it's the most wonderful time...of the year!

The minute the scent of pumpkin spice lattes fills the air my brain goes into holiday overdrive. I immediately start thinking about holiday shopping.  Halloween and Thanksgiving are mere bleeps on my map to all that is right with holidays and gift giving.

I’m a gift giver. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good gift myself, but I’d happily put all my gifts aside so that I can watch the recipient open the gifts that I got for them.  I think because of this, I try to plan so far in advance. I like to budget, I like to search online, I like to try to be thoughtful.  Admittedly, now that kids are involved the thought that goes into the grown up gifts is getting harder. My parents? Impossible to buy for.  Same for Mike’s parents.   My parents say “don’t get us anything, we don’t need anything” and they actually mean it. You can only buy a beach themed gift for my Mom so many times before you want to never go to the beach again.

Buying for parents and adults in general is tough...

A long long time ago, when I had things like time and disposable income I was super crafy for holidays. One year I actually declared is “quilts for Christmas” and everyone got a handmade quilt. Yeah. That’s how I rolled.  One year I did themed gift baskets. One year I made everyone these really cool snowmen. I used to make my holiday cards. Like buy a cool stamp and color them all in.  Dear free time, how I miss you….

Last year I started to make things for the kids for Christmas, and I want to keep that tradition going. So, this year I’ll be making:

• Doll Diapers
• Doll Diaper Bag
• Campfire
• Sleeping Bag

I'm super excited about this and have already started cutting things out. The biggest issue with all this crafting is actually getting it done and hiding everything away so the kids don't see. It's so annoying because I can't just leave everything out. After each craft session I need to clean up..and sometimes I'm not very organized and lose stuff. I think this is a huge argument for why I need a craft room on day :)

As far as crafty gifts for adults..not sure that's going to make my to do list, but I"m totally open to suggestions anyone??

Any fun crafty projects on your Christmas shopping list this year?

ps. i want this:

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2010/09/patterns-crafty-like-fox.html