Ok everyone there are just a few more weeks until Christmas. 
How are your homemade gifts coming along? Have you taken time to DO things together as a family? We are planning to soon take our traditional Christmas light drive. We all love that so much. Each year near Christmas we pick a night when the weather is nice, fill up on hot chocolate and take a slow drive through the local towns. The light displays are just amazing some years!
Goodness with all the busyness of last week and the weekend, I completely forgot to post our Handmade Christmas linkup on Friday! Oops! So here it is just a wee bit late this week.
It’s hard to believe how fast the time is going by this year. It seems like it was just yesterday we were playing in piles of leaves outside in October. Now we have just over 3 weeks until Christmas! Christmas and Thanksgiving have always been my favourite holidays.
So what have you been working on this past week? Have you decorated your home for Christmas yet? We finally put up our tree this past Saturday. I say finally because I would have put it up November 1st, and hubby thinks we are still early. LOL
It’s time for the third Handmade Christmas link up! I can’t wait to read about what you’ve been making, I can always use some more wonderful ideas!
Our weather here has been more spring like for the past week. Just lovely! But later today the rain is to turn to snow and it might actually start looking like Christmas! Our kids were starting to worry about a green Christmas.
Goodness it’s been a busy week here. I’m glad to finally have a little time to sit down and share! It seems that every fall as winter approaches things just love to break down. (sigh) Our “new” stove that we bought from a friend this past summer finally died for good. We’ve had some trouble with the oven on and off, now it wont regulate at all. It was less then a year old when we bought it and had hardly been used, since our friend bought it for an apartment he was renting out but then changed his mind. After a bit of research it seems that Hotpoint ovens are prone to this problem. Hubby has been talking to the repair shop we use and it could be one of three problems. It could be the oven thermostat, or a computer part inside, or possibly a loose wire. He’s going to have to rip it all apart and check the wires, then if that doesn’t fix the problem he’ll take both parts into the shop for them to check. So it’s added to the list of things to fix.
Last weekend the weather was really nice! Sat. we spent visiting with a dear friend on her birthday. Then on Sunday the temp jumped up to 17C!! It felt like spring outside. I took advantage of that to clean off the front porch and wash down the front doors. Our door on the deck had little painted hand prints all over it. Hmmm Then I started decorating a little bit. I started with some garland around the door, then today I added some red bows. I’m going to paint the edges of some pinecones white then wire them on to the garland as well.
This week I also became inspired to start cleaning out my sewing/craft room. Oh my that is quite a job! I have it about half done now. I also found some nice warm corduroy material that I wanted to make skirts out of for the girls. I brought that out and measured everyone then got to work. I managed to finish all four in one afternoon. Ok, so I added the elastic waists in the evening, but still getting them all done in one day is a record for me! I love this fabric, but I thought it was BROWN when I bought it! Looking at it at home it is a very dark purple.
I’ve been playing around with some crochet stitches and came up with a granny square snowflake. Now I need to try and recreate it and write down what I did!
Another project I’ve been hoping to get done for some time, is to get more bookshelves in the house. Hubby finally had time on Wednesday to help with that. He put up two long book shelves on the wall above the piano. Then he built a new hutch for my desk. We decided to go with ruff wood to save money right now and just get it DONE. With stacks of books and papers everywhere I just needed the shelves ASAP! So I’m still working through stacks of books and trying to organize them. I’ll share some photos of the new shelves soon, but the scary thing is I’m almost out of space already. Hubby mentioned that maybe we should buy a library. Yes that would work, but we might have to add on to it. LOL!
The down side to all of this building and moving things around is my back is hurting. So I’m trying to do just a little at a time then rest it. It’s hard though, because I really want to just get it all done!
What have you all been up to?
This past week has been a blur with sick kids (all are well now!) and so much going on around here. Yet I’ve still had a little time to work on some Christmas ideas. I’ve started decorating a little bit, starting with our front door. The garland is up around it and today I’m adding some pretty red bows to the top corners.
It’s time for the second Handmade Christmas link up! I can’t wait to read about what you’ve been making, I can always use some more wonderful ideas!
I received a few questions about linking up older posts, and YES it is just fine to link up recipes and craft ideas you have posted on your blog in past years!
It’s that time of year again. The lawn is covered in early morning frost, and we’ve had a few days of snow already. This fall has been early and colder then normal, leaving me with the desire to start planning for Christmas! Really, if dh was in for it I would have had the tree up already! lol But soon!
I’m going to run Gifts From the Heart ~ A Handmade Christmas blog hop again this year, and I can’t wait to see all the wonderful ideas you are all coming up with!
All ideas are welcome from recipes and crafts to family activities. If you have a blog use the link up below to link to your post. Please make sure to use the link for the POST and not to your blog home page. This makes it so much easer to find the post you want to share.
If you don’t have a blog and would like to share your creative ideas, I’d love to have you join our community and share your ideas and photos there. Joining is quick and easy, just use the “Register” link in the gray menu bar at the top of the site.
I’m going to be posting a new link up every Friday from now until December 28th. I know there might be projects your working on that you don’t want family and friends peeking at yet. That last link up would be a great time to share them, if your worried about that.
There is a Handmade Christmas button in the right sidebar, simply copy the code into your blog post will link back here for everyone to share in the fun!
I wanted to share one of my favourite Christmas songs, C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. by Jim Reeves. My Grandmother loved his music and I remember hearing this one often when I was little!
Welcome everyone to the third link up this year for our Gifts From The Heart ~ A Handmade Christmas blog hop. Sorry for posting this a day latter then I normally would. I had some computer problems, but I’m back! I’m so looking forward to reading all your Christmas posts! Please grab the Christmas button code in the sidebar to link back to the blog hop, so others can join in the fun!
The link up will stay open from today until next Tuesday. I’ll post a new one each Wednesday morning, so make sure to come back and join in the fun!
Welcome everyone to the second link up this year for our Gifts From The Heart ~ A Handmade Christmas blog hop. I’m so looking forward to reading all your Christmas posts! Please grab the Christmas button code in the sidebar to link back to the blog hop, so others can join in the fun!
The link up will stay open from today until next Tuesday. I’ll post a new one each Wednesday morning (Yes I’m posting this a day late. lol Sorry been sick and it’s slowing me down), so make sure to come back and join in the fun!
Today I would like to feature a wonderful easy to make scarf by Tracy at This Crochet Life. Tracy’s Old Fashioned Scarf is worked in double crochet, with a single crochet boarder. This makes a classic style scarf that is quick to work up!
Tracy also has a monthly draw on her blog for one of her wonderful crochet creations! Thank you Tracy.
Photo credit Tracy @ This Crochet Life
Welcome everyone to the first link up this year for our Gifts From The Heart ~ A Handmade Christmas blog hop. I’m so looking forward to reading all your Christmas posts! Please grab the Christmas button code in the sidebar to link back to the blog hop, so others can join in the fun!
The link up will stay open from today until next Tuesday. I’ll post a new one each Wednesday morning, so make sure to come back and join in the fun!
Handmade decorations and gifts have a special place in my heart. Each year as we get our old favorites out to hang up, we remember when we made them. The fun the children had together creating with glitter, and paint. Yes I do have a few special store bought ornaments as well. But they are special because of WHEN I bought them, not who made them.
I’m going to be posting often, daily I HOPE up until Christmas, recipes, crafts and gift tutorials and ideas. I’m also going to revive my Christmas blog hop, Gifts From The Heart ~ A Handmade Christmas. I will post a link up each Wednesday and I’m looking forward to reading all your Christmas posts!
I stumbled on to this old video the other day. Boy did it bring back memories! I know I’ve seen this before and likely read the books as a child as well. I hope you enjoy!
Kim Mills on Google+