~

For those of you looking for inexpensive but

meaningful and useful gift ideas this holiday

season, I think this is a good one for the

person who journals.     

  

This little journal was a gift I gave my son's

teacher for her wedding last month. 

I don't know her very well and I don't 

know how she decorates so I felt this was

a safe gift. I figured even if she doesn't journal

she could use it for a notebook in her purse 

or household. Luckily-she loved it and said

she does journal. I received a very nice journal

from a dear friend for my 30th birthday

and to this day it's been one of my favorite gifts.

How are y'all coming along with your

Christmas shopping? Do you have a ton

of projects to finish? I have a fair amount

to bust out.....most seem like they should

be simple but things tend to take longer

than I anticipate. It's mostly jewelry that

needs made-thank heavens it's something

I LOVE to do. I never tire of making jewelry.

I especially love to make jewelry pieces

for those I love.....I like to put a little 

personal touch into each piece.

Next up I'll be sharing a ring I made (by accident)

and a necklace that someone made 

especially for me :)

The most time consuming of my projects.....

photo books and calendars.

I love making them but they are sooooo

time consuming.

However, worth every single minute put into them.

If anyone knows of any free photo book offers

right now-LET ME KNOW! 

Usually I find some before now and I still

haven't seen any this holiday season.