Happy Homemade Christmas - FIMO necklace

This one was 

To:  Clara   From:  William

What I did
-put the FIMO in the oven
-found some ribbon and large needle
-tied the bow

What William did
-made the beads
-strung the necklace
-was a pretty good sport about making something kind of girly

Clara loves her necklace!

Happy Homemade Christmas - Fabric Photo Book

This is our third year of exchanging homemade gifts and I admit last year the tradition got a bit out of hand with me doing most of the work last minute- this year I tried to simplify it and let the kids work mostly on their own.  Here's what they came up with.

This one was To: Henry From: James

What I did:

-bought the supplies

-taught James how to use Adobe

-cut the template for the pages

-top stitched, serged, and added the snap

What James did:

-came up with the idea

-took the pictures

-designed the layout and size

-formatted the images

-cut the fabric

-pressed the interfacing on

-and kept me company while I did the sewing

Henry loves his little book and it turned out so cute I kind of want to make another one.  Maybe we'll make a quiet book for church next time.

Christmas Jammies

I'm very happy with how they all turned out but this may be a tradition that doesn't happen every year, it was too much work the week before Christmas.  I think I made them big enough though that they can wear them again next Christmas.  

The boy's flannel fabric is from the stash I picked up at NPS last winter for only $2 a yard which I have to admit was horribly off grain.  The pattern is one I've been using since James was little, Burda 9747.  The simple secret to making these jammies is my industrial snap press, I don't have the patience for so many buttons and button holes.

All of the jammies were personalized with a small tag embroidered with their first initial. This was done for several reasons, to help sort laundry, encourage literacy in the littlest ones, add a bit of flair, and allow me to easily transfer the tag down as the jammies are out grown.
 
The girls' nightgowns are made out of 2 ruffled sheets my sister passed on to me.  I used kwik sew 3423 (same as this one and these) for Clara's and a vintage Simplicity 1956 for Maryanna's.  I changed the finish of the sleeve on both of them and added red ric rack.  The rick rack was picked up off a roll from a quilting store because I wasn't happy with narrowness of the coats and clarks ric rack the last time I made a Christmas nightgown.
  


Santa brought the girls Kirsten and Felicity. They may be a bit young for them but it was hard to resist starting this collection when I found them at a garage sale. They were missing their original costumes and I had plans on making several outfits but all I got done were these nightgowns. They were made out the scraps from the sheets.



I also made some matching pants for Paul which are not just jammies but will also be considered part of his corporate telecommuting wardrobe.

Merry Christmas!

Not all the projects were finished, nothing got baked, Christmas cards are still waiting to be sent but I woke up fully recovered from the stomach flu and ready to enjoy the love and joy that comes from spending time as a family and reflecting on the precious blessings granted unto us through the life and birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Merry Christmas!
   

  

Holiday Field Trips

I don't know if I should be amused or feel guilty after hearing one of my boys say to another, "finally homeschool is getting fun again".  Here's what we've been up to: 

Henry Ford Museum

We went to see the Lego display and old trains but got lucky and bumped into Santa along the way.





Creative Arts Studio

Here they are busy painting gifts and ornaments for Christmas and I honestly could not have managed this field trip with out the help of Nanny and Poppy.



Nursing Home Visit

The kids have been practicing their bells for weeks and have mastered 4 Christmas songs that they performed for some of the residents there. While they performed Henry chased the in house cat and I chased Henry.
 


Greenfield Village

Paul gave me the day off to sew and took all six bundled up kids to wander the village in the snow. Here they are under blankets enjoying an old Model-T ride.



This week we are staying in to allow me time to sew, bake, wrap presents and hopefully send out our Christmas cards while the kids are let free to enjoy their days without routine. It is almost 9:00 am and the boys have been up since 7:00 am playing chess while the girls are still rolling around waking up in the pile of blankets and pillows leftover from our annual "sleep over under the Chritmas tree tradition".

I don't think they got much sleep because everyone is fighting, maybe some hot chocolate and pumpkin waffles will turn their moods around so I can say "finally my kids are having fun again".

Another Christmas Craft for Kids

We made these funny gingerbread people to add to our collection of random, funny, and sentimental ornaments.  

They were quite simple - I just picked up a pack of 12 foam gingerbread men at JoAnn's for $1 then printed out pictures of the kids, glued on the faces, glossed them over then dressed them in felt scraps.

Peter and James are both football players, William a transformer, Henry Santa, and the two girls said they were "ladies".

I'm still intimidated by gluten free baking so this is what we did instead of decorating cookies.

Simple Dresses for Christmas

I almost planned for some really fluffy taffeta dresses to wear over their fun and fluffy Easter slips.  I'm glad I didn't because I don't have the energy for that right now.

Instead I splurged on some really nice knit (the same I used for my maternity leggings) and was able to whip these out in just a few hours (pattern info here) - that's why I'm loving knits!  It is also nice that they can pull them over their heads like a T-shirt, they won't wrinkle and I can machine wash them.   The  only problem was Clara throwing a fit because she wanted to wear her's with that fluffy slip I mentioned earlier.

Now all I need to keep this week simple is some cooking shortcuts.  I've already ordered two trays of tamales from Pilar's but I could use some other simple suggestions.