Handmade Christmas next year

Hubby and I went out to my best friend's house  today so he could exchange gifts with them as he won't be home for Christmas.  (He will be driving to California with a load.)  Hubby and I will exchange gifts tomorrow as he has to go and buy mine tomorrow.  I will celebrate Christmas with my best friend's family on Christmas day.

Anyways, Karen (my best friend) and I got to talking today.  We have decided that we are going to teach both of our families the true meaning of Christmas and that it doesn't involve store bought stuff.  At all!  With  the exception of stocking stuffers that is.  Then I told her we needed to make each of the "kids", both grown and not grown, stockings and fill them with fruit and nuts just like in the "old days".  We will have to buy the fruit and nuts as my pecan trees will not produce very many pecans next year.

I think that we are going to spend at least one day a week together and sew.  It doesn't matter what we are sewing so long as it is for the "kids".  We are thinking of making purses, lounging pants, place mats, napkins, potholders, quilts, tablecloths, aprons, tops, pajamas, and stuffed animals.  I can make beaded things like ornaments, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.  I even have a basement full of old discarded wood so we could make doll houses (with the help of both of our husbands and her dad with his tools as I don't have enough of the right tools), bird houses, etc.

I have patterns for many of the items that we can sew and Karen has a ton of patterns, too.  I even have some stuff that I have bought here and there to use a patterns, such a single place mat that I found at a thrift store that was cute, and some other stuff that we can use.  Plus I can go online and find a ton of patterns for things other sewing.

The only thing I can think of that we may have to buy would be thread.  Granted, I bought a ton of thread when Hancock Fabrics went out of business here in town, but it is all funky colors.  We will end up needing the basic colors, white, black, blue, red, green.  Unless, of course, we want to just go wild with the colors! LOL

I have a huge chest-on-chest that is overflowing with fabric, bolts of fabric laying around, and even some old sheets that have thin places but loads of usable fabric still on them.  I even have three or four bags of upholstery fabric remnants out in the shed that we can use for purses or whatever we decide to make.  I got them for free on freecycle and gave away well over half of what I got and still have that much left!  Plus, I can advertise on freecycle for more craft materials of all kinds if we see we are running low on anything.

If anyone has any ideas or patterns that they can share with me and Karen, we would greatly appreciate it.  I think I will start making some more beaded bells for everyone in both families.  I enjoy making the Christmas ornaments with beads.  I think I like doing the beading better than sewing, but I still like to sew.

My weight loss so far

Well, I haven't been keep tracking of things on here too well, have I? I get so busy with life that I forget about my poor little blog.

Anyways, I am down a total of 70 pounds! I am so excited. I am over halfway to my to my goal weight! Only 64 more pounds to go. :)

I am actually ahead on all my Christmas stuff so far. I have almost everything bought (I need to buy one more gift for my best friend's husband). I have mailed out all the Christmas cards with the exception of my mother-in-law's because I have to mail her gift as well. I even have all of my gifts wrapped! They are hidden away in my closet ready for Christmas morning.

The only thing I really have to do for Christmas dinner is to make an apple pie and a peach pie to take to my best friend's house. That is pretty easy to do as I made the pie filling this summer when I was doing all my canning.