Festive Paper Crafts

The kids and I spent some time this morning decorating the house for Christmas.  Okay, I’ll admit that I did the decorating and the kids watched.   

The first project was these colorful paper chains to adorn the dining room windows.  These are made from the covers of magazines and catalogs that were bound for the recycle bin.  I chose the brightly colored pages, cut them into strips and linked them into chains.  I love how the colors from the opposite sides of the pages peek out!  And even though you can get a glimpse of what they used to be (see the blue New York Life ad?) the look now is just bright and cheery!  I’m debating adding a few more chains to each window, or maybe some more in the living room, but we’ll have to see what kinds of catalogs come in the mail this week.  If you have to know, it was a Nordstrom catalog that came addressed to the lady who used to live in this house 4 years ago that started it, it had the greatest red cover with hot pink writing on it I just had to find a way to use it.

Second, I made some paper snowflakes to hang in the family room window.  I also made a big mess of little bits of paper all over the floor.  We haven’t had any snow so far this year, so I guess I felt the need to make some on my own. 

I’m a Wii Bit Sore.

We got a Wii for Christmas.  The whole family has been enjoying playing with it, but I’m definitely noticing how out-of-shape I am.  My shoulders and arms ache from playing golf, bowling and bating practice.  It doesn’t help that hubby and I are terribly competitive, so when he suggests nine holes of golf, and I lose, we HAVE to have a rematch.  The kids only complaint is that mommy and daddy aren’t sharing very nicely.

Their Stockings Were Hung…

…by the chimney with care…

As it is Christmas Eve, a holiday themed post is in order.  And what good is a post with no pictures, so here are our Christmas stockings, hung and ready to be filled this evening.

As you can see, they’re really more socks than stockings.  Growing up, my family always had red and green “toe socks” for stockings.  When Hubby and I got married and celebrated our first Christmas together, I got hiking socks to use for our stockings, as we enjoy outdoor activities.  Then I sewed our initials onto the socks with buttons, to differentiate one from the other.  As our family has grown, we’ve needed to add more pairs of socks to the collection, but the theme remains the same.  Casual, outdoorsy with a bit of handmade charm.  I think they represent our family pretty well.

Gearing up for the Holidays.

I know it’s only Halloween today, but my mind has been in Holiday mode for the last week or so.  When you sew, you need to plan well ahead in purchasing fabrics, designing patterns and allowing plenty of time to create.  Therefore, I have a pile of freshly prewashed Christmas knits on the couch which will become some fabulous holiday casualwear, and a lovely princess style Christmas dress hanging in my sewing room.

If you’re going to be wearing and/or giving homemade gifts this year, I’m sure you’re gearing up for the Holidays as well.  If so, you may be interested to check out Sew, Mama, Sew this November.  Beth and Kristin will be featuring over 100 great sewing tutorials that will give you inspiration and ideas for Holiday gifts.  They have been so kind as to include my little wallet tutorial in the list.