merry christmas:: creativity show & tell

merry christmas!

we had a lovely, family-centered day. we enjoyed each other's company, we were lovingly hosted, and i don't think any of us stressed. we were all tired at the end of it, though!
we are wishing you all a very happy holiday season!

we had a creative and eco-friendly holiday around here. roll call....

in addition to the handmade items, below, we also gave several purchased items: an old fashioned/eco friendly safety razor for each mike and uncle S; children's books; some stocking stuffers; a ravioli press; eco friendly art supplies; and kodak gallery albums.

total holiday spending: under $250
most of that was the bought stuff. (all the new stuff was purchased well before mike and i agreed to begin a "no buying new" challenge.)

in fact, all those homemade goodies came in under $50 total for materials. (they would have totaled more, however, we have a huge plethora of scrap/recycled/stash materials already on hand, so we were pleased.)

without further ado....

fly fishing lure box

"dear santa, i want a green yo-yo, and....." (yes, mike made her one! you trying finding a used green yo-yo 5 days before christmas!)

wooden cook set. i just told you about the wooden cook set we bought for $2, in desperate need of some love!

serving platter

cat toys

homemade wooden toy blocks



album of our home, before and after all the work we have done on it. mike needed a reminder of how much we have accomplished. i used a new album given to me by a freecycler, and covered the ugly bits with freecycle contact paper.
(although when i was done, i wished i had made it a "project" album, rather than just a house album, because we have done a huge number of refurbishing and building projects for things in our house!)

homemade coasters

fleece pants for both kids (2 pair for lala, 1 for finn).

homesewn bag

button/ribbon bookmarks

stationary folder, using soulemama's gratitude wrap pattern. i made two.

homemade note cards

food goodies. this is chocolate (that broke when i tried to piece it out into the 12 days of christmas), but we also gave fudgies, homemade sweet plum sauce, and toffee.


and...the homemade gifts received....

dinners for you! my parents put together 4 (yes, four!!) complete dinners for us, each in a cloth bag with dish towel for clean up. complete down to beverages. talk about a consumable and creative gift that is much appreciated! those tags outline the goodies in each bag.

homemade soaps for each of us from our hawaiian santa's stocking- stuffing elf