Holiday Deals

Today I thought I would hit up a consignment shop to get a few games for the kids. We are on a tight budget this year but the kids don't need to know that. For $25 I got a circular knitting machine (kids version), 2 bags of yarn (okay that's for me to make presents), 4 puzzles (Cars, Diego, Strawberry Shortcake, Dora) and a brand new Crayola Toy Story colouring kit. I'm really pleased with my purchases and I hope the kids will be thrilled too - this just stretched the budget big time so that there will be more under the tree to open for them! Yay!

Do you have tips to share on how you stretch your holiday budget? I'd love some more creative ideas, especially for the kids. It is all about them, after all.

Black Friday

 

 It's Black Friday. The Canadian Thanksgiving was in October (which I am grateful for!) but with our American friends we do have some Black Friday sales. The frenzy really gets you excited about it - even if we don't need anything and most of our holiday shopping is under control. 

Do you shop with Black Friday sales? What is the best deal you ever got?

Organizing for Christmas

I really appreciate the tips for organizing Christmas from Echoes of Laughter.

Her secret is to "start early, give yourself deadlines, and do only the things you enjoy - let the rest go!"

I got some great tips for her. Specifically I have set the following deadlines (I had months in before but that seems too vague for me).

Christmas Cards - in mail Dec 1st
Christmas Decorating - outside lights, wreaths Nov 20th; inside decor Nov 26/27th; tree Dec 4th
Shopping Complete - Dec 10th
Gifts wrapped - Dec 15th

Totally do-able, right? How do you organize yourself for a less-stressed Christmas?

The True Story of Advent

Sweeter Than Sweets has a fantastic idea to share the true story of advent with your children.

Basically, you set up drawers, envelopes, etc. with numbers 1-25. You collect a specific list of items and read daily Bible passages that illustrate the story and how the object is significant in the advent story. Genius. Printouts and a full list are available at the Sweeter Than Sweets advent story link. Check it out!

Friday Night Sew-In (Follow Up)

Today I feel motivated again. Friday Night's Sew In inspired me to continue working away at the king-sized quilt with 2"x2" finished squares top. I've worked on it Friday, Saturday and now today (Sunday). This is a labour of love but sometimes it feels mostly like a labour. It's going to be beautiful when it's done and I can hardly wait to show you. I would take photos today but a) it's a Christmas gift and I want it to be a surprise and b) I'm taking enough of a chance typing out this update post (I just got busted by the 3 year old being away from the sewing room with "what are you doing one the computer and not sewing?").

I did rearrange the sewing room too on Friday evening so that really set me to be motivated. When I was in there earlier in the week I was distracted by "stuff" that was put in the room. I also got my Christmas wrapping center out and ready to wrap gifts done so far so that worked out nicely.

Finally, I mended my son's bed skirt (it was all torn and half hung on the floor because of it. More unsightly than decorative) and I also mended 4 pairs of pants that had seams in the butt torn out (both kids - what do they do to bust the butt?).

Okay, enough of a break and more sewing. I'll attempt to photos and upload them soon.

Christmas Spending

While reading Liz's blog, Wonder Woman I'm Not, the first sentence of her post Cutting Back on Christmas Spending struck a chord. She writes, "the approaching Christmas season is enough to strike fear in the hearts of anyone struggling with money." Even when our pay checks our fatter, we have a large amount of people we buy gifts for (my husband is one of six plus partners/spouses, parents and a niece and nephew. Then there's my side with 3 grandparents, my parents, a brother. Teachers, bus driver, extra-curricular teachers/instructors. Daycare charges). Although I set a tight budget for each person, we easily end up spending.

Liz also writes, "as an adult, it strikes fear in my heart.  Fear of the money it takes to buy the presents, fear of the time it takes to shop and wrap all those presents as well as fear of what to do with all the stuff once it's opened." Amen, sister, to all the points. I do like to watch others open our gifts but I get anxious about how to organize it when it gets home. Also like her, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining but the hustle and bustle and work to make it a wonderful memory for the children (and others) is very stressful no matter how you slice it.

Liz has some great ideas for reducing Christmas gift giving stress. I really like her suggestion of a family gift (especially for families that have one or two members that are really hard to buy for!).

How do you reduce gift giving stress?

Friday Night Sew-In

Tonight is Friday night sew-in! It's an opportunity to sew and work on some of my Christmas gifts. They had a fabulous tip ... cut all your fabrics BEFORE tonight so you can just sew, sew, sew.

Guess what I'll be doing today? SO excited!!

Will you be joining us?

Samaritan's Purse Shoe Box

Each year I encourage our family support at least one other child or family in our gift giving tradition.

I especially like the Samaritan's Purse Shoe Box program. We can choose the gender and general age of the child we are going to pack gifts for. My children include pictures they have drawn and it really gets us into the spirit of the season. If you want to support this amazing program, learn more about it and how to pack a shoe box.

Note: Many locations will want them filled and returned between November 14-21st to ensure it gets shipped and received on time.

Christmas Catalogs and Wish Lists

Clean Mama has a fantastic idea for holiday catalogs.

She organizes them in a basket along with paper so the kids can peruse gift ideas and create their wish lists. Brilliant!

My two are 3 and 5 years old this year so it's starting to get time for them to practice writing out what they would like.

How do you make your wish lists?

Take-It-For-Free Tuesday - FREE E-Scrap Designer Pack #4

In follow up to my Share the Memories MyMemories Suite software giveaway earlier this month, I'd like to start a "Take-It-For-Free Tuesday" post.

On Tuesdays I will have a FREE Designer Pack for you to download! It will be available for one week.

These are .png files only, not MyMemories Suite Templates.  They are usable in any software for everyone!!  These freebies include 2 Quick Pages, and all of the papers and elements used in creating them. The elements and QuickPages are.png and the papers are .jpg format.

http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_2

 

If you are interested in purchasing the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking software, use this code STMMMS5200 and get $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value!

Christmas Gifts Reveal

I've been a busy crafter. I have been cranking out the Christmas gifts too. I want to have a bit of a show-and-tell.

You can find all these patterns for FREE on Ravelry.

One Row Handspun Scarf (knit)

Lacey Crochet Scarf Pattern

Tea Wrap / Sea Shell Wrap (crochet)

South Bay Shawlette (crochet using mohair yarn)

Tea Wrap / Sea Shell Wrap (crochet)

Cut Down Christmas by 80%

I love reading tips from I'm an Organizing Junkie. This one struck with me to cut down your Christmas tasks by 80%. After all, 80% of your family’s Christmas enjoyment probably comes from 20% of your efforts. Read more about the tips and rationale here at her blog.

I've also been inspired. Today I'm going to get through some Christmas presents I am planning to make. I'm also going to organize gifts and perhaps wrap what I have already. I also have plans to wrap both of my children 12 gifts each for building up anticipation for the big day (I'll use books and DVDs Christmas-themed we already have but had stored all year and they likely forgot about for this).

I also have plans to declutter my stash of yarn by making scarves and hats for gifts. It's a labour of love for my crafting, my gift receivers and my decluttering plans all at once. 

What do you do to make Christmas less stressful? 

NaBloPoMo: Home

When was the first time that you realized that your home was not like other people’s homes? 

Growing up my mother stayed home and my father worked long hours. I believe that the area in which we grew up had many families who were similar in this regard.

In terms of every day living, I think it was visiting my friend's home who had a single mother raising her that I realized that not all families were the same. They lived in a basement apartment whereas we had a house. I had two brothers and two parents. Her mother ended up getting married and having a second child ten years younger then us. That was different. It was also fun to have a "little sister" that I never had.

In raising my children I am more aware of what other people are doing to instill traditions and daily routines. This is not to be the same but to get ideas on how to raise our children and structure our household.

NaBloPoMo: Trauma

Today's prompt has been inspired by the novel The Doctor and the Diva.

Has anything traumatic ever happened to you? Describe the scenes surrounding a particular event.

For inspiration, I checked out the definition of traumatic (love Google!).

1. Emotionally disturbing or distressing.
2. Relating to or causing psychological trauma.

The most recent traumatic event I had was having one of my daycare children (age 2) require me to perform CPR on him. Thank goodness my mother was visiting so I wasn't alone!

We were playing in the backyard ("C" and my two children who were then ages 2 and 3) when C started to look as though he was falling asleep. I took him inside to change his diaper and as I laid him down he seemed to fall asleep (very unusual for him). I tried to wake him up as something just didn't seem right. He got grayish and his lips were purple. I picked him up, brought him to my mother who was outside and called to her. I laid him on the ground. At this point he was a limp noodle and I knew I had to check his vitals. As he was so little I checked his breathing and tried to get his pulse. I couldn't find it but his neck was so small it was hard to get my finger to properly check.

I vividly remember my mother freaking out and asking if she should call 911 while I muttered to myself the CPR counts in my head and deciding if I should or not. I decided to give breaths and start CPR and after one set of compressions he started to flutter his eyes. I stopped and he passed out again. I did more breaths and one more round of compressions and he woke up. I got him revived before 911 even picked up the phone on their end.

The release of being unconscious made the poor fellow poop his diaper but I was afraid to change it before the ambulance attendants arrived. When they said we should take him to the hospital I asked if I could change his diaper and I was so nervous doing such an otherwise normal task.

One of the ambulance guys asked for details on compressions and breaths, etc. and I told him I had just renewed my CPR six weeks ago and that there were new counts so I did those. He started to argue with me that the counts were wrong. Another fireman stepped in and told him to let it go. Obviously what I had done worked. That part that I could have gotten the counts wrong upset me a lot.

In the ambulance I called C's mother. Once she got on the phone and I had to tell her I had to do CPR on him and we were headed to the hospital I broke down in tears. It was harder to put it into words I think.

Thankfully the little fellow was okay. The head of the pediatrics in the hospital looked at him and said he had a pre-existing condition that caused him to lose consciousness. Due to his young age the police came to investigate but, thankfully, I overheard the doctor say everything was on the up and up. That also was scary - that I could have been charged for saving his life.

I feel blessed that I was able to help C and I believe his family and I will have a long friendship as a result.

Take-It-For-Free Tuesday - FREE E-Scrap Designer Pack #3

In follow up to my Share the Memories MyMemories Suite software giveaway earlier this month, I'd like to start a "Take-It-For-Free Tuesday" post.

On Tuesdays I will have a FREE Designer Pack for you to download! It will be available for one week.

These are .png files only, not MyMemories Suite Templates.  They are usable in any software for everyone!!  These freebies include 2 Quick Pages, and all of the papers and elements used in creating them. The elements and QuickPages are.png and the papers are .jpg format.

http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_1

If you are interested in purchasing the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking software, use this code STMMMS5200 and get $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value!

NaBloPoMo: Last Meal

If you knew that whatever you ate next would be your last meal, what would you want it to be? 

I think that if I knew I was having a last meal I would forgo it altogether. I don't think I would have an appetite if I knew I was meeting my maker immediately after it.

The advice presented in the cartoon is also a good strategy.